You don’t have
to defend your
gentle nature,
your sensitive
heart, your need
for stillness, your
art, where you
find joy or why
you prefer the
company of the
natural world.
Your peace
belongs to you.
🩷💚🩵💙💜🧡
Toni O’KEEFFE 🔆
~Your peace belongs to you
Category: peace
Inner peace
You’ll know inner peace when the world around you is restless, yet, you greet it with calm, because you know your sanctuary is in you, not in the noise around you.
Toni O’KEEFFE🔆
Dreams can come true;
The field~
This sweet dream carried me away to a field of flowers, where I fell in awe of the tapestry of colour so brilliantly stitched together.
Floating above the field, I gazed down upon tall golden sunflowers reaching for the sky, lupins exploding in hues of purple and blue, sunny daffodils and wild crocus all sharing the same soil and blooming side-by-side.
Crimson poppies, delicate white daisies and purple bachelor buttons their stems splendidly entangled, grew freely, no fences, no boarders, just beautiful wide open space allowing their roots to stretch and grow.
Rays of sunlight touched each flower, and bounced off dew-drops, making every flower sparkle. Tiny delightful buttercups dancing between it all, knit this rich bouquet of diverse colours, scents, sizes and varieties together.
Bees, butterflies, birds and bugs of every type, moved above, below and upon the tapestry doing their part. How wonderfully all life here cooperated, grew, bloomed and thrived perfectly together, it was stunning.
Then a single dandelion, falling to seed at the end of her days, but still so beautiful, called to me and asked me if I’d like to make a wish upon her, I did. I was moved that in her final moments of life, she still had something to offer, and she offered it to me.
As I continued to float above this kaleidoscope of grace and peacefulness, the flowers became us; me, you, my family, my neighbours, strangers and I knew this peaceful field was showing me, how life could be, how life should be.
I drifted back to this world, and woke, with new hope and optimism for our own diverse, and colourful human garden.
Toni O’Keeffe🌹❤️
Organic Therapy ~
When you seek respite
from a noisy mind,
or a noisy world,
go to the forest.
She will welcome you in
and never ask you to leave.
She will embrace you and
offer you sanctuary.
She will listen, comfort you
and calm your tired soul.
She will not judge
or ask you why you came.
She will allow you to sit quietly
and just breathe.
And sometimes,
that’s all we need.
TO’K~🌹❤️
Quiet Spaces
A tranquil pathway and quiet shoreline stretching towards infinite beauty, lead me to a peaceful retreat, a hidden refuge of cozy spaces and burrows nestled between the sand, the sky, the ocean and fallen logs.
Unencumbered by humanity, I see the world as it should be. Peaceful.
I’m the only intruder, but I’m not alone.
Burrows along the trail to the beach are home to dozens of rabbits hopping between logs, rose-hip and hawthorn shrubs growing along the edge of the shoreline trail.
I move slowly, so I don’t disturb a mother seal and her pup resting in the tall seagrass near the water.
Eagles circling above, the calls of seagulls, sandpipers and other birds, echo across the sky and add to the magic of this place and fill me with light.
I find my spot and rest on the sand with my back supported against a well weathered log.
With my little companion Bo’ nestled in my lap, I close my eyes, release all worries, surrender to this space, and melt into a state of stillness.
Then, I listen.
It’s in silence and stillness that wisdom is received and peace is born. It’s in this state that the answers come. They always do.
I’m grateful for these quiet spaces and the peace, serenity, wisdom and healing they bring.
If you feel overwhelmed, challenged to meet the struggles in your life, or just exhausted from the noise in your head. Stop everything, step outside and find your quiet space.
Toni O’K~ 🌹❤️
You and your Woo-Woo😁
I recently had a conversation with a friend that went something like this;
Friend; “Do you ever worry that the woo-woo stuff you post might put people off?”
Me; (*laughing) “Whats woo-woo stuff ?”
(I knew what she meant, but wanted to hear her say it😊)
Friend; “You know, all that hippie-dippy, peace, love and soul speak stuff you post.”
Me; “Why would I worry?”
Friend; I don’t know, some people might find it weird.
Me; “Well then they’re not my people.”
—————————————————-
What struck me during this conversation was how easily society has accepted what is artificial and manufactured. Yet, what’s authentic and “REAL” is often called weird, kooky or “woo-woo”.
There are a few definitions of “woo-woo”.
I like to think of it as tapping into ones deepest wisdom in the expression of our authentic and creative self.
For some of us, we reach a certain age where the energy it takes to be anything but authentic is exhausting and violates who we were meant to be. And so, we set our woo-woo free. (Yes, I chuckle like a 12 year old, each time I type “woo-woo”)
The world needs your woo-woo
I bet your woo-woo is beautiful!😉
Embrace “the Woo” in you 😁.
If people can’t accept you and your Woo as you are, they’re not your people.
So get out there and get your beautiful, hippie, dippy, woo-woo on and have a fabulous weekend ☮️.
Love Toni ~🌹❤️
Oh what a mess we’ve made.
We’ve grown into a species of 7 billion people living on one small planet, bumping into each other (literally), sharing the air we breathe, sharing public spaces, leaving our DNA, germs and garbage everywhere.
We are the messiest, most destructive species on earth. We dump our garbage and effluent into the land and oceans providing our food, pump tons of toxins into the air, and then, we wonder why we’re all getting sick and how we got into this pandemic situation.
Our desire to travel globally, consume and purchase goods and services from around the world, and our desires to expand our business, recreational and investment interests into the global marketplace, have changed the way people, products, AND disease travel.
Blaming other countries, other races, even other animals, for this current pandemic is misplaced. With a few exceptions, we all own this mess.
I know I’m part of the problem. I’m part of a generation that consumes too much. I travel and I want to travel again. So, I will have to make decisions that keep myself and those I come into contact with, safe. I don’t see this as an infringement of my rights, I see this as a responsibility that comes with my right to live my life a certain way.
Unless we’re all prepared to stay in our boxes, stop traveling, start growing our own food, start buying local etc., another pandemic is in our future. Not because any one person is going to do one thing wrong, but because 7 billion people move around one little blue planet spreading germs, garbage and disease. 7 billion people who as a species, have not learned how to coexist with other life on earth.
Oh what a mess we’ve made.
If we spent as much time owning our responsibilities to care for the planet and each other, as we do declaring “our rights” hmm, we might stand a chance.
Until we learn how to treat the planet and each other in ways that are gentle, respectful, loving and kind, we will continue down our garbage laden road, leaving a wake of destruction that ends with our extinction.
Toni O’K~🌹❤️
Curious minds have more fun
I’ve always been curious. Asking too many questions in school and during business meetings, looking things up, turning over too many stones and exploring abandoned roads and pathways.
At one point I came to believe this was a negative trait because people were always telling me to “shut up” or to stop asking so many questions.
I know now that curiosity is a gift we’re all born with. It’s is an extension of our internal wisdom. Curiosity leads to new discoveries, new advances in technology, medicine and science.
Curiosity exercises all of our senses, awakens our minds and provides the neurons in our brains an excellent workout. Curiosity expands the imagination and takes us to places beyond the realm of every day doldrums. I feel “lit” and alive when acting on my curiosity.
Curiosity did not kill the cat, ignorance killed the cat. The more we know and the more we explore and imagine, the better off we all are.
When we ask questions we understand each other better, we begin to appreciate different points of view, we’re more peaceful, we cooperate and we’re kinder to one another.
Don’t be afraid to water your inquisitive nature and exercise your curiosity muscle. And, encourage the young people in your life to do the same.
We’ve got big challenges across this little blue plant of ours. It’s those active, creative, curious minds who are questioning, seeking and discovering, that will lead us to the solutions we need to heal the world.
And besides, curious minds have more fun. It’s your curious nature that will lead you towards new adventures, new people, new vistas, and yes maybe a bit of trouble, but that in itself is an adventure.
Wishing you a curious kind of day😊🤗
Toni O’K~🌹❤️
Fixating on what you want, might cost you what you need.
My life looks nothing like I thought it would when I started making plans and cultivating my big dreams decades ago. How could it?
When we’re young, there’s no way to fully anticipate the changes we will go and grow through. Changes in the world, changes in our priorities, our attitudes and beliefs, or, how our life experiences and learning will shape us.
I shouldn’t be the person my 20-year-old self thought I would become. There is no way 20-year-old me could comprehend the needs and priorities of 60-year-old me, especially when every decade I seem to emerge as something different than I was.
Yet, I always seem to land where I need to be. Over the years, I’ve learned to surrender control over what I thought I wanted, to make space for what I needed when it arrived, to remain focused on outcomes such as good health, happiness, wisdom, wealth, and love, and not get tangled up in which path I should take towards these things, but instead take the path that presents itself.
When we fixate on what we think we want or where we should be, we might fail to see what we need when it shows up.
Continue to cultivate your big dreams, recognizing the route to those dreams, may NOT be down the roads you expected.
We all get to where we’re supposed to be. How we get there, is not as important as how we live, learn and grow along the way.
Toni O’Keeffe ~🌹❤️
Open heart ~ Open mind
Life became easier when I surrendered my own tenacity and began to live with an open heart and an open mind.
There are things I’ve discovered and learned along the way, which I might never have unearthed if I had remained locked in my own stubbornness.
Our struggles often result from our inability to see the possibilities beyond our own thinking and the doctrines imposed on us.
Living with an open heart and mind means considering alternatives, actively listening to opinions different from our own, being kind before jumping to judgment and being aware of signs along the way pointing you in new directions.
Open minds and open hearts, have created more music, magic, poetry, peace, love and light in the world, then closed minds and cold hearts.
Toni O’Keeffe~🌹❤️
The Whimsey Angel 