A beautiful thought...

for all of us who are of a certain age...

'.....old people should have a space of their own in which to weave a beautiful old age for themselves.'

(I got this from a fascinating book I'm reading: 'The Good Women of China' by Xinran)

I would imagine that we all need this no matter what our age....our own space in which to weave a beautiful life for ourselves...wouldn't you say?

So often when we find ourselves...

at rock bottom and believe that we have reached the end of the road...there's nothing more we can do....nowhere we can turn to.....nothing more to hope for....

Here is something to take solace from and steer by:

“And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.” 
~ J.K. Rowling

Dark clouds...

do pass, even though the dark shadows they cast on a few days can be quite paralyzing, and it seems as if there is no light in sight...but hang in there, for they do pass and leave a lightness in the heart...

Continuing on my belief...

that sexual orientation is a deeply personal thing and should not be used against a person.

I came across this, this morning:

In an article by Sienna Craig in http://edition.cnn.com/2014/02/18/living/same-sex-parents-sochi/index.html?hpt=hp_t5, she says, '......we still have a long way to go before the truth of our personhood rather than our sexual orientation becomes the basis on which we are judged -- as partners, as parents, as human beings.

I totally synced with the word - personhood...what a total meaning it conveys, and what an ideal to strive for...

Very often...

we force an issue that we are not in favor of/don't support/don't like/don't want to get into, by constantly thinking about it. Holding it in our mind makes us unconsciously give it a lot of time...we analyze it, have conversations around it, add on all kinds of feelings to it, fan the flames it produces and....keep it alive.

If we just let issues we are not comfortable with filter through our mind, we'll be sparing ourselves a lot of grief.

As it often happens, the edifice (an ugly one) we have created around an unhappy issue usually falls when reality kicks in...and either it's not as bad as we thought it would be, or it just evaporates, or we find we can handle it...

So much of our time and energy go into...

seeking approbation for the thoughts we share, and our actions...

trying to justify ourselves to those whom we look on as friends...

working on doing what we feel will bring approval or praise or sanction from those around us...maybe make us feel accepted and not as if we were some freak...maybe make us 'part of the group'...

getting people to be on our side...

We want to look good, in other words, regardless, very often, of our own reality (by reality I mean what we deep down want to do for ourselves, what we know as being right for us, what we really believe in, in the depths of our own hearts, what we know as being good for us...)

Thing is, no one really cares, because when push comes to shove, we find we are alone......all alone.....

The ones who do care will love us and support us unconditionally...

So, we just need to do what is right by our lights and leave it at that....

A lot of things became clear...

when I read this today: “It is not a virtue to refrain from hurting others, but it is a virtue to bear a hurt patiently.” - Solomon Ibn Gabirol, "Mibhar HaPeninim"

As I've learnt, the very hard way, that hurtful things are sent to us, or we find ourselves in a hurtful situation, because Life has a lesson in it and wants us to learn that lesson...

I've also been increasingly influenced by the truth that I am where I am because this is where God wanted me to be...I am not in the wrong place when I hurt - I am in the right place, in the right time....

Nothing 'just happens'...

Which clearly means that if I accept that I am exactly where I was meant to be, and if I can wait out the hurtful time, then I would have learnt one of Life's invaluable lessons, and become that much the better for it, and stronger too...