GOODNIGHT BEAUTIFUL SOULS

I wanted to say goodnight, and too, to tell all of you out there how amazing you are! Life really has no bad in it.
Yes, circumstances are what they are, but either we can choose to move through it and start on a new page, or we stay with the torn and tethered, and trust me, it can get to a place of really tethered. I've been there.

I also know that there are creative ways out, conducive ones, and simple little treasures that will  honestly, take you to a place of knowing, really what this is all about and that once there, believe me, you are afraid you will never return again.

Those aren't spiritual words, just simple Truths that may take you a long, long distance.........a real one........... uncomplicated, and straight to the point.

My morning this morning spoke volumes to me. I went on several walks, and I had to literally bow down in sheer gratitude.

Sometimes I think, why do I write all of this? It gets so darn innocent that probably, no one would believe me or  maybe they would just deem me something, and back to regular life I go, trying to not care about all of the millions of opinions there are, and for so many reasons.

I get both lives, how they are, and in that, I choose a different path, one that will catapult me forward, into an abyss of Truth that hopefully will swallow me up, and I won't have to feel guilty for trying to come back, to get "good" with people, or to just be around people because it is healthy.

It is SO wild to me!!!

I went to the mailbox, and there, happy as a lark, I saw, yet another postcard from my Uncle Dick.

I kind of do the same thing, again and again. I usually walk down with one of the dogs, on our walk. I check the mail, and when I see his letters, I get all excited, and shut the  mailbox, and wait until I return from my walk so that I can sit and be present with it, as it is probably one of the biggest highlights in my day, amongst many other gorgeous things, and happenings.

Sometimes I wait hours upon hours, and think about it sitting there on the table, but just don't want to read it, ever, in a hurried mode. It will never, ever warrant reading while multi-tasking.

I usually take my coffee outside under the tree, sit with the dogs, and read ever so slowly, and have to say, his writings are so eloquent, so deep, so passionate, about life, the simple life, that is, how doing service is key to him, and how putting a smile on someones face is what he goes for everyday, and just, well, so many, many things.

I'll quote some, I am sure he won't mind.

First off, the postcards are his paintings, and he knows my heart, and each one that he sends is different. He usually writes what he thinks I will love about each one, and by god, he is always dead on!

I'm going to pick snip it's, his letters are long, yet not to me, but for my blog, I'll just grab a few things. Mind you, it isn't really WHAT he writes, although it is always, without a doubt so sincere, authentic, and real, it is his unwanting heart, his steadfast devotion to a higher love that speaks volumes. He never has to prove himself, and just reeks of a purity that only comes around once in a lifetime. That, to me, is freedom!

Dearest Joni,
It's a rainy two days here, much needed, we've been in drought. Sometimes I love the rain, sometimes not. I read your blogs and gain new insights into my Joni with each one. You are so comfortable in your own skin. How hard that is to achieve and how wonderful for you. You are not allowing others to guide you or to mess with your own Utopia. Wonderful. Inspiring!
The hospital I volunteer in has been moderately busy, lots of elderly fighting old age ailments and plenty of bug like stuff...  not my favorite.....but if I can get a smile from them in my quest to make them more comfortable, then I am "Paid in Full"......That is what that is all about!

I bet when you opened this envelope and saw the card  you found yourself a special place in the hay on the second floor, a great place to muse.
I have to tell you of a happiness that I received yesterday.
All of my life there was, in my fathers attic, an old violin in an old wooden case, dirty and spattered. The violin was dull, no bridge, only a few tangled strings, the neck a little loose, and the bow in like repair-it has recently come into my hands, as providence would have it. It looked at it, it was a shambles-Now, Tom's eldest daughter (his son), Anna, has been playing violin for a number of years, and is getting pretty accomplished-just auditioned and was accepted into a junior county Orchestra.
So... now I had this old violin, and thought Wow! This might be great if I could get IT and Anna together. I was able to find a man, an old world violin repair-restore-man-After meeting him I knew he would be the person to take on the challenge of restoring the violin. He immediately told me where the instrument was made, Austria, Bavaria and that it was born in the 1870's or 1880's, that it was no Stradivarius, but he opined it was a good sounding piece and worth restoring. We agreed on a price, and  yesterday, picked up the violin-
What a job he did. How lovingly and caringly he was, the violin looks so beautiful. He cleaned up a hundred years of dirt and grime and re glued reattached, added missing parts and  played a couple of chords. It sounds, to this ear, excellent. The restorer feels it has many years of use ahead. The violin is good, the bow, extra ordinary, he repaired that too. He loves the whole package! Me too!
Next week I am going to Virginia attending The Marine Ball as guest of Tom and Linda on the 10th, which is the Marine Corp birthday.
I will be giving the violin to Anna as a family heirloom. Entrusting it's care and future to her, and the generations that follow her. I feel so happy about this, and wanted to share it with you.
My darling, my sweet lady, My Joni, Love you so, so, so much. Uncle Dick

Note: My ancestors came to the U.S. from Austria/Bavaria.......It all clicks.............

I cannot tell you how enmeshed I get reading his letters. Very, very detailed, always about his experiences with giving and how amazing it makes him feel, how his heart just swells knowing someone will be happy, that he was able to make someones day.
I get it. It is an unexplainable feeling to know that something so pure hearted may be received with an even bigger heart, and that it's ripple affects are worth so much to me and to others, it almost pains me.

I read his letters and it takes everything away, any kind of mundane thought, any kind of worry about the next moment, because in that sort of presence, and in that kind of love, there really is no next moment. It is all about a love and the moments of feeling them, and feeling, too, whole hearted, the experience of the recipient, and knowing that it will do some sort of good, without any expectation, just a bleacher view of some great happening.

God, I am full tonight.........so full of a love that is deepening inside of me. The more I find my place here, in my little nitch, the more I couldn't ask for anything more.

Innocence calls me, and everything else, really just pales in comparison.

Everyday, I revel in my own simple delights, and know them to be honest, real and true. A divinity that my soul soaks up like a sponge.

My days and my nights are short. They are specific. I almost cannot believe the enormity in the simplest of acts.

I can hear the opinions and it makes me want, even more, to separate myself, and to relish in it, swim in it, and disappear into the grandeur of it all................

My heart is ablaze with a love that has no name!

Thank you so much for this beautiful life.

~