Monday Moanings - February 8, 2016

Let the Dragons Dance

While I'm feeling somewhat under the weather at the top of this week - there's plenty of moaning going on here, none of which you need or want to hear - the dragons are dancing in the Chinese New Year around the world. It's a fun, noisy, and exciting way to kick off a new week. Way better than hanging out with me. So

 恭禧發財

"Gong Hey Fat Choy"

Today's Google® Doodle

If the New Year resolutions made back on January 1, need a dose of renewal or have fallen by the wayside, we all get to start anew again today. Chinese proverbs offer these pearls of wisdom for inspiration: 

“If you want one year of prosperity, grow grain. If you want 10 years of prosperity, grow trees. If you want 100 years of prosperity, grow people.”

“A single conversation with a wise man is better than 10 years of study.”

“A closed mind is like a closed book, just a block of wood.”

“If heaven made him, Earth can find some use for him.”

“Without sorrows, no one becomes a saint.”

“With virtue, you can’t be completely poor; without it, you can’t be truly rich.”

“To have principles, first have courage.”

“Honest scales and full measure hurt no one.”

“If you always give, you will always have.”

“If you hurry through long days, you will hurry through short years.”

“Simple to open a shop; another thing to keep it open.”

“Don’t waste your hour; the sun sets soon.”








Bring on the dancing dragons and the happy monkeys!

Make this a good week.
Don't worry - be happy!


©2016 April Hoeller
All images, except the first two, are from our trip to China, April 2014

Thursday, or Thereabouts - October 9, 2014

An Embarrassment of Riches...

Thanksgiving Weekend stands on the doorstep bidding me come, enjoy, celebrate, and give thanks for the harvest.

   






For both the early pioneers and the indigenous tribes, this time of year in North America was one both deepest gratitude and fervent hope. Come wind, come weather the land had yielded her best and barns were full. But would the bounty be enough to sustain life through a winter of unknowns?

I have not known such a tenuous life, none of my family have. Sure we've had our struggles, our lean times, but we've always been able to gather together at Thanksgiving amid an abundance of food, laughter and love - an embarrassment of riches.

I am as humbled as I am grateful for this bounty. I've companioned others whose lives been flipped upside down by a sudden reversal of fortune and I'm now of great enough age to be keenly aware that good living does not grant any immunity from calamity down the road. A winter of unknowns may give warning but never asks permission to visit, let alone stay a while.

Yet today the sun is shining, the world just outside my door is decked out in Autumn splendour, and the cup of my life is overflowing with good things. So I accept the invitation to enjoy, celebrate and give thanks for the harvest. 

My heart is full of "Thanks Giving."

©2014 April Hoeller

A Prayer of Gratitude

"We are grateful for eyes that see and ponder, for taste buds that know the sensuous pleasures of eating and drinking, for hands that hold and touch and feel, for ears that can delight in music and the voice of a friend, for a nose that can smell the aroma of newly mown grass or delicious food, and can also breathe the air that gives us life. 

We are grateful for the treasure of loved ones whose hearts of openness and acceptance have encouraged us to be who we are. We are  grateful for their faithfulness, for standing by us when our weaknesses stood out glaringly, for being there when we were most in need and for delighting with us in our good days and our joyful seasons.  

We are grateful for the eyes of faith, for believing in the presence of God, giving us hope in our darkest days, encouraging us to listen to our spirit’s hunger, and reminding us to trust in the blessings of God’s presence in our most empty days. 

We are grateful for the ongoing process of becoming who we are, for the seasons within, for the great adventure of life that challenges and comforts us at one and the same time. 

We are grateful for the messengers of God - people, events, written or spoke words - that came to us at just the right time and helped us to grow.  

We are grateful for God calling us to work with our gifts, grateful that we can be of service and use our talents in a responsible and just way. 

We are grateful that we have the basic necessities of life, that we have the means and the ability to hear the cries of the poor and to respond with our abundance."

©1992 Joyce Rupp: May I have this Dance?  p. 151