Happy Holidays: Peace & Love to All...

"Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love!" Hamilton Wright Mabie 

"Sending Best Wishes for the Holidays to You and Yours!"

RIP Teena Marie (March 5, 1956 – December 26, 2010): Below She sings Fire & Desire with Rick James Also linked here: FIRE & DESIRE
She will be sorely missed. A gifted singer from the great days of R&B with the best...

A Thought ...

Dear Santa,

My wish for the coming year is more goodwill and abundance in the world and less misery and scarcity!

Please don't mix these two up like you did last year!

...

Merry Christmas!

Happy Holidays!

Buone vacanze!

Joyeuses Fêtes!

ハッピーバカンス！

节日快乐！

أعيادا سعيدة!

С праздником!
С Рождеством Христовым!

تعطیلات مبارک!

हैप्पी छुट्टियाँ!

¡Felices Fiestas!

גליקלעך האָלידייַס!

Շնորհավոր Տոն!

Boas festas!

Happy Holidays everyone and thank you for your visits and comments!

Thanks for all the wonderful support...

Until Next Time…

Ask. Believe. Receive.©

Elizabeth Obih-Frank

Mirth and Motivation

Positive Kismet

To Whom It May Concern: You are Beautiful

"Accept your own beauty. You are beautiful no matter what your mind tells you. That is a fact. If you are aware of your own beauty and accept your own beauty, the opinion of others doesn't affect you at all." don Miguel Ruiz

The gardens at Omega in Rhinebeck, NY

We live in a world where external beauty is often placed on a pedestal while inner beauty, truth and morality are not as appreciated. Today, I invite you to consider yourself beautiful for all the special ways you honor those around you and for all the things you do to keep your life vibrant. Do you think you are not beautiful? Why? Who has interrupted your ability to express who you truly are? You are beautiful...

BEAUTY by Charles Baudelaire
I AM as lovely as a dream in stone,
And this my heart where each finds death in turn,
Inspires the poet with a love as lone
As clay eternal and as taciturn.

Swan-white of heart, a sphinx no mortal knows,
My throne is in the heaven's azure deep;
I hate all movements that disturb my pose,
I smile not ever, neither do I weep.

Before my monumental attitudes,
That breathe a soul into the plastic arts,
My poets pray in austere studious moods,

For I, to fold enchantment round their hearts,
Have pools of light where beauty flames and dies,
The placid mirrors of my luminous eyes.

We can't afford to enter the New Year with this mentality of being less than the perfect child of God we truly are... Below I have added a few more notes and poems to jug our memories and remind us why we are cherished and beautiful regardless of what others think or say...

In Photos: Seven Reasons Summer Season is a Favorite…

"A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken."  - James Dent

 FLOWERS

Highline Park Flowers...

 GOOD MOOD FOOD

Chocolate chip cherry vanilla ice cream

Summer always seems to breeze in quickly and fade away before we have time to properly bid it adieu. When I saw Red Riter's prompt, I was amused and then thought, why not? We write about Autumn in fall and winter in December and on... Why not mix it up and revisit a season we love and reminisce a bit.

What do we like about summer? What do you look forward to doing in the summer? Walk with me down memory lane... Yes, I know we are about to embark on a few long months of winter weather here on the East coast.  Even as some of us escape to Florida or a sunny island or two, most of us will stay behind and brave the dropping temperatures... brrr. Before we go traipsing into the sunset of a summer day, let's remember: Do bundle up; it's still cold season!



For this week's Tell The Truth Thursday prompt, Red Riter offers a great question:
What was/is your most favorite season?

Don't get me wrong, I do love winter wear but there are more things I love about the summer time... First off,  it Shifts my Mood, puts a smile on my face and puts a spring in my step. Then there is the Weather, Food, Fruits, Flowers, Outdoors, and Travel.... Join me below for some more photographic reminders of good ole summer time... Think chocolate cherry vanilla ice cream!



On another wonderful note, Alysha of SupermomAlysha blog has graciously chosen Positive Kismet as the super blogger of the week for her Friend Finding Fridays blog hop. Yippee and Thank You! Alysha randomly selects a blogger from the previous week's blog hopper list and features them on her blog hop.
By now, you should know that blog hops are the non-secret, number one way to build connections, comments and a following on the blogger platform. Join the fun, add your blog to her page, follow as many other bloggers as you wish; almost all return the favor... Don't forget to leave a comment as Google doesn't notify any of us when a new follower joins our blog. :-)

Phenomenal Quotes to Take into the New Year

♥♥♥“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won’t feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” Attributed to Nelson Mandela's Inaugural Speech and via Marianne Williamson

Quotes are like bright sunflowers, adding color and wit to our day

What's your favorite quote, and why?
I regularly add quotes from all over the planet to both of my blogs, here and here, and I enjoy finding new ones to add and learn from. I do love quotes because they express, succinctly, much wisdom about the human condition. When I recently re-read the blog prompt above from Wordpress' Plinky, I thought it would be impossible to find one quote that tops them all; even one quote that embodies all the powerful wisdom that I find in quotes.

I started sifting through my blogs and added several below. I added the quote above because it has always resonated powerfully with me and encapsulates every thought, word of wisdom, and encouraging advice we can share with each other... What do you think of that long quote above? There are more...

I must confess that I do have favorite authors/poets/mystics that I reference more often than others. People like Kahlil Gibran, Rumi, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Martin Luther King Jr, Eleanor Roosevelt, and a handful of others. But I am hard-pressed to say, this one or that one tops them all. Below, I have added several that I love. Add yours to the list and start the year with some wise words... The New Year awaits.

Be Bold As Love...

“All good fortune is a gift of the gods, and you don't win the favor of the ancient gods by being good, but by being bold.” Anita Brookner

Elephant driver bathing with his owner

This week, we have single words as prompts for our Writer’s Workshop exercise. I love the idea of running wild with a single word and finding an organic way to make meaning of that word. What does the word mean to you? What images come to mind? What ideas are prompted when you think of this word?

The word I chose from the list is BOLD. I like the idea of "bold" especially as we wrap up a rather strenuous year. I want 2011 to be my year of embracing the bolder me; going for the gold, maximizing my potential, and enjoying the abundance that comes from acting with faith and boldness. What are you planning to do in 2011? What word would you like to take with you into the New Year?



This Week’s Prompts:
This week I want you to write a post inspired entirely by one of these words:
1.) Simple.
2.) Angst.
3.) Excruciating.
4.) Enchanted.
5.) Bold.

As I mulled over the word, I was reminded that we act boldly when we are in love or when we are defending loved ones. Right? How many times have you spoken up, acted fiercely when your loved ones were being challenged? We go to bat for them because love is bold and often fearless. We take great chances for love when we connect with another soul and it takes patience and boldness to keep up with our children during their growing years.

So why, for some of us, doesn’t this boldness translate into other areas of our lives? We need to be bold as love in other areas of life especially when it comes to personal growth. No? How are you planning to go bold in 2011? I offer more thoughts and music on the subject below…