“At the darkest moment comes the light.”
-Joseph Campbell
“I danced with my shadows until they became part of my light.”-Jodi Livon
“The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. “
Ernest Hemingway
Category Archives: Sweet Breathing
Pray Alone, Pray Often
This list, this code, has been in my library for a long while. I go back. to it often. I’m sorry that I don’t know the origin – the author – it is attributed to The Lakota. The code is beautiful, profound, deep and clear. I honor the author, the Native Nation of the Lakota, and the wisdom expressed here.
CODE OF ETHICS
1. Rise with the sun to pray. Pray alone. Pray often. The Great Spirit will listen, if you only speak.2. Be tolerant of those who are lost on their path. Ignorance, conceit, anger, jealousy – and greed stem from a lost soul. Pray that they will find guidance.
3. Search for yourself, by yourself. Do not allow others to make your path for you. It is your road, and yours alone. Others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you.
4. Treat the guests in your home with much consideration. Serve them the best food, give them the best bed and treat them with respect and honor.
5. Do not take what is not yours whether from a person, a community, the wilderness or from a culture. It was not earned nor given. It is not yours.
6. Respect all things that are placed upon this earth – whether it be people or plant.
7. Honor other people’s thoughts, wishes and words. Never interrupt another or mock or rudely mimic them. Allow each person the right to personal expression.
8. Never speak of others in a bad way. The negative energy that you put out into the universe will multiply when it returns to you.
9. All persons make mistakes. And all mistakes can be forgiven.
10. Bad thoughts cause illness of the mind, body and spirit. Practice optimism.
11. Nature is not FOR us, it is a PART of us. They are part of your worldly family.
12. Children are the seeds of our future. Plant love in their hearts and water them with wisdom and life’s lessons. When they are grown, give them space to grow.
13. Avoid hurting the hearts of others. The poison of your pain will return to you.
14. Be truthful at all times. Honesty is the test of ones will within this universe.
15. Keep yourself balanced. Your Mental self, Spiritual self, Emotional self, and Physical self – all need to be strong, pure and healthy. Work out the body to strengthen the mind. Grow rich in spirit to cure emotional ails.
16. Make conscious decisions as to who you will be and how you will react. Be responsible for your own actions.
17. Respect the privacy and personal space of others. Do not touch the personal property of others – especially sacred and religious objects. This is forbidden.
18. Be true to yourself first. You cannot nurture and help others if you cannot nurture and help yourself first.
19. Respect others religious beliefs. Do not force your belief on others.
20. Share your good fortune with others.
Every Heart Is My Temple
“I belong to no religion.
My religion is love.
Every heart is my temple.”
~Rumi
Nature Remains
“the bracing and buoyant equilibrium of concrete outdoor Nature, the only permanent reliance for sanity of book or human life.”
-Walt Whitman
“The trick is, I find, to tone your wants and tastes low down enough, and make much of negatives, and of mere daylight and the skies… After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, love, and so on — have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear — what remains? Nature remains; to bring out from their torpid recesses, the affinities of a man or woman with the open air, the trees, fields, the changes of seasons — the sun by day and the stars of heaven by night.”
-Walt Whitman
Laugh at the Sky
“When you realize how perfect everything is you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky.”
-Buddha 
Giving Voice to Astonishment
“So, all of you lovers of wild nature, keep going outside, even when it’s cold. Notice the way ice cracks in the sun. Notice the burst of red when a cardinal visits your bird feeder. Notice how cold air reminds you to how it feels to be alive, even when it isn’t comfortable. Build your capacity for attentiveness, and practice paying attention, and then give voice to the bits of astonishment that gather in the wake of doing so. Be attentive to the way winter polishes the moon, and give in to wonder. Because the world needs us to keep wonder alive.”
—Heidi Barr
I have Pretty, EVERYTHING
“Pretty flowers,
Pretty shells.
I have pretty…
EVERYTHING!
Look at your toes
they have blue polish.
Look at the trees,
They have purple leaves.”
Jules Walkup, Age 5
Happy Birthday Sweet Jules!!
Falling, Falling…
“Falling, falling, falling now… Waterfall music.”
-Matsuo Basho
Being Present to My Life (Questioning My Answers)
“I’m busy;but not in the waymost people accept.I’m busy calming my fearand finding my courage.I’m busy listening to my kids.I’m busy getting in touchwith what is real.I’m busy growing things andconnecting with the natural world.I’m busy questioning my answers.I’m busy being present in my life.”— Brooke Hampton
Nature is Imagination Itself
“…and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.”
-William Blake
