All posts by Joyce

Flowers, Home, Inspiring Words, Nature, Photography, Sweet Breathing

When The Human World Seems Heavy

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Brigit Anna McNeill always in all ways uplifts a heavy heart. She brings us a welcome fresh perspective, deeper, one that is healing and true. May her words heal and uplift you today. Let’s drop the heaviness and lean in to nature’s gifts and strengths, remembering that we are “wild, wise and ensouled.” Yes.

“When the human world feels heavy, take yourself to the homely arms of oak, into the whispers of the ocean and find the call of bird.

Let new languages, new sounds, new meanings fill your bones.

Let the beauty of this more than human world settle your frightened heart.

Let your wider community show you, strengthen you, let them tell you stories of the wildness that is seeded from the darkness.

Find the white of blackthorn blossom amidst the bare spaces, the gold of celandine and the song of the bee.

Let rose and hawthorn hold your heart, and nettle strengthen your resolve.

Let dandelion’s medicine speak to you of courage, weaving tales of tenacity and rewilding into your gut.

Find the verdant seedlings grown from death, the young Elder birthed from a breaking.

Watch how the little alchemists, the insects, the fungi and the worms eat the shit and turn it into gold.

You are more than stagnant human in concrete and chaos.

You are wild, wise and ensouled.

Let yourself remember.”

~ Brigit Anna McNeill

Home, Inspiring Words, Nature, Photography, Sweet Breathing, Trees

The Love You Were Always Meant to Receive (Solar Eclipse)

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Silver Owl Psychic Astrology & Tarot shared this uplifting and power filled message about our solar eclipse today. I don’t often delve into astrology as it’s not something that I understand deeply, but still there are days when the messages are clearly for me, and for all of us, and I do resonate with and listen to them. This deeply resonated! I loved and felt so much here: a new cycle in how we love, aligning our hearts and minds with the divine flow of the universe, transmuting wounds, the eternal light that has always been in our souls, trusting the process, the heart leading the way to a new divine alignment…

This is a potent, clear message that I hope will resonate with you too…

“On March 29, 2025, the Solar Eclipse in Aries ushers in a sacred

and fiery rebirth-a divine moment where the universe invites you

to return to your truth and begin again, not from the mind, but

from the soul. This isn’t just a reset-it’s a portal into a new cycle of

evolution, especially in how you love, how you lead, and how you

show up for yourself and others. Aries calls you to ignite your inner

fire and step forward with fierce authenticity, while the eclipse

energy strips away anything no longer aligned with your becoming.

At the same time, a new chapter in relationships begins- one that

calls you to align your heart and mind with the divine flow of the

universe. To fulfill the sacred purpose of this journey, you are asked

to transmute every wound, every tear, into a pearl of wisdom,

uncovering the blessings hidden in your past. Love becomes the

mirror through which your transformation unfolds, revealing the

eternal light that’s always been within your soul. The intensity of

this eclipse may bring up endings, revelations, and emotional

release-but it is all part of the alchemy, clearing space for more

honest, soul-aligned connection. Trust the process, for every

challenge has prepared you for this moment-to move forward

with clarity, depth, and purpose. As your thoughts and emotions

begin to unite under the guidance of truth, you unlock deeper

connection and open your heart to the love you were always meant

to receive. Stay open. Stay grounded. Let your heart lead the way

into this new divine alignment, and allow the fire of this eclipse to

awaken the version of you that’s been waiting to rise.”

-Silver Owl Psychic Astrology & Tarot

Home, Inspiring Words, Nature, Photography, Sweet Breathing

Stay Alive!

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“Whatever happens, stay alive.

Don’t die before you’re dead.

Don’t lose yourself, don’t lose hope, don’t lose direction. Stay alive, with yourself, with every cell of your body, with every fiber of your skin. 

Stay alive, learn, study, think, read, build, invent, create, speak, write, dream, design.

Stay alive, stay alive inside you, stay alive also outside, fill yourself with colors of the world, fill yourself with peace, fill yourself with hope.

Stay alive with joy. 

There is only one thing you should not waste in life,

and that’s life itself.”

-Virginia Woolf

One Drop
Home, Inspiring Words, Nature, Photography, Sweet Breathing, Trees

To Be Young

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“To learn is to be young, however old.”

-Aeschylus

“There is a certain part of all of us that lives outside of time. Perhaps we become aware of our age only at exceptional moments and most of the time we are ageless.”

– Milan Kundera

“May you always be courageous, stand upright and be strong, may you stay forever young.”

Bob Dylan

 “How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?”

– Satchel Paige

 “Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.”

– Franz Kafka

Home, Inspiring Words, Photography, Snow, Sweet Breathing, Trees

Begin Again

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“Give me everything mangled and bruised, and I will make a light of it to make you weep. And we will have rain & begin again.”

-Deena Metzger

We will. Begin again and again and again. I’ve thought a lot about this lately as our country spirals… every single unkind, uncaring, without compassion, without empathy, without inclusion and without love action/word/thought must be immediately transformed by light. With kindness, caring, compassion, empathy, inclusion and LOVE. Immediate and constant.

These too are resistance.

For anyone feeling mangled and bruised, we have you. I have you. Embraced, cocooned, blanketed, sheltered. Loved. We begin again as many times as we need to, each day, each hour. We will continue to make light in the darkness.

Home, Inspiring Words, Nature, Photography, Snow, Sweet Breathing, Trees

The Smallest Spark

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“When darkness surrounds, even the smallest spark can guide the way. It’s not the size of the light that matters, but the courage to hold it through the night.”

Dipendra Tamang

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”

Dr. Martin Luther King

Home, Inspiring Words, Nature, Photography, Snow, Sweet Breathing, Trees

Why Would I?

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“Why would I want to cede any kind of emotional sovereignty to anyone in the ceremony of my everyday life?“

– James Vukelich Kaagegaabaw

I don’t. I choose not to. In this climate of unease and lack of basic civility, kindness, inclusion and honor – of grace – some days this is difficult. I want to react, to explain, to cry, to rant… I have learned better though. These things, these actions, do not one iota of good and change nothing. Better to live the authentic me in these times and not let my energy be dimmed or diminished. Love with fierce passion. Act don’t react my Father always said.

So here we are. And we still, always in all ways, have each other, so much LOVE, and a bounty of blessings of beauty in northwest Montana and all over this magnificent planet. We maintain who we are and celebrate the ceremony of our everyday lives. We honor each soul, and know there is no “other”.

Love, truth and energy are wished for everyone.

Sweet Breathing

Enough

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I was asking these very questions and Mary Oliver (as she so often does!) quenched my thirst for answers. It is enough to find the essential overwhelming ecstatic joy in LIFE itself, in witnessing the wonder, in absorbing the sounds, smells, feelings, taste and touch all around us. Acknowledging and bringing presence to the the privilige of the breath, right here right now – always in all ways, enough. Thank you Mary. Thank you World. Thank you LIFE. Thank you breath. Ahhhh….

“Have I lived enough?

Have I loved enough?

Have I considered Right Action enough,

have I come to any conclusions?

Have I experienced happiness with sufficient gratitude?

Have I endured loneliness with grace?

I say this, or perhaps I’m just thinking it.

Actually, I probably think too much.

Then I step out into the garden,

where the gardener, who is said to be a simple

man, is tending his children, the roses.”

-Mary Oliver