BEAUTY

Someone had posted this picture on facebook and, quite honestly, I could not take my eyes off of her. I was literally mesmerized by the expression on her face...it spoke volumes of a life well-lived, filled with beauty and love. Her smile forced me to look inward and contemplate happiness and what it means to me now: simple things, basic goals, caring about this world we live in. It is still a challenge to find the time to reinvent my life. However, it is a challenge I welcome and relish, knowing bliss is just around the corner.

She is so heartbreakingly beautiful that I want to wrap my arms around her.

And there I was, worried about when I can schedule the next session with Susan, my aesthetician... Silly.

Harnessing the Power of Intention - from Deepak Chopra's blog, published on 6 January 2012

http://www.chopra.com/

Intention is the starting point of every dream. It is the creative power that fulfills all of our needs, whether for money, relationships, spiritual awakening, or love. Everything that happens in the universe begins with intention. When you decide to buy a birthday present, wiggle your toes, or call a friend, it all starts with intention.

An intention is a directed impulse of consciousness that contains the seed form of that which you aim to create. Like real seeds, intentions can’t grow if you hold on to them. Only when you release your intentions into the fertile depths of your consciousness can they grow and flourish. In the book The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, by Deepak Chopra, the Law of Intention and Desire describes the five steps for harnessing the power of intention to create anything you desire.

1. Get Clear on your Intentions and Desires Most of the time our mind is caught up in thoughts, emotions, and memories, and it’s easy to fall into the grip of our ego’s fears and demands. It is therefore important to remind yourself – day in and day out – of your intentions, desires, and spiritual purpose. Many people find it helpful to write down their intentions and review them each day, just before meditation.

2. Slip into the Gap Once you’ve reviewed your intentions and desires, let them go – simply stop thinking about them and begin your regular meditation practice. In meditation you experience your true Self, which is pure awareness, pure potentiality, and pure being. When you’re rooted in the experience of pure potentiality, your intentions can spontaneously manifest with effortless ease.

3. Remain Centered in a State of Restful Awareness Intention is much more powerful when it comes from a place of contentment than if it arises from a sense of lack or need. Stay centered and refuse to be influenced by other people’s doubts or criticisms. Your higher Self knows that everything is all right and will be all right, even without knowing the timing or the details of what will happen.

4. Detach from the Outcome Relinquish your rigid attachment to a specific result and live in the wisdom of uncertainty. Attachment is based on fear and insecurity, while detachment is based on the unquestioning belief in the power of your true Self. Intend for everything to work out as it should, then let go and allow opportunities and openings to come your way.

5. Let the Universe Handle the Details Your focused intentions set the infinite organizing power of the universe in motion. Trust that infinite organizing power to orchestrate the complete fulfillment of your desires. Don’t listen to the voice that says that you have to be in charge, that obsessive vigilance is the only way to get anything done. The outcome that you try so hard to force may not be as good for you as the one that comes naturally. You have released your intentions into the fertile ground of pure potentiality, and they will bloom when the season is right.

As we begin a new year filled with unlimited possibility, take some time to consider your intentions, your desires, and where you want to focus your attention in the months ahead. Thousands of years ago, the Indian sages observed that our destiny is ultimately shaped by our intentions and desires. The classic Vedic text the Upanishads declares: “You are what your deepest desire is. As your desire is, so is your intention. As your intention is, so is your will. As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny.”

My Personal Take on Intentions

Growing up Catholic and schooled predominantly by nuns, there were plenty of opportunities to attend mass. They were mostly intimate gatherings. This means that the students actively participated during mass and were requested to state intentions during the services.

INTENTIONS came to mean, for me, prayers for certain favors and requests for blessings. Some intentions were stated out loud, some were fervently said...silently: an expressed wish with much longing. I suppose there isn't much of a difference in meaning for me, a hundred years later from when I used to be that carefree child. The only difference now is that intentions no longer have a religious connection nor significance in my world. Intentions are expressed everyday by everyone, regardless of their belief systems.

I love how Deepak Chopra states that our intentions have infinite organizing power. And that we should let the universe handle the details and orchestrate the complete fulfillment of our desires. When we let go and release control, events flow much more smoothly.

LOVE Habit

So much has been written on the subject of love - in song, poetry, literature, cinema...personal letters...dare I go on? It can be elusive for some. It doesn't have to be as there is a never-ending supply in all of us. And to give love away is a wondrous choice we all have. There is a love meditation I found somewhere on the web. Well, there is a lot on the web regarding love meditations. Here is my favorite:

I am love. I am loved. I am loving. I feel the love vibration in my heart. I feel it expanding throughout my body. All there is, is love love love. I now love as I have never loved before in my life. I silently, powerfully and intensely radiate my love. I send it everywhere without exception. I see it flowing into my body, my loved ones. I see love going before me to envelope and permeate everyone in my consciousness. I love you for Who and What you are. I love everyone without exception. I love everything without exception. I am Love's radiant expression. I let my love go before me to heal and harmonize every condition in my life. I love as I have never loved before. I can love because I know who and what I am. I will let love forever flow unconditionally, universally, divinely, powerfully and intensely. I am love. I rest now in silence, thinking only of the love I am, the love I give and the love I receive. All there is, is LOVE.

LOVE as Performance Art

Thank you, Sarah. Such a simple act of giving me this cookie, your grandma's scrumptious heart-shaped cookie. It filled me up --- my tummy, my heart.

My Mala

My husband and I used to work for wonderfully eccentric (and I mean, ECCENTRIC like no other) Gerard M. He gave us many, many lessons in life and patience and tolerance and...I could go on and on with such colorful anecdotes - so many unforgettable moments with him. He gave us a beautiful boxer named Oscar, which is an epic story in itself. He gave me a very special charm - a centuries-old Buddha encased in glass and gold. This, together with 108 baroque pearls became my very special mala. Now, some may argue that the components which I've chosen to become my meditation beads directly contrast with the essence of Buddhist philosophy. Does it really matter? All I see are gifts from the earth - beauty manifested. And they serve the purpose of enhancing the glorious experience of my meditations. It is a personal choice, a freedom which we all have.

I had journeyed through 40-day meditation programs with this mala, and it has helped me focus on the challenges at hand. The mantras which I've used when meditating with my mala are mantras I discovered through research. Thomas Ashley-Farrand is, in my opinion, the world's foremost authority on Vedic and Buddhist Sanskrit mantras. He has over 8,000 transliterated mantras, the most comprehensive body of these sacred sound syllables in the English language. Ashley-Farrand maintains that mantras are highly-evolved sound formulas which can influence the subtle energies around us and within us. He recommends to practice for 40 days, which is the traditional amount of time required to achieve the desired effects. It is also the recommended amount of time to establish a habit.

Mala Prayer Beads

Buddhist prayer beads, traditionally called malas, first developed as a religious tool on the Indian continent. "The use of beads in prayer appears to have originated with Hindu religious practices in India, possibly around the 8th century," writes the Museum of Anthropology at the University of Missouri. "B.C.E. Buddhism, which developed from a sect of Hindu culture, retained the use of prayer beads as it became established in China, Korea, Japan, and Tibet."

Most Buddhists normally utilize mala consisting of 108 beads, but the number may vary in different sects of Buddhism. Just like the Hindu variety, Buddhist mala consist of a strand of 108 beads (not including marker beads, decorative beads or guru bead), each a symbol of impurities and flaws that an individual must overcome.

The Buddha himself is believed to have instructed followers to utilize mala. "There is a Sutra (Buddhist Text aka. "thread of knowledge") in which a King prays to the Buddha for a simple practice to help ease his suffering from various difficulties and the Buddha responded by telling him to string 108 soapnut seeds and recite the three part refuge prayer upon them." The word mala, also referred to as jap mala, is derived from the Indian Sanskrit phrase for garland. The English word rosary, the western term for prayer beads, owes it's etymology to Roman miscommunication.

"When Roman explorers came into India and encountered the mala, they heard jap mala, and jap for the Romans meant 'rose,'' according to ReligionFacts.com. The word "rosary" eventually evolved from that translation as Romans carried the prayer bead concept back to the western world. (Courtesy of EHow)

http://www.buddhistmala.com/store/mantra.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_prayer_beads

Etymology

Bhavana derives from the word Bhava meaning becoming or the subjective process of arousing mental states. To explain the cultural context of the historical Buddha's employment of the term, Glenn Wallis emphasizes bhavana's sense of cultivation. He writes that a farmer performs bhavana when he or she prepares soil and plants a seed. Wallis infers the Buddha's intention with this term by emphasizing the terrain and focus on farming in northern India at the time in the following passage. "I imagine that when Gotama, the Buddha, chose this word to talk about meditation, he had in mind the ubiquitous farms and fields of his native India. Unlike our words 'meditation' or 'contemplation,' Gotama’s term is musty, rich, and verdant. It smells of the earth. The commonness of his chosen term suggests naturalness, everydayness, ordinariness. The term also suggests hope: no matter how fallow it has become, or damaged it may be, a field can always be cultivated — endlessly enhanced, enriched, developed — to produce a favorable and nourishing harvest." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhavana

Bhavana As Intentions

Deepak Chopra maintains that our intentions have infinite organizing power. And that all forces present in our world conspire to push our intentions to manifest into the physical plane. When we daydream of such delicious imaginings, we plant a seed on the plane of pure potentiality...the plane of existence where everything has the capability of being nurtured into full bloom, into fruition. But how do we nurture these dreams? It really depends on our belief systems. We pray or meditate or perform rituals and spells --- different paths to get to the destination. We each have our own personal set of tools, an arsenal if you will. I've used a combination of mantra meditations, dreambooks, 40-day disciplines, and bhavanas. I also use Reiki on my dreambooks, believing that the energy I direct onto my writings give my dreams extra nurturing. A wonderful friend of mine, a yogini, had shared with me the idea of bhavanas. She explained an exercise learned during her yoga intensives: the students were asked to write down and share with the class a few statements about themselves. Some statements had to be factual, and one statement had to describe an intended situation that they would like to manifest. All statements had to appear equally truthful and believable that the audience would not be able to detect which is the BHAVANA. Well, the results were nothing short of amazing as situations had evolved and the bhavanas became reality. Bhavanas...I had never heard of this concept until Sheryl shared it with me. What a gift and I am truly thankful.

Dreambook - 2012 Edition

I love the idea of fresh starts, new beginnings filled with such marvelous potential for growth in all areas of life. There is, of course, Health, Spiritual Advancement, the ever-popular Prosperity, Love, Friendships. What else could one want from this life, from this world? Well...with a world such as ours, there is so much more to enjoy. There is so much more to desire in order to enhance our lives with amazing experiences, and to share those experiences with family and friends. And it's all good. However, there is also the important duty and responsibility we have to help those with serious and heartbreaking challenges - humans and animals. Just my point-of-view...

I love the start of each New Year. I love Mondays, I love the first of every month. All have the promise of exciting new growth and the opportunity to design projects for self-development, and projects to help with issues close to one's heart. I can recall many, many lists I've made growing up. I yearned to improve myself physically and spiritually. I wanted to learn mantra meditations, rosicrucianism, quantum physics. I researched Reiki for years before finally being attuned by a Ramakrishna monk in the fall of 2009. I embarked on 40-day programs and challenges. I researched, learned, and experimented with feng shui. There was so much I wanted to learn and master. Dreambooks, to me, are like the five-year plan most of us are familiar with, filled with my resolutions to try harder and celebrate each day.

Except, my dream books have a lifespan of one year, being renewed and reinvented every January. Each new year is an opportunity to review progress and commitment to those goals. Each new year is filled with the promise of better life experiences. What could be more exciting?

Last year's Dreambook manifested countless blessings for which I am grateful. This year's Dreambook will focus on transitions, metamorphoses, evolutions...all in the interest of family. I have children now, after all. P.S. MAKE A WISH, CELEBRATE, HOPE are images from Papaya Art - https://www.papayaart.com/

DESIDERATA

Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be critical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass. Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy. © Max Ehrmann 1927

P.S. YOU ARE A MIRACLE is an image from Papaya Art - https://www.papayaart.com/

Hold Fast to Your Dreams - Langston Hughes

HOLD FAST TO YOUR DREAMS is an image from Papaya Art - https://www.papayaart.com/

I've had this feeling of wanderlust for quite some time now...obsessing on my (overseas) dream home for the past couple of years, seeing it slowly manifesting over the horizon. As we've all heard it said before, God is in the details. And so...slowly but surely, I am working out every single little detail in a workbook. What are my motivations? Family. Reinventing life as I know it. Pursuit of beauty. Dreaming is free and limitless so I might as well dream big, and dream big in vivid technicolor! As past experiences have shown, I've had many dreams come true. I don't believe this is a matter of luck but, rather, a matter of being in alignment energetically with my earthly desires. It is quite an exercise in positivity and gratefulness, being focused and unwavering in the midst of disenchantment and negativity. My workbook is heavily focused on designing La Casa in the style of Mediterranean Provinciale. I have a hope chest of sorts - actually, a hope storage unit which I am filling with bits and pieces of the future: beautiful gilded and floral patterned French china, Austrian china, hardware from Anthropologie, white embroidered linens and tablecloths, crocheted pieces, embroidered Peruvian throw pillow cases, Kohler sinks and faucets, antique crystal chandeliers, some painted furniture, Missoni bedsheets (yes, the Target incarnation!), etc. I realize I have a long way to go and must be diligent with my shopping list. It takes years to establish housekeeping, after all. Estimate date to ship all these via containerized shipping is 2014.

And up in the verdant hills of Tagaytay, I can fully visualize country living in modern spaces with big beautiful windows framing the ethereal views of the lake down below. And my big, beautiful windows will be full-length all the way to the coffered ceiling!

I love the idea of designing spaces in the style of Tricia Guild, and her bold aesthetic of combining exuberant shades in window dressing and wallpaper patterns. The effect is funky elegance, a style close and dear to my heart. Of course, I would elevate the funk quotient by installing Hello Kitty somewhere in a corner. But, that's just me.

Dwell in Possibility

DWELL IN POSSIBILITY is an image from Papaya Art - https://www.papayaart.com/

When I decided to purchase a piece of land in 2009, I didn't have a concrete plan in place to address the many issues and challenges that came with this...well...investment, for lack of a better term. How does one go about investing when one is unemployed? And I say, it was a decision made without even consulting my husband. He truly is a saint to have put up with this, LOL! A saint to have put up with his crazy wife's shenanigans...a wife who was unemployed when the purchase took place:) Come on! Trust in the universe once-in-a-while. You truly get what you ask for! Six months prior, I obsessed over this idea: our dream home high up in the hills, in front of this beautiful, famous lake which has a volcano in the middle. And within this volcano: another lake! Where IS this place, you might ask. Well, it isn't in California. After all, there are no volcanoes in California. It isn't in Hawaii, either. It is 16 hours away by plane plus two hours by car in a city called Tagaytay, outside Metropolitan Manila. This place has an otherworldly feel...like Shangri-la, island style! Because of the elevation, the climate is ideal for someone like me who has strict policies against sweating. There's plenty of rain for the beautifully amazing gardens that I will be planning very ambitiously. A cutting garden and a subversive plot. And what's a dream house without children? For now, I won't write about how the adoptions happened. I will mention one thing, though...hubby knows about it by now. And agrees, lucky me!

So...how did this all come about? We had a planned vacation and the stroll into Splendido Tagaytay's sales office took my dear hubby by surprise. Oh, yeah! By the way, honey, I forgot to tell you we're buying land today. And we have to build our dream house five years later. That should give me plenty of time to find a job. I won't write about the boring but gory details of how I sort-of convinced him it would be the best thing for our future. As I had mentioned before, he is a living saint. Okay, okay...so it's going to take some time to figure out the logistics. But, hey! I dwell in possibilities and have enough arrogance to expect all my dreams to manifest!

Lucid Dreaming

DREAMER is an image from Papaya Art - https://www.papayaart.com/

A lucid dream is any dream in which one is aware that one is dreaming. I've kept a dream book, off and on, for a few years now and believe in the validity of quantum physics and creative visualization as they relate to lucid dreaming. There's a lot of research published on the web with regards to the thought process during what we often refer to as "daydreaming". Thoughts are energy and have the power to affect our environment, our world. How was Rome built? Somebody had the idea. A better question: How did shopping centers/malls/outlets come about? Some phenomenal genius who truly understood women had the idea!

My first dream book was not a book at all. It was merely a list of things I wanted to accomplish, written down in a career-planning seminar at the fashion institute I attended. I still remember every item on that list. 1/Work in a small company to get an overview of business. 2/Work in a big company. 3/Work for a famous company. 4/Have my own company. I put this list away and found it years later, dumbfounded to see that the entire list had manifested without any conscious effort on my part.

The next list was made before I accepted a job transfer to Mexico. 1/ Get married. 2/Have my own business. 3/Be famous. Again...mission accomplished...in Mexico. And, again, without much effort on working towards those goals. I didn't even have a boyfriend when I moved to Mexico and, yes, I'm still married to the same man. The business had long since folded. And I did become famous, albeit in a small town. Seeing how easy it really is to manifest goals, I set about creating the proper dream book. I found an absolutely beautiful embroidered cloth-bound notebook at Anthropologie. Oh, I could wax poetic over this store for days...for weeks!!! I started my inspired writings in the early Spring of 2011. I wanted so many things...I wished for a million things. I wished for one very important goal that seemed to be so distant, so unattainable. To be a mother. I had no idea that I would be a mother X 3. More on this later...and, no, they are not triplets. An idea, spoken words...then committing it to paper. Such is the power of the written word. I hope these stories have been inspiring. As many friends and co-workers can attest, I am constantly spouting bits and pieces of my own personal experiences with lucid dreaming. We all have that potential to create our own realities, to design the life we desire, to achieve the goals that will enhance our time here on our lovely earth. We are all supernatural beings deserving of having every heart's desire. The one important rule I remind myself to follow is that I need to be specific. I once was so obsessed with getting an afro. I thought it would be so cool and would sit on my head fabulously and look a lot better than my own straight, damaged locks. Well, the universe sent me an afro indeed. But, it was on somebody else's head. Nevertheless, I had the pleasure of watching that afro for about a week while he repaired lighting in our building at work. I can also remember asking my husband for a Louis Vuitton luggage. He found one, serendipitously, at a flea market. Alas, it was a garment bag style and not the style I had in mind. Anyway, who's complaining? It was the real deal, lol! Be careful what you ask for, you ALWAYS get it. And don't forget to be specific.

Above are photographs of my latest dream book, and a few pages from within.

SOME OF THE FANTABULOUS PLACES I'VE WORKED IN

JUICY COUTURE (a division of LIZ CLAIBORNE) Arleta, California

RAMPAGE, Vernon, California

BCBG MAX AZRIA - labels: BCBGIRLS, BCBG MAX AZRIA, Vernon, California

JOIE - labels: JOIE, Soft, current/elliott, Vernon, California

TARRANT APPAREL GROUP - private labels, Puebla, Mexico and Los Angeles, California

ROMMEL MENSWEAR - labels: Rommel Menswear and Lolita, Los Angeles, California

GUESS? INC., Los Angeles, California

BABYSTYLE, Los Angeles, California

BLEU BLEU LLC - labels: GOA, A.GOLDIE, Los Angeles, California

B.B.DAKOTA, Newport Beach, California

Sharing 25 Random Notes About Me & No One Is Judging - from my Facebook page
Here I go...
1. I learned to ride a bicycle at 40, on the boardwalk during an entire summer's worth of weekends. It was a pink Hello Kitty Nirve and I was totally "Hello On Wheels"...thought I was bad, knew I was bad, yeah! I WAS BAAAAAAAD!!! And, yeah! At 40...which would be quite a few years from now...
2. When no one's looking, I pretend to be a Solid Gold dancer in front of the dogs --- one howls and the other barks like a maniac. I like that. And, yes, I do look like a Solid Gold dancer vixen...in pajamas and comfortable shoes, non-skid with velcro closures. Shoelaces can trip you when the moves involve acrobatics.
3. I am fluent in Spanish but only in the present tense. I will work on other tenses later. Or not. I am the boss of me, after all.
4. I moved to Mexico for a job and realized three major goals: find a good man, have my own business, become famous...okay, it was a small town but I became famous nonetheless.
5. My father never spanked me nor yelled at me. The worst he did was tell me he didn't like what I did. I miss him every day.
6. I won a national essay-writing competition at 10 writing about what makes people lonely. Wonder where I found material at such a young age...
7. I used to write volumes of poetry. Some real deep shit.
8. I can measure your body, draft a pattern, and sew up a couture gown in a weekend to make your old, aging dilapidated body,(for lack of a better word) look like a nubile young thang. Oh sorry, I was thinking of my own body.
9. I am cougar...hear me roar.
10. I was put in a remedial math class in the 8th grade after being "tested" dumb by the local parochial school. I later took the Math award in an advanced class, same year, and maintained advanced math classes throughout my scholastic career. I'm sure this knowledge has come in handy when I measure prototypes at work, especially t-shirts and scarves.
11. I miss my foster child (through Christian Children's Fund) Musembi Kioli from Kenya. I know he is well and that he has grown into a fine young cannibal. I mean, MAN. I was just remembering that great musical group from my days of wine and roses, at the same time. Don't judge me if I can multitask and you can't.
12. I have an insatiable curiosity for all things esoteric and the web is my best friend.
13. I don't like the number 13.
14. I was in a dance troupe in college and balanced candles on my head and the back of my hands while making like Poetry In Motion. I was the shit. Seriously.
15. I can do a mean hula dance thanks to taking years of lessons as a child.
16. I studied playing the piano for years in my youth. But, alas, my fingers (all ten of them) have developed a fatal allergy to ivory. All pachyderms to please take note and confine yourselves within 10 yards of the pachyderm pool.
17. I am a fiercely loyal friend and will remain so until you give me a reason why I shouldn't be. I treasure my friendships knowing good friends are few and far in between. You guys know who you are.
18. I can remember the names of childhood friends and classmates and even acquaintances from the distant past. Don't ask me about dates, though.
19. My mother-in-law taught me how to cook traditional Mexican dishes well...for a full year to make sure her son did not starve to death. I feed him In-N-Out when he's bad and Trader Joe's when he's good.
20. I was on my high school swim team even though I had a fear of deep water.
Deep fear of deep water.
21. I used to design fetish clothing and was friends with a popular L.A. dominatrix. I will continue to search the web for him.
22. I love the color whorefuschia...pink to the rest of you.
23. I am tattooed and looking forward to more. Maybe. It hurt like hell, so maybe not.
24. I am about to win the Mega Millions lottery and would like to advise all of you to be nice to me. Very, very nice to me.
25. I am proud of every single member of my family, each of whom has an IQ above room temperature in the tropics, during high summer, in an unventilated kitchen just before dinnertime.