Gems 4.75

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

Gems 4.75

Special thanks to Rajni for contributing this favorite quote.

under1000skies
☼ A “Giftivism” Initiative ☼
We are photographers,
writers, artists & advocates
serving and connecting
homeless creatives.

Gems 4.74

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

Gems 4.74

“Annual Light” Copyright John Olander 2018. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
Thank you! ♡  Photos “Moon Sky” and “Sky Amazing” by Niki Flow

 

under1000skies
☼ A “Giftivism” Initiative ☼
We are photographers,
writers, artists & advocates
serving and connecting
homeless creatives.

Reverence – A Special Invitation

I hope you’re having a beautiful day. ♡

You may know about or have been a part of our 2015-2016 “300 Days of Gratitude” Challenges on KindSpring.org.  I wrote about our journey recently, and about our origin inspiration (Mike Albrough) here:  300+ -The Journey So Far

For the”300″ series, we did 17 consecutive 21-day challenges.  It was great to be connected with friends, love ones and people from all over the world. So, I’m really happy to invite you to today to a brand new series as well as to a brand new challenge called “Reverence.”

Reverence” begins  on June 11th.  It was written by KindSpring and “The Soul of WoMen.” Since this will be my first time with the challenge, I don’t know a lot about it except that it was really well received.

Here’s the link:  https://www.kindspring.org/challenge/join/1661

Our new gratitude series, “300,000+ Days of Gratitude” began in December, 2017.  “Reverence” is the 7th in the series.  For the “300k+” series, we’re doing a challenge a month using the KindSpring templates as well as new and original content.  We’re also continuing the weekly “Gratitude Journal” bonus challenges.

I hope to see you! (=

♡. Niki Flow

 

reverence pythagoras

Photo by Niki Flow

300,000+ Days of Gratitude (vii) – Reverence
☼ Join us for 21 days of shared reverence! ☼
“Reverence” is a brand new challenge designed by KindSpring.org and The Soul of WoMen. Along with 21 daily emails, you’ll be invited to participate in 21 days of a bonus challenge called “Gratitude Journal.” At the start of each week will be a new topic for focusing our gratitude. The practice of recording gratitude, especially in a handwritten journal, has proven to reduce stress, boost resilience, and help us to recover from trauma. This daily, small commitment of time pays off in other big dividends as well. The more we practice, the better we become at noticing reasons for gratitude in our everyday lives. Our focus is sharpened and our clarity returns. Since what we focus on grows, when our attention is turned toward love and gratitude, both blossom in our lives.
☼ All welcome! ☼
“Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.”   -Henry David Thoreau

Gems 4.73

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

Gems 4.73 graphic design by Niki Flow Poem 2nd Grade by John Olander Nun photo - photographer unknown

Poem “2nd Grade” John Olander.  Photographer Unknown.

2nd Grade

by John Olander

What was I thinking in the second grade?

How about the luminous face of my vibrant teacher?

She may have been a nun, but she still looked like she’d be a lot of fun.

But let’s not get carried away,

She did rap my knuckles with the ruler more than once,

And looked like she was enjoying it.

Just the same, what you are taught in the second grade is to love each other.

That comes long before bullying and ridicule, arrogant self-identity,

Followed by the beginning of separation and cliquish behavior.

Your drawing need not be perfect,

Your penmanship doesn’t matter.

Your Generosity permeates everything.

You still emulate everything that is good.

Your joy in life itself is both palpable and contagious.

It is only in becoming jaded and forgetting the joy

that is the giving of yourself that you begin to age.

 

. under1000skies
☼ A “Giftivism” Initiative
We are photographers,
writers, artists & advocates
serving and connecting
homeless creatives.

.

 

Gems 4.72

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

4.72

 

820: nos corazon

you’re missing from me,
tu me manques, and I from you
equiponderant

ay, nos Corazon,
our beautiful Benjamin
rentrer à la maison

-nf

our heart / you're missing from me / (you're missing from me) and I from you /equiponderant / oh, our heart / our beautiful Benjamin / return home

. under1000skies
☼ A “Giftivism” Initiative
We are photographers,
writers, artists & advocates
serving and connecting
homeless creatives.

 

Themes:

don't share but do drawDies Mercurrii

I beg your indulgence.  Today’s poem is a rare self-insert, but I cannot silence my heart’s keening. Some nights are like this.  Then, I surface. Hope returns.

Instead of monthly themes, we’ll be doing recurring weekly ones for the days when we don’t have any new creations to share from our homeless artists.  Recurring daily themes are: Monday – (fun)day – humor;  Tuesday – muse day (our biggest inspirations); Wednesday – dies Mercurii – Day of Mercury, mercurial day, water day (Japanese/Korean) “Water Star;” anything goes; Thursday – Thor, the gods, those we worship (God, god or otherwise); Friday – Frigg / Venus day, so LOVE; -or- TGIF what it really means.  Or bag all that and insert your theme idea here: 

→ _______________________________________ ←

♥.

Gems 4.70

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

The Stolen Child

W. B. Yeats, 1865 – 1939

Where dips the rocky highland
Of Sleuth Wood in the lake,
There lies a leafy island
Where flapping herons wake
The drowsy water rats;
There we’ve hid our faery vats,
Full of berrys
And of reddest stolen cherries.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.

Where the wave of moonlight glosses
The dim gray sands with light,
Far off by furthest Rosses
We foot it all the night,
Weaving olden dances
Mingling hands and mingling glances
Till the moon has taken flight;
To and fro we leap
And chase the frothy bubbles,
While the world is full of troubles
And anxious in its sleep.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.

Where the wandering water gushes
From the hills above Glen-Car,
In pools among the rushes
That scarce could bathe a star,
We seek for slumbering trout
And whispering in their ears
Give them unquiet dreams;
Leaning softly out
From ferns that drop their tears
Over the young streams.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.

Away with us he’s going,
The solemn-eyed:
He’ll hear no more the lowing
Of the calves on the warm hillside
Or the kettle on the hob
Sing peace into his breast,
Or see the brown mice bob
Round and round the oatmeal chest.
For he comes, the human child,
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than he can understand.

_____________

Did you know that three days in the Celtic Otherworld is three years here on Earth? I learned that recently while watching Myths and Monsters narrated by Nicholas Day.  I find the thought very comforting.

There is a new page here on under1000skies called Missing Benjamin. All updates about Ben will be kept here from now on.  All links from past updates to will be here, as time allows, in chrono order.

Have a beautiful Memorial Day weekend.  See you Tuesday.

under1000skies
☼ A “Giftivism” Initiative ☼
We are photographers,
writers, artists & advocates
serving and connecting
homeless creatives.

Gems 4.69

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

Gems 4.69

Photo by PicMonkey.com. Quote from ServiceSpace.org

 

Inspired by Mita Shah.  How does your garden grow? I’d love to know.

My Longing, My Bliss, My Kryptonite!

Gems 4.68

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

Gems 4.68

“This past Saturday my wife, Rebecca, was taking my son Jonah and a few friends put-put golfing for his birthday party. On the way there he saw a man with a sign asking for help. Jonah, feeling concerned for the man, immediately asked Rebecca to do something. She could read between the lines that it didn’t feel right to him that he’d be off celebrating with his friends while this man seemed unsupported…”  -Ariel Nessel.  Continued here:  Jonah’s Birthday Wish by Ariel Nessel, on ServiceSpace.org

☼ Happy Birthday Jonah! ☼ Thank you for sharing from your heart on your birthday and, no doubt, every day. You are a very cool kid and an inspiration. ^_^ ♥.

under1000skies
☼ A “Giftivism” Initiative ☼
We are photographers,
writers, artists & advocates
serving and connecting
homeless creatives.

♥ Gems: A Thank-You Note ♥

Who Inspires You to Be Your Best Self?

Our homeless artists inspire me every day.  Johnny O has been on the street for 20 years, and he has never given up. He constantly focuses on helping others, on improving his life and on giving to the world with his uplifting and inspiring poetry.

Cord is a very gentle soul whose quiet presence and comments on Simbi made me feel so welcome there when I joined. He was homeless for a long time, but he keeps a gorgeous poetry blog that blew me away first time (and every time) I read it.  He’s so talented. He also takes some of the most stunning photos I’ve ever seen.

I was homeless as a teen in 1974 (a runaway for a week) and again in 1997 when I lost literally everything.  Both times, I met some really cool people who live in the cracks between everyone else’s reality. These are my people — the ones I feel most comfortable with.  I guess that’s because, in my own way, I live in the fringes too, made “homeless” in this world by my own demons. I live in shelter, in comfort, with abundance and with as much support as I could possibly need. Yet both these kind souls have never judged me and have been really supportive about under1000skies.

The irony of an agoraphobic trying to help the homeless is not lost on me. I hope some day it will be a really cool part of the story of how I overcame this thing; about how under1000skies thrived; and about how, together, we connected and helped homeless artists around the world.

Who inspires you to be your best self?

Posted on KindSpring here:   300 Days of Gratitude Day 13:  Who Inspires You to Be Your Best Self?  

300K+(VI) – 12: INSPIRATION