Learn from the Butterfly

Maya Angelou

One of many countless words of wisdom from this remarkable woman who graced humanity with her powerful spirit. Thank you Maya Angelou for inspiring and moving us towards the light with your life's journey. 

I was so lucky to hear her speak at Ithaca commencement 1999. Very saddened to hear of her passing today....what an unbelievable human being.

Walt Whitman iPad inspiration

 Have you seen the recent out-of-this-world iPad commercial? Of course the Apple gurus of advertising have done it again and this mini masterpiece is breathtaking. It features a speech by Walt Whitman that Robin Williams’ character gives in Dead Poets Society. It's the last line that completely slays me. Enjoy.

O Me! O Life!
BY WALT WHITMAN
Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring,
Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish,
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d,
Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,
Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,
The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?
Answer.
That you are here—that life exists and identity,
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.

The Secret

I started reading the Secret today! I think it came out in 2006, and people have been Secreting for years after Oprah told us to, but I am FINALLY taking the plunge and already loving every page. 

And this. This is another lovely little image of the LEAP we must take! Take it! Go now go forth with good intent and LEAP! 

A Unicorn Leaning to Light

Today's post is dedicated to another warrior of light, a unicorn very dear to my heart who had a moment of sparkling in the city of frustration and wonder. 

Check out his sweet story about giving away some spring tulips on the express train to Queens HERE

Love you Miles!

Quotes of the Day

I absolutely love this one!

And this one....

And this. 

MMMMMmmmmm!

Have a wonderful day!!

Live for the Moment In the Moment

In honor of the American Cancer Society's 100 Anniversary I would like to direct you to a video that had gone viral over the past couple of months. Many of you may have already seen it, but if you haven't I dare you not to be uplifted, inspired, and lean to living IN the moment as much as possible. (it is still freezing in NYC so I am very bitter-pun intended-I also need to watch this again to put away my petty complaints.)

Zach Sobiech, at the age of 14, found out he had a rare form of terminal cancer. He made the absolute best of his last years on earth and basically became a rockstar. Before you watch this get under a blanket and have a box of tissues easily accessible. 

Here is the version of the song Zach wrote with a couple of well known faces:

 Please donate by clicking:

Zach's Children's Cancer Fund

Story of the Day-The Homeless Man Duel

 And who won the battle.

One of my best friends had written a recent post on his blog about

THE GIFT OF ACKNOWLEDGEMENT,

a sweet story about how we interact with homeless people on the subways and how acknowledging a stranger is a gift worth more than any coin.

On Friday I was on the subway to this particular friend's "spinning class birthday party". I didn't know these even existed, and this should tell you just how much I love this boy to do an hour of crazy cardio in his honor. I mean where are the gluten free cupcakes?? Don't worry we had one later to make up for the torture I mean, fierce workout, after which I had to admit was a pretty amazing experience.

His story immediately came to mind on my way to the spinning party as two homeless men entered the train on opposite ends of the car.  Now we get a lot of homeless in NYC but to have two on one car is truly special. Or scary. They entered both at once and started their monologues, overlapping each other:

"Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen if you could...I never thought I would be here...anything you can spare a nickel a...I'm 75 years old and hungry..."

Always sad and the natural reaction is to keep your head down and ignore because it happens so often and I mean we can't just give a coin to EVERY one of them can we? And who knows, they might just be taking that money to buy drugs right? (justify, justify...) Well instead as I thought of the gift of acknowledgement watched the scene intensely. I started to wonder who was going to win over the audience when surprisingly I hear Homeless #1 belt out to Homeless #2-
"Brother do you need some of my food?"

I was so moved by this! One person with so little giving to another with even less!

Homeless #2 replies:

"NAH I don't want that crap I don't know where it's been!!"

Oh my gosh. I started laughing and the whole exchange made me reach into my bag and literally scoop out the massive amount of change I carry with me every day and hand it over to...
drum roll please...

Homeless #1

As much as I appreciate humor, Homeless man #1 had such a sense of generosity I just HAD to be part of his pay it forward happening.

And what do you know?

My bag was...LIGHTER. By unloading my change, a weight was immediately lifted off my shoulders. :)

The Lean to Light Movement

As you can see my blog has gone though another transformation, but I think we have a winner with it's new title:

  

Lean to Light

I have new pages above to navigate and guide you though the site, and if you want to read more about the new concept click HERE.
Basically most things will fall into the categories of

Lightroom, Spotlight, Eating Light, 
Beauty Highlights, and my new favorite...
Giveaways!

I wanted to have more of a bloggy purpose but still have the entries come from a journalistic approach. Light will have many meanings, but overall it will be a metaphor for a lovely light movement towards a lovely light concept of good. Sound good?

Ok moving forward.

I mean, Leaning to light....

Resurrection

res·ur·rec·tion

[rez-uh-rek-shuhn] Show IPA (noun)

1. the act of rising from the dead.

2. the rising of Christ after His death and burial.

3. arising again, as from decay, disuse, etc.; revival.

Whatever your beliefs are, nature's springtime resurrection in all it's glory fills the heart as brown branches and soil regrow their hidden life within. It's pretty magical and I like the symbolism it presents every year. Rebirth, renewal, reawakening.

Here is some proof of God and Mother Nature's little miracles...coming to you from the streets of Jersey and the beautiful Liberty State Park.  

 As you can see a few lovely friends snuck into these pictures...We had some dear sweet visitors...Jim, Jon, Greg and Kristen. What fun to re-connect with them and show off our springy neighborhood!

We also saw Jesus Christ Superstar. (Act One ended the day we were seeing the show...around 2000 years ago.) It was an incredible performance.

and Leap of Faith. Is there a theme this week?

Jason is very excited about the construction FINALLY happening on the roof deck! Ok ok I am really excited too. ;)

Happy Easter to all!

Aint that the truth... in Chinese

I liked my fortune cookie today. 

That's all. Thank you for your time. :)

Inspired by perseverance and Jenny D! (D stands for Diva)

There are some people in this world that deserve perseverance as their middle name. And diva. So I guess Jen Caruana's new name would be Jen Perseverance Diva Caruana. Is it the fact that she is a good diva that makes her persevere? Or is it her perseverance that makes here a good diva? (I say good diva because it's like being a good witch. You have to put a good in front of it to make SURE everyone knows  you are a fabulous singer with none of the drama. Like a Glinda diva. Got it?) 

Anyways she gets the award in this category because she is still here and still singing. That's all it takes to get the award and you would think it would be an easy award to give out but looking around it's actually not.

 Jenny got a grant to sing a recital upstate and we all had the pleasure of hearing this girl sound absolutely fantastic at her dress rehearsal Friday night. She looked gorgeous AND she did a quick change. Now that's a great concert. Rehearsal. She's a good diva, her rehearsal WAS a concert!

The Good Diva. I feel a web series coming on...

I heart I heart I heart. We are missing someone though...

Definitely missing Beth here...we need another photo shoot ;)

Ithaca Forever

Miles kept repeating "my Momo!!" and rocking her back and forth. It was very funny and this is the only clear picture I have of the moment.

Beautiful San Francisco

I was taken away with San Francisco the other day. The weather was perfect, I had ten, yes, ten hours off the ship, and I hit the streets walking which I am utterly convinced is the best way to really get to know any city. Get ready for the barrage of pictures.

I took a left turn out of the port and came upon the fanciest of diners were I had clam chowder (with the clams still in their shell!) and cheddar biscuits with apple cinnamon butter spread.

I made another left out of the diner and came upon the loveliest of little parks...

Made another left, then a right, and came upon cascading flowers on the side of a street...

Another right and a staircase appeared through the flowers and lush green...

So naturally I climbed....

And climbed...

And climbed...

And climbed...

The view from the top...

But that was not high enough...

So I ascended a few more staircases to the Coit tower...

These Coit Tower murals were part of the Public Works of Art Project, the first of the New Deal federal employment programs for artists.

The Symphony and Alcatraz. Home, and glad it's not home. ;)

There a few days in life that are so perfect time seems to stand still. California has a way of doing that to me .

Between the sun, flowers, cottages on the side of a hill, an deco tower, local coffee houses, and a stuffed baked potato made for a very memorable Cali day.