I hope you’re having a beautiful day. ♡
Here’s another light-filled ¤ Gem ¤

Photo by Antonio Doumas, Pixabay

Lover of Light

And in the middle of the night
I may watch you go
There’ll be no value in the strength
Of walls that I have grown
There’ll be no comfort in the shade
Of the shadows thrown
But I’d be yours if you’d be mine

Stretch out my life
And pick the seams out
Take what you like
But close my ears and eyes
Watch me stumble over and over

I had done wrong
You built your tower
But call me home
And I will build a throne
And wash my eyes out never again
But love the one you hold
And I’ll be your gold
To have and to hold
A lover of the light

Skin too tight
And eyes like marbles
You spin me high
So watch me as I glide
Before I tumble homeward, homeward

I know I’ve tried
I was not stable
Flawed by pride
I miss my sanguine eyes
So hold my hands up — breathe in, breathe out

And in the middle of the night
I may watch you go
There’ll be no value in the strength
Of walls that I have grown
There’ll be no comfort in the shade
Of the shadows thrown
You may not trust the promises
Of the change I’ll show
But I’d be yours if you’d be mine

Mumford and Sons

 

Back In a Bit

Need some R&R, I’m taking a break until Monday, February 4th.  I’ll be back to celebrate a month of love and my favorite holiday, ♥ Valentine’s Day.♥

In the comments below, I would ♥ love it ♥ if you would share your favorite quotes, stories and songs about love.  If you have photos about love, or art, that you’d like to see featured here, please let me know.

♥ Update: ♥  Love to me = every kind of possible love there is.  Valentine’s Day has never been about romantic love for me — at least, only about romantic love. As a single mom for a very long time, I made Valentine’s for my kids, my mom, my friends.  This is about all kinds of love.  Love for pets, love for life,  love for this day, love for yourself (about time we learned that one!).  So anything that celebrates every kind of love, ♥ please share! ♥

On February 21st, Ben’s birthday, I’m kicking off a year of SAOKs (Small Acts of Kindness) with a 21-Day custom KindSpring challenge that I’ll be writing this month.  Here’s the blurb about it and the link:

Ben Archer’s 35th Birthday Year of Kindness
My son Ben has been missing since March 2, 2016. It will soon be three years since he disappeared. My friends here on KindSpring know the story. I want to do something different this year besides sit home and grieve. Starting on February 21st, Ben’s birthday, I will be doing 365 days of Small Acts of Kindness (SAOKs). This 21-day challenge is an invitation to you to help me kick it off. These small acts of kindness can be directed to family, friends, strangers, pets, or even to you. They can be digital, homemade, snail mail, service or gift. I hope to bring a little joy and light into someone’s life every single day. I also want get the word out about Ben to as many people as possible. So maybe this isn’t just about kindness. It’s also about hope. Every time someone new sees Ben’s face, I hope they will say, “Oh I saw him yesterday. He’s alive and well.” Until he is home again, safe at last, this will be my hope and prayer. Thank you for joining me if you do.  ♥.

It’s free to join KindSpring and every challenge is free.  There is zero spam.  The only mail you get from the site is a notification if you have KindSpring mail.  You only get mail if you post and someone comments.  If you sign up for a challenge, you get an email every day for that challenge only.  You can come to the site and interact with the group but I never require it.  Everything is optional.  So for a 21-Day Challenge you get an email marked “Day 1,” and so forth.  For an example, here’s a challenge I wrote in 2015:

Grateful for Health

365-Day SAOK Challenge

This will be the second time I’ve done a 365-day challenge.  The first time was in 2015-2016, 17 consecutive 21-Day challenges for our “300+ Days of Gratitude.” Committing to something for a year straight might sound a bit nuts, but it has been really hard knowing this three-year anniversary is coming up.  I never thought it would be this long.  I need to be proactive about this.  I have to stay strong and focused.  I have hope, but it feels like it’s a leaky boat in a huge storm right now.   Small acts of kindness are simple to do.  Connection keeps me strong because isolation is one of the worst things I can do — that any of us can do.  We need each other.  I need you.  I don’t mind saying that, actually.  So, the posts will be no more than 100 words with a photo.  I don’t want to spend a lot of time on the daily blurbs, so they will be short.  This is a kick-off challenge for the first 21 days, from February 21st to March 13th, so three weeks.  My SAOKs for the year will probably be for face-to-face meetings and going outside as much as possible, especially as soon as it gets warmer.

#365GratefulNextRightThingChallenge in 2018.  I made it too  complicated and I still hadn’t kicked down the prison door.  This year, I have.  “Simplicity + Consistency > Intensity” is the Turbo Snails motto.

If you are new to this blog, you may not know about this, but I was imprisoned inside the walls of my house by my mind for over 17 years.  I called the prison Steel Bars Made of Smoke.  I got free this summer — a complete miracle and transformation — but during those 17 years I went from being a fit and very healthy person to a very sick one.  All my life, I wanted my life to be a love song to God and to every person on the Earth every single day.  This was pretty much my daily and lifetime goal.  Instead, my life got shut down by fear and became smaller and smaller until I wasn’t living at all.  I’m so grateful I am cured now.  I believe my body will get well again, but it will take a while.  It’s all about the journey, though, right?

A month ago I found out that I have a very severe allergy to dust mites, found only inside.   It’s no wonder I was so sick.  Going outside is an act compassion for myself, something new I’ve vowed to do.  This takes practice, especially for CSA survivors who have been disconnected from their feelings and their own bodies for most of their lives.  So if I get it wrong, I’m not going to beat myself up — or let anyone else beat me up, either.  This year it’s all about nurture — especially nature nurture. This is something Ben was trying to get me to do more and more when he stayed with us from late December 2015 until he disappeared on March 2, 2016.

Road Trip

In April, I’ll be starting my journey to find my son.   At first it will be day trips.  We live close to many of the places he visited in 2015 during his cross-country, year-long trip so I’ll start with the ones that can be reached within a day.  I’m looking for City Liaisons, Hosts and/or Local Guides to dozens of cities around the United States during the spring and summer, payable in Simbis.   A Simbi is an alternate form of currency. I have been saving these by doing transcription jobs for about a year now.  This is the blurb on Simbi.

See you in February. Don’t forget to share the ♥ love ♥ (favorite quotes, poems, songs, stories, art) in the comments.  Thanks very much.

I hope you have a great weekend.

♥. Niki Flow