The Secret

Aloha, my Friend!

Click on the photos

Pensive

"Come, pensive nun, devout and pure, sober steadfast, and demure, all in a robe of darkest grain, flowing with majestic train." John Milton

Polka-dots of shadow

"Should not every apartment in which man dwells

be lofty enough to create some obscurity overhead,

where flickering shadows may play at evening

about the rafters"

Thoreau

Pure Green Light!

"AS we become purer channels for God's light

we develop an appetite for the sweetness

that is possible in this world.

A miracle worker is not geared toward
fighting the world that is,

but toward creating the world

that could be."

Marianne Williamson

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The secret about religion

is simply to believe

what you were created to

believe.

Don't fuss about dogma

or details.

Just live in the light

that strikes

your

heart.

ALOHA, cloudia

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Hawaiian Music

Welcome, FRIEND,

with

Warm Aloha

of the

DAY

Click to release the photo-fairies!

"What is not love is fear.

Anger is one of fear's most potent faces.

And it does exactly what the fearful ego wants it to do:

It keeps us from receiving love

at exactly the moment

that we need it most."

Marianne Williamson

Little box fish, why face off with a barracuda, even a small one?

"She still believes in true love,

and she dispenses affection

with a lavishness as intense

as her craving for it."

Judith Thurman

"In every ancient culture

there are rituals to mortify the body

as a way of understanding

that the energy of the soul is indestructible."

Marina Abramovic

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Don't bother going over to the cave.

They're saying that he isn't there.

Some story about an angel on a rock,

a stranger who knew their names,

some story by that Mary. . .

Thanks for YOUR visit today! cloudia

3 + Yellow =

Aloha, Friend!!

Please click on the photos

"Some people never go crazy.

What truly horrible lives

they must live."

Charles Bukowski

"The worst enemy to creativity

is self doubt."

Sylvia Plath

"Our lives

teach us

who we are."

Salman Rushdie

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Two gentlemen

were looking at masterpiece paintings

in a famous museum.

One criticized every picture.

He judged them quickly.

"That one's OK. That sucks.

Next!"

Finally, the guard,

who took the job to be around great art,

couldn't take it anymore.

"Sir,

these paintings are understood to be great

by those of education or native wisdom,

and have been for centuries.

THEY are not on trial here; YOU are."

The "Gentlemen" decided to go to a movie instead.

Let us be quicker to enjoy what's right

and less trigger-happy

to criticize.

ALOHA, cloudia

Circular

Aloha, Friend!

click on the pics!

Let's take the plant for a drive.

"What is it

to be a gentleman?

The first to thank

and the last to complain."

Serbian Proverb

Pink Ladies - or white ladies blushing?

"Full many a flower

is born to blush unseen

and waste it's sweetness

on the desert air."

Thomas Gray

Gem!

"The weak

can never forgive.

Forgiveness

is the attribute

of the

strong."

Gandhi

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Spring is coming back around,

unless you live in the southern hemisphere.

Then yours is our twin counter-circle.

Circles in circles:

we Dance!

The circuit of the Earth

is in our DNA.

It's part of us,

the part that

makes us

"we."

All inside the ring.

Easter, Passover,

April fools,

the ecclesiastical year,

are layered atop

forgotten

or fading

folk faiths:

The last vestiges

of most ancient ways.

All the way back

go the links of life's chain;

to the city, through the clan,

and into the cell itself-

We are all born together

into this regime of circles,

of seasons

of moons

of years.

Oh beginning, middle,

and end!

Oh birth,

oh death,

oh today.

(One of 365)

Completing another circuit

we begin.

Aloha, cloudia

Advice to American Idol Kids

"What is man but his passion?"

Robert Penn Warren

Moon man on a palm trunk

"I've always thought respectable people scoundrels,

and I look anxiously at my face every morning

for signs of my becoming a scoundrel."

George Bernard Shaw

"I'd rather have roses on my table

than diamonds on my neck."

Emma Goldman

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One of my college classes that has stayed with me

is a class that I took on Rock & Roll.

I thought it would be an easy course

because I lived through most the history of Rock.

I got the music in me!

Heck, I was even at Woodstock

(click HERE to read about that.)

When the professor offered extra credit

to anyone who would get up

and dance the "Twist"

I twisted my way to those extra points!

The kids in the class already knew

that I was an old weirdo.

(And that was even a few years back! :)

Of course, I learned all of the things that I DID'NT know!

Like those swooping, wavering notes beloved of Gospel, Soul and Rock?

I learned that there is a name for that.

That is called a:

"Melisma.'

Definitions of Melisma on the Web:

• Melisma, in music, is the singing of a single syllable of text while moving between several different notes in succession. ...
  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melisma

• A passage of several notes sung to one syllable of text, as in Gregorian chant
  en.wiktionary.org/wiki/melisma

• One syllable of text spread out over many musical tones.
  www.america.gov/st/arts-english/2008/July/20080814214526eaifas0.2540247.html

• A sequence of notes, sometimes very extensive and elaborate, sung to one syllable.
  www.liturgicalsong.com/Glossary.html.

Gregorian chant?!

Those contestants on American Idol sure love those melisma, don't they?

Well kids, what I want you to know

is that you have to

EARN

your melisma!

You gotta build up to them.

They only refresh the ear

and exalt the spirit

when the come AFTER something,

something relatively straight-forward and excellent,

like a well-done presentation

of the basic song itself.

It is the build-up,

the change,

and not mere VOLUME

that gives those vocal

swallow swoops

their majesty.

You need to know the rules,

like any artist must,

before you can break them

to release the creativity

that is yours alone.

Great songs have a sway,

a motive force all their own,

an inertia,

internal guidance,

and a drive

that no amount of

volume

or

vocal swooping

can replace.

First, (please) just sing the song well.

Then you can make us HEAR and FEEL

the note you extend like a wailing soul,

the beat that you skip.

Make us wait for it,

long for it,

STARVE for it!

Then come in like an insinuation,

make it look hard!

Make us wonder if you have it in you.

Make us hold our breath,

make us BEG you for it!

Then let your voice loose;

Then let your talent soar

and we will ascend with it.

Take it from an old weirdo!

ALOHA, cloudia

Streets of Gold

Aloha, Friend!

><>


Click on the pics!

"Other people may not have had high expectations for me...
but I had high expectations for myself."


Shannon Miller

"The defining function of the artist
is to cherish consciousness."


Max Eastman

"I felt it shelter to speak to you."


Emily Dickinson

<>

Every Day

Every day there are miracles
So "average" that we take them for granted:


Sun-set, sun-rise
The voices of birds.


Who could fully appreciate
The daily gift of a loved one’s return?


A L O H A, cloudia

Your Abundance

Aloha, FRIEND!



Click on the photos, eh?

Anubis, Lady Liberty; Lady Liberty, meet Anubis
(courtesy, Seth Wenig, AP)

"There is nothing new under the sun,
but there are lots of old things we don't know,"
Ambrose Bierce

"Don't go on discussing
what a good person should be.
Just be one."

Marcus Aurelius

"A sheltered life
can be a daring life as well.
For all serious daring
starts from within."

Eudora Welty

Welcome to my office!


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In our culture we equate 'abundance' with finances.

But as I gain a broader understanding ,

truly begin to live, and to appreciate,

the abundance that is already in my own life,

the more I notice my attitudes about this changing.

I am starting to notice

and experience

all of my previously unappreciated abundance.

And it really has little
to do with money.

Instead of focusing on perceived 'lacks'
as we so often do

I have come to value,
and to celebrate,

the gifts that are already in my life.

GRATITUDE is bubbling up!

And living with gratitude

begins to change

attitudes and perceptions.

So that life blossoms into a gift,

no longer a problem to solve,

or a job to accomplish.

A L O H A, cloudia