If you;
…good for you, you know what we’re here to do.
Toni O’Keeffe🔆
Every day the natural world shows us how to cooperate, how to thrive and how to embrace change when it arrives.
She serves as a beautiful classroom in our quest to understand our own humanity. By observing her, we’re gifted with the secrets to our own existence.
She reminds us that every living thing is a beautiful miracle, lending purpose and value to all other living things.
She shows us what being patient, mindful and resilient really looks like.
She is absolutely selfless and provides us with everything, including the air, water, food, shelter and medicines we need to survive. She offers us all this, and so much more, freely.
Our fragile human spirits need the natural world. She’s our respite from the chaotic, hurried world we’ve created. She’s our real home, we really should take care of, and visit her more often.
Toni O’Keeffe🌹❤️
I don’t go to the forest
to get away from the real world,
I go to the forest to be with
the REAL WORLD.
The quiet, the beauty,
the safe embrace of the trees,
and the voice of wisdom that
comes when the mind is still;
these are things that provide
a tranquil retreat and a peaceful
haven from our busy human world.
Do you need a time out?
step into the real world.
🌲🌲🌲🌲
Toni O’Keeffe🌹❤️
When the darkness of unsettled days blocks your light, there’s always a sanctuary of infinite beauty waiting to embrace you and lift your spirit.
Go to the waters edge, breathe slowly and inhale the sweet, softness of the ocean and exhale the weight of the burdens you carry.
Find a mossy, tree lined forest path to lead you away from your busy days, far from whatever’s troubling you.
Retreat to a rocky bluff and let the setting sun melt your pain and relax your worries.
Gaze into the moonlight, allow its glow to warm you and hold your dreams until you’re ready to chase them again.
Before you return to the reality of your world, take a gratitude moment to relish in your own beauty and give thanks for the true miracle you are. Let go of all toxic ideas and reclaim the grace of everything beautiful that’s waiting for you.
No matter what’s blocking your path or causing you pain, nature provides the music, the colour, the awe, the sweet perfume of life and the quiet peaceful sanctuary to help you heal❤️
Toni O’KEEFFE 🌹❤️
It’s easy to be in awe of the beauty in nature. Multiple shades of green draped over a forest.
The way bold colours melt together to create a sunrise or sunset. The twinkle of stars, the fragrance of different flowers painted in every colour imaginable. The beauty of ocean waves rolling in and out leaving beautiful polished stones and shells behind. Tall grass dancing with the wind, song birds singing, clouds creating illusions in the sky. We appreciate and love all of it.
What if we looked at each other the same way, in awe of how beautiful, brilliant, colourful, twinkly and different we all are?
If we accepted one another no matter how we looked, sang, danced, rocked or rolled, wow this would be one happy peaceful, planet of twinkly, bright, dancing souls. 🌟
Toni O’KEEFFE 🌹❤️
This is home.
When we step into nature, we’re stepping over the threshold of our original home. The place we go to play, to grow, to heal, to feel loved, to rest and reboot the mind, body and soul.
So go home. Allow Mother Nature to feed your entire being. She will welcome you in, offer you sanctuary and never ask you to leave.
She will not judge or ask you why you came. She will calm you, allow you to catch your breath and, provide the air you breathe. She will ask for nothing in return.
Allow her to wrap you in the familiar comfort of her embrace and remember who you really are. It’s here, in our original home, that we experience our authentic humanness.
Oh, and while you’re there pick up after yourself.
Toni O’KEEFFE 🌹 ❤️
Put that stuff down.
You’ve done enough adulting today.
Time to go outside and play.
We function better when we create the time to play outside. Outdoor play is good for our mental well-being, our physical well-being, in particular, our lungs, our hearts and our muscles. Outdoor play also does wonders for our spiritual selves, our relationships and our working environment.
So go outside and play, its oh so good for you🤗.
Love Toni ☀️🌹❤️
Toni O’KEEFFE 🌹❤️
~ Toni O’KEEFFE
Why are we drawn to the peaceful, unencumbered wilds of nature?
~ the awe of forest paths that magically transform when rays of light stream in between the branches of towering old growth trees or,
~ feel inspired when we set our eyes on majestic mountain peaks draped with snow, or,
~ melt into a state of relaxation gazing at an expansive indigo sky dressed in twinkling stars, or
~ fall into a state of peaceful reverence when we sink our toes into the sand and watch the rising and setting of the sun?
Why do these and the other sights, sounds and smells of nature call to us, arouse our senses, bring us comfort and cause us to pause and exhale?
I think this call into the wild is our deepest self calling us home.
Our DNA evolved in nature. Our ancestors spent most of their time in the natural world. We’re hard wired to live amongst the trees, near the water and under the sky.
It’s only been in the last couple of centuries that we’ve strayed away from where we belong and moved into loud overcrowded, concrete jungles and on to busy asphalt highways.
Numerous studies have shown spending time in nature is a natural remedy for stress, can lower blood pressure, boast immune system functioning, reduce anxiety, and improve mood. That’s a pretty good “pill”.
Yet, humanity spends trillion of dollars annually purchasing and consuming self help products and services to make us feel well, less anxious and less stressed; things we’d feel if we spent more time in the great outdoors.
Spending time in nature is like pushing the reset button and going back to our original factory😊settings.
Going into nature is peaceful, comfortable and reminds us of home because, it is home, it is where we’re meant to be.
When you feel the stress of our modern world impacting your well being, go home, stick your toes, your heart and your soul where they belong and BE well.
Toni O’KEEFFE ~🌹❤️
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~ 🌹❤️
The Whimsey Angel 