Tips for Staying "in the Now", by Joan Ellen Gage

Joan’s tips for being present:
 
As usual, I struggle with staying in the now. My go to is to get outside with my dog. Watching her keeps me present and I realize how blessed I am to have this wonderful creature as my friend. If you don’t have a pet, maybe you can “borrow” one!

The second thing I do to stay present is to watch the sunset or sunrise. If you can’t watch a real one, watch one on the net. There are a lot of youtube videos, like this one:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbaJ1SPjLnc

Namaste, y’all!

Joan 

What’s not to love!


OTHER WEBSITE:  https://joanszoneblogalicious.wordpress.com/
FACEBOOK PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Joan-Ellen-Gage/158895910832925
JOAN’S BOOKS:
EMBRACING YOUR INNER CHEERLEADER: http://www.amazon.com/Embracing-Your-Inner-Cheerleader-ebook/dp/B0086WW7AA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&
qid=1340641839&sr=8-1&keywords=Embracing+Your+Inner+Cheerleader
STRANGER IN A STRANGE SKIN: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/95140
WATER RUNNING DOWNHILL, ROSE EDITION: http://www.amazon.com/Water-Running-Downhill-Words-Empowerment/dp/0692571965/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1447021563&sr=1-1&keywords=water+running+downhill%2C+words+of+empowerment%2C+rose+edition
A Redhead Looks at 60: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/189-7867874-1973650?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=a+redhead+looks+at+60
©All creative works by Joan Ellen Gage are her exclusive property, and Joan maintains the legal rights to them.

For Valentine’s Day–Give your heart the love it deserves!

Rock the beat, and give your heart some tender loving care! Here is a link for a 5 minute meditation to open your heart from Louise Hay:

http://www.louisehay.com/powerful-5-minute-meditation-to-open-your-heart/

Have a wonderful Valentine’s “week!” Take a little time daily to love and treat yourself, you deserve it!

Namaste!

Joan

OTHER WEBSITE:  https://joanszoneblogalicious.wordpress.com/
FACEBOOK PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Joan-Ellen-Gage/158895910832925
JOAN’S BOOKS:
EMBRACING YOUR INNER CHEERLEADER: http://www.amazon.com/Embracing-Your-Inner-Cheerleader-ebook/dp/B0086WW7AA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&
qid=1340641839&sr=8-1&keywords=Embracing+Your+Inner+Cheerleader
STRANGER IN A STRANGE SKIN: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/95140
WATER RUNNING DOWNHILL, ROSE EDITION: http://www.amazon.com/Water-Running-Downhill-Words-Empowerment/dp/0692571965/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1447021563&sr=1-1&keywords=water+running+downhill%2C+words+of+empowerment%2C+rose+edition
A Redhead Looks at 60: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/189-7867874-1973650?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=a+redhead+looks+at+60
©All creative works by Joan Ellen Gage are her exclusive property, and Joan maintains the legal rights to them.

A Much Needed Peace

Cloud Art by Joan Ellen Gage
 

Here at the penultimate holiday of the western world and beyond, there is so much hype about peace and love, and traditional values. I feel there is actually very little peace and love given freely on our planet.

I am reminded of the words to John Lennon’s song, Imagine. I pray that we do not forget these words, and that someday they will be true. Please read them at the bottom of this post.

Peace on Earth to all!

Joan
 

“Imagine”

Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today…

Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace…

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world…

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one 
 
by John Lennon
1971 

OTHER WEBSITE:  https://joanszoneblogalicious.wordpress.com/
FACEBOOK PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Joan-Ellen-Gage/158895910832925
JOAN’S BOOKS:
EMBRACING YOUR INNER CHEERLEADER: http://www.amazon.com/Embracing-Your-Inner-Cheerleader-ebook/dp/B0086WW7AA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&
qid=1340641839&sr=8-1&keywords=Embracing+Your+Inner+Cheerleader
STRANGER IN A STRANGE SKIN: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/95140
WATER RUNNING DOWNHILL, ROSE EDITION: http://www.amazon.com/Water-Running-Downhill-Words-Empowerment/dp/0692571965/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1447021563&sr=1-1&keywords=water+running+downhill%2C+words+of+empowerment%2C+rose+edition
A Redhead Looks at 60: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/189-7867874-1973650?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=a+redhead+looks+at+60
©All creative works by Joan Ellen Gage are her exclusive property, and Joan maintains the legal rights to them.

 

Joan Ellen Gage launches the Rose Edition of her book, Water Running Downhill, Words of Empowerment!, on 11/6/2015

Rose Helena Macedo Kull

This week I published the Rose Edition of Water Running Downhill, Words of Empowerment! This edition is a project that had been on the back burner for a while. Rose’s passing jump-started me to create the new version of Water Running Downhill! (WRDH), honoring this  wonderful, inspiring woman.

The spirit of WRDH contains passages that will speak to women of the foibles of aging, growth, joy, humor, and self-love.I hope my readers enjoy the new book, which contains reworked photos, and two new poems.

May peace be with you, and your troubles be few, and don’t forget to travel at the speed of now! Here is a poem from the new edition, enjoy!

Joan

 
hum



USED GOODS
 
There are no

Guarantees or refunds

And no exchanges

You have to take it

As it is



A slight modification

May be possible

But, beyond that

What you see is

What you get



There may be

Surface imperfections

Due to materials used

And the contents

May have settled

During handling



But each piece is

An individually crafted

Unique work of art

A truly one of a kind

Human being


OTHER WEBSITE:  http://joanszoneblogalicious.wordpress.com/
FACEBOOK PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Joan-Ellen-Gage/158895910832925
JOAN’S BOOKS:
EMBRACING YOUR INNER CHEERLEADER: http://www.amazon.com/Embracing-Your-Inner-Cheerleader-ebook/dp/B0086WW7AA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&
qid=1340641839&sr=8-1&keywords=Embracing+Your+Inner+Cheerleader
STRANGER IN A STRANGE SKIN: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/95140
WATER RUNNING DOWNHILL: http://www.amazon.com/WATER-RUNNING-DOWNHILL-new-design-ebook/dp/B004PVSOPS
A Redhead Looks at 60: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/189-7867874-1973650?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=a+redhead+looks+at+60
©All creative works by Joan Ellen Gage are her exclusive property, and Joan maintains the legal rights to them.

 

Happy Halloween from your personal cheerleader!

BOO!


OTHER WEBSITE:  http://joanszoneblogalicious.wordpress.com/
FACEBOOK PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Joan-Ellen-Gage/158895910832925
JOAN’S BOOKS:
EMBRACING YOUR INNER CHEERLEADER: http://www.amazon.com/Embracing-Your-Inner-Cheerleader-ebook/dp/B0086WW7AA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&
qid=1340641839&sr=8-1&keywords=Embracing+Your+Inner+Cheerleader
STRANGER IN A STRANGE SKIN: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/95140
WATER RUNNING DOWNHILL: http://www.amazon.com/WATER-RUNNING-DOWNHILL-new-design-ebook/dp/B004PVSOPS
A Redhead Looks at 60: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/189-7867874-1973650?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=a+redhead+looks+at+60
©All creative works by Joan Ellen Gage are her exclusive property, and Joan maintains the legal rights to them.

Getting the Message!

My Friend Ruri, Delivering the Message!
Exercise is the key, my friends!  Don’t forget to move it or you know what happens!
Have a blessed day!
Joan 
OTHER WEBSITE:  joanszoneblogalicious.wordpress.com/

FACEBOOK PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Joan-Ellen-Gage/158895910832925
JOAN’S BOOKS:
EMBRACING YOUR INNER CHEERLEADER: http://www.amazon.com/Embracing-Your-Inner-Cheerleader-ebook/dp/B0086WW7AA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&
qid=1340641839&sr=8-1&keywords=Embracing+Your+Inner+Cheerleader
STRANGER IN A STRANGE SKIN: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/95140
WATER RUNNING DOWNHILL: http://www.amazon.com/WATER-RUNNING-DOWNHILL-new-design-ebook/dp/B004PVSOPS
A Redhead Looks at 60: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/189-7867874-1973650?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=a+redhead+looks+at+60
©All creative works by Joan Ellen Gage are her exclusive property, and Joan maintains the legal rights to them.

 

The Fountain of ‘Spoof’

Karen in the Fountain of ‘Spoof’
Blessings, everyone!  Please enjoy the poem.
Joan
Fountain of Spoof

First come the little
“Smile” lines by the eyes.
After a while, lines deepen
And are followed by brow furrows,
Complemented with “marionette” lines
On each side of the mouth.
(I swear that is what those in the know
Are calling them!)
Our first defense consists of lotions
And creams that we literally slather
On our skin; most of these products
Don’t do much, or live up to our expectations.
I personally will attest to this; however,
I continue to try the latest and greatest
Hoping for a mini-miracle or at least
Some hint of positive progress.
I guess I’ll settle for preventive maintenance
I.E. try to stay where I’m at,
Rather than trying to reverse the
Hands of time on the ‘wrinkle clock’.
We certainly need to smile more;
Nothing looks better on us.
Let’s work on keeping our chins up
Even if we have to pull ’em up and tie them there!

From the book, Water Running Downhill!
by Joan Ellen Gage 

 

EXIST-STANCE!


OTHER WEBSITE:  https://joanszoneblogalicious@wordpress.com/
FACEBOOK PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Joan-Ellen-Gage/158895910832925
JOAN’S BOOKS:
EMBRACING YOUR INNER CHEERLEADER: http://www.amazon.com/Embracing-Your-Inner-Cheerleader-ebook/dp/B0086WW7AA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&
qid=1340641839&sr=8-1&keywords=Embracing+Your+Inner+Cheerleader
STRANGER IN A STRANGE SKIN: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/95140
WATER RUNNING DOWNHILL: http://www.amazon.com/WATER-RUNNING-DOWNHILL-new-design-ebook/dp/B004PVSOPS
A Redhead Looks at 60: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/189-7867874-1973650?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=a+redhead+looks+at+60
©All creative works by Joan Ellen Gage are her exclusive property, and Joan maintains the legal rights to them.

Losing a friend, remembering Rose Helena Macedo Kull

Recently, I lost a good friend.  Rose was my best friend in high school, and my maid of honor at my first wedding.  
She was a good person, honest, kind, and wise.  We lost Rose to pancreatic cancer that she discovered she had on her 60th birthday.
Losing a peer at any age is difficult.  But, one always looks at that person’s time line, and compares it to their own.  You reflect, “She was too young, she was so full of life”.  We realize that life is unfair; we are supposed to accept this, and move on.
Here is a poem that I wrote about cancer in my second book, Embracing Your Inner Cheerleader. 
May your day be peaceful and filled with love.
Joan
For Rose and her family, may she rest in peace.

The Invader Within

Was the cause environmental,

Or was it family genetics?

How did this happen?

Perhaps, it was just karma

Bringing me this dark, unwanted gift

This cancer

The alien DNA

Hidden in the structure

Of the genome

Its time bomb releasing

Microscopic invaders burrowing

Into tissue, mytissue

Facing myself in the mirror,

Today, chopping long dark hair

Shorter, and shorter still

Wondering who is this stranger

Who stares back

Stone-faced and resolute?

I begin this deeply personal

Uphill battle, or is it downhill?

Warrior stance—I am ready

“Let’s do this!” to my husband

We travel silently to chemo

Unspoken words blowing through

Our minds like autumn leaves

He holds my hand as we begin

IV dripping, we watch morning TV

Oblivious to the screen, thoughts

Still flowing, overflowing, synchronized

With the IV releasing the drug/poison

I will it to find the interloper

“Seek out the alien intruder, now!”

Many weeks have passed, now

Time has slowed to a turtle’s pace

I have sat in that recliner

Many hours, with needle piercing my flesh,

Chemo flowing, a soft cap covering the baby fuzz

Where my hair used to be

I turn my mind inward, pray and give thanks

Liquid ninja’s course through my veins

“Finish it”, I pray, “amen”.
OTHER WEBSITE:  https://joanszoneblogalicious@wordpress.com/
FACEBOOK PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Joan-Ellen-Gage/158895910832925
JOAN’S BOOKS:
EMBRACING YOUR INNER CHEERLEADER: http://www.amazon.com/Embracing-Your-Inner-Cheerleader-ebook/dp/B0086WW7AA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&
qid=1340641839&sr=8-1&keywords=Embracing+Your+Inner+Cheerleader
STRANGER IN A STRANGE SKIN: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/95140
WATER RUNNING DOWNHILL: http://www.amazon.com/WATER-RUNNING-DOWNHILL-new-design-ebook/dp/B004PVSOPS
A Redhead Looks at 60: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/189-7867874-1973650?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=a+redhead+looks+at+60
©All creative works by Joan Ellen Gage are her exclusive property, and Joan maintains the legal rights to them.

 

It’s Here, A Redhead Looks at 60! Available at Amazon.com.

I am so excited about this book!  I have been procrastinating–my specialty, so it’s about time!

Here’s an appropriate poem for you from A Redhead Looks at 60!  Enjoy!

joanzone

My Freudian Slip Is Showing!

If writing is therapy, then I’ve been

Standing up my “shrink” for some time!

My fixations are simple, broken down into two things:

I want to lose weight and I must have chocolate

Now is that a conflict of interest?

But getting back to that writing thing

It can be easy at times

Words flowing from my pen like water from a font

Usually my attempts to write

Are like trying to cross a river in a leaky boat

I start out, I sink; I go back to the start

But my best work involves distraction, the art of

Subjugating my true desire with anything else

To prevent picking up the pen

Essentially, I have a Master’s degree in

The Ostrich Technique—perhaps you’ve heard of it?

Hmmm?


OTHER WEBSITE:https://joanszoneblogalicious@wordpress.com
FACEBOOK PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Joan-Ellen-Gage/158895910832925
JOAN’S BOOKS: 
A REDHEAD LOOKS AT 60:http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/189-7867874-1973650?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=a+redhead+looks+at+60 
EMBRACING YOUR INNER CHEERLEADER: http://www.amazon.com/Embracing-Your-Inner-Cheerleader-ebook/dp/B0086WW7AA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&
qid=1340641839&sr=8-1&keywords=Embracing+Your+Inner+Cheerleader
STRANGER IN A STRANGE SKIN: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/95140
WATER RUNNING DOWNHILL: http://www.amazon.com/WATER-RUNNING-DOWNHILL-new-design-ebook/dp/B004PVSOPS
©All creative works by Joan Ellen Gage are her exclusive property, and Joan maintains the legal rights to them.

 

Be the Tree!


Good morning!  Here is the poem from my book, Embracing Your Inner Cheerleader.  The quote above was taken from that.

Have a joyful day!

Joan 
 
 
Willow You?
I began my life passively

Or, so I thought 

Not that one could discount

The hard-headed stubbornness

That runs like a deep vein of gold

In the granite rock of the genetic

Makeup of my family tree 

But, as the years have rolled by

It has become apparent that

Control issues are key in relationships

As they have been in mine

Many of us are stronger willed

And try to impose this on others

These are the righteous ones

Trying to bend the weaker to them

Like a young flexible sapling

Some will snap like twigs and are finished

Others bounce back unbent

Defiant in the face of such control

Resilience bouncing the back upright

Not giving in, not giving up, no, never!

Be true, be the tree

That will not bend

To you and me

OTHER WEBSITE:  www.joanszoneblogalicious@wordpress.com/
FACEBOOK PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Joan-Ellen-Gage/158895910832925
JOAN’S BOOKS:
EMBRACING YOUR INNER CHEERLEADER: http://www.amazon.com/Embracing-Your-Inner-Cheerleader-ebook/dp/B0086WW7AA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&
qid=1340641839&sr=8-1&keywords=Embracing+Your+Inner+Cheerleader
STRANGER IN A STRANGE SKIN: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/95140
WATER RUNNING DOWNHILL: http://www.amazon.com/WATER-RUNNING-DOWNHILL-new-design-ebook/dp/B004PVSOPS
©All creative works by Joan Ellen Gage are her exclusive property, and Joan maintains the legal rights to them.

IT ISN’T ALWAYS ABOUT THE "BENJAMINS"!

From the book, Embracing Your Inner Cheerleader, by your’s truly!

Have a wonderful day!

Joan


OTHER WEBSITE:  https:/joanszoneblogalicious.wordpress.com/
FACEBOOK PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Joan-Ellen-Gage/158895910832925
JOAN’S BOOKS:
EMBRACING YOUR INNER CHEERLEADER: http://www.amazon.com/Embracing-Your-Inner-Cheerleader-ebook/dp/B0086WW7AA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&
qid=1340641839&sr=8-1&keywords=Embracing+Your+Inner+Cheerleader
STRANGER IN A STRANGE SKIN: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/95140
WATER RUNNING DOWNHILL: http://www.amazon.com/WATER-RUNNING-DOWNHILL-new-design-ebook/dp/B004PVSOPS
©All creative works by Joan Ellen Gage are her exclusive property, and Joan maintains the legal rights to them.