Odd how this quote fits so perfectly with a blog entry I'd like to point you to over at ZenHabits - The Incredible Power of Contentment

It is about choosing to be happy, and choosing to be content. I know that it seems as if some of the times in which I have been emotionally happiest, I was too broke to pay attention - but I had love, I had my animals, I had what I thought was a good life. I guess it really doesn't take much to make me happy. Even though we now have a much lower income than we did three years ago, I would say I am considerably happier. Because of the changes in our life, I can walk into a grocery store now and buy pretty much anything I want - rather than standing in the middle of the produce section nearly in tears with $20 in my pocket to feed us for the next two weeks.

There are many factors involved in my current contentment, but one large factor is our home out here in the desert. Near the end of "I am Legend" the young woman says "the world is quieter now. You can hear that small voice inside" or something like that. It is quieter here in the desert.

I think we get all wrapped up in TV, computer, movies, people, going to dinner, doing this and that and everything else and the next thing you know all you think is what the Ads tell you to think and want and desire and you live yearning for next week, next paycheck, next shiny new toy to buy and you can't hear a thing your heart or your spirit is trying to say to you.

There isn't much to do here. I work at the computer, read, draw, take care of the animals. It's very quiet.

And maybe that is why I've been doing some very deep thinking and feeling lately about my spirituality. I'm going to make some changes, probably very subtle from the outside, but far reaching. I am spiritual, but not religious. I have come to a point where I no longer even feel that I am Pagan. I'm beyond that label, moved into something wider and more expansive. I don't want any more dividing lines - "I'm Gardnerian Wiccan, I'm Heathen, I'm Kemetic" any more than I wanted "I'm Baptist, I'm Catholic, I'm Protestant". What am I?

What I believe is based on all gods are one god. God(dess) is Love. We are here to practice Gratitude and Service and to learn, to become divine, to nuture the spark of the holy in ourselves by serving others. By doing so we become closer to God/dess and eventually we shall return to One.

I didn't mean to get into all this here but...I do plan to begin using my blog at Beliefnet.com as I explore all these feelings that are coming up. I feel as though I have let myself out of a cage...

Check the updates file above, lots of new articles and drawings and stuff this week. I added some new blog links also - so go check them out. And I even started one new blog (as if I needed it) Coloring Pages Blog which is mainly there so you can grab an RSS feed and keep up on the latest additions to Color-Your-Own.com.

Always more I want to do than I have time to do on any given day. I must run.

Blessedbe