Category: #love

Change of Heart

~ blacklilymusings ~ 1 Comment
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I used to resent special treatment.  I can hold my own door, thank you.  The other day I had a change of heart.  Two gentlemen stood on either side of the elevator and held it while I got on.  Wow.  Was my heart ever a puddle of love and respect for them.  I wanted to reciprocate.   Did it ever start a conversation in my head for the rest of the day.  I queried.  I introspected.  I wondered.  I understand the women that don’t want this.  I used to see it as pandering.  Thinking to myself, “Oh yeah, now what?  My number?  My address?”

Instead these men just kindly continued to discuss a deal they’re working on.  They just were humbly doing what they felt good doing.  That was holding the elevator for a woman.

I’d say their mamas raised them right.

Thank You to the men who just want to Do Right in their place in society.  They crave the peace that comes from Nobility.  From Dignity.  From Being True Gentlemen.

On the Other Hand, I will Do My Best to Be a Lady.  Kind.  Virtuous. Discreet.

Here’s to Chivalrous Men.  Here’s to Ladylike Women.

Have a Wonderful Weekend Lovelies.

xoxo

 

My Heart is Burning

~ blacklilymusings ~ 1 Comment
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With Indignation.  My Cheeks Redden.  This is Not a Happy Post.  But I am Compelled.

It’s a Memory Stirring My Heart.  A Few Years Back I Nannied a Sweet Little Sheik Boy.  His Dad a True Gentleman.  A Pediatric Oncologist.  His Precious Innocent Little Wife was a Radiologist.

She was taking Swimming Lessons for the First Time at 35.  He Surprised her with a Speedo Bathing Suit.  That Kind of Innocence.  That Kind of Dream Marriage.  That Kind of “Thank You for Blessing Our Country.” Kind of Perfection.

One Day the Lovely Woman Pulled me Aside.  Tears Brimming Her Beautiful Soulful Brown Eyes.

“Jeannine, do I smell…?”…..Oh My Heart Breaks as I type this…

“No Darling, why do you ask?”

A Tear Spills Over…..”Because a lady at work says I smell…and that we should cook our curry in our garage so our clothes don’t smell….”

I Think she Felt my Heart Breaking.  My Heart Broke.  How can People Be so Unkind?  How can we not be Gentle with each other?  Do they not See Her? Little Mrs.  First Time Swimming Lesson Innocence?  Mrs. Silently Cry when she Leaves Her Precious Baby Every Day?  Mrs. Tender Hearted Perfection?

Well if They Can’t, I Sure Will.  Today and Everyday, No One is Mistreated By Me.  Not On Purpose Anyway.  No One Should Have to Bear My Moods.  My Prejudices.  My Unkind UnEvolved Soul.

It Started in the Heart and Mind.  Think Peaceful Happy Thoughts.  Kind Loving Thoughts.  Then we won’t Need To Monitor Our Mouths.

For Out of the Heart, The Mouth Speaketh.

 

I Love You. xoxo

 

Thank You, Happy Whistler

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Walking through the atrium to work yesterday, a Beautifully Dressed Man Broadly Smiled at Me.  Touched To My Core by Its Genuine, I Smiled Back.  Walking a Few Steps Away, I heard him start to Cheerfully Whistle a Contemporary Hymn.  It Reverberated off the Granite Walls of the Atrium.  My Eyes Filled with Happy Tears as My Steps Slowed. My Heart Melted.

The Hymn my Children used to Sing when they were Little at Assemblies …

“Bless the Lord, Oh My Soul…Oh My Soul, Worship His Holy Name…Sing Like Never Before, Oh My Soul, Worship His Holy Name…

I Stayed with my Back to Him,  My Footsteps had Stopped.  There was a Moment of Stillness in that Atrium. I will Remember That Moment til My Last Breath.  I Don’t Know Who He is, But He Has My Honour.  My Respect.  My Gratitude.

I Felt Touched By an Angel…in a Beautifully Tailored Suit and a Broad Grin.

Happy Whistling..

xoxo

Let me introduce you to Genevieve…

~ blacklilymusings ~ 1 Comment
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My Apologies to All Wonderful Genevieves in the World.

Yesterday my Beautiful Daughter Grace said, ” Mom, your Genevieve is Out.”  As much as it made me Cry Tears of Laughter, I don’t Like Genevieve.  She’s an Alter Ego of mine.  Or maybe it’s just Ego.  My Ego.

My Kids have a Name for Her.  She’s Pretentious.  Judgmental.  Quick to Offense.  She even holds her purse a Certain way.  Clasping her hands at her upper chest.  Her nose is even slightly higher than normal.  She’s Impatient.  Superficial.  She’s Really Rather Ridiculous.

I’ve Learned to Laugh at Her.  Quickly Usher her to where she Belongs.  Under the Control of Spirit.  I only Like Myself under the wonderful control of the Spirit.  Gentle.  Happy.  Supportive.  Kind.  Longsuffering.

I love that Genevieve Never Goes Away.  She’s always there reminding me of My Potential to Be Kinda Awful.  To Humble Myself to the Control of the Spirit.

Labouring to always make sure Genevieve stays working the Broom Closet for the Rest of my Days.  She’s One Pompous Jerk.

Love ya’ll .

Now you Know the Rest of the Story.

xoxo

Specially Standard…

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Both Words are being used around the office describing Thanksgiving on the weekend.

“It was nice, you know…Pretty Standard…”

“Oh yeah, it was Super Special this year…”

And when it comes to Traditions, Standard is, in my opinion, Special.  It’s Standardly Special to have Mom’s Stuffing Recipe.  Squash because it was Dad’s Favourite.  Ambrosia Salad because what is Thanksgiving Dinner without the cheesy tacky marshmallow cherry salad?

Special in the Way of New Friends Made.

Old Ones Treasured.

Catching up and Reminiscing.

Children’s Laughter.

A lot of Remember Whens…

So Grateful for Family and Friends.  Old and New.

 

 

Natural State of The Mind

~ blacklilymusings ~ 1 Comment
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Nothing Left to Natural is Better.  Weeds Take Over.  Rodents and Varmints Invade.  Helter Skelter is Never a Good Look.  The Mind is No Different.  The Mind in its Natural State is Messy.  Weeds Grow Quickly.  Those Little Foxes Move in Quick.

Every Day it’s a Beautiful Thing to Tend to Our Minds.  Clear the Weeds of Doubt, Fear and Worry.  Plant those Beautiful Flowers of Faith, Hope and Gratitude.  Take a Few Steps Back from this Precious Garden and Survey the Condition of Your Mind.  Is it Neat and In Order?  Is there a Clear Purpose and Direction of Thought?  Does it Radiate Purpose?  Is Your Mind a Place that were it Physical, would you want to Leisurely Sip Tea?  Would there be a Beautiful Fragrance to Enjoy of Love, Joy and Peace?  Or would you have to Clear a Spot on the Forsaken Bench of Resentment, Anger and Fear?

I’ve Learned to Love to Tend to My Garden.  I Stretch My Heart’s Limbs Up to the Warmth of God’s Love Every Day. I feel His Sun on my Face. His Kindness makes me Excited for the Day’s Adventures.  To Allow Him to Once Again Woo My Heart with His Precious Miracles Meant Just for Me in Every Day.

For Some, they may see the Dirt on My Knees and Under my Fingernails.  They may see Labour.  But if they Come Close and Join Me in the Garden of My Heart, I want my Guests to have Something to Enjoy.  A Little Rest Spot.  A little Sweet Fragrance.  A touch of Beauty.

For me, Natural is Certainly Not Better.  I know the Inclinations of My Natural Heart.  So I will Treasure the Labour.  For I am the Greatest Benefactor of what Grows There. Or Alternatively, the Great Sufferer.

Happy Gardening Dear Friends,

xo

 

 

Clean the Dust off Your Life Filter…It’s Just Dirt, Folks…

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My Filter can Get Pretty Dirty Real Quick.  And it Makes Sense.  If the Dust Storm of Doubt comes Rolling Through, it Can Clog Your Filter Almost Instantaneously.  Some Storms are Pretty Fierce and Can Hit Out of the Blue.  One Moment You’re Walking on Air in a MultiColoured Fairy Land of Optimism and Hope.  Then a Phone Call.  A Text.  A DejaVu Memory. The Clouds Roll In.  The Wind Starts Kicking Up Dust and Pretty Soon the Windshield Wipers of Prayer and the Water of His Word is Needed. There’s Always an Antedote.  Let’s Not See our Lives as the Colour of Brown when it’s Just the Dust on Your Glasses.  Nothing Changed.  Your Unicorn Land of Dreams is Still as It is.  Maybe a Storm Went Through and Things are Repositioned.  But it’s Still Unicorn Land My Friends.  There’s Still Magic. There’s Crazy Opportunities to Explore.  Unopened Doors to the Coolest Paradises to Be Discovered.

Don’t Let Some Silly Little Brown Particles of Doubt Keep You From Seeing Beauty…It’s Just a Little Dirt on the Filter Honey.

Life is Pretty.

xoxo

Cargo Up!

~ blacklilymusings ~ 1 Comment

 

sea clouds boat ship
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Every Day we Either Sail or Take on Water.  Staying Still will Always Swamp the Boat.  Most of Us are Pretty Low Riders.  Our Boats are Pretty Cargoed Up.

Burdens, Responsibilities.  All Good Things.  But Unless we are Purposeful and Making Progress, Those Waves are Coming On Over the Bow.

So How Do we Keep the Sputtering and the Stalling to a Minimal?  How do we keep the Clean Fuel Burning and Engines Firing Steadily? For Me, Clean Fuel is Courage.  The Greatest Engine Oil is Hope. Gratitude.

Some Resent the Burdens Laid Upon Their Ship.  And Yes, Too Much is Too Much.  But the Boats with Heavy Burdens are the Most Stable in Stormy Seas.  When there’s Not Enough Cargo,  too much of Our Hull above the Water Line.  We become Top Heavy and Easily Capsizable.

Allow Your Burdens to Hunker You Down on the Sea of Life.  There’s Safety in Our Burdens.  And Plus, the Captain Trusts You with Your Precious Cargo. And we Have the BEST Captain.  Our Burdens are Our Privileges.  Our Responsibilities are Precious.

Love You All So Much!  Can’t even Explain It.

xo

 

So You’ve Been Bullied…

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Everyone at some point has Dealt with a Bully.  Taking your Gentleness as Weakness, they Push You Around.  They Need to Feel Powerful.  Loving to Oppress.  For a Moment they Feed their Need for Power and Relevance through You.

Silently Observe…

Look in their eyes….

You’ll Often See Fear.  Bullies are Afraid Insecure People .  When you can Understand this, it takes their Power Away to Hurt You.

Disarm them with Your Quiet Confidence.  Stay Comfortable in Your Own Skin.  Two Things Often Happen…

Their Attention goes Elsewhere…or as you Role Model Strength and Courage

Sometimes…

The Fear in their Eyes Melts away.  Confidence finds a New Spring in Their Step.

They’ve Become Inspired…

and…

The World Becomes a Little Kinder.  A Little Brighter.

One Bully at a Time.

It’s Worth a Shot…

The Proper Kinda Shot…

 

Watch Out For What You Need

~ blacklilymusings ~ 1 Comment
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need – verb

require (something) because it is essential or very important.

Whatever we Need will Control us.  We think of these things like Our Breath.  Without it we Feel We Die. Fade Into Oblivion.  We become Invisible.  Irrelevant. Purposeless.  Our life  Feels In Vain.

For some its External Validation.  Admiration.  Others, it’s Wealth.  Status.

Some Days we Have It All.  Some Years.  A Golden Decade. An Admiring Tribe of Supporters.  Money and Status Comes Easily.

For Some,  Circumstances Change. What we’ve come to Believe We Need, Slips Away.  We aren’t As Shiny.  Passersby Don’t Look Twice.  Our Bank Accounts Dwindle.  Our Status is a Few Levels Below Amazing.

None of it Matters.  Unless you Need it.  And Need is a Nasty Rollercoaster in Maybe Land. Maybe Today’s the Day.  Maybe this Will Work.  Maybe …Maybe…Maybe.  It’s like a Sipping a Straw in the Very Bottom of a Draining Well.  Mostly Nothing, but Frantic Hope.

So Today I Need Serenity.  It’s Free for the Taking.  I Need Joy.  It’s All Around Me.  I Need Simplicity, and that’s Up to Me.

What we Actually Need is Everywhere in Abundance.

Feeling Grateful.

xo