Author: Jeff Shapiro

For a moment imagine that your life is one enormous piece of cake…
Covered with your favorite thick frosting (I like pink…)
Go ahead, take a big scrumptious bite…
It’s okay to have frosting all over your lips…
You’re just eating cake the way it is meant to be eaten.

It is just one taste of your life’s delicious pleasures…
All more delicious than you would expect…
Created by the master baker only for your happiness…
Please stop trying to change the recipe.

You were created to be happy…
Your blessings always from God…
Given a box with paint, canvas and brush for your paintings…
Or gifts for whatever else brings you joy.

Look around and describe this moment…
The shimmery waves of the clouds…
Your lungs filled with the sweetness of your breathe…
Your family, your loves and your health.

You don’t have to wait and see…
Heaven is right here for you wrapped in colorful ribbons…
You don’t need to wish to be someone else…
You’ve been given a much more important part.

Now take a big bite!

I love you,

Annie

I always look forward to the Fall, because…

Autumn leaves don’t fall, they soar…
Shedding quiet tears of joy…
Fluttering with the wind…
Releasing themselves back into the earth.

Such simple souls…
Look at the color in their cheeks and the brightness of their eyes…
Naked as the day they were born…
Gazing beyond the mountains into new worlds.

How many can I catch before they hit the ground?
My slumbering spirit suddenly awakening…
I don’t have the proper words to describe the feeling…
It’s just some kind of perfection.

If you are like me all your life you have always been homesick…
For that life beyond life…
The doorway has a special combination…
One turn to the left Simplicity, back to right Patience and finally back to the left Compassion.

Learn from the autumn leaves…
They don’t live in a world of mazes and twisted paths…
They are born and live beautifully with the wind and the stars…
And then return to the source of all being.

I love you,

Annie

As I forgive, I love…
Did you know that all of life can be purchased with love?
Everything flows from it and into it…
The currency is forgiveness.

The night you fell in love do you remember the music?
Can you hear in your heart the echo of those first chords?
Whether it was a child, a lover, a mountain…
For me, when I’m feeling down it’s my favorite watering hole.

It is time to fall in love again with your life…
Never, ever, ever stare hopelessly at the ground (it’s okay if you’re chasing a brown beetle!)
Self pity can swallow you alive…
Forgiveness begins with yourself.

My plea is only a small one…
Be in awe of your people, your life, your surroundings, and yourself…
You are completely unique and wonderful!
You don’t need to compete with anyone.

I always wonder just how big this sandbox is…
It’s just one more thing I will never know…
I find it a little bigger when I purchase this world with self-forgiveness…
I pray you will do the same.

I love you,

Annie

Did you know that everything is based on one true story?
All taking different paths from the original…
Some paths leading so far away the story vanishes…
Others back to the true nature of things.

It’s a story about infinite love…,
Its feeling is imaginary, but familiar…
Like capsules of a fairy-tale…
Lingering, long after they should have left.

It started before the rise of people…
Its pattern quite simple…
That’s why, even now, the simplest path is always the truest…
And the game of analytics the most complicated.

This love story is beyond anything we can even dream…
If we knew it well, we would never have to talk about another thing…
It is in the music, it is in the art…
Asking us all, please forgive yourself.

I know that I only know bits and pieces…
But can’t you feel this story within you?
It’s in there, written on your heart…
Waiting, waiting to bless this world.

Let it breathe!

I love you,

Annie

Actions have consequences…
If they are recent, they are easy to correct…
Each passing day makes an apology more difficult…
The guilt can become like two burning eyes.

Now, tell me what’s wrong…
Word by word…
Why is your sun pale and suspended in the sky?
There is nothing to be ashamed of…
It is time to unlearn what you have learned.

First, stop thinking that everything is your fault…
You’ve been tinkering with something too complicated to understand…
Your pieces are scattered all over the ground…
That’s why your wardrobe is full of so many costumes.

Let’s take a walk together…
Until now such a walk was impossible…
Watch the lazy swish of my tail…
How my relaxed mood approaches.

It’s time to learn to put things in order before they exist (Lao)…
There’s no paperwork involved to be free…
You have so many good reasons to move forward…
There is much more waiting for you, so much more!

I love you,

Annie

Sorry I missed a few days connecting with you. I was at the US Open in New York. Unfortunately, I was eliminated in the first round by a brindle greyhound. I really do think they should have a height restriction on pups (it’s just not fair!). Any way it gave me a few moments to reflect, and I realized…

Problems are no problem for me…
I left them all somewhere between miserable and joy…
Once free, the world became dappled with light…
And I was suddenly, unexpectedly, happy.

It really isn’t a joke, but I started laughing…
Thinking about all those years, days and minutes wasted…
Drifting in and out of anxiousness…
Forgetting that life is supposed to be simple, quiet joy.

Worry about problems is like going into deep waters…
Life becomes more and more shadowed…
Our faces blaze hot and then cold…
Placing us out of time with the swaying branches.

You know, that most worry is not true!
It is giving yourselves over to an invisible phantom…
It steals the be-attitude Mother God has given you…
Then, makes your life a continued apology.

Why keep score, you have done nothing wrong…
You are just human (We pups have a distinct advantage…)
Count your blessings each morning and by the time your done your problems will disappear…
The difficult, will become easy…
Like a curtain opening on your favorite show.

I love you,

Annie

As a pup I see things you don’t see. So, let me tell you what I see this morning.

You are so beautiful…
Beyond all value…
Sweet as molasses…
The center of the universe.

Please sit down, I want to hear all about you…
Tell me where you come from…
How your garden became so swollen with flowers…
So fit for a prince or princess like you.

You are not an imposter…
Nothing is more beautiful than your determination…
The only thing you know how to do is grow…
With no pang of shame.

You eat from the tree of life…
Eyes always open taking it all in…
You are like a pelican floating and playing in the surf…
And when you make a mistake, you find forgiveness.

This is how your creator sees you…
And this is how I see you too…
Now the only thing left…
Is to look in the mirror and see yourself too.

I love you,

Annie

Ever ride a mule? (Sometimes I get them mixed up with ponies)
Dragging slow from nose to tail…
My butler held me one time and we went riding…
I felt like a cowpup.

She told me that you learn a little more every time you ride one…
Their stride allows you to observe the tall, feathery, shoots…
Tranquil, maybe even philosophical…
Like going on a pilgrimage to pray.

The pace of nature is like that…
When it feels like a highway it means our brains are working too fast…
When we feel it’s heartbeat we become like the wind and the sea…
And it becomes our most thoughtful teacher.

You know, it’s never too late to wonder…
Just because something scares you, doesn’t mean you’re not going to be okay…
It is never too late to make peace with all your enemies…
Because in reality, our enemies are the shadows that we ourselves cast (Lao.)

With nature you never have to apologize for being yourself…
You are simply another of Her creations…
Consider the mule…
Never in a hurry, just plodding along its way.

I love you,

Annie

This is for my friends who are grieving…

As a pup, I can feel the grief that hides inside you…
Nourishing itself on itself…
Like a hole in your best pair of britches…
In that same sing song voice.

Yes, life can be brutal…
Leaving wounds, some that will never go away…
Why do humans imagine them over and over in every detail?
Until the camera turns dizzy.

Can I come and share some words?
For just one minute can you step out of sadness’s way?
Take a deep breath and try to let go…
Even if it feels like no other option fits in your brain.

Perhaps being sad holds a powerful meaning…
I believe there are notes in the margin of the book…
Hold it like a mother holds her baby…
And in time it will go to sleep.

Right now, it’s like a horse in a sideways canter…
300 days from now it will be different…
That urge for more life is like a child waiting at your door…
Have the courage to let her in.

I love you,

Annie