Lifespotting!

Children always seem to have an inner gauge to exponentially expand their joy and happiness in any given moment.

Stop scheduling fun time and take moments where you see it. 

We have one life; it soon will be past; what we do for God is all that will last.
- Muhammed Ali

(Source: islamreflection)

A different perspective is always a good idea. 

We can get really immune to certain things after a while, impatience takes over and pretty soon we start to negate the value of someone or something.

Taking another viewpoint and/or empathising with others can really keep us out of our own ego minds and help us come more gently from the heart.  

An aging Hindu master grew tired of his apprentice complaining, and so, one morning, sent him for some salt. When the apprentice returned, the master instructed the unhappy young man to put a handful of salt in a glass of water and then to drink it.

“How does it taste?” the master asked.
“Bitter,” spit the apprentice.

The master chuckled and then asked the young man to take the same handful of salt and put it in the lake. The two walked in silence to the nearby lake, and once the apprentice swirled his handful of salt in the water, the old man said, “Now drink from the lake.” As the water dripped down the young man’s chin, the master asked,

“How does it taste?”,
“Fresh,” remarked the apprentice.
“Do you taste the salt?” asked the master.
“No,” said the young man.

At this, the master sat beside this serious young man who so reminded him of himself and took his hands, offering,

“The pain of life is pure salt; no more, no less. The amount of pain in life remains exactly the same. However, the amount of bitterness we taste depends on the container we put the pain in. So when you are in pain, the only thing you can do is to enlarge your sense of things …Stop being a glass. Become a lake.”

In many parts of this world water is
Scarce and precious.
People sometimes have to walk 
A great distance
Then carry heavy jugs upon their
Heads.
Because of our wisdom, we will travel
Far for love.
All movement is a sign of 
Thirst.
Most speaking really says 
“I am hungry to know you.”
Every desire of your body is holy;
Every desire of your body is
Holy.
Dear one,
Why wait until you are dying
To discover that divine
Truth?

Hafiz

In your light I learn how to love. In your beauty, how to make poems. You dance inside my chest where no-one sees you, but sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art.  Rumi

Finding the beauty in a rainy day can be hard - keep your playful spirit, jump into puddles, don’t worry about your hair, stay in and read, indulge in a bath and know that the sunny day will come back around. 

Stop for a few moments to enjoy what is, instead of rushing for the next Awesome! Gratitude for the small things engages the heart and lets you live in the Here. 

We cannot allow our happiness to depend on our external circumstances, for every positive event and accomplishment we experience are accompanied by rapid adaptation and escalating expectations. Even as we attain greater heights, we begin to want even more. -Sonja Lybomirksy, The How Of Happiness

I have the nerve to walk my own way, however hard, in my search for reality, rather than climb upon the rattling wagon of wishful illusions.” - Zora Neale Hurston

There is no recreating or repeating you,

The magic that surrounds you is all your own.