On a fun walk with the dogs, we stopped in the shade for a rest.

I love this face. I love this kid. He held my hand when we were walking home from a tour with grandma on Monday.

He held my hand today a bunch of times.

He told me, "You're the best mom anyone could ask for."

He did also say today that I'm a mean mom. I answered that he's a mean friend and he needs to come out of his room and play nicely with his friend. He did. We both were glad.

We had a nice day.

My Stroke of Insight pg 373, by Jill Bolte Taylor -

I'm a devout believer that paying attention to our self talk is vitally important for our mental health.

In my opinion, making the decision that internal verbal abuse is not acceptable behavior, is the first step toward finding inner peace.

It has been extremely powerful for me to realize that the negative story teller portion of my left brain is only about the size of a peanut!    In order to protect my mental health, it is necessary for me to tend the garden of my mind and keep these cells in check. My story teller simply needs a little disciplining directive from my conscious mind about what I want versus what I find unacceptable .  

I am often humored by the scheming antics of my story teller in response to this type of directive. I have found that just like little children, these cells challenge the authority of my authentic voice and test my conviction. Once asked to be silent, they tend to pause for a moment and then immediately reengage those forbidden loops. If I am not persistent with my desire to think about other things and consciously initiate new circuits of thought, then those uninvited loops can generate new strength and begin monopolizing my mind again.

To counter their activities, I keep a handy list of three things available for me to turn my consciousness toward when I am in a state of need:

1) I remember something fascinating that I would like to ponder more deeply,

2) I think about something that brings me terrific joy or

3) I think about something I would like to do.   When I am desperate to change my mind, I use such tools.

I have also found that when I am least expecting it-feeling either physically tired or emotionally vulnerable- those negative circuits have a tendency to raise their hurtful heads. The more aware I remain about what my brain is saying and how those thoughts feel inside my body, the more I own my power in choosing what I want to spend my time thinking about, and how I want to feel. If I want to retain my inner peace, I must be willing to consistently and persistently tend to the garden of my mind moment by moment, and be willing to make the decision a thousand times a day.

It's a great day for tennis!

I love to hike with these two creatures of nature. Their excitement is infectious.

They stop when it gets too hot

And I end up carrying them.

A good hike is satisfying.

Our friends invited us to look at their newly hatched monarch butterfly.

For two weeks after finding the chrysalis, they checked it everyday, missing the hatching process, which only takes seconds.

When they noticed it hatched, they called us and moved it into the sun to watch it dry off and fly away.

It was so new and so wet, it was dripping with the fluid that softened the chrysalis.

The drying and hardening of the wings took more than an hour. We got tired of watching it. We didn't see it fly away.

But it was interesting to see such a brand new little changed creature.

Moral of the story:

I read that if you open a chrysalis at the wrong time, you get caterpillar soup. The caterpillar digests itself. Special genetic material known as 'imaginal discs' that were dormant in the caterpillar emerge from the digested broken down tissues.

The caterpillar has an imaginal disc for every body part the butterfly will need. Using the broken down tissues for strength and nourishment, the imaginal discs rapidly grow and fuse into the functional part they were meant to be; a wing, an eye or a leg.

It is a miracle! The process of breaking down allows a new formation to emerge, more beautiful and free than before.

It was imagined and hoped for before it happened.

It was a precarious mess during the process.

But surely, out of chaos came beauty.

WE can turn our lives into something beautiful.

I didn't know a friend took these pictures of me at the parade.   

I appreciate these pictures because I know how tender I was feeling on the inside that day. I didn't know how I appeared on the outside. Not as bad as I thought!

I am truly grateful for many things in my life too personal to share.

Just know: heartfelt gratitude is a saving principle.

Some people chase after the flashy, showy things, thinking that it will fill them. But on the inside, the flashy is often hollow, cheap and ugly.

Many never realize that the things of lasting beauty and peace are not flashy on the outside. Years of toil and loving committment make them strong, stable and reliable on the inside.

Knowledge, learning, growth and true charity build strong reservoirs of inner peace.

Consumerism destroys peace.

America is losing its strength and stability to consumerism.

Faith is choosing loyalty, sincerity, devotion, principles, allegiance to duty, and fidelity to promises.

Hapiness is evidence of faith.

America used to thrive on faith and noble principles.

Thank you to the noble ones in the military who fought for our freedom!

Love our country!