Mr & Mrs Quillen (Yes, I am Suzi~Q, FOR REAL!!)

December 9, 2012.

Jeff: With faith, honesty and love, I choose you to be my wife. 

Suzi: With faith, honesty and love, I choose you to be my husband. 

Jeff: Every day, I fall more in love with you Suzi, and the life we are building together.

Suzi: I promise to be your lover, your companion (your fishing buddy) and your best friend for the rest of my life. 

Jeff: I promise to love you and cherish you through whatever life may bring us.

Suzi: I promise to stand steadfast at your side, our hands, hearts and lives intertwined. 

Jeff: I am amazingly blessed to have found my deepest and truest love with you.
Today, with the greatest joy, I commit my life to yours.
I give you this ring, as symbol of my love and devotion; wear it with love and joy.

Suzi: I am amazingly blessed to have found my deepest and truest love with you. 
Today, with the greatest joy, I commit my life to yours.
I give you this ring, as symbol of my love and devotion; wear it with love and joy.

If Money Wasn't an Obstacle

I friend recently asked me to write an article about what I would do if I won the lottery.

My first thought was ... "Well, that'd be a good trick, since I've never bought a lottery ticket in my entire life!"

So, I sat back with the idea to think for a while.

After some mulling and pondering, I decided, that for the purpose of this article, it really doesn't matter how one might randomly come into a large windfall; could be inheritance, or the lottery, or some other form of gambling, or an investment pays off in a huge way.

It seemed to me that the question really is, "What would you do if you suddenly had a ridiculously large sum of money that you did not have to earn?"

What would YOU do??

Me, being the ever practical one, I would first pay off the few small debts that remain, reminding me of harder times and difficult choices. I would buy that little truck I want (cause my cute little car just doesn't like the dirt roads I find myself driving on!) Next, I would decide where I want to live (Carmel-By-The-Sea beckons to me!), I would find my perfect little Anne Cottage and buy it. I would take a very large portion of the balance and invest it solidly in something that has a return I can live off of. If I work, I want to work for my heart sake!

THEN ...

Would I quit my job? I dont think I would stop working altogether, but I think I would seek out a position that really made my heart happy! I loved working in the clinic! I loved helping people be healthy! I might go back to school and build on some of my nurturing skills!  Perhaps I might put more focus on life coaching, or nutritional guidance, or something in that realm. Perhaps put more focus on my art, and my writing.

I would LIVE! I would grow a garden with beautiful flowers and food that I could share with others! I would drive around visiting people, and sharing the harvest of my garden, and  making them laugh and smile! And write inspiring words to share with others!

I would travel! I would visit my grandson, and take him on adventures! I would see the world, and visit new people and make new friends and write blog articles about it!


I would share my love of my family and my friends and have them over for tea.


I would sew more, and crochet more, and knit more.


I would read more.

I would take pictures, and send hand written letters, and cook beautiful delicious fresh food!

I would play with babies, and go to the beach!

I would infuse my life with live music, and sing! Take more voice lessons, and relearn to play my clarinet. Go to the symphony and the opera, and the theater, and rock concerts, and my friend's kids school concerts!

I would do yoga at the beach, and on mountain peaks! And listen to the music of the earth!

I would make snow angles, and marvel at the quiet stillness of a icy winter morning.

I would dance, and laugh, and go to the fair, and drive to see my out of state family.

WOW! LOL! I already do these things (except travel the world!), but I would be able to do them on a much grander scale! I would be able to make them the FOCUS of my life, instead of them being simply delightful things that I manage to tuck into the spaces left between my work hours!


It is an art form to just simply ...

LIVE, well!
Love, Suzi~Q

Beauty Walks (a poem I wrote several years ago)

Beauty

Walks gently

Inhaling

The delicious scent of the forest.

Gathering

The drops of pearl that blossomed

Safely

Guarded by the majesty of the mountain itself

Wrapped

In the comforting shelter of the trees.

Sitting

Very still and very quiet

Hesitant

To move, for the dream might end.

Timid

To speak, for the sound would shatter the serine and beautiful silence.

Afraid

To exhale for the movement of air is enough to scatter the birds from the trees.

Watching

The dawn unfold in glowing brilliance

Marveling

In awe and wonder, so as not to disrupt the magic.

Slow down, but Don't Stop Moving!

I have been hiking a few times this summer! Yeah! I love hiking, and really haven't done much of it in the previous couple years.  A childhood friend and her husband are avid hikers, so it has really been great! We also go to yoga together sometimes.

We have come up with a super fun hiking tradition! We do a yoga pose together at the trail end before heading back! =) The we post it on Facebook!

Still quite a bit of snow in the sub-alpine lakes in the north Cascade range in June, so we were not able to hike around Lake 22, but it was great fun!

I haven't been able to hike or even work out for several weeks because my hip has been giving me issues, but i am scheduled to start my injection treatments tomorrow, so I will be in hiking shape again SOON! Might even be ready for a gentle, easy, hike on Saturday =) If I don't go check out one of our local small community fairs! Most likely, I'll end up working Saturday ;)

Perhaps I'll go to the fair with a co-worker on Sunday, and I'll photograph her children! I have a family portrait session scheduled for Thursday that I'm excited about!

So, I'm staying active, even though I cannot WORK OUT at the moment. Keeping moving, and watching what I eat since I'm not burning as many calories. I'll be back on track again in a short while.

Holding Hands with a Dragonfly

I stepped outside for lunch, and a co-worker pointed to the sidewalk. Sitting there in the sun was a dragonfly!

Not wanting it to get stepped on, I put my hand near it ... and it walked right up onto my fingers!!

It was SO beautiful with all of it's luminescent colors. I was in awe of this moment, watching this beautiful creature resting in my hand so authentically and trustingly!

I decided to set it safely in the grass, but it did not seem to want to leave me, so we spent a few more minutes together, just looking at each other. I was finally able to get it to walk off my fingers and onto the grass.

With that, I then started thinking of the significance of this amazing and rare interaction and connection! My higher power (G.U.S.) seemed to be sending me a message in a treasured moment!

To broaden the significance, I borrow the following from The Dragonfly Site to help explain what message G.U.S. may have been trying to remind me of!

Symbolisms of the Dragonfly

• Maturity and a Depth of character
  The dragonfly, in almost every part of the world symbolizes change and change in the perspective of self realization; and the kind of change that has its source in mental and emotional maturity and the understanding of the deeper meaning of life.
  
  The traditional association of Dragonflies with water also gives rise to this meaning to this amazing insect. The Dragonfly’s scurrying flight across water represents an act of going beyond what’s on the surface and looking into the deeper implications and aspects of life.

• Power and Poise
  The dragonfly’s agile flight and its ability to move in all six directions exude a sense of power and poise - something that comes only with age and maturity.
  The dragonfly can move at an amazing 45 miles an hour,  hover like a helicopter fly backwards like a hummingbird, fly straight up, down and on either side. What is mind blowing is the fact that it can do this while flapping its wings a mere 30 times a minute while mosquitoes and houseflies need to flap their wings 600 and 1000 times a minute respectively.
  
  The awe inspiring aspect is how the dragonfly accomplishes its objectives with utmost simplicity, effectiveness and well, if you look at proportions, with 20 times as much power in each of its wing strokes when compared to the other insects.  The best part is that the dragonfly does it with elegance and grace that can be compared to a veteran ballet dancer. If this is not a brazen, lazy, overkill in terms of display of raw power, what is?

• Defeat of Self Created Illusions
  The dragonfly exhibits iridescence both on its wings as well as on its body. Iridescence is the property of an object to show itself in different colors depending on the angle and polarization of light falling on it.
  
  This property is seen and believed as the end of one’s self created illusions and a clear vision into the realities of life. The magical property of iridescence is also associated with the discovery of one’s own abilities by unmasking the real self and removing the doubts one casts on his/her own sense of identity. This again indirectly means self discovery and removal of inhibitions.

• Focus on living ‘IN’ the moment
  The dragonfly normally lives most of its life as a nymph or an immature. It flies only for a fraction of its life and usually not more than a few months. This adult dragonfly does it all in these few months and leaves nothing to be desired. This style of life symbolizes and exemplifies the virtue of living IN the moment and living life to the fullest. By living in the moment you are aware of who you are, where you are, what you are doing, what you want, what you don’t and make informed choices on a moment-to-moment basis.
  
  This ability lets you live your life without regrets like the great dragonfly.

• The opening of one’s eyes
  The eyes of the dragonfly are one of the most amazing and awe inspiring sights. Given almost 80% of the insect’s brain power is dedicated to its sight and the fact that it can see in all 360 degrees around it, it symbolizes the uninhibited vision of the mind and the ability to see beyond the limitations of the human self. It also in a manner of speaking symbolizes a man/woman’s rising from materialism to be able to see beyond the mundane into the vastness that is really our Universe, and our own minds. 

Love and Peace to you as you move forward in your quest to
Live Well!
Love,
Suzi~Q