Meri's Musings

It's time to think JOY. What moved you this week? For me, it was a dynamite pair of heels from a Seattle designer named Luly Yang  who does custom evening wear and bridal and other things too and always has drop-dead gorgeous shop windows that never fail to grab my attention but this time I went in to look around (and immediately wished I was a size 2 and would fit into a couple of cocktail dresses that were samples from her collection and on sale for half price) SO budget still intact, I continued on to my continuing legal education that was interesting and thought-provoking, and best of all FREE because I'm a member  of the World Peace Through Law Section of the bar assn. After the CLE was over, I saw this interesting sculpture on the way to a joyful lunch  with my elder son Then, after hearing the work and family news,  I drove back to Tacoma for my final meeting as a Trustee of the Tacoma Art Museum but found I had a few minutes to brows...

If you're looking for the WOW factor, there's nothing like the Pacific Northwest on a sunny day. Phone Pix from my Android 2 (Retro Camera app) Postcards from Paradise

summer's arrival  tender grasses, soft breezes   red wolves in hiding This week's Haiku My Heart offerings can be found at Rebecca's place .

More joy. . . . little girls in striped knit caps even when they think it's cool to look serious families that ask, "Will you take our picture?" stone faces Bessie Howell rhododendrons for my garden those miracle moments when pigs fly Joy is available any time, any place. . . because JOY comes from within. What says JOY to you this week? To play along and share the joy: 1. do a post that tells and shows us  what gives you joy. 2. capture the URL of the specific post  and paste it into the  Mr. Linky box along with your name.      3. Then click the NEXT box            . If the "next" box doesn't pop up, click the link to go to the page to select your image -- choose one from your post  so you'll entice people to go to your post. 4. visit other players -- as many as possible --  and let their joy infect you.   Leave them a comment about their post because everyone enJOYs getting pos...

Expressing gratitude is one way to share love. The more you share it, the more you receive, even though that might not be your intent when you're feeling and radiating love and goodwill. Funny how that works!

I love the mysterious, flower-like and undulating nature of sea anenomes. I'm also a big fan of starfish and colorful fishes (though I draw the line at blue sharks). (This heart-shaped one is especially dear.) But because of a swimming trauma when I was in kindergarten that indelibly imprinted the panic of near-drowning into my psyche, I'll never be diving below the water's surface to see them. Once, however, with a bit of encouragement from the man I loved,  I overpowered my fear and went snorkeling off St. John in the Virgin Islands. I saw some fish and stuff, but never managed to relax while my face was underwater. Mostly, I was just relieved that I'd survived it and very proud of myself for doing something so very challenging for me. Oh -- and did I mention that  I checked "Snorkeling" off my bucket list and vowed never to do it again? (As you might have guessed, getting dive-certified isn't on my list.) In other words, I'm a sh...

The borders of our minds are ever shifting and many minds can flow into one another and can create or reveal  a single mind,  a single energy. -- William Butler Yeats It seems to me that cultivating stillness is one way to tap into that universal energy. Reaching the point of stillness and peace, I find clarity and wisdom bubbling up within me and yet from somewhere quite beyond, the access point to the Divine within us all.

tucked in a corner but far from standing shyly she razzle-dazzles This week's Haiku My Heart offerings can be found at Rebecca's place .    

Just like people, Joy comes in many shapes and sizes, colors and forms. The gloss and detail of a carousel horse. a photo by   meriak   on Flickr               The perfect shape of a rose. Sniffing my way around a rose garden, copying down the names of varieties that both looked beautiful and smelled like sweet perfume. (This one's called Scentimental). Finding a peacock with his magnificent tail in full array.                                       . Little boys in play tents. Joy is available any time, any place. . . because JOY comes from within. What says JOY to you this week? To play along and share the joy: 1. do a post that tells and shows us  what gives you joy. 2. capture the URL of the specific post  and paste it into the  Mr. Linky box along with your name. Then click the Enter box...

This weekend I took an excursion to the dry side of the state for a little family time. It's way different there,  both in geography, climate and culture. Besides growing lots of apples and some pretty fine wines, the region produces a bumper crop of Republicans. (On the wet side of the state, we tend to have a more moderate climate and grow more Democrats and Independents.) Notwithstanding the dry side's affinity for R's, there's a little architectural oddity alongside I-82 that makes allusion to one of the dark moments in a Republican presidency almost a century ago. Remember Warren Harding and the Teapot Dome Scandal? In case you've forgotten that period of American history, there was some hanky-panky in the selling of leases of federal oil reserves in Wyoming. It rocked the Harding presidency and landed  the Interior Secretary Albert Fall in prison. Talk about a fall guy. So architect Jack Ainsworth designed this dandy little gas station that was built ...