...to evolve into my highest self, to love,  be love, and be, together with you all. 

What motivates me? That we are in this journey and adventure together makes it all the more worth taking.

My inner wisdom speaks with confidence and perfect timing. It comes in a variety of sounds - mostly in silence, sometimes through music, the sound of waves - gentle to tumultous, a fluttering butterfly, the voice of a child or a parent or an ageless spirit, a whisper, a yodel, a breeze, a blowing wind or storm, a cricket or a bug, a  hummingbird, a breath-taking scenery or event, countless possibilities. But always a loving sound that I can't help but listen to.

As Yoda and Nike would put it, "No try, just do it!"

I guess the intention to do so lies there within and I may fumble at times but I can always go back and do it again and again and again....

Over the past few weeks, my thoughts have veered more towards the future as we await our big relocation. It looks like we'll know for sure tomorrow. Won't be able to sleep tonight!

I've also had this buyer who ordered samples of their own designs beginning of the year and the work on these seems endless. They don't know for sure what yarn content they want and they are in such a rush, causing some upheavals in my relations with our workers.  This is taxing my patience and I can't wait to finish the work, and hopefully get the big order soon.

YES, I have now caught a glimpse of our next adventure - life in Canada!

Got our visas - WOOHOOOO! The 3Ms - Megh, Mila & Milind - leapt with joy this morning! Grateful for this blessing, now breathing in and breathing out!

While the excitement has subsided by now, as I meander back into the flow of living, I am reminded of the restlessness I felt a few days back and my Mom's remarks that it will come at the perfect time. So it did. Am also reminded of my first visit to Vancouver back in 1981, when I said to myself "I love the energy of this place and wouldn't mind to live here one day".

And so, on with the preparations...

Have informed my families in Seattle & Manila and elsewhere and called up friends.

Delighted to share these with you at this very moment.

HUGS!

...the love inside me, the music of my heart

...and music from the heart

Now, there are many, many people in the world, but relatively few with whom we interact, and even fewer who cause us problems. So, when you come across such a chance for practicing patience and tolerance, you should treat it with gratitude. It is rare. Just as having unexpectedly found a treasure in your own house, you should be happy and grateful to your enemy for providing that precious opportunity.

~ His Holiness the Dalai Lama

You mean meet face to face, I would prefer chance encounters. I like to be surprised.  And if I do get to meet one whom I know (Jesus, Buddha, the Dalai Lama, etc) that would be thrilling! Othewise, I wonder whether I'll find the figure religious or not. Both ways, it shall be a blessing!

Do we really have a choice? 

Let me share this one from Deepak Chopra.

Our Creative Leap in the Afterlife

Courtesy care2.com

When people wonder if the personality survives death, the answer is that the personality doesn’t even survive while we are alive. We are not the same person we were five, 10, or 15 years ago and it would be a sorry state if we were.

Our personalities are constantly evolving, transforming, growing. If the question becomes “Does the individual survive death?” the answer is “What’s an individual?” In reality what we call “me” is different from day to day, week to week, year to year. Which individual are you talking about, the young person who is in love and full of romance and desire, or the child who was full of innocence and wonder? Perhaps we must wait for the one who is senescent and dying. Which one would you survive as?

Perhaps none. Vedanta tells us that the afterlife brings the opportunity for a creative leap. As our choices continue to expand, we will experience a new reality that is far richer than the conventional notion of heaven.

The biggest difference is that in the afterlife the input of the five senses no longer stimulates us. The furniture of the mind has been cleared away, leaving a space that is both inside and outside ourselves. It is full of possibilities. Anything can be born there. In this dream space we realize the transience of all things and the immensity of the unknown.

The stage of “crossing over”–the temporary realm preceding the full experience of the afterlife–still feels personal. People report seeing their deceased friends and relations, for example. The dying person continues to see the room in which his body lies, and memories and associations keep tying him back to physical existence. The possibility of taking a creative leap has yet to be realized.

Adapted from Life After Death: The Burden of Proof, by Deepak Chopra (Harmony Books, 2006).

Photo by Ranjit Swanson "Pokhara Nepal boat lake mountain" , Sri Chinmoy Centre Galleries

Source:
http://www.srichinmoybio.co.uk/blog/life/the-power-of-simplicity/

In modern life there are a seemingly endless series of options and avenues. At each turn, life seems to present numerous complications. It becomes hard to resist the allure of doing more things and trying to solve a myriad of problems. However, often we are consciously or unconsciously yearning for a more simple approach to life. If we can make an effort to bring more simplicity into our lives, we will find many benefits arise.

1. Peace of Mind
   Simplicity doesn’t necessarily involve living in a Spartan hut. Real simplicity begins in the mind. If we have numerous anxieties and problems it is not possible to have peace of mind. Simplicity means we learn to clear the mind and not allow ourselves to be bombarded by an endless stream of needless thoughts.
2. Living in the present
   Complication in life arises because often we are worrying and planning about the future. We can become so concerned about what may happen tomorrow or next year that we forget to enjoy the present moment. To have one’s focus on the here and now, is to encompass life as it is supposed to be.
3. Less Planning and Thinking
   When we complicate life through our endless planning we bring tomorrow’s problems into today. Yet it is always worth remembering that our worries and fears about the future often prove to be groundless.
4. Avoiding Judgment
   It is part of human nature to criticize and judge other people. It is very easy to make a long list of complaints and suggestions about other people. But does it help us when we highlight the faults of others? We should feel that we are not responsible for other people’s thoughts and behavior. If we feel it is our bounden duty to change others, there can be no simplicity and peace in our life. Rather than try to change others, let us just try to focus on changing ourselves. Our own weaknesses are probably more than enough to deal with
5. Focus and Achievement
   Simplicity enables more to be achieved. Simplicity means that we are focused on one thing at a time. Simplicity means we can put all our concentration on just one thing. If we perform an action with no distractions then we can fulfill it quicker and more successfully. Often when we simplify our life we find we can actually achieve more than when we juggled several things at once.

The simpler we can become, the sooner we shall reach our destination. A life of simplicity is a life of constant progress. It is in simplicity that we can make the fastest progress, progress which is everlasting. ~ Sri Chinmoy

1. Simplicity and Beauty
   Simplicity is often synonymous with beauty. For example, Zen gardens are at once simple, yet in that simplicity there is a beauty, which appeals to our soul. It is the same with Mother Nature; the essence of nature is its unspoilt beauty. Has man ever been able to improve on the beauty and simplicity of nature?
2. Happiness
   Be happy with what we have. As George Bernard Shaw aptly said

“There are two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart’s desire; the other is to get it.”

The nature of desire is that the more we get the more we want. When we get a new car, often after a while we are not satisfied and want to get something better. However real happiness comes when we are content with what we have and are free of desire

 

Whatever naturally arises - a hidden meaning, an answer, a question, you, peace, joy, hope, and everything else I may not even know of as yet. Everything that matters is there within myself (yourself).

...not wasting a learning opportunity by being mindful of what is there to learn.

...that all we need is love and when we let it flow, we experience its wonder.

~ to be love
~ to give love
~ to receive love

...that love is all that matters.

I am, you are, we are LOVE!

Love is a river that keeps flowing until it reaches its source.

Blog posted by Tracy Viselli at Protect Women's Rights at care2.com

I don't know about you, but watching yesterday's Bank CEO's testify in front of Congress was extremely satisfying if not entirely useful. And have you noticed that every CEO or executive appearing before Congress has been male?  I have, and I'm not the only one.

Would having more women in senior executive positions in the financial industry have prevented the world-wide financial crisis we are current experiencing?  It's a question worth asking, and according to a Washington Post article published yesterday, that question is being asked by government officials, economists and everyday citizens in several countries whose economies have been effected by the behavior of so many "alpha males" who dominate the financial industry:

As the global financial crisis deepens, the first rumblings of a gender revolution are underway in an industry long controlled by men.

Banks, hedge funds and other financial organizations that have led the international economy's downward spiral are overwhelmingly male-dominated. The regulators and legislators assigned to oversee the financiers are also mostly men.

"There are quite a lot of alpha males with testosterone steaming out their ears," said Stuart Fraser, one of London's top financial sector officials.

Michel Ferrary, a professor at the business school Ceram in France, believes that gender balance is the key to taming the culture of risk-taking that has dominated the financial sectors of many nations.  Ferrary recently conducted a study (see below) in which he found that banks with greater gender balance have navigated the economic crisis far better than banks with less gender balance.

While I'm never a fan of the kind of essentialist thinking that presumes women would behave better or more morally in situations simply because they are women, challenging ourselves and our culture on the issue of gender balance in the workplace can only help mitigate the alpha male behavior experts and officials are criticizing today. Not only would greater gender balance add new voices and perspectives to boardrooms and C-suites in all industries, greater gender balance also has the potential to counteract the unhealthy culture of risk prominently on display in yesterday's Congressional hearings.

CERAM Business School Research

“Women: the Antidote to the Financial Crisis”

So goes the headline for the article in Elle magazine, as well as Le Monde, presenting CERAM’s Professor Michel Ferrary’s research which shows that firms with a higher ratio of women in management have better resisted the financial crisis.

Nearly all of the French national press: Le Monde, Le Figaro, Libération, Les Echos, La Tribune, L’Express have run stories on Professor Ferrary’s research paper: “When Gender Diversity Protects Stock Prices from the Crash”. The international press is just beginning to pick up the trail on this story.

Michel Ferrary is a professor of Human Resources at CERAM.

Using data from companies in the CAC40 (equivalent to the FTSE 100 / Dow Jones), Professor Ferrary shows that the fewer women a company has in its management, the greater the drop in its share price since the beginning of the year; and the more women in management, the smaller the drop in share price.

Of French banks, BNP-Paribas has best resisted the crisis. Since January, its stock only decreased by 20% ; 38.7% of its managers are women. By comparison, Credit Agricole’s stock decreased by 50% and only 16% of its managers are women.

Firms with a highly feminized management like LVMH (56% female managers), Sanofi (44.8%) have gone down less than the CAC40. While stocks of more male-managed firms like Alcatel-Lucent (8.68% women), Renault (21.77% women) have fallen more than the CAC40.

“Feminization of management seems to be a protection against financial crisis. Currently, financial markets value firms that took less risk and are doing more stable business” Explains Ferrary in his paper.

 “Several gender studies have pointed out that women behave and manage in a different way than men. They tend to avoid risk and to focus more on a long term perspective. A larger proportion of female managers balances the risk taking behaviour of their male colleagues.”

Ferrary highlights two remaining questions:

• More female managers = better business performance ?

or:

• More gender diversity in management = better business performance ?

 

I feel happy, so I guess when you're on the right path, you feel so! And I know so as I go with the flow and allow love to flow!
 

(NaturalNews) Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, is a fan of simple, innovative solutions for sustainable living. In a new video recorded in Vilcabamba, Ecuador, Adams demonstrates the Brumby Pump (www.BrumbyPumps.com), an amazing water pump that has no moving parts and uses no electricity.

The Brumby Pump uses nothing but compressed air to pump enormous quantities of water out of wells. In this video, Adams uses a low-cost 2-horsepower air compressor running on a common 110-volt electrical line to pump startling quantities of water from a 20-meter well. The water is used to irrigate garden crops, many of which are donated to low-income families in the local community.

Adams chose the Brumby Pump due to the high cost of purchasing traditional electric well pumps as well as the mechanical simplicity of the Brumby Pump, which runs on compressed air. "I wanted a simple, low-cost pump that would last at least ten years without needing repairs or maintenance," Adams said. "Traditional electric pumps simply can't achieve that, and it's difficult to find parts for them in rural Ecuador."

The video shows Adams connecting the air hose to the pump, lowering it into the well, turning it on and producing enormous flows of water and air out of the return hose. In his set up, this water is pumped to a surface holding take, from which a second pump pushes the water through irrigation sprinklers.

"This configuration is incredibly easy to maintain because there are no motors or moving parts down in the well," Adams explained. "Everything is right on the surface, where it's easy to reach and easy to maintain." Adams also says the air compressor could easily be driven by solar power, making this irrigation solution suitable for remote areas in developing countries.

Adams has no financial stake in the Brumby Pump and received no compensation to review and publicize the pump. He purchased it from the manufacturer in Australia just like any other customer.

...the seed of love which is now blossomming with all the other seeds of love, paving the way towards a brighter and more magical world.

"LOVE", Mixed Media, water Color & Oil on canvas, Art by Phyllis Miller
Love is supported by the foundation of strength, the tree branches, provides the stability. Air & water provides living and everlasting cleansing. The green vegetation provides nourishment. the warmth of fire provides the seeds of love to flourish. I give you "LOVE":

Will never regret all of my life, coz every bit of it is leading to where I'm going to.

A teacher teaching math to 7-year-old Arnav asked him, "If I give you one apple and one apple and one apple, how many apples will you have?”

Within a few seconds Arnav replied confidently, "Four!"

The dismayed teacher was expecting an effortless correct answer (three). She was disappointed. "Maybe the child did not listen properly," she thought. She repeated, "Arnav, listen carefully. If I give you one apple and one apple and one apple, how many apples will you have?"

Arnav had seen the disappointment on his teacher's face. He calculated again on his fingers. But within him he was also searching for the answer that will make the teacher happy. His search for the answer was not for the correct one, but the one that will make his teacher happy.

This time hesitatingly he replied, "Four ..."

The disappointment stayed on the teacher's face. She remembered that Arnav liked strawberries. She thought maybe he doesn't like apples, and that is making him lose focus. This time with an exaggerated excitement and twinkling in her eyes she asked, "If I give you one strawberry and one strawberry and one strawberry, then how many will you have?"

Seeing the teacher happy, young Arnav calculated on his fingers again. There was no pressure on him, but a little on the teacher. She wanted her new approach to succeed.

With a hesitating smile young Arnav enquired, "Three?"

The teacher now had a victorious smile. Her approach had succeeded. She wanted to congratulate herself. But one last thing remained. Once again she asked him, "Now if I give you one apple and one apple and one more apple how many will you have?"

Promptly Arnav answered, "Four!"

The teacher was aghast. "How Arnav, how?" she demanded in a little stern and irritated voice.

In a voice that was low and hesitating, young Arnav replied, "Because I already have one apple in my bag."

The Moral of the Story?

When someone gives you an answer that is different from what you expect, don't think they are wrong. There may be an angle that you have not understood at all. You will have to listen and understand, but never listen with a predetermined notion.

I think there's not only one thing, feeling or experience that words alone can fully capture. Words are limiting in general. For instance, words can only partly describe how I feel when I get mersmerized by the ocean, sunset, the mountainscape, or walking in the rain or spending joyful times with my husband and son, or feeling the warmth of love and friendship, or meeting a soulmate, or being touched by a work of art....oh so many more. Even the words 'wordless' and 'speechless' can't come close to it. I feel that feelings and experiences are meant to be felt and experienced, not necessarily put into words. Sometimes, such emotions inspire poetry or creating art that can evoke more of the experience than words can.

Have had a candlelight in my hand
to guide me on my path
may it guide others, too
that cross my path.

I would rather leave the weather to nature who's boss! Right now, feeling tired so welcoming a restful springy weather within and outside. Missing the flowers outside but relishing them in my heart!

 

...the only MUST is love - to be love, to love, to grow in love, spread love. And when this MUST is there, then the MUST NOT doesn't arise. Think love and be  love and everything else that matters will follow and flow.

I slept over this question, awoke and got this answer:

Journey into self towards sacred love