Feeling your way, finding your rhythm takes time when you are facing something new. We have to propel our way forward, get some movement going, as well as maintain balance and direction. So many things can go wrong: too deep, not deeply enough, steer right to head left and left to head right…instructions can be so confusing.

We lose patience and want to understand how to be exact in what we are doing…especially if there is an audience: people are watching…expecting us to fall into the murky waters below that await the inexperienced.

The lesson I experienced whilst punting in Oxford, England is that friends and even people you don’t know are willing to support your efforts to learn and help you push away from collision when they see it coming…and that, yes, it’s okay if it takes time to gain momentum. Try in spite of the possibilities of not winning or not succeeding – imagine not making the effort at all. We may remain ‘safe’ but no action at all…gets us?

Venture out, take a chance … go on, you can do it!

Mozella Perry Ademiluyi

www.mozellaonthemountain.com (blog)

www.loveisamountain.com (website)

In my travels, I have seen many historic sites that chronicle the rise and fall of great civilizations – sometimes we know what happened, other times we speculate. Do we go “too far” causing us to begin again, forcing us back to square one?

We enjoy our technological advances and especially revel in the modern ways in which we communicate with each other. Perhaps it is the old fashioned in me that looks back on the good ole’ days when we called each other!

I feel we have lost something very important – actually many things. I am not totally convinced that what we have replaced the old ways with is capable of nourishing our souls. Perhaps this is part of our problem. The customs of people naturally connected to themselves and our earth draw the interests of many of us. We gravitate toward some of their simpler and deeper ways of being and doing.

We may not want to replace any of our modern day conveniences or new ways of doing things. However, is there a genuine substitute for the ability and privilege of touching, and hearing one another?

Just reflecting,

Mozella Perry Ademiluyi

www.mozellaonthemountain.com (blog)

www.loveisamountain.com (website)

I do not claim to be a photographer, though I have a newfound pleasure in capturing nature, odd pieces and the simple and exotic experiences as they appear in my book of life. Sometimes pictures trigger my writing, other times a picture I took before stands ready to complement my thoughts.

Real, not photo-shopped pictures of life can reveal so much. Like nature, music, art and words, pictures can touch a nerve in us and unravel a myriad of thoughts and feelings that otherwise would be hidden from view.

Soooo, I’m walking down the path, set to enjoy a sunrise on Aquia Creek (before the start of my Girl Scout – Camp CEO morning) and on the way down I see this beautiful leaf hanging by a mere thread, suspended right in the middle of the path. I wonder what that industrious spider was thinking.  Striking – click, click, this I must share, it will not be here for long.

Think of all the terrain you have covered in your lifetime. How do you choose to express it all?  Look at something today; savor it, then try to save it.

In the flow,

Mozella Perry Ademiluyi

www.mozellaonthemountain.com (blog)

www.loveisamountain.com (website)

I have never been a Girl Scout…until last week, well, sort of!

Many of us volunteer our time – year round – to make a difference in someone else’s life.
It’s only when you get in the dirt and play, especially with our young people, that you realize what a huge impact sharing stories and exchanging ideas can actually have.

Camping out, (that’s my cabin!) creating and learning together, laughter, songs, the good outdoors and even surviving ‘being without’ all bring invaluable lessons and real life skills. Imagine if every 16 year old could talk with and ask an adult (other than their parents of course!) questions about the ins and outs of life’s journeys. Imagine enriching your own life by participating in a young person’s education.

If you are not an active volunteer somewhere, someone in your own backyard needs YOU (not just your money). We can do so much to help and it begins with asking the ‘how’ and ‘what’ questions.

Go on … earn your badges,

Mozella Perry Ademiluyi

www.mozellaonthemountain.com (blog)

www.loveisamountain.com (website)

It was a beautiful, striking sight – and because the sun does look like it is falling, I could hear a panicked Chicken Little declare, “the sky is falling, the sky is falling”.

We cause our earth to ooze thick black muck and we dump mounds of refuse on a daily basis like cancer cells spreading throughout a warm body … and many of us wonder how She holds it all.

I am grateful our sky has not fallen – that our moon still remembers her rhythmic cycle and that Earth’s astounding beauty bursts forth in spite of us. We string together words and ideas like “environmental clean-up” and “garbage disposal” – but where do we really put it all? What part of our earth ‘deserves’ our growing debris?

Yet, our sun rises in the east and sets in the west even in New York, Lagos and Hong Kong!
I sometimes wonder, is She holding her breath…waiting to exhale?

Do what you can to help…

Mozella Perry Ademiluyi

www.mozellaonthemountain.com (blog)

www.loveisamountain.com (website)

Take a good look at the word “mindlessness” – does it have a negative or positive ring to you?
Imagine for a minute a space or place where you have no agenda: you simply empty out and do no thing… nothing.

We perform countless tasks throughout our day, many of them leaving us emotionally, mentally and physically exhausted…how do we sustain our pace without any real breaks?

Then, I think, how shortsighted we can all be by not creating the space we need right where we are, not just on annual vacations. We can claim the opportunity – every day – to stop the madness, slow down, close our eyes, be grateful and simply breathe: each of us can create our own ritual.

Shut the computer down, recycle the newspaper, cut the live feeds of all the bad news on television and let go…it is more than a notion, I know…and you know too. However, this week, twice each day, try giving yourself a mini-vacation at your home…something, anything small – make it special.

Take a break, now…

Mozella Perry Ademiluyi

www.mozellaonthemountain.com (blog)

www.loveisamountain.com (website)

As a young student in Uganda, one of the many poems we were required to recite was “My Shadow” by Robert Louis Stevenson. It is amazing how effortlessly I recall the singsong manner in which I learned: “I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me, and what can be the use of him is more than I can see…..”

Two weeks ago, as I was walking on the beach, you will not believe whom I ran into — my shadow!  Of course, my nine-year-old voice immediately began: I have a little shadow that went in and out with me! But wait, my shadow was long and not little at all – I was a giant (thank you morning sun!)

I remember the Benjamin Disraeli quote that “life is too short to be little”. Now, isn’t that a powerful belief to wake up to every morning?

We cannot remind ourselves enough to think big, and be bold not only in how we express ourselves, but also through our daily actions. What really is the point of being and doing otherwise – to make Mary or Joe more comfortable, or, is it ourselves we need to convince?

Go on…be big!

Mozella Perry Ademiluyi

www.mozellaonthemountain.com (blog)

www.loveisamountain.com (website)

Being in the driver’s seat requires both a steady hand and one flexible enough to adjust one’s navigation plan to accommodate the inevitable bumps in the road.

The real captain of this vessel dubbed me “Captain Zig Zag” as I battled the waves in an attempt to maintain a ‘straight course’.

Even with aircraft, there may be several course corrections as a plane speeds toward its destination. The pilot tells us he will change the flight plan to go around a storm – though frequent turbulence feels like he chose instead to fly right through it. Or, did it appear without any warning…quite unexpectedly?

Have you ever been caught completely by surprise in one of life’s storms? Whether by sea, air or road, they tell us to fasten our seatbelt for the ride!

I read (in a ‘vacation novel’ of all places) that God sends us the weather…what we do with it or what it does to us depends on how skilled a navigator we are.

Hold on, but not too tightly,

Mozella Perry Ademiluyi

www.mozellaonthemountain.com (blog)

www.loveisamountain.com (website)

Most of us have run into the phrase that states we must have a “burning desire” for what we want to achieve in life. In another context, we have no problem understanding the word ‘burning”.
From the weather many of you have felt over this past week or so, that word holds a literal meaning.

Do you believe you have the capacity to feel as hot about something – a personal or professional goal maybe – to follow through with the right actions?

Our sun’s rays demonstrate what the power of intensity can create – for good or not so good. The gifts of symbolism help us apply the meaning of many experiences in our lives. So if you struggle trying to figure out how badly you need to want something to qualify it as a ‘burning desire’, just think about how consuming heat can be, even in the shade.

Do you have a burning desire to lose weight? For starters, when choosing what to drink, practice these two simple words: “Water, please”.

Thank you Sun,

Mozella Perry Ademiluyi

www.mozellaonthemountain.com(blog)

www.loveisamountain.com(website)

Are you ever looking from the outside, trying to figure out or reach for something on the inside… or vice versa? Why are we rarely satisfied with what is…how can we ‘be’ with where we are and achieve this “living in the moment” everyone talks about?

It may sound like a whimsical dream to some because it is so easy to find ourselves where we are not. Am I making sense?

Windows, mirrors, appearances or simply our refusal to see and acknowledge can support our illusions – what is real, what belongs where? But then, who decides where what belongs anyway…

Confused? So am I, and that is all part of the fun of being here right now! And, by the way, I was outside photographing indoors in case you were wondering…great picture, yes?

bare feet in the sand feels good…go find some,

Mozella Perry Ademiluyi

www.mozellaonthemountain.com(blog)

www.loveisamountain.com(website)