Day 6: Solo Time

Since my family was out today, I got to indulge in some solo time finally. I slept in, then armed with my recent windfall, I headed to Square One for a shopping spree sponsored by Love. Almost every shop had a sale, probably to get rid of the summer stock for more new arrivals, so I definitely got a bang for my buck. Afterwards I ran some errands, came home, went online for a bit, had dinner, took a nap, and now I'm writing this entry and will work on my vision board shortly.

I love solo time because I can do whatever I like whenever. Plus it gives more room for spontaneity than when I'm with others. And I often feel that Love shows up more strongly somehow, in quiet but unmistakable ways. For today, it was a $10 purple and green dress from Old Navy, and a Pineapple girl tank top at Urban Behaviour. Purple is my favourite colour and green means life, my best partner. And I've loved pineapples for a long, long time.

Thanks Love for a perfect solo day and I look forward to more days like it to come! :)

Day 5: My Awesome Support Network

I feel really blessed by Love with the wonderful family and friends that make up my awesome support network. I used to take it for granted but after meeting several friends in the past few years that are not as fortunate, I finally realize how lucky I am to have people I can trust and lean on.

Hopefully as more of us realize that we really are just one big family called the human race, people would come together to love and support each other rather than hurting each other for their own gain. I believe this is possible in our lifetime, and look forward to experiencing heaven on earth with you!!! :D

Day 4: Gifts Just For Showing Up

Love is really most generous. Just because I showed up in life and participated in the daily routine by going to work and visiting my friend today, Love has showered me with little gifts all along the way.

For example as I drove to work this morning ,the radio station was playing a song that really spoke to me. And thanks to the amazing world wide web, I was able to find out the song title and artist, which turned out to be Patience, by Guns N' Roses. This surprised me because I thought they were a heavy metal band, but nowadays I care more about whether a song resonates with me than what genre it belongs to.

After dinner I decided to visit my friend and her baby. Before going I stopped by my neighbourhood's lovely Brazil Bakery to pick up some Portugese tarts to bring over as desserts. At the counter I discovered they were selling individually wrapped gum, kind of like the ones you'd buy at a corner store as a kid, except these came from Portugal, was orange flavoured and had a monkey as their logo. This was perfect because I've been wanting to chew bubble gum but not the whole pack, plus my Chinese zodiac sign is monkey so I love anything monkey-related! ;)

At my friend's place we were having tea and I chose the Camomile Apple herbal tea because it was new to me and I didn't want any caffeine to interfere with my beauty sleep. She offered for me to take her whole stash because she didn't like it as much as expected. Yay for free tea!!! :D Then a while later her mom came back from dinner out with friends and brought us some more desserts to eat! What a full day of blessings and yummy delights. Thank you Love for EVERYTHING!!!

Day 3: Lost Treasures

Taking a break from my laptop for my eye's sake this afternoon, I decided to clean up my room, which has been really cluttered and messy for a LONG time, in fact... years! My revised goal is to clean it up by the end of August, and rearrange the furniture for a brand new start in September, the beginning of another year of learning. :)

While cleaning up I picked up an envelope which contained a Christmas card dating back to 2007. Inside it were various red pockets, which are usually given out during Chinese New Year and other festive occasions like birthdays and weddings, with money inside, a Chinese tradition. Checking to see that they were empty before recyling them, I discovered a $100 US & Canadian dollar bill respectively in two different red pockets!!! What a sweet reward for cleaning my room... and I wonder what else will I find in this upcoming summer cleaning session?

Another lost treasure that was brought to my attention yesterday was a bunch of wild daisies on the edge of my lawn. My friend had pulled up her van on the curb to pick me up, and the daisies were literally right in front of my path to climb into the seat. On the way home she dropped me off at the same spot, and I asked if she'd like some daisies. She declined saying she was dealing with bug issues and didn't want to bring more inside, so I pulled up this "weed", which was miraculously bug-less and created two small flower arrangements, one for the dining table and one for my room (see above photo). How lovely for LOVE to deliver free flowers right to my lawn, and what a great opportunity to show that even weeds are beautiful! :D

Day 2: Discovery of the Love Potion

Excited to share my new Mayan Year of Gratitude adventure with 2 friends from my belly dancing class, I invited them out to Baskin Robbins afterwards so we could chat some more. I had recently cut out some coupons from BR and wanted to make good use of them.

After I picked out the coupon I wanted to use, I decided to give the rest away, kind of like the Smile Cards idea I've been hearing about from Help Others.org. I passed all of my extra coupons to the person in front of me, and asked her to pass the rest forward once she chose one to use. People seemed surprised in a good way and it was great to have the gift of brightening their day.

There were so many ice cream flavours to choose from and initially I picked a sorbet called Eternal Eclipse because I liked its name. Then I noticed there were more ice cream flavours on the other side of the counter too, and discovered Love Potion #31. It was a seasonal flavour so I decided to choose it instead since it'll only be available for a limited time. In case you'd like to make your own Love Potion#31 at home, I copied down its description: "Cupid's white chocolate and raspberry ice creams swirled with a raspberry ribbon and loaded with raspberry-filled cups and chocolate chips."

It was a delicious choice and I am thankful that Love brought me to it through the Mayan Year of Gratitude idea that we had just created. Love ROCKS!!! :D

Day 1: A Piece of Kona, Hawaii

Returning home from brunch with my mom, a man next door doing some yard work asked who was Rebecca, because someone had visited while we were away and left a number for me to call.

Somehow we got talking and I saw that he had a hat which read "Kona, Hawaii", so I asked if he had been there before. Turns out he is a retiree who spends the winter in Kona, Hawaii tending to his coffee trees there, while the rest of the time he spends in Canada doing landscaping, because he liked to keep busy.

I asked if his coffee was available in Canada and he said not really, because there isn't much of a market for it here. Apparently coffee connoisseurs think Kona coffee beans grown on volcanic soil is one of the BEST in the world so it is very expensive, and mainly sold in Japan. But he did say that maybe he'll bring us some to try in the future. :)

Hawaii is definitely on my list of to-visit places, so how cool it is today that Love brought a taste of Kona, Hawaii straight to my driveway! Thank YOU for this unexpected encounter that brightened my day, a great way to begin this Year of Gratitude!!! :D

July 25th: A Day Out of Time, A New Year of Gratitude

Last year tomorrow I learned about The Day Out of Time from Jason Mraz's blog. Here is an excerpt he posted from Terces Engelhart's Plenty of Time creative planner:

July 25th "is the 365th day of the 13 moon calendar, a Mayan system that measures the year in thirteen months of 28 days each: a perpetual calendar of 52 perfect weeks, with a total of 364 days. The 365th day, the "Day Out Of Time," is not a day of the week or a month at all, but truly a day out of time. This day of artistic celebration is an opportunity to cancel debt, to pardon and forgive, and to celebrate life, purification, community, love, and universal forgiveness of all beings."

Though I read the passage above one day late, my July 25th 2009 indeed felt like a Day out of Time, which you can read more about here. I wondered what would make this July 25th magical, and inspired by a Wednesday meditation group I attended this week, I decided to declare this new Mayan year my Year of Gratitude today. I'm committing myself to share one thing I'm grateful for each week publicly, and also to record it down in a Gratitude journal I've just begun. I'm looking forward to what this new year will bring already, and invite you to join me on this journey of gratitude and transformation! I've just created a Mayan Year of Gratitude Facebook group for those who are interested to participate so we can encourage and support each other. May this year be your BEST one yet!!!

Week 1: Jason Mraz
My first entry is dedicated to Jason Mraz because he introduced me to the Gratitude Cafe idea and now I'm giving it my own spin with my Year of Gratitude committment. His music and blog entries have been so enlightening and inspiring, even though I didn't get on to him until 2009.

His song A Beautiful Mess has been such a gift to me, because through it Love reminded me that there's no shame in being crazy and that I am still lovable in spite of my flaws. It was a really important message for me to get and delivered so beautifully too! So thanks Jason for being my partner in transformation, even though we have yet to meet!

In gratitude I'm sharing this awesome song by MC Yogi called Give Love that I know Jason would dig. You can download it for free too, so enjoy and have a beautiful Mayan Year of Gratitude!!! :D

Inside Out

Some days I feel as if
I'm wearing myself
inside out.

My imagination
on the line
for all to read.

My emotions
in a verse
for you to feel.

Faceless
I don't mind
baring it all.

Shameless
because of my
anonymity.

Should we meet one day
don't be surprised
by my quiet ways.

For I'm more fond of
dreaming up a fantasy
in solitude

And playing with words,
whirling round my pen
to share the diamond of my heart.

Narrow the Difference

by Hafiz

When I play my lute,
The invisible ones call a conference,

And the angels travel far knowing
A rare entertainment will soon take place.

When I play my drum, my notes become so real
The winged ones throw saddles upon them;
An outrageous holy rodeo begins.

No one has ever sat with Hafiz
And not left for the better.

No one can read my poems out loud
In a tender, loving voice
And not narrow the difference,
Not narrow the gap,
Between you and God.

I have many younger brothers and sisters
Scattered upon this earth.

There are always friends of God in this world.
Find one and offer service.
For their glance is generous and cannot help
but forever give.

When Hafiz plays his lute,
My notes ascend into the air and form
Infinite blue crystals

That will move on the wind's breath for hundreds of years
As my sacred debris, as the divine dust
Rising as a gift from my
singing bones.

**********************************************************
With thanks to Life for connecting me with the younger brother and sisters of Hafiz through the allpoetry.com community. And Simon Sky for reminding me that I'm not alone in this movie of a life. :)

In Life or Death

by Rabindranath Tagore

Here I am, spilling over with you
Like a cup overflowing with wine!

You see through my eyes
You hear through my ears
You weave words in my mind
And your joy sets them to music.

O give yourself to me in love
Then feel it pouring back to you again!

You are my poet, Lord!
And I am your poem.

*************************************************
From the book "On the Shores of Eternity" by Deepak Chopra.

Owl's Own Song

With its wings folded back

like a distingushed professor

surveying the classroom,

the little owl

stared at me intently,

as if she had

a pearl of wisdom to share.

What could it be, I wonder

wishing we shared the same language.

But in this life that is not to be

so I will venture a guess or two instead.

Is it a love song

from my beloved

who lives in a realm

out of reach?

Or is it a war song

from Love's general

rallying the troops

for the freedom fight?

No matter what the message is

I know it is one of Love.

So all that is needed

is an open heart

to understand the owl's

own song.

*************************************************

Another entry to a poetry contest at allpoetry.com, this time inspired by a photo of a cute little owl. which is one of my favourite types of birds.