Forgiveness

 Forgiveness isn’t always about setting someone free ~ it’s often about setting yourself free.

I read somewhere, ‘You keep forgiving someone until you unlove them.’ And I felt that. Because when you love deeply, you want to believe in the best of someone, even when they keep showing you their worst. So you forgive. Again and again. Not because they deserve it, but because a part of you isn’t ready to let go.

But something happens over time. Each forgiveness chips away at the illusion. Every disappointment brings clarity. And one day, without realizing it, you wake up and the love that once felt unshakable has faded. Not out of bitterness, not out of anger ~ but out of exhaustion.

This is how some of us let go. Not in one sudden act, but in a slow unraveling, in the quiet realization that love should not have to hurt this much.

If you’re in this place, know this: Forgiveness does not mean you have to stay. It does not mean you have to keep the door open. It does not mean you have to keep setting yourself on fire to keep someone else warm.

Some love stories don’t end with fireworks ~ they end with a sigh of relief. And that’s okay. Letting go is its own kind of love~ the kind that finally includes yourself.

Raw mornings

 mornings come raw

full of emotions

unable to stop

pouring from every orifice

unstemmed, steamy, infantile,

all woman—

tears and laughter

of pain and passion

sweeping as a hurricane

across my heart

and then—spent.

there’s no filter at dawn.

the truth of me

spills before I remember

to be polite,

before I tuck myself in

to someone else’s comfort.

the wildness,

the holy ache of feeling too much,

is mine.

has always been.

i wake carrying ghosts—

lovers, regrets,

soft traces of old joys

like perfume on a scarf

left too long in a drawer.

i am stitched from moments

that cracked me open

and from the light that poured in after.

some days,

i want to be held.

others,

i only want the sky

to witness me:

bare-faced, puffy-eyed,

gutted and glorious.

a woman

who survives her own storms

and still sings

in the aftermath.

One morning

 It’s pretty subtle. One morning, you wake up, and your chest doesn’t feel so heavy anymore. You can’t really place the moment it happened, but you feel it, a lightness in your heart. You remember how easy it is to breathe. 

A piece of self is gone, but maybe you fill that space with something you love doing. Perhaps you make a new friend. If you’re lucky, you fill it with radical acceptance, a deep knowing of Self—the light, the dark, and everything in between. 

Out of suffering, may you find peace, purpose, and the Hero always within you. 

I woke one morning to find the heaviness in my chest was gone. It felt good to hear the sound of my own laughter; it felt good to be home.

Relief

 Forgiveness isn’t always about setting someone free ~ it’s often about setting yourself free.

I read somewhere, ‘You keep forgiving someone until you unlove them.’ And I felt that. Because when you love deeply, you want to believe in the best of someone, even when they keep showing you their worst. So you forgive. Again and again. Not because they deserve it, but because a part of you isn’t ready to let go.

But something happens over time. Each forgiveness chips away at the illusion. Every disappointment brings clarity. And one day, without realizing it, you wake up and the love that once felt unshakable has faded. Not out of bitterness, not out of anger ~ but out of exhaustion.

This is how some of us let go. Not in one sudden act, but in a slow unraveling, in the quiet realization that love should not have to hurt this much.

If you’re in this place, know this: Forgiveness does not mean you have to stay. It does not mean you have to keep the door open. It does not mean you have to keep setting yourself on fire to keep someone else warm.

Some love stories don’t end with fireworks ~ they end with a sigh of relief. And that’s okay. Letting go is its own kind of love~ the kind that finally includes yourself.

When wit is cruel, it cuts rather than charms. It may draw laughter, but it leaves bruises. It turns intelligence into a weapon instead of a bridge. Wit is a sharp tool— In the right hands, it opens minds. In the wrong hands, it draws blood. Cruel wit often hides pain, fear, or ego. But behind every “just kidding” might be someone quietly shrinking. The true art is knowing when to be clever and when to be kind. Sometimes the bravest wit is gentle.

Every time I think I am healed, another wound whispers beneath my skin, another memory rises like smoke from the ashes of old versions of me, but maybe healing is not a destination, maybe it is the brave act of walking through your own ruins and still planting flowers.

 

Right now we ARE the goo of a dissolved democracy in a chrysalis of transformation.

It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all . . . in which case you fail by default.

The path isn't a straight line; it’s a spiral. You continually come back to things you thought you understood and see deeper truths.

The end

 

I was sitting in the bathtub counting my toes when the radiator broke, water all froze. I got stuck in the ice without my clothes. Naked as the eyes of a clown. I was crying ice cubes, hoping I'd croak, when the sun come through the window, the ice all broke. I stood up and laughed, thought it was a joke. That's the way that the world goes 'round. That's the way that the world goes 'round. You're up one day, the next, you're down. It's half an inch of water and you think you're gonna drown. That's the way that the world goes 'round.

LET’S BE CLEAR When someone is used to holding power, explicitly or subtly, your consistent self-advocacy can feel threatening, even if it’s not aggressive. Especially if you’re a woman, older adult, or someone expected to “stay nice,” the simple act of holding your ground may be interpreted as hostility. To those accustomed to your silence, your voice sounds like violence. Some people haven’t developed the resilience to hear disagreement or discomfort without personalizing it. They may label your boundaries as “mean” because it forces them to feel things they’d rather avoid ~ guilt, accountability, or shame. In toxic dynamics, calling someone abusive or a bully is a control tactic, a way to flip the narrative. This often happens in narcissistic or manipulative relationships where the person weaponizes your strength against you. Society often prefers people, especially women, to express needs gently, sweetly, and without making others uncomfortable. Speaking up “too often” or “too strongly” gets framed as inappropriate, especially if you refuse to back down. Many people were raised to fear conflict, not manage it. Any direct communication feels like a threat rather than healthy dialogue. So even calm but firm self-advocacy can be misread as aggression. Bullying is about domination, manipulation, and repeated harm. Self-advocacy is about expressing your needs, setting boundaries, and protecting your integrity, even if it makes others uncomfortable. If you’re speaking up with clarity, not cruelty… If you’re setting boundaries, not imposing control… If your intent is truth, not harm… Then what you’re doing is not abuse ~ it’s integrity.

I was fine

 

I am single, and this is my era of peace, not loneliness, not lack, but pure, grounding peace. I’ve stopped searching for validation in someone else’s presence and started finding power in my own. My days are no longer shaped by compromise or the need to be understood by someone who never really saw me. Instead, I move freely, love myself deeply, and protect my space like never before. This season of solitude isn’t empty, it’s full of clarity, growth, and unshakable self-worth. Being single isn’t a waiting room for love; it’s a chapter of becoming. I no longer chase things or people that disturb my balance. I wake up without pressure, go where I please, and create a life that feels right to me. I’ve found peace in my own company, joy in my quiet moments, and strength in knowing that I am whole on my own. This is not a pause, this is power. This is my era, and it’s beautifully mine.

Sky View Ridge Is the Tao

 

Here, on this ridge where the sky unfolds without end

and the land hums with memory,

the Tao is not a concept but a presence.

It is the rhythm of the wind through red pine,

the hush between birdsong,

the soft tread of deer through morning fog.

There is no need to name it.

It moves in the curve of the hillside,

in the slow bloom of thyme after rain,

in the stillness that settles as twilight comes.

At Sky View Ridge, life is not hurried.

The cabins rest like thoughts held gently in the mind,

each one a quiet witness to sunrise,

to laughter, to silence, to becoming.

This is not escape—it is return.

Return to breath,

to simplicity,

to the knowing that everything is connected—

the sky, the soil, the soul.

The Tao is the way of things,

and here, the way is through presence.

Through hands in the earth,

through stars that keep their word night after night,

through guests who arrive seeking rest

and find themselves instead.

Sky View Ridge does not shout.

It whispers,

and the Tao listens.

And in that listening,

all things find their place.

I want

 

Fear

 

Loving

 

Me

 

Prine

 bruised orange

you can gaze out the window

get mad and get madder

but it don't do no good to get angry

so help me i know.

for a heart stained in anger

grows weak and grows bitter.

you become your own prisoner

while you watch yourself sit there

wrapped up in a trap

of your very own

chain of sorrow.

i've been brought down to zero

pulled out

and put back there.

it ain't such a long drop

don't stammer

don't stutter

from the diamonds in the sidewalk

to the dirt in the gutter

and you carry those bruises

to remind you

wherever you go

Keep your heart open. When situations trigger your anxiety, the normal tendency is to close your heart and protect yourself. You do this by reacting, escaping or distracting from the situation. Closing your heart doesn’t mean safety. It’s actually the opposite. By closing your heart, you just lock up painful feelings from your past that you don’t want to feel inside you and grow miserable. You free yourself by relaxing into the pain. Just observe the hurtful emotions pass out through you from the seat of your true self ~ Awareness. Being at peace with the pain. You are suffering from anxiety because you build up huge walls of resistance against feeling pain. All actions you take are to cope with this stored pain in your heart. This pain adds up over time and every situation starts to irritate you. Painful feelings like fear, worry and anger are just like happiness , joy or love. Only your judgements make the difference. Relax into it and feel them fully. That’s how to become authentic and whole. Anxiety and depression are not the problem. They are just symptoms your body is forcing you to look into. So you see the root cause: deep suppressed emotional pain that you escaped with distractions and addictions for so long. You are the one listening to the voice in your head. Asking who am I is the highest spiritual practice. Keeping your heart open amidst challenging situations will free you. Your pain is just like any other emotion.

Love language

 

Seventy-five

 

The Return

My soul has returned. The gates to the other world are beginning to close, and the fog is starting to lift. 

I feel immense sadness and grief in my heart, for I must say goodbye to a place that only exposed emptiness and despair, but actually saved me. 

Although I did not understand at the time, I do now. I honor those for watching over me until I was ready for the return. 

What perceptions of self have you challenged lately?

 

Quiet peace

 The deeper you heal, the more your body reacts to bad energy. Loud, chaotic environments feel unbearable, fake conversations drain you instantly, and being around negative or inauthentic people physically exhausts you. Your intuition sharpens, your body picks up on energy shifts before your mind can process them and you instinctively distance yourself from anyting that disrupts your peace.

A 75th Birthday

 Sky View Ridge

a 75th birthday

You did not arrive at this ridge

by accident.

The wind knows your name,

the earth remembers your footsteps.

There is something to be said

for escaping

to a hill that breathes

with red thyme and morning light.

Where cabins rise like wishes,

quiet and full of listening.

You have dreamed in the language

of valleys and ridge lines,

you return to build a sanctuary,

with gratitude and intention.

You name your shelters

after the future.

Let them hold laughter,

the scent of joy,

and family love.

At seventy-five,

you are not winding down.

You are becoming 

the one who knows

that peace is not a place you visit,

but one you make

with patience,

and love that does not ask for applause.

So blow out the candles,

plant the thyme,

welcome the quiet travelers

who will come seeking

what you already know ~ 

That heaven is a hillside

with a porch,

a sky full of stars,

and your name

written gently

into the land.

◦

Love after Love

"The time will come

when, with elation

you will greet yourself arriving

at your own door, in your own mirror

and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.

You will love again the stranger who was your self.

Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart

to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored

for another, who knows you by heart.

Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,

peel your own image from the mirror.

Sit. Feast on your life." 

~ Derek Walcott from Sea Grapes

Growing, ripening, aging, dying ~ the passing of time is predestined, inevitable.

“There is only one solution if old age is not to be an absurd parody of our former life, and that is to go on pursuing ends that give our existence a meaning — devotion to individuals, to groups or to causes, social, political, intellectual or creative work… In old age we should wish still to have passions strong enough to prevent us turning in on ourselves. One’s life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation, compassion.”

~ Simone de Beauvoir, The Coming of Age

What can I say?

 “What can I say that I have not said before?

So I'll say it again.

The leaf has a song in it.

Stone is the face of patience.

Inside the river there is an unfinishable story and you are somewhere in it and it will never end until all ends.

Take your busy heart to the art museum and the chamber of commerce

but take it also to the forest.

The song you heard singing in the leaf when you were a child is singing still.

I am of years lived, so far, seventy-five, and the leaf is singing still.”

~ Mary Oliver

This is life

 As I began to love myself

I found that anguish and emotional suffering 

are only warning signs that I was living 

against my own truth. 

Today, I know, this is Authenticity.

As I began to love myself 

I understood how much it can offend somebody 

if I try to force my desires on this person, 

even though I knew the time was not right 

and the person was not ready for it, 

and even though this person was me. 

Today I call this Respect.

As I began to love myself 

I stopped craving for a different life, 

and I could see that everything 

that surrounded me 

was inviting me to grow. 

Today I call this Maturity.

As I began to love myself 

I understood that at any circumstance, 

I am in the right place at the right time, 

and everything happens at the exactly right moment. 

So I could be calm. 

Today I call this Self-Confidence.

As I began to love myself 

I quit stealing my own time, 

and I stopped designing huge projects 

for the future. 

Today, I only do what brings me joy and happiness, 

things I love to do and that make my heart cheer, 

and I do them in my own way 

and in my own rhythm. 

Today I call this Simplicity.

As I began to love myself 

I freed myself of anything 

that is no good for my health – 

food, people, things, situations, 

and everything that drew me down 

and away from myself. 

At first I called this attitude a healthy egoism. 

Today I know it is Love of Oneself.

As I began to love myself 

I quit trying to always be right, 

and ever since 

I was wrong less of the time. 

Today I discovered that is Modesty.

As I began to love myself 

I refused to go on living in the past 

and worrying about the future. 

Now, I only live for the moment, 

where everything is happening. 

Today I live each day, 

day by day, 

and I call it Fulfillment.

As I began to love myself 

I recognized 

that my mind can disturb me 

and it can make me sick. 

But as I connected it to my heart, 

my mind became a valuable ally. 

Today I call this connection Wisdom of the Heart.

We no longer need to fear arguments, 

confrontations or any kind of problems 

with ourselves or others. 

Even stars collide, 

and out of their crashing, new worlds are born. 

Today I know: This is Life!

It’s believed that Charlie Chaplin wrote this poem at age 70.

Wear it with dignity

 Aging is not for the faint of heart.

One day, you wake up and realize — youth has quietly slipped away.

But it didn’t leave alone.

It took with it your insecurities, your rush to please, your fear of not being enough.

And in its place?

It left you with something stronger:

A slower pace, but a steadier step.

The wisdom to say goodbye without fear.

The grace to cherish those who choose to stay.

The power to be you, unapologetically.

Aging isn’t about losing — it’s about letting go.

It’s about learning to accept, to release, and to truly see:

That beauty was never just in the mirror…

It lived in every story, scar, and silent strength we carried within.

Aging is a gift. Wear it with dignity.

Your competition isn’t other people. Your competition is your procrastination. Your ego. The unhealthy food you’re consuming, the knowledge you neglect. The negative behavior you’re nurturing and your lack of creativity. Compete against that.

One of the best feelings in the world is knowing your presence and absence both mean something to someone. So celebrate no regrets, just lessons. No worries, just acceptance. No expectations, just gratitude. Let’s share fond memories forever and be thankful always for our part in each others journey.

I'd rather live on my own than live with a face that looks at me with the wrong eyes.

“the art of happiness is also the art of suffering well.” ― Thích Nhất Hạnh, No Mud, No Lotus

The Gift of What Was

I choose to remember you with sunlight,

not shadows—the way your laughter

painted mornings golden, how we learned

to love imperfectly and completely.

Those years were not practice rounds

or rough drafts of happiness.

They were the real thing,

whole and necessary,

each moment a thread in the tapestry

that is me, now.

Thank you for the arguments that taught me

my own voice, for the tenderness

that showed me my heart’s true size,

for the ending that revealed

how much beauty I can hold

without breaking.

I am not the same person

who first loved you,

and that is the point—

every joy, every fracture

was a doorway

leading me here,

to this moment of choosing

gratitude over grief,

wholeness over the myth

of what might have been.

You were perfect for me then.

I am perfect for me now.

And somewhere ahead,

love waits again,

richer for having known

the gift of what was.

Graceful Intention

 I honor the love that was.

It was real, it was meaningful, and it shaped me.

We laughed, we cried, we grew—

and though the story changed,

I hold no bitterness in my heart.

I choose to honor what we had

not by clinging to it,

but by letting it lift me

into the next chapter of my life.

I smile at the memories.

They were mine,

they mattered,

and they brought me here.

Here is good.

Here is wiser, deeper, more awake.

I walk forward with joy,

grateful for love past,

and open to love yet to come—

in all its forms.

Outgrown

 

Community

 

New way

 

The dark

 

The Way

 

Which?

 

On your own terms

 

Try me

 

"I dwell in Possibility." ~ Emily Dickinson

Right now life’s teaching me the law of detachment; no forcing or begging, no chasing or settling. Not everything is worth fighting for.

We need to practice being the people we wish to be. So go give someone a death stare, spill your coffee on anyone acting creepy, shush a mansplainer. Take up space. Stay Feral 🤍

What’s the saying?… “The loudest boos always come from the cheapest seats . . . “

The light in the abyss between us

 

In its own time

 

Priority means that two things cannot be equally important.

You only have to start from scratch once. After that you start with experience.

Your personality is made up of how you think, act, and feel. It is your state of being. Therefore, your same thoughts, actions, and feelings will keep you enslaved to the same past personal reality. However, when you as a personality embrace new thoughts, actions, and feelings, you will inevitably create a new personal reality in your future.

When I say I want to travel, I don’t mean I want to stay at fancy resorts and buy keychains or shot glasses from souvenir shops. When I say I want to travel, I mean I want to explore and meet the people, and feel the culture of another place and become part of it. I want to explore the environment and walk where the locals walk and eat where the locals eat. I want my mind to be in awe and I want to see things with new eyes. I want to look at a map and remember how I was transformed by the places and the people I’ve met and the cultures I’ve experienced. This is the heart of adventure and travel.

Some people will paint a bad picture of you. Don’t try to prove them wrong. Just autograph that painting.

The plan

 

Badass

 

Have heart

 

It’s the same

 

People who don’t know how to communicate think you’re arguing. People who avoid accountability think you’re attacking. It’s not you, it’s their lack of self-awareness.

It’s worth it

 

A slight breeze