Let you inhibitions go and have the bliss of a child!

Summertime Bliss: Monhegan Island, Maine

Over night visit to Monhegan with one of my best friends, her daughter and my cousin Lauren.
Though Saturday we were greeted by fog and heavy humidity, I was more than  elated to be back on Monhegan Island . It did not take long for all us girls to be hiking the trails and enjoying all that Monhegan has to offer. Amazing beauty, people, artisans, shops, and the unspoiled quaintness that I have never seen elsewhere in Maine.
You can feel the stress of daily life wash away the moment you step onto the ferry in Port Clyde for the hour long cruise to Monhegan. Suddenly through the fog was the rugged beauty of not only Monhegan but Manana her sister island, though quite barren in comparison to Monhegan still doesn't dissapoint in her beauty.
Spending this time with great friends,  family and a very engaging McKenna was lovely in every aspect. It was wonderful to wake early in the morning to venture out and take pictures with the most perfect morning light, fog lifting and sun filtering through along with the beginning flecks of blue sky. After breakfast we all headed to the lighthouse hiking up a hill in the very thick humid air . The view from atop the hill is really stunning. After some time we had time for one more hike, to the  Cathedral Woods to see the fairy houses, it was an easy hike on the hot and humid morning. The trees sheltered you from the real  intensity 
of the sun. This forrest was covered with moss, streams, bare roots, and Fairy houses, every where you looked creative little fairy houses that someone constructed in great detail. While others were merely minimal shelters for Monhegans fairies.
Being there even for the short time was shear bliss. Hoping to stay longer next year, one thing I know for certain is being on Monhegan for me will always be BLISS.

Question: Can a person find bliss in a long distance relationship (friendship)?

Answer : Absolutely , with a lot of understanding, patients,and looking at the situation realistically.

Time has a way of flying at rocket speed sometimes, not realizing just how many years Stephen and I have communicated from email, standard mail to phone calls. Over ten years, from the first email to the last in the past week. Still enjoy our emails.

Though, him and I are three thousand plus miles apart I still and always will consider him a dear friend.

I have, even with the distance between us come to love not only him but Jennifer his very amusing and lovely daughter.

Spent time gazing at his amazing photography, and getting some fantastic tips on how to become a better photographer.

Reading email after email about his life in Scotland his loves and dislikes.

We have gone through our times of not talking or corresponding for various reasons, I would not change a thing, you grow from the changes in the relationship, you have to. Life is a process, and it is up to us to decide how it impacts us.

Question:

Do I find bliss in our limited relationship?

Answer:

Pure Bliss

The happiest of all flowers

Question: Can you find bliss in a flower?
Answer: Yes, especially if you are thinking Sunflowers!
I love everything about sunflowers, the color, textures and how their glorious faces follow the sun.
 You know, God's natural sundial that has amazing accuracy ! 
When I think of sunflowers it congers up thoughts of one of my favorite movies, Under the Tuscan Sun. I love the beauty of Tuscany,rolling fields full of brilliant sunflowers, cypress trees standing guard of those fields of yellow.  The way of life, where family and food are equally important!
The motley group of men that lovingly work to restore the villa purchased on a whim, though turned out to be the best investment she ever made. From that run down villa she gained new friends, passion for cooking for others, sharing food, wine and great stories. And, the love of her life! She gets it all in the end.
If you have not seen the movie you should, it will transform you in many ways.
I wish I could live that life in Tuscany at times. Just the thought is blissful.


Arrivederci ed abbia un giorno beato! (Goodbye and have a blissful day!)

Still find the bliss of that day

The thought of August 3rd 2009 and being on Monhegan Island still is clear in my memory, I can only hope it is till the day my life ends. I spent only four amazing hours on the island. I was truly captivated by it's raw untouched beauty. It is as if you have stepped back in time. The pace  is slow, people are smiling, relaxed and lazily enjoying the island in their own way. Some are artisans , photographers, authors and everyday people all with the same mission. To savor every moment of this place,hiking its wooded trails to  the White Head witnessing the Atlantic and its cliffs dropping dramatically into the deep blue waters below. Knowing, that you are looking at the last landmass in America, looking toward Europe, and wondering for just a brief moment in time who may be on the other side looking back to America. The thought is blissful.

I have always loved sunrise

this is why I chose to take and early morning trek to Bar Harbor last summer to get the  morning light in hopes of taking some really awesome photos.

 Acadia was quite and peaceful when we arrived to catch the first rays of the morning light atop Cadillac Mt. Much to my surprise there were only a few people on the summit.  Sunrise that morning was gorgeous, pinks, violets, blues and golds.. It is very humbling to be there, to see the Atlantic before you. To see the stunning islands that dot the bay.

Sunrise,warmth of the summer morning, all the beauty around you leaves you speechless. You know there is indeed a God. He was kind to this place, blessing us here in Maine with an unspoiled place where we can witness a sunrise atop a mountain, enjoying the quite stillness of this morning.

And, bliss

Summer is so fleeting, before we know it summer is gone. I was watching this young girl and the boy she was with contemplate using the rope that was tethered to the tree to jump into the very cold lake. He, swung over the lake not daring to let go and experience the shock of the cold water below .

She didn't put much thought into letting go of the knotted rope she was fiercely  swinging from and, enjoying that splash into the cold water of the lake. Did she repeat the swing from the rope?

Yes she did with great joy.. With bliss.

Finding your childhood bliss again

Try to remember your childhood and the carefree days of summer. The days when just being with friends running, biking, listening to your favorite music was more than enough.

It can be hard as adults to find time to revisit the joy of those days. We have so much cluttering our life with family, work , bills, and all the obligations life holds.

It is important to take time for ourselves, even if to listen to great music that congers memories of times long passed. Closing your eyes and allowing your memories to carry you back to that time when you were running with friends. Laughing at nothing but the bliss of running and just being with friends.

Ah, blissful times, memories that we own and cannot be taken away unless we choose to let them go. Find that bliss .

Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy - Anne Frank, Diary of a Young Girl

Some time you can find happiness or bliss in the most simple things, like a bubble. We sat on the deck laughing, enjoying the simplicity of it all. Blowing bubbles for the dogs to chase. I was able to catch a random bubble that the corgi and pug didn't devour. Bubbles floating so casually thru the air, life reflecting in them. I was able to catch part of my life in one of the lone bubbles drifting softly through the early summer sunshine and warmth. I think as adults maybe we need to blow more bubbles as if we have not a care in the world. Letting the stresses we endure slowly drift away like bubbles. In fact I recently read an article on Bubble Battles http://www.newmindspace.com/bubblebattlenyc2010.php

What could be more fun than people blowing bubbles in battle.. Maybe we should fight our battles whether in our life on in the battlefield with bubbles..

Just a thought,a blissful thought at that.

Once upon a time... Innocent Bliss

My flashback to 1982 and one of the best summers of my life. I was working at a local retail store when I met him. I saw this mustache move past me at a rather fast rate. I was talking to my then manager, not looking at him but rather the adorable mustached man walking at lightening speed. He caught not only my eye but my heart all in a mere second of first site.

We spent most of the summer together spending time with friends, new friends Joanne and Siamak. Days at the beach, Bar Harbor, Camden and Greenville. It was really a time of little responsibilities and lots of free time to share with friends. The sky was never bluer, the sun never brighter. Nights never starrier and breezes never warmer. But, like summer each year it ended. But, my memories of that summer, those friends and a very sweet sensitive and humorous man have weaved in and out of my life in such wonderful snapshots in my memory. Though time has taken us all down different paths I wish nothing but happiness and good health to them all. I recently found that boy of the summer of 1982. Happy in his life, you can see it in his face. And, nothing would make this girl of 1982 any happier.

Now that is blissful!

Blissful July

Bliss: Complete happiness

I am determined to have bliss in my life! We decide everyday when our feet hit the floor first thing in the morning what the day will hold for us. If we are negative it will draw negativity to us Arise with a positive outlook on the day and that will be exactly what you will get.

Now, nobody has the perfect day where everything goes to our liking but, in these days finding bliss in each day is so very important. It can be the perfect cup of coffee to start your day.

Sun streaming into your bedroom to awaken you, birds singing . Just taking time each day to be grateful for what we have, making the best with what we have and be so happy with that. I am so very grateful for each day that God has given me. It may not be a perfect day by most people's standards. But, to me it is shear bliss.