words can't grasp what fire can't burn...

and a new part of her journey began.

hearing of her pain, she stood up, and spoke out loud. another heard. another spoke. forming a circle around the wounded, they bared their scars to one another. gently, they whispered - 'we are one. we are not in this alone. we are one.' the chant grew stronger. and stronger. and stronger. until a roar shook the earth. and the world listened."


all proceeds from the sale of this print go to tough angels.

"honor yourself

she sits alone hurting in the dark. not ready to reach for the candle i offer. blowing it out, i sit down next to her and wait. we'll light the candle together when she's ready. for now, i'll trust the darkness for us both and sit quietly beside her - letting her know she's not alone. letting her know that darkness is okay. letting her know that i'm there waiting with a candle.

You can't Let go of what you haven't held –

i will work on the act of listening to you and my listening abilities will grow. i will honor those things you relay to me and act upon them. when i act upon them, i will know that i am living my truth and owe no explanations to anyone. i will believe in your ability to accept all emotions and will not close down to protect you. i will direct my energies and my power to a place that will strengthen you, not deplete you. i will follow you in the way i wish the world would follow you. the child of the universe and the heart shall meld and we shall dance as one.

i will work on the act of listening to you and my listening abilities will grow. i will honor those things you relay to me and act upon them. when i act upon them, i will know that i am living my truth and owe no explanations to anyone. i will believe in your ability to accept all emotions and will not close down to protect you. i will direct my energies and my power to a place that will strengthen you, not deplete you. i will follow you in the way i wish the world would follow you. the child of the universe and the heart shall meld and we shall dance as one.

i will be mindful of the act of loving you every day of my life. i will not take you for granted, but will keep my eyes open to the treasure that you are, allowing room for your individuality and your own uniqueness. i will not try to bend you to my ways, but rather open myself to your ways as being part of who you are. i will embrace all of you. the dark parts along with the light. because, together, those parts create the being that i love. i will accept you, respect you and admire you. and if something comes between us to make me stumble with this, i will go to you and ask your help with my struggle. i will bring my challenges to you, looking for your thoughts and support and i will return that support to you freely. when i'm hurt, i will believe in your love for me, i will bring you my hurt, and together we will grow from it and then put it aside. i will share all of myself with you, for i know to receive your entire heart, you must have mine. together, we will work, we will play, we will laugh, we will grieve, and we will find our way. together we will live gratitude together we will touch love.

i will be mindful of the act of loving you every day of my life. i will not take you for granted, but will keep my eyes open to the treasure that you are, allowing room for your individuality and your own uniqueness. i will not try to bend you to my ways, but rather open myself to your ways as being part of who you are. i will embrace all of you. the dark parts along with the light. because, together, those parts create the being that i love. i will accept you, respect you and admire you. and if something comes between us to make me stumble with this, i will go to you and ask your help with my struggle. i will bring my challenges to you, looking for your thoughts and support and i will return that support to you freely. when i'm hurt, i will believe in your love for me, i will bring you my hurt, and together we will grow from it and then put it aside. i will share all of myself with you, for i know to receive your entire heart, you must have mine. together, we will work, we will play, we will laugh, we will grieve, and we will find our way. together we will live gratitude. together we will touch love.

acceptance

More sizes and images available at www.MisterNoah.com

chairs slide in and out, filling with all our sizes. the passing of food from hand to hand is more like the passing of love. conversations build, laughter abounds, contentment and warmth surround the room. i look at your face across the table and smile. home is alive once more.

for those who believe in love... - a collection of poems - there was a time in my life that i wasn't even sure if i believed in love anymore. i knew i loved my kids....so i knew it existed.... but i doubted about that other love stuff. it all seemed like needs and not love...and i wondered hard about the whole thing...to say i was disillusioned was to put it mildly. another valentine's day was approaching and a shop owner asked me if i would put a small book together with love poems. love poems? you gotta be kidding me! scratching my head and thinking "well...there was that bone sigh i wrote about my friend....and there was that bone sigh i wrote for my cousin getting married....and well... let me look...." imagine my surprise when i figured out i had written lots of bone sighs about love! there were so many bone sighs written for the love i had for different friends in my life, there were bone sighs written about my kids... ohmygosh... there was love all around me! i compiled them into a small, handmade book...and called it "after all." the title came from a bone sigh i wrote after seeing all the love in my life... "turns out she believed in love after all..." seems that when i would write, i would use the pronoun "she" to kinda give me a little distance from it all. to kind of protect myself. for the book, i changed the pronoun "she" to "i." and when i had to write that quote out with the word "i"....well, my heart trembled. i couldn't believe how much i hesitated. at last, i wrote it out. i committed to it. yeah, i really did believe in love after all. still a little scared of it all (okay, A LOT scared of it all)...but definitely a believer. that was a few years back, and we've now grown into offering "after all" here in a printed version. more quotes have been added as time has gone by and more love has crept into my life. yeah, even the version that i really had lost hope in...the "falling in love" version. how cool is that?! we offer this book to all people who believe in love...every kind there is. Paperback - Poetry 96 pages

it is up to us to create the gold we are our own alchemists

allow

it's not about controlling. it's about being present. being open, being aware - and allowing it to come.

whenever she didn't know what to do, she knew offering love was always right. starting with herself and moving on from there.

always there when i need you... forever making me laugh... pushing me to stretch and opening my pools of giving ~ you teach me. and it is in your very presence that i become gratitude.

it was an understanding that found its way to her. she understood now. it had sunk in. good wasn't always going to win. she understood all too well. but that's not why you keep trying. you keep trying because you have to. you keep trying because if you don't, the dark really will always win. and that isn't an option. you keep trying because your heart can't live any other way. you keep trying because that is your way of living. you keep trying because utltimately, you believe in light. because ultimately you believe.

and finally she came to a place where the other no longer mattered. where Grace lit up the room. lighting her candle from that sacred flame - she went out to warm the world.

various text to remind you of the beauty inside.

and i asked the universe for answers and was given someone to love. somewhere deep in my heart i heard a voice, 'learn to truly love beyond yourself and you will find those answers.'

the arms of the trees, their hands, their very fingertips reached into the sky and grabbed my heart. somewhere up there, we danced...the trees - god- and me.

balance