The Way 11.22.11

THE WAY

11.22.11

My hospice counselor recommended this movie, about a man and his loss.

He sets out on a single-minded task.

On the surface, it's just something he has to do.

But the journey it sends him on turns into quite another thing he has to do.

It's no wonder she thought of me numerous times, as she watched it.

So it's no wonder she recommended this to me.

For my eyes welled with tears not far in as I realized my emotions

would be continually tugged and that they were.

For the story tells about the people he meets along the way, all with their stories too.

She reads me like a book for I've met so many people along my way each with their story but they have turned out to be people who have helped me find my way.

Point me in directions that a year or so ago I would never have even dreamed off.

Read books that resonate in my soul, seen things that truly gave me pause,

and made me realize I am not alone.

I'll never be alone!

For there is no THE WAY, each of us has to find his or her OWN WAY.

I often smile now for I've seen it in you my friends

in your prayers, thoughts, and e-mails.

For that, I am thankful you are in my life.

You give me a reason to smile.

A warm, heartfelt, loving smile I give you all

for I know the smile will be returned in kind.

May you have the happiest of days

and share your love freely with those close to you.

All My Love Always, Keith

From Conversations with God By Neale Donald Walsch

This you can do in two ways - by reminding them of Who They Are

(very difficult, because they will not believe you),

and by remembering Who You Are

(much easier, because you do not need their belief, only your own).

Demonstrating this constantly ultimately reminds others of Who They Are,

for they will see themselves in you.

The Ocean

What A Joy

Openess

Heavy, Dense, Gray Fog 11.21.11

HEAVY, DENSE, GRAY FOG

  11.21.11

Heavy, dense, gray fog it even softens the sounds

as well as the images.

The train sounds nearer but not.

For today vague images they are.

Nothing is distinct.

Even streetlights just crawl out of the fog only to slip away again.

Some glow a soft greenish tint others an amber-orange.

All with a strong presence at their center

and then surrounded by their glow.

There's an edge to them like a luminescent ball

that surrounds the light only to fade into the fog.

The trees have a softer appearance the edges so faint

they too slide, in and out, of view.

Where I know what the landscape looks like

is just a soft gray blanket.

Ever present, yet ever elusive.

You can't grab it.

You know it's there.

You see it, but it seems it isn't.

Faith is like the fog.

You know you have it.

You know it's there.

It's hard to fathom sometimes.

Things get revealed that bring questions to your mind,

only to deepen your faith when the answers become apparent.

But faith has roots deeper.

It's in your soul, not your mind where the ever-present glow is.

It's always there.

You just see it, faith that is, differently from day to day.

Some days it shines so brightly, it just fills you with wonder.

Other days your ego mind tries to hide it in a heavy, dense, gray fog.

But then as you walk along your path it shines through even the grayest of days.

It never left, you've always had it.

Give Thanks for all you have even if some of it appears so gray.

May your faith shine forth for you today and so brighten your day.

All My Love Always, Keith

Faith means living with uncertainty - feeling your way through life,

letting your heart guide you like a lantern in the dark.
Dan Millman

From Conversations with God By Neale Donald Walsch
     I will not leave you, I cannot leave you, for you are My creation and My product, 
My daughter, and My son, My purpose and My . . . Self.

     Call on Me, therefore, wherever and whenever
your are separate from the peace that I am.

The Path of Love

Three 08.25.15

Three

08.25.15

I was standing in a parking lot on a cold winter’s day listening to a dear friend.

She asked: “Would you like to meet my daughter?”

I felt like a deer caught in a car’s headlights!

I had just returned from a trip to see Jason and Kelly and my dear grandchildren.

I remember telling them both how I had come to terms with my loss

and was planning to live out my life alone.

It sounded good intellectually, but somewhere in my heart I knew I was truly fooling myself.

I was putting off not addressing these feelings of being interested in a couple of people.

Yet here I was stunned when confronted with just a simple:

“would you like to meet question!”

She explained a few things about her and I immediately got apprehensive.

My logical mind ticked off three quick strikes on why it would never work.

She’s Catholic, has two teenagers, and is nearly 10 years younger than I!

Now I stood there looking at this loving friend

who’s asking and feeling awkward about having asked at all.

Me I’m dumbfounded how do I reply?

Finally, I blurt out “I’ll have to get back to you on that, I need to pray about it.

I’ll send you an email and let you know.”

We both part having felt geez was that appropriate? 

I took it to meditation and asked if it was right.

Spirit is a funny thing I got an answer that left me with more questions.

“She can help with Alex.”

So in any case I took that as a yes, realizing she had a role somehow in my life.

As Laura and I came to know each other, she kept on with a common theme.

I can’t believe this is happening to me,

I won’t believe it until it’s been three years.

Well, My Love, I waited to write this for three years.

I even waited to make it three years after we were married.

Now I know it didn’t take you three years to believe it

I see that every time I gaze into your eyes.

Happy Anniversary Baby Doll.

All My Love Always, Keith

I look in your eyes and there I see
What happiness really means
The love that we share makes life so sweet
Together we'll always be

 From the Luther Vandross song Here and Now

that was sung at our wedding.

The Words You Speak

What You Seek

We Cannot Teach People

Tired 11.20.11

TIRED   11.20.11

Woke up tired, my very active day yesterday still with me.

But that's me, tend to overdo life some days but I so enjoyed it.

Another long walk to start this day went a different way.

But as the day wore on I perked up.

Felt great by the end of the day.

May you find the time to enjoy your day

in a different way today.

All My Love Always, Keith

When all your desires are distilled

you will cast just two votes

 - to love more, and be happy.

(Hafiz)

Trying To Understand

Allowing 08.19.15

Allowing  08.19.15

 My wife and I like to start our day with some spiritual reading.

We’ve both been discussing this one we read recently about allowing.

How often do you find yourself wishing, hoping, or frustrated

with something that’s happened or what someone did or said?

That was the gist of this whole piece we read.

What if you just allowed life to unfold?

Not to pass judgment all the time applying labels such as:

good or bad, happy or sad, wonderful or depressing.

The list could go on and on.

What if we just witnessed it and allowed it.

We like to think so very much is under our control.

Especially with those very close to us. 

We want the best for our children, we want to guide them,

nurture them, not let them make the same mistakes we made.

But isn’t that how we really learn? 

Mistakes and hard knocks are our greatest teachers.

So that’s what we’ve been working on this week the art of allowing.

Make the choices you feel are the best and then allow.

Allow yourself to accept life as it unfolds.

It is an art form since we all seem to be trained at a very early age

to start judging and questioning outcomes.

Try it, if you are like us you’ll see an awareness arise in you

of just how ingrained the judgment habit is

and how freeing it is to release it.

All My Love Always, Keith

From Love Beyond Words by Suzanne Giesemann

Peace lies only within yourself… with the realization that you are

the creator of your own reality.

If you wish to find that peace, allow others to walk their path in peace.

The art of allowing is your path to the same destination.

Peace

The Eighteens 11.20.11

THE EIGHTEENS

11.20.11

Up early, took a long walk.

Danny called "Just the 2 of us, Get there early!"

So I got there early, the two of us first off the tee for the day.

18 holes we played, finished by 10:30.

Really enjoyed just being outside, played well,

felt so great to be active again.

On a roll pool cleaning and mowed the lawn by noon.

Off to Battlefield Park in the afternoon for

18 miles through the woods on the bikes.

 Saw a few deer, met some great folks,

peaceful, wonderful afternoon ride in the sun of an autumn day.

May you find that today:

a time of peace, a time of wonder,

enjoying just being.

All My Love Always, Keith

Dr. Wayne Dyer   Change Your thoughts - Change Your Life

I see myself in this person,
and I choose to be in a space of goodness

rather than judgement. 

There's a Sanskrit word, Namaste that can help you with this.

When used as a greeting, it roughly translates to:

 "I honor the place in you where we are all one"

At The Center

Don't Expect Life To Be Perfect

Seeker

We Change The World

Alone 11.17.11

ALONE

11.17.11

A rare experience being totally alone, strange it was.

Even rarer the amount of it, for on my trip

I went to a house every evening

totally alone there, I was.

Quiet at the end of the day and the beginning of the day,

so very quiet and alone, so peaceful and serene.

I totally enjoyed it no distractions.

No pets clamoring about.

No kids barging in.

For now I'm back a cat in my lap and a dog at my feet.

My son just popped in

and I remember reading and enjoying my time

in that house all alone

in the peace and serenity of it all.

Only disturbed when I elected to go out into the day

and leave it there, to come back to.

May you find that today a time of peace and serenity

that you can enjoy coming back to.

All My Love Always, Keith

I never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude.

Henry David Thoreau

Nobody

Back 11.16.11

BACK

11.16.11

Back home again, from my childhood home

in Western New York to where I call home these days.

Back to walking the dogs on a warm moist morning

that turns into walking in the rain.

A wonderful trip it was
caught up with folks I hadn’t seen in years.

Tales we did tell of the old days as they were

or as we remembered them anyway.

But the spiritual trip I did take
was the real surprise I had this time.

Driving around lost in time, times of long ago.

Sights and places trigger memories long since dormant.

Memories roll in like waves breaking on the beach

endlessly taking  me back and

washing images to the forefront of my mind.

I finished the first book of Conversations With God.

So many lessons and insights it gives.

I took another book recommended by a friend

Many Lives, Many Masters was its name.

It opened me to revelations that paralleled the path of

my own spiritual journey especially over this past year.

It just continues to unfold in new and wonderful ways.

Smiles on my face are prevalent these days.

For I notice the presence in whatever I do and where ever I go.

In those I meet and the things that roll on by.

Even my memories are now colored

by this new awareness I now carry with me.

I so wish I could give these feelings away.

They fill me with a love and peace that is so vast and endless.

My wish is for you to feel that same vast endless love.

For I know it will change you and raise your awareness

of all that you truly can be.

 All My Love Always, Keith

From Conversations with God by Neale David Walsch

I am telling you that your perception of ultimate reality

is more limited that you thought,

and that Truth is more unlimited than you can imagine.

I am giving you ever-so-small a glimpse of infinity----and infinite love.

Within Your Grasp

Be A Reflection

Stop 11.09.11

STOP

11.09.11

I'm compelled to stop and write.

Gazing down the length of Conesus Lake,

memories of this place called Western New York

pull like heartstrings tugging memories

of my youth from my heart.

For it's the first time I've been back

Since Jane E. passed away.

Yet she is so very, very close to me today.

For my Guardian Angel is never far away.

May you sense a presence today

and realize your Guardian Angel

is with you today!

For after all, they are never

more than a thought away.

All My Love Always, Keith

Whether you've seen angels floating around your bedroom

or just found a ray of hope at a lonely moment,

choosing to believe that something unseen is caring for you

can be a life-shifting exercise.

Martha Beck

Radiate the Light of Love & Kindness

Expectations 11.09.11

EXPECTATIONS

11.09.11

Just finished that course I was taking.

Finished is not the proper word,

for it’s something you have to live.

A new way of being she called it

and so the journey continues

armed with some new tools to live life by.

Talked of this before: striving to get somewhere

or coming from where you want to be.

That was the key lesson of this class,
coming from where you want to be.

So expectations I have of my trip

I’m coming from how wonderful it was.

I reconnected with old friends and family.

I helped my mother-in-law’s faith.

For I’ve prepared for this mentally as well as packing

and taking some things to share.

So as I prepare to shove off on the red eye

I ask you what expectations do you have of your day?

Go into it with a positive outlook.

Prepare for it to be the best and I’m sure you’ll be okay.

I know not how I will feel when I wake up to start my day

but I know I’m prepared to have a great trip, either way.

May you prepare for a great day

and find a way to have one no matter how it unfolds.

For it’s all in your expectations

of how you’ll live this day.

All My Love Always, Keith

We are what we believe we are.

C. S. Lewis

Spiritual Journey

Smile 11.08.11

SMILE

11.08.11

I’ll put a smile on my face,

love in my heart, and go about my day.

Smiles they don’t cost anything!

 It’s a pleasant feeling that warms your soul

when you smile.

So no matter how you feel

lay a smile on everyone you meet.

I’m sure you’ll get plenty in return

and warmth in both your souls

for sharing the love that’s in both your hearts.

All My Love Always, Keith

We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do.

Mother Teresa

You Have To Grow

The Only Journey