Gaia: JOY SOULutions: Enjoy, Share & Inspire - JOY for JOY ITSELF

What Draws Us Together? - First Love, Foremost HUMOR & JOY :)

http://joybringer.gaia.com — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 18:09:52 GMT

What actually doesn't? I think/feel ANYTHING And EVERYTHING connects us & brings us together. But if I had to list what really makes the difference beside LOVE that would be HUMOR AND JOY. Our ability to smile, laugh & not take ourselves so seriously. Find the positive & funny even in the gloomiest places, darkest times & most miserable people. And do it with a contagious laughter, positive attitude & pronoic actions that transforms everything. Yes? :)

ufo alien joke

"Humor is one of the most serious tools we have for dealing with impossible situations." ~ Erica Jong ~

"The most wasted of all days is one without laughter."

~ E.E. Cummings ~

"JOY is not in things, it is in us."

~ Benjamin Franklin ~

Evoman

Re: The Best Makeup :)

http://joybringer.gaia.com — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 17:42:40 GMT

That is why I don't need/use makeup :)

D a r i n a (dressing up her mind & more... :)

Joy is the best makeup.

—Anne Lamott

Re: Bring Joy NOW :)

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 12:55:23 GMT

Just sharing a little gift specially for my fellow joy bringers!

http://sherrilene.gaia.com/blog/2008/3/for_the_new_season_and_everyday_that_is_beyond

Love and hyperenthusiasm for living!

Sherrilene

Re: Bring Joy NOW :)

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 12:09:23 GMT

Boy! Have you made my day! Thanks a lot! Don't you love that the world's getting smaller? I sure do. Seems like I've waiting for this for a long time!

Much love, Sherrilene

Re: Bring Joy NOW :)

http://kathysmith.gaia.com — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 10:30:03 GMT

Life is a bunch of NOWs. We might as well come up to present time and really be here NOW as this is where all of your answers come easier rather than being stuck somewhere on the time track of the yesterdays. When I started doing this, doors opened and I had a lot more to do. I did find on a very analytical level that the mind is a 100% operating computer with the right answers that come much more easier with the now. It seems to give wrong answers if stuck in the past trying to figure-figure from a stuck viewpoint or false data. If I don't have data on a subject it is much easier to get the solution by finding the right materials from the point of now. That is just my viewpoint but NOW does work. Personally, I feel it can help bring about world peace.

Re: Bring Joy NOW :)

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 09:42:28 GMT

If not now when?

I love the idea to bring joy NOW

And yes the poets alway know how to bring out the point with a few words.

Here I want to add:

'Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time. '
Thomas Merton

He must mean: Finding ourselves and losing ourselves in joy.

Re: The Joy of Ideas and Metaphors

http://joybringer.gaia.com — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 19:26:41 GMT

I invite you to find some Joy in Ideas worth sharing through the latest & most inspiring @TED2008 and also to find, create and share some simple and beautiful metaphors of your own or your favorite authors at MetaphorSky.com. I think/feel you may enJoy both.

A new and unique event and opportunity TODAY is the ability to join a global audience and watch online as the 2008 TED Prize winners, Dave Eggers, Neil Turok and Karen Armstrong, share their inspiring visions, followed by the moving and infectious music of Vusi Mahlasela. ("It will be an evening of big ideas, bold plans and audacious wishes -- and you'll hear ways to help grant their wishes right away!", the organizers believe)
Click here for the live feed, Thursday, February 28, starting at 5:15pm US/Pacific time, 8:15 EST

Watch also an astonishing sneak preview of Microsoft's new WorldWide Telescope --
a technology that combines feeds from satellites and telescopes all over the world and the heavens, and builds a comprehensive view of our universe. Download this TEDTalk in high-def >> (Recorded February 2008 in Monterey, California. Duration: 06:48.)
"Why do I believe that it is transformative? It enables you to experience the universe. You can tour it, with astronomers as your guides. It will enable a new generation of stories and storytellers." - Astronomer Roy Gould, while previewing Microsoft's World Wide Telescope (WWT). (The WWT is not live yet -- it's announced for sometimes later in the Spring
and will be free for downloading -- but a couple of promo videoclips and background information can be found here.)

The amazing series of photos of Chris Jordan examine the "Intolerable beauty"
of the vast amounts of stuff we make and consume, from mountains of discarded cell phones and electronic waste to skyscrapers of containers or crushed cars in a unique and provoking way. And his zoomable Womens' breasts images from Barbie dolls are one-of-a-kind...

For more live feeds and interesting perspectives - find out who else is blogging about TED beside ~C4, Albert, me and all of us Gaia's - WE...

And from all these innovative ideas - how about channeling the energy into our very own METAPHORS? Thanks to Jim who started this wonderful idea, vision & web site MetaphorSky.com. Feel free to submit your metaphor/s on any subject, theme or inspiration. Here are several that I submitted to get your creative juices flowing...

"We walk in beauty and we blossom in wisdom, we swim in truth and we fly in joy."
"Perfect heart storm during soul season. Best is yet to hit me."
Source: ~ Darina S., Surprise Inspirations

"In your light I learn how to love In your beauty how to make poems.
You dance inside my chest Where no one sees you, And that sight becomes this art."
Source: Essential Rumi

"I am your harp. You strike your plectrum on every part of my body."
Source: Forbidden Rumi

"When I stop speaking, this poem will close and open its silent wings."
Source: Rumi The Book of Love

"Love is a magician. Everything it touches turns into itself."
Source: Pamela Wilson

"Who speaks, sows; Who listens, reaps."
Source: Argentine Proverb

"The Soul should always stand ajar."
Source: Emily Dickinson

Off to Ask more Big Questions, add more metaphors,
run my TED Miro player & get ready for the inspired action.

Hope that you will join me virtually too.

Pronoic Inspired & Grateful
Metaphorian TEDster,
D a r i n a :)

TED2008 Time again, Encyclopedia of Life & more

http://joybringer.gaia.com — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 05:02:55 GMT

TOO much happening for GOOD these days - hence the need for attention AND action on several fronts, planes and sites of interaction.

Starting with the long awaited opening of the sold out TED 2008, co-hosted in Monteray & Aspen. As ~C4 shared in his blog: "thanks to the Net, I (we) could partake of the excitement and the ideas generated by conferences. TED 2008 holds a special place in my mind and heart because this conference will step beyond the realm of science and technology and plunge into the realm of philosophy."

Yes, it is one of the favorite virtual events of the year for me too and I also have a dream vision of being a presenter at one of the next iterations, so let's watch our dreams coming true on the strength of Pronoia soon :) It is good news that there are some members of Gaia & II like Robb S mith that will be there live, integrally present & hopefully sharing feedback, insights & behind the scenes ideas.

This year's program & format are changing & innovative as expected. The questions and presenters big and inspiring as always. And the excitement and buzz are deservedly rising each day, month & year. From the uniquely colored recycled gift bags to the cool IDEO little question-asking widget (that even we can donwload - I just did) - each detail & person brings & shares new ideas & ways to think, make & interact - that's why WE love TED, yes?

Some of the exciting events happening on the first day are unveiling of the Kluster.com (community intelligence in action) & Encyclopedia of LiFE (EOL.org)

Kluster.com, a startup in Burlington, Vermont, will unveil a site — now in beta — that encourages people to submit their problems, then encourages members of its community to offer up solutions. Each idea is discussed, refined, resubmitted, and reassessed. In the end, solutions are rated and ranked, with credit allocated accordingly. At some point, the founders promise, Kluster credits will be convertible to cash.

The first 30,000 pages of an online "Encyclopedia of Life" — what its designers hope will become the most comprehensive catalogue of all 1.8 million known species — is scheduled to be unveiled today and is expected to have "a profound and creative effect" on science.

On a related frequency and issue, let me remind us that today is the last day when we have a chance to VOTE for the final 10 BIG Questions to be discussed during Conversations Week (March 24-30, 2008)

Off to Ask more Big Questions, VOTE for the 10 Biggest Ones, run my TED Miro player & get ready for the inspired action,

Pronoic TEDster,
D a r i n a :)

Re: Celebration of The Harp - Beauty in Poetry, Music, Nature

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 07:31:53 GMT

Wow never knew that much about the harp. It sure is a wonderful instrument. I loved the story.

Bring Joy NOW :)

http://joybringer.gaia.com — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 23:03:33 GMT

“And the true realism, always and everywhere, is that of the poets: to find out where joy resides, and give it a voice far beyond singing. For to miss the joy is to miss all.”

~ Robert Louis Stevenson

No way to miss it

It sprouts amid the darkest

Irrepressible Joy

D :)

Tales of Passion & Humor ~ Isabel Allende & "Dangers of Blogging"

http://joybringer.gaia.com — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 00:42:07 GMT

TED continues to inspire, delight & surprise in sooo many ways.

I want to share 2 Unmissable TED Talks & Tales of Passion AND Humor, each in their own unique moving, powerful and seriously funny way. Enjoy & share the tears, the laughter AND the impact...

In one of the most beloved talks from TED2007, novelist Isabel Allende talks about writing, women, passion, feminism. She tells the stories of powerful women she has known, some larger-than-life (listen for a beauty tip from Sophia Loren), and some simply living with grace, dignity and ingenuity in a world that, in too many ways, still treats women unjustly.

TALES OF PASSION ~ Isabel Allende Duration: 18:02

Investor and prankster Yossi Vardi delivers a careful lecture on the dangers of blogging. Specifically, um, for men.

"DANGERS OF BLOGGING" ~ Yossi Vardi Duration: 6:15

NOW Take Joy, Passion AND Action a/st global AND local warming, not only at 4 am... :)

Celebration of The Harp - Beauty in Poetry, Music, Nature

http://joybringer.gaia.com — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 03:23:16 GMT

This a Celebration of the Harp as the symbol of ultra-natural beauty flowing the music of infinity. I invite you to taste, listen, savor & enjoy a compilation of a Taoist Tale, several poems of Ralph Waldo Emerson with commentaries from C.A. Cavanaugh & several inspiring images & musical masterpie, musical, ces...

I also suggest that you listen to some harp music if possible. Here are 3 of my favorites:

1. The out-of-this world music of Hillary Stagg - any of his albums, esp, the last one - Tribute
2. The Mystic Harp - Derek Bell, music in the Celtic tradition
3. The Healing Harp - Naoko Yoshino, music mostly in the classical tradition

Taoist tale of the Taming of the Harp

"Once in the hoary ages in the Ravine of Lungmen stood a Kiri tree, a veritable king of the forest. It reared its head to talk to the stars; its roots struck deep into the earth, mingling their bronzed coils with those of the silver dragon that slept beneath. And it came to pass that a mighty wizard made of this tree a wondrous harp, whose stubborn spirit should be tamed but by the greatest of musicians. For long the instrument was treasured by the Emperor of China, but all in vain were the efforts of those who in turn tried to draw melody from its strings. In response to their utmost strivings there came from the harp but harsh notes of disdain, ill-according with the songs they fain would sing. The harp refused to recognize a master.

At last came Peiwoh, the prince of harpists. With tender hand he caressed the harp as one might seek to soothe an unruly horse, and softly touched the chords. He sang of nature and the seasons, of high mountains and flowing waters, and all the memories of the tree awoke! Once more the sweet breath of spring played amidst its branches. The young cataracts, as they danced down the ravine, laughed to the budding flowers. Anon were heard the dreamy voices of summer with its myriad insects, the gentle pattering of rain, the wail of the cuckoo. Hark! a tiger roars,--the valley answers again. It is autumn; in the desert night, sharp like a sword gleams the moon upon the frosted grass. Now winter reigns, and through the snow-filled air swirl flocks of swans and rattling hailstones beat upon the boughs with fierce delight.

Then Peiwoh changed the key and sang of love. The forest swayed like an ardent swain deep lost in thought. On high, like a haughty maiden, swept a cloud bright and fair; but passing, trailed long shadows on the ground, black like despair. Again the mode was changed; Peiwoh sang of war, of clashing steel and trampling steeds. And in the harp arose the tempest of Lungmen, the dragon rode the lightning, the thundering avalanche crashed through the hills. In ecstasy the Celestial monarch asked Peiwoh wherein lay the secret of his victory. "Sire," he replied, "others have failed because they sang but of themselves. I left the harp to choose its theme, and knew not truly whether the harp had been Peiwoh or Peiwoh were the harp."

This story well illustrates the mystery of art appreciation. The masterpiece is a symphony played upon our finest feelings. True art is Peiwoh, and we - the harp of Lungmen. At the magic touch of the beautiful the secret chords of our being are awakened, we vibrate and thrill in response to its call. Mind speaks to mind. We listen to the unspoken, we gaze upon the unseen. The master calls forth notes we know not of. Memories long forgotten all come back to us with a new significance. Hopes stifled by fear, yearnings that we dare not recognise, stand forth in new glory. Our mind is the canvas on which the artists lay their colour; their pigments are our emotions; their chiaroscuro the light of joy, the shadow of sadness. The masterpiece is of ourselves, as we are of the masterpiece.
~ Kakuzo Okakura ~

Emerson says, "Beauty is the form under which the intellect prefers to study the world". The man who best represents beauty for Emerson is the poet, and the instrument that best represents beauty is the harp. Following the Orphic tradition, Emerson often depicts the poet with a lute or a harp. When a man joins the essence of his soul with a stringed instrument, he creates art in the form of music. In his essay "The Poet," Emerson explains this creative synthesis: "When the soul of the poet has come to ripeness of thought, she [genius] detaches and sends away from it its poems or songs ... clad with wings.... These wings are the beauty of the poet's soul"

Who but loved the wind-harp's note?
How should not the poet dote
on its mystic tongue,
With its primeval memory
Reporting what old minstrels told
Of Merlin locked the harp within, --
Merlin paying the pain of sin,
Pent in a dungeon made of air, --
And some attain his voice to hear, --
Words of pain and cries of fear,
But pillowed all on melody,
As fits the griefs of bards to be.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, "The Harp"

Black & Maple Harps

The vibrating strings of the harp are known as "nature's music, made audible" and as "the perfect music of eternity", and Edgar Allan Poe calls the Aeolian harp "one of his sources of 'supernal beauty’” The Aeolian harp sits on the window casement and sings about its powers. The harp "imparts" the world's secrets and cheers the hearts of friends.

Keep your lips or finger-tips
For flute or spinet's dancing chips;
I await a tenderer touch
I ask more or not so much:
Give me to the atmosphere.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~

"We do not know ... why one feature or gesture enchants, why one word or syllable intoxicates; but the fact is familiar that the fine touch of the eye, or a grace of manners, or a phrase of poetry, plants wings at our shoulders; as if the Divinity, in his approaches, lifts away mountains of obstruction, deigns to draw a truer line, which the mind knows and owns."

"Nature becomes for the genuine man not so much landscape as a place for communion with the Divine Spirit".

Ralph Waldo Emerson sends a message to all of mankind with his writings about the Aeolian harp: he advises men and women to avoid discord in their lives and to seek beauty and unity in nature. The qualities of divine harmony and beauty can always be found in nature, if one knows intuitively where to look for them…

*** Excerpts from C. A. Cavanaugh on Ralph Waldo Emerson

This Poetry Harp is an interactive installation commissioned by L’Oréal for the
30th Anniversary of the phrase “Because I’m Worth It”. The piece consisted of
28 cords stretched from the ceiling to the floor below, each associated with a
line of text from a poem about a woman’s worth. By plucking and pulling on the
cords, visitors could release sinuous clouds of letters and billowing ribbons,
projected on the opposite wall. The harp was a unique visual instrument that
struck a balance between poetry, aesthetic beauty, and interactivity.

"Do Y/our Thang" :)

http://joybringer.gaia.com — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 15:50:22 GMT

Here's a little story, a very little movie & a little inspiration from a kid who 'does his Thang'...

WHAT IF this is an invitation to "Do Y/our Thang"? What would YOU do? :)

(The movie and the story are unrelated, but fit perfectly together) EnJoy finding why.

"While visiting some friends in Manhattan last week, we found ourselves watching some performers in the Subway station at Grand Central. These dancers were amazing... crazy muscular guys doing acrobatic contortions, spinning around on the ground, flipping through the air, balancing their entire body weight on one hand in impossible type poses that defy the concept of center-of-gravity. My son was engrossed.

Each performer took his turn in the circle, and as the last guy finished... my son jumps up, and with the un-flappable confidence of a five-year old he starts "doin' his Thang." Pasty-pale little scottish boy, struttin' his jive self, sliding around on the floor... dead serious about his craft. Everyone was clapping and cheering him on, and as he struck his finale pose, one of the performers gave him a coveted high five.

I was so indescribably proud of him. And yet, my son refers to the event nonchalantly, and clearly has no comprehension he did something uncommon, brave or bold. Apparantly if you're five, it's no big deal.

So maybe it isn't. Maybe it really is that easy to jump in there and "do your Thang".

Maybe whatever we make up about "jumping in there" being scary or risky is a load of crap.

so I am still beaming with pride... but I'm also inspired to challenge myself (and you) to jump in there. Not in spite of the reasons we shouldn't, but because there are no reasons. At least not any we didn't fabricate." ~ Jodi Hume ~

38 sec - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdoqr1pTK9Q

Re: The Journey ~ Mary Oliver & Self Acceptance ~ Debra Meyer

http://joybringer.gaia.com — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 05:32:00 GMT

This beautiful artwork “Self Acceptance” by Debra Meyer and lovely zfriend Traveler in her own words “represents the acceptance of all of our aspects – The philosopher, the laborer, the feminine, the masculine, the muse, the teacher, the student.”

As the word JOY implies & invites - J= Just O = Open Y = Yourself
& enJoy another Mary Oliver's jewel…

The Journey

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice–
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do–
determined to save
the only life you could save.

~ Mary Oliver ~

Re: Starlings in Winter & Wild Geese ~ Mary Oliver's Joy/s

http://joybringer.gaia.com — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 04:54:12 GMT

Devi,
That IS a Joy. And Mary Oliver is a shared joy. And her poems - a triple one... Let's enjoy!

WILD GEESE

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

~ Mary Oliver ~

Starlings in Winter

http://Devichandra.gaia.com — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 08:30:42 GMT

I recently spent time cleaning up an organic garden with friends and then having a prepared lunch from the squash and lemons that grow there.

That is a joy.

Devi

Starlings in Winter

Chunky and noisy,
but with stars in their black feathers,
they spring from the telephone wire
and instantly

they are acrobats
in the freezing wind.
And now, in the theater of air,
they swing over buildings,

dipping and rising;
they float like one stippled star
that opens,
becomes for a moment fragmented,

then closes again;
and you watch
and you try
but you simply can’t imagine

how they do it
with no articulated instruction, no pause,
only the silent confirmation
that they are this notable thing,

this wheel of many parts, that can rise and spin
over and over again,
full of gorgeous life.

Ah, world, what lessons you prepare for us,
even in the leafless winter,
even in the ashy city.
I am thinking now
of grief, and of getting past it;

I feel my boots
trying to leave the ground,
I feel my heart
pumping hard. I want

to think again of dangerous and noble things.
I want to be light and frolicsome.
I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing,
as though I had wings.

~ Mary Oliver ~

(Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays)

Web version: www.panhala.net/Archive/Starlings_in_Winter.html

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Re: Have a Look @ Infinity Interactively Online

http://joybringer.gaia.com — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 15:35:53 GMT

Time to have a look @ infinity while interacting with IT ~ online...

EnJOy these amazing 'intoxicated' simple & beautiful 3D flash creations.

Re: Plant Your OWN Flower Garden Online

http://armila.gaia.com — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 05:46:23 GMT

A miilion thanks. Had a blast clicking and filling the screen with countless flowers.

In JOY,
Mila

Plant Your OWN Flower Garden Online

http://joybringer.gaia.com — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 23:11:05 GMT

EnJoy what happens when you try this amazingly easy & effective experience.

Just keep clicking anywhere on the screen & witness the flower miracle/s...

Re: The Joy of Celestial Beauty & Wonder - E8, Universe Mandala

http://Devichandra.gaia.com — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 09:48:18 GMT

Beautiful. Thank you. Surf's UP, or is it down, 284 ways?

S