love thursday 12.31.09 ~ tough love

(and this is honeyboy's favorite place to sleep)

"Tough love" is just the right phrase: love for the rich and privileged, tough for everyone else.

~ Noam Chomsky ~
Powers and Prospects (1996)

The last post of 2009 arrives on Love Thursday. Poetic.

I did it. I posted every day of 2009. I haven't yet decided whether I will make the same attempt in 2010, but it is appealing.

Thank you all for joining me on this journey and I hope you'll keep coming around to visit and comment.

Have a wonderful New Year celebration. Be safe. Be happy.

Be love.

sink

When peoples care for you and cry for you, they can straighten out your soul.

~ Langston Hughes ~
from his short story "Last Whipping"

I got up in the middle of the night, as is my wont, to heed a certain call of nature.

Mijo was asleep in the sink. It's pretty much the right size...for now. Hope he doesn't outgrow it.

olio

(i miss the beach)

I have often maintained that the best poet is ... the baker who ... does [the] majestic and unpretentious work of kneading the dough, consigning it to the oven, baking it in golden colours and handing us our daily bread as a duty of fellowship.

~ Pablo Neruda ~
Chilean poet and 1971 Nobel Laureate in Literature
(1904-1973)

It took me 12 hours to bring my anger to a manageable state so I didn't blow someone's head off when I called. Finally, when I did call the person I needed to speak to wasn't in. No return call today either. We'll see what happens tomorrow. If they don't call tomorrow, I believe I will fire them. Something about that brings me peace so it is likely the right thing to do.

Mars and Mercury retrograde at the same time wreak havoc on my ability to communicate clearly without going nuclear. I am proud of myself for waiting.

What you see above is the Oregon coast...Cannon Beach to be exact. However, I get to go to Hawaii in May. The arrangements have been made. The tide is in motion.

Only two more posts this year and it will end on Love Thursday. How perfect is that?

If someone can tie all these things together for me into a cohesive piece, I will be forever impressed. It is what it is.

happy holidays from lisbon airport

I dare you to watch the whole thing without smiling at least once....



Happy Monday!

sunday with the vicar

I discovered The Vicar of Dibley on DVD several months ago. Loved it. The characters are uniquely wonderful.

One of the characters is Jim. Jim stutters...



The one I really love is Alice, and this is one of my favorite bits that she did with the vicar (Dawn French)...



My favorite part of the show is at the end of each episode when the vicar tells Alice a joke...



Have a happy Sunday. I hope this finds you well.

i love everything about hawaii except perhaps the chair

christmas 2009 ~ a love story

This is what I want for Christmas...



Merry Christmas and much love to everyone.

love thursday 12.24.09 ~ christmas eve...updated because i forgot it was thursday...duh

True religion is the life we lead, not the creed we profess.

~ Louis Nizer ~
(1902-1994)
American Lawyer

Guess what I've been doing....

All of those and more, I wrapped today. I am the Christmas elf this year. Christmas central. It's a good thing. Now I just have to get everything delivered to the right people at the right time.

Whatever holiday you celebrate this season, I wish you warmth, light, love, and enough. And even if you don't exchange tangible gifts, I wish you the gift of peace.

UPDATE: Can you believe I forgot it was Love Thursday on this of all Thursdays? So I came back and retitled it--because it works.

Happy Love Thursday everyone! And Merry Christmas.

winter

(look at that! shine a light in my right eye and it comes out my left ear.)

You must wait and listen for the sound of the genuine that is within you. When you hear it, that will be your voice and the Voice of God.

~ Howard Thurman ~
American author, civil rights leader, and theologian (1899-1981)

Winter is the season for introspection. I tend to go within and hang out there. It's dark. It's cold. It is a time of death in preparation for the new birth.

I manage through the holiday season, though much of the time I don't feel very social. I'll join in the festivities and it is good to be with family.

The best thing about the day after Solstice is that now the days are getting longer. More light...more life. There is hope.

a good reason not to grow up

(mijo in the kitty tent--a gift from an admirer)

Dov Beer de Mezeritch was asked:
“Which example should one follow? That of pious men, who devote their lives to God? That of scholars, who seek to understand the will of the Almighty?"

“The best example is that of the child,” he answered.

“A child knows nothing. It hasn’t yet learned what reality is,” people commented.

“You are all quite wrong, for a child possesses three qualities we should never forget,” said Dov Beer. “They are always joyful without reason. They are always busy. And when they want something, they know how to demand it firmly and with determination.”

~ from Paulo Coelho's blog ~

Oh...to be joyful without reason!

blessed

(i hope that is the number of angels standing behind me)

You must take living so seriously that even at seventy, for example, you'll plant olive trees -- and not for your children, either, but because although you fear death you don't believe it, because living, I mean, weighs heavier.

~ Nazim Hikmet ~
Turkish poet, persecuted during the Cold War for his communist views
(1901-1963)

Ninety-nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine. I got a picture of 100,000, too, but somehow 99,999 seemed more significant in light of my love of repeating numbers.

Now, if my car will just make it another 100,000 miles with no major issues, I will be very happy. (My body, too, for that matter.)

Happy Solstice! I am so looking forward to the days getting longer. I looked at the Farmer's Almanac for sunrise/sunset information. We get 9 hours of daylight right now. Welcome back, Light.

healing

(honeyboy & mijo @ 9 pounds)

Sometimes success depends not just on what the doctor does--it is what he doesn't do.

~ Hippocrates ~
400 BC

My reaction to the second treatment has not been as intense as to the first. I hope that is a good thing.

Thanks for all your good wishes. I am hopeful that this process will be successful. Sometimes it takes a series of treatments to achieve the desired outcome, but it is still better than having surgery. As my Primary Care Doc said, "Anything to keep you out of surgery."

At this point...I agree.

hop along

Thanks for the good wishes. The procedure went well and I am doing okay. Not in much pain at the moment.

More later....

friday before christmas

Today I have the second set of therapy injections on my ankle and knee. Hopefully, I will get pictures again and see if anything has changed visibly.

Wish me luck.

I'm sure I'll have more to say later.

love thursday 12.17.09 ~ what the world needs now is love sweet love...that's the only thing that there's just too little of

(sooc)

When it comes down to being a provider of God's love, there is really only one provider, who sends us out with nothing at all and with everything we need: healing, forgiveness, restoration, resurrection. Those are the only things we really have to share with the world, which is just as well, since they are the only things the world really needs.

~ Barbara Brown Taylor~
from her book Bread of Angels

I loved Dionne Warwick when I was in high school. Still do love that music. Corny and funky as some of it was, the lyrics still contained truth. Love. What more do we need? The rest falls into place.

what were we thinking?

When the jet rose six miles high, it was clear that the earth was round and that it had more sea than land. But it was difficult to understand that the [people] on the earth found causes to hate each other, to build walls across cities and to kill. From that height, it was not clear why.

~ Zulfikar Ghose ~
from his poem "Geography Lesson"

gifts

(more of nemo's neighbors in the lobby of my dad's residence)

The gift of insults
by Paulo Coelho

Near Tokyo lived a great Samurai warrior, now old, who decided to teach Zen Buddhism to young people. In spite of his age, the legend was that he could defeat any adversary.

One afternoon, a warrior – known for his complete lack of scruples – arrived there. He was famous for using techniques of provocation: he waited until his adversary made the first move and, being gifted with an enviable intelligence in order to repair any mistakes made, he counterattacked with fulminating speed.

The young and impatient warrior had never lost a fight. Hearing of the Samurai’s reputation, he had come to defeat him, and increase his fame.

All the students were against the idea, but the old man accepted the challenge.

All gathered on the town square, and the young man started insulting the old master. He threw a few rocks in his direction, spat in his face, shouted every insult under the sun – he even insulted his ancestors. For hours, he did everything to provoke him, but the old man remained impassive. At the end of the afternoon, by now feeling exhausted and humiliated, the impetuous warrior left.

Disappointed by the fact that the master had received so many insults and provocations, the students asked: "How could you bear such indignity? Why didn’t you use your sword, even knowing you might lose the fight, instead of displaying your cowardice in front of us all?"

"If someone comes to you with a gift, and you do not accept it, who does the gift belong to?" asked the Samurai.

"He who tried to deliver it," replied one of his disciples.

"The same goes for envy, anger and insults," said the master. "When they are not accepted, they continue to belong to the one who carried them."

christmas shopping

...is almost done. Now I wait for the goods to arrive in the mail.

Maybe one of these days blogging will move closer to the top of my list again. Thanks for hanging in there with me.

How about you? How's the holiday shopping coming?

even in the little things

Even as we use experimental science and mathematical logic to reveal the laws and structure of the physical universe, a series of important questions will always remain, including the sources of those laws and the reason for there being a universe in the first place.

~ Kenneth Miller ~ from his book
Finding Darwin's God

I have always loved mathematics: arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus. I love it all. At one point, I thought about majoring in mathematics, but decided that I would be happier in the arts. Is that true? Probably. But I still love mathematics.

Math describes the order of the universe. For the early mathematicians, the study attempted to understand God. While it may not reveal a personal God to all of us, it does describe the order that exists in all things.

Maybe that is why I like to balance my checkbook to the penny.

That...and the fact that I run it so close, I have to be sure it balances so I don't overdraw.

waiting

(nemo's neighbor)

Sitting at the feet of the Divine with an attentive ... heart is a posture we all long to assume, whether we recognize that longing or not.

~ Sue Monk Kidd ~
American author and memoirist

Waiting is a good time to sit at the feet of the divine. And that makes it much easier not to get all twitterpated, tweaked, and pissed off.

conversation between darryl and wanda

(from the comic strip Baby Blues--they
own all the rights...i just think it's funny)

Wanda: So while I'm changing Wren's diaper, Hammie puts a big booger on Zoe's plate and she barfs all over the kitchen!

Darryl: Here. You can have the rest of my tapioca.

Wanda: One of the benefits of motherhood is that after a while nothing grosses you out.

love thursday 12.10.09 ~ sleep

I love to sleep. I love sleeping in. This was sunrise in Victoria...when I wasn't asleep.

Okay. Some things are worth being awake for.

Happy Love Thursday!

question...

When you leave a comment, do you click the box to be notified of future comments on the post?

Just wondering. Sometimes I come back and leave an additional comment on your comments and I didn't know if you get them when I do that.

Happy birthday,
Dayle
Danny
Monique
Barry.

hugs all around

you become what you do

You become what you do. We are shaped from the outside in ... So we do the Works of Mercy, we bend and we kneel, even when our head is clouded and our spirit is grudging. We cross ourselves even as our faith fails. We light candles and sing "O Radiant Light, O Sun Divine," even when the world seems dark.

~ Mary Margaret Nussbaum ~
from her essay
"Hope Is Our Means"

My mom is here visiting. My dad's birthday is today. He's 87.

I also get to celebrate another birthday today. This one happened last month and we are just getting together.

Portland
to Forest Grove
to Portland
to Bonneville
to Portland
to Forest Grove
to Portland.

You become what you do...

I wonder if that means I will become a car.

Happy birthday, Dad.

time and place

I am somehow less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.

~ Stephen Jay Gould ~
American evolutionary biologist
(1941-2002)

Time and place. What gives one person the chance and not another? How does one "fall into the family business" of--oh, say...stage and screen. And another fall into the family business of garbage.

Is opportunity made or born?

Surely, there have been others as smart and as talented. What would the world be like if we could recognize them all right here...right now?

We have what it takes to turn the planet toward well-being. We just have to tap the human resources--not just the natural ones.

visitor?

(mijo and me...because honeyboy doesn't
hold still long enough to take pictures)

I look upon everything as a brotherhood and a sisterhood, and I look upon time as no more than an idea, and I consider eternity as another possibility ... When it's over, I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to amazement. I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms ... I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.

~ Mary Oliver ~
from her poem "When Death Comes"

I'd like to live that way, too.

recognize

(i was sitting at the table eating lunch. i looked
down and this is what i saw: mijo was lying on
his back sleeping with his butt on my foot. now
tell me that doesn't melt your heart.)

If our lives demonstrate that we are peaceful, humble and trusted, this is recognized by others. If our lives demonstrate something else, that will be noticed too.

~ Rosa Parks ~
civil rights activist
(1913-2005)

Have a happy weekend.
May you be recognized for who you truly are.

nys senators diane savino and ruth hassell-thomson speak on the marriage equality bill

Yeah. What she said....



And her, too.

love thursday 12.03.09 ~ love of country

Social advance depends as much upon the process through which it is secured as upon the result itself.

~ Jane Addams ~
Nobel Peace Prize laureate, social worker, sociologist, and suffragist
(1860-1935)

No single ideology or political stripe gets to lay claim to love of country. Not having the same beliefs or political aims certainly challenges the day to day process of working out the details; however, neither of us gets to say the other doesn't love their country.

What matters is that we continue to work for a structure that meets the needs of the people...and that we do so respectfully.

The process matters.

grief

I was teaching in the rural northwest and a man said, "Grief is like telephone poles!" I asked him to explain, and he said, "I used to install telephone poles, and they can shake and fall. I told my partner that I would run if the pole started to fall. But he said, 'No, if it starts to fall, the safest thing to do is to head toward it and stand right up against it.' With grief, the healing is always found in the middle of suffering; the only safe place to be is with both hands right on it."

~ Frank Ostaseski ~

Is all sadness grief? I don't know. Maybe. Maybe the sadness is about the loss of something...anything. What might have been.

11:11

(reflection in the mirror in the window)

Coincidence is when God chooses to remain anonymous.

~ Unknown ~

Lately, I have been noticing repeating numbers more than usual. 11:11...3:33...2:22--or sometimes 222.2 miles on my odometer. Twos have taken the front row. Any pattern can appear, though. One of my favorites is 12:34.

There is a movement afoot of those who are noticing 11:11, in particular. Their belief is that it is a time prompt from a group of Spirit Guardians--just 1111 in number--reminding us of their presence.

Sheldon Kopp, a psychologist/psychotherapist and author of many books including If You Meet Buddha on the Road, Kill Him, said--and this is not a direct quote--that we choose the myths we live by so we might as well choose ones we like. I've thought about that a lot.

For several months, I have been walking in faith. Sometimes I don't know where my foot will land with the next step, but I keep walking. I pray, asking for guidance and reassurance, and I have decided that each time I see a repeating number or a number sequence like this, it is a reminder to me that God is with me. The Beloved is on my side and I am reassured that my foot will fall on something that will bear my weight. Once I decided to believe that numbers are gifts to remind me, I started seeing them even more often--multiple times each day.

11:11 and 222.2 to you, my friend. After all, aren't numbers just a reflection in the mirror in the window?