and all of them are correct

There are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

Rumi

eat

We are living in a world today where lemonade is made from artificial flavors and furniture polish is made from real lemons.

Alfred E. Newman

Did you know that organic does not necessarily mean non-GMO?

And certainly, non-GMO doesn't necessarily mean organic.

I hope we can figure out what is real...before it is too late.

the case of the missing contact

Put in contacts.

Get in shower.

Dry off.

Put towels on floor to put in laundry.

Get dressed.

Comb hair.

Notice that right eye is blurry...blurrier than usual.

Take contact case into hall bathroom to hold contacts while I switch left to right eye and right to left eye--just in case I got them mixed up (it has happened before)--because Mijo is in the sink in the master bath.

Start to take out contact from right eye.

NOT THERE!

Pick up all the towels and shake them.

Pick up all the rugs and shake them.

Crawl on hands and knees into the closet to look for a small blue plastic disk.

Examine the shower stall.

Nada.

Walking around in stocking feet, the seam in the toe of my sock irritates me.

Reach down to adjust the seam on my toe.

Feel a foreign object.

A small, concave (or convex, depending upon your perspective) plastic disk.

TADA!

Put it in my eye.

Better.

Much better.

Thank you, Beloved. Love your sense of humor. In the toe of my sock--really?

act wisely

Prayer is not an old woman's idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action.

Mohandas Gandhi

How many times have I said, "All I can do is pray," feeling as though I am doing next to nothing. Feeling I am not doing enough.

Truth is, nothing better can be done in some moments. And in some moments, prayer is all I can do--all anyone needs me to do.

Of course, other times call for other actions, too. In those instances, prayer is a special condiment.

love thursday 01.27.11 ~ the beloved other

Be kind and merciful. Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier.

Mother Teresa

It is ever so much easier to love those we recognize as part of us--those who are like us (at least we think so). The reality is...we are all "like us" in more ways than we recognize. Even those people I "other-ize" because their beliefs make no sense to me are like me--connected to me even.

Elizabeth Lesser suggests that we "Take the Other to Lunch." I suggest that if we don't (or can't) do it literally, we can still be more kind, curious, understanding, and tolerant. Let's start by just listening.

there is no movement without rhythm

i am very pleased when i can remember all three things on my grocery list when i've forgotten the list at home

team orange update

First you read this.

Now see the movie....

dreamin'

I wake up with new dreams every day. And the more you do, when you're a dreamer, the more everything creates other arenas you can go into. It's like a tree with many branches, and branches with many leaves.

Dolly Parton

I used to keep a dream journal and record my dreams every day. At times, I would remember three dreams per night (or morning, as the case may be). I still pay attention to my dreams and parse them when I have enough to remember. Even a snippet is sometimes enough to get a message through to me.

And then there are the dreams of the future...

Opening. Motivating. Finding a vision to pursue--something worth wanting. The Dalai Lama says that without desire, we have no motivation. Dream and desire enough to move.

Dream on. It's possible.

know thyself

(yes, he really does sleep like that)

Compassion for the other comes out of our ability to accept ourselves. Until we realize both our own weaknesses and our own privileges, we can never tolerate lack of status and depth of weakness in the other.

Joan Chittister

Hard work. Knowing one's own light and shadow. One's own privilege and oppression. Knowing these brings us closer to that oneness I've been talking about.

We've all got it all. And when we figure that out, we will be able to sleep like HoneyBoy--feathers up. Vulnerable and safe...all at once.

The Beloved surrounds the beloved.

Ahhh....

on the mark

love thursday 01.20.11 ~ team orange

I have no better message of love today than this.

ah...sun

Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you.

Jan Goldstein
Sacred Wounds

The days are getting longer. Not by much. I am sure it is only by about one minute per day, yet somehow, I can feel it. I need to know it is true this time of year. I need to know that the light returns.

I gotta tell you...I want to go to the islands. Me wan' go home.

vocation

I never had any doubt that I was going to spend my life in music. We used to come down in his rickety car any time we could beg, borrow, or steal enough money for gas. We'd clean up in service stations. I'd wash my hair in those old, cold sinks and put my makeup on in the mirrors in the car. Through it all, there wasn't ever a time I thought I wasn't going to make it.

Dolly Parton

And that, my friends, is what it takes to become an overnight sensation!

non-conformity

The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace, and brotherhood.

Martin Luther King Jr.

At last...a place I fit!

Happy birthday, Martin. (I know it isn't the day, but it is the day we are having your party.)

And thanks...for everything.

done

We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community... Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for our own.

Cesar Chavez

I watched the movie Pi. Made in 1997, it was intriguing and well done. The main character is a mathematician who is looking for the meaning of life through numbers. He is plagued with excruciating headaches and no treatment helps.

Two factions seek his help--the sacred and the profane. A group of Jewish mystics want him to find the number that represents the true name of God. They start out by befriending him and engaging his curiosity. He is also under surveillance by a faction who want to use the patterns he finds to make money on Wall Street. They bribe him with a state of the art computer chip.

In the end, both groups resort to violence. Their motive? Greed. The greed of the religious and the mundane both lead to violence.

At the end of the movie, SO and I debriefed as we often do and these words fell out of my mouth without my even thinking about them: "I am done with violence."

I feel angry sometimes. I sometimes even feel my animal nature want to strike out violently when I feel threatened or taken advantage of. So it isn't that I never feel the urge to violence. I'm just done because...violence solves nothing.

Even when I don't strike out physically, but my tone of voice conveys hurtful energy, I end up having to apologize before we can move on to connection and solution. Violence is so passé.

I hope we figure this out. Soon. Before it is too late.

[On another note: One year ago today, my dad left us. Anniversary times are strange. We are still adjusting and getting used to his being gone. I hope he is getting used to where he is now, too. We love you and miss you, Dad.]

we are the third side

I love the story at the beginning!

self-compassion

A moment of self-compassion can change the course of your entire day. A string of such moments can change the course of your life.

Christopher K. Germer

I'm reading Awakening Joy: 10 Steps That Will Put You on the Road to Real Happiness. The suggestions in this book are in line with current brain research--that it is not just what we think that matters (although it does), but what are the sensations we experience with those thoughts.

The sensations that go along with compassion--such as a warm and expansive heart--make a difference. Especially when offered to oneself.

love thursday 01.13.11 ~ bonus: mansuetude

For indeed, it is possible to attain a state of divine mansuetude that nothing dismays and nothing surprises, just as one in love might, after many years, arrive at a sublime tranquillity of the sentiments, sure of their force and durability, through constant experience of their pleasures and pains.

Honoré de Balzac
Jordan Stump
Adam Gopnik
The Wrong Side of Paris

So I forgot it was Thursday...sue me!

Rather than deleting my post and starting over, I am giving you a bonus! Doesn't everyone need a bonus now and then? The Beloved knows that after my day yesterday, a bonus would be a good idea.

Your bonus today: mansuetude.

Happy Love Thursday!

random thoughts mid week

To set up what you like against what you dislike is the disease of the mind.

Sengtsan

I can't walk upstairs and blow my nose at the same time.

The icons of my youth are dwindling. (Good-bye, David Nelson.)

Any day we both get out of bed is a good day.

Suit up and show up--the rest is up to the Beloved.

It makes no sense to me that a long time customer (i.e., more than 20 years...ME!) should have to pay $50 more than a new customer. Where is the customer loyalty and why should I have any?

Why does my hair look great right before a haircut?

I have not yet found a way to adjust my own collarbone. Sometimes you just have to have a chiropractor.

It is what it is.

compassion

Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism - how passionately I hate them!

Albert Einstein

I keep thinking about words. Our need for them has not diminished since we humans still can't communicate telepathically with any reliability. My capacity for finding them still evades me more often than I would like.

I struggle with how often words of war and competition come to my mind, lips, or fingertips as I try to express my thoughts and feelings. Language is symbolic. It reflects our understanding of how the world works--what occurs in our relationships and interactions with others. Apparently, I am very much knee deep in the world and culture of dualism--either this or that...up or down...win or lose.

Is it possible that we can find another place to stand? I know that we are animals and react--as well as respond--from our animal instincts. We do, after all, have reptile brains and try as we might, our capacity for being rational doesn't eliminate the precognitive, tongue-flicking responses hard wired in us.

Yet, knowing that my reflexes precede me, I still want to find another way to express myself. I want to find--or create if need be--language of compassion without comparison. Appreciation of the is-ness of myself and others.

This isn't just "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything." I know it can sound like that sometimes. What I really desire, is awareness. Awareness without violence. Awareness of differences and willingness to accept those.

Compassionate awareness. That's it. Compassion is not the opposite of hatred, but of violence.

not funny

No loss by flood and lightning, no destruction of cities and temples by the hostile forces of nature, has deprived man of so many noble lives and impulses as those which his intolerance has destroyed.

Helen Keller

I am at the tail end of my cold. At least I hope I am. Still blowing my nose--a lot. Now I have a pimple in my nose. Not fair. Not funny.

I will spare you all of the other betrayals of bodily function. I am getting better. You might not think so if you were to hear me, though.

On this auspicious date--01.11.11--may your life be full of oneness!

aim higher

Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality.

Thoreau

Strangely, I seem to be out of words this morning. I'll just leave you to meditate on these words of Thoreau.

I'd be delighted to hear what you have to share....

oneness

Let there be such oneness between us, that when one cries, the other tastes salt.

Unknown

It is time for each of us to feel the other's pain. Enough hatred and violence. Enough us v. them. We don't have to agree for me to know that you bleed when I cut you. That I'll die if you shoot me.

Ending the life of our perceived enemy is not the answer. It never has been. Truth marches on. We still have disagreements. We still think we know the answers that the other guy just doesn't see.

There is another way. Truly.

I am so sad about the shooting in Tucson. I am afraid that if we don't start to look at answers and see a different way, we will end up with much more bloodshed right here on our soil.

Behaviors must change--including our speech. Politicians must be responsible for their words and images. I must be responsible for mine. One person at a time can make a difference...and only one person at a time can.

the importance of language

A fervent Buddhist lady made every effort to love others. But every time she went to the market, a merchant made indecent proposals to her.

One rainy morning, when the man bothered her once again, she lost control and hit him on the face with her umbrella.

That same afternoon, she sought out a monk and told him what had happened.
“I am ashamed,” she said. “I couldn’t control my hate.”

“You did wrong to hate him,” answered the monk. ” But life is about communicating our feelings to each other – and you need to understand that people are different”.

“The next time he says something, fill your heart with goodness.

“And hit him again with your umbrella, because that’s the only language he knows.”

from Paulo Coelho's blog

my princess boy

Remember what I said about the Universal Underworld? No more Us v. Them. It's about unity. 2011 is the year.

Check this out.


Another video:

love thursday 01.06.11 ~ neti pot affair

You will lose someone you can’t live without,and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesn’t seal back up. And you come through. It’s like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly—that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp.

Anne Lamott

Top ten reasons why sometimes that's as good as it gets:

10. While I am home with my neti pot I am not out spending money I don't have.

9. While I am home with my neti pot I am not out spending the dollar I do have in my pocket.

8. It need not be clandestine.

7. I am productive--even if it is in a mucus-y sort of way.

6. It's one more thing I can do that is natural (as opposed to pharmaceutical...not that pouring water through one's nose is "natural").

5. I can pretend I am an evolved being...like a yogi (not Yogi Bear).

4. My lips are sore...unfortunately, not from kissing but from breathing through my mouth. An encounter with neti pot gives me reprieve...even though brief.

3. We can engage several times a day.

2. A sneeze is a miniature, nose-centered orgasm.

1. SO is not jealous.

Happy Love Thursday!

fever

101.3

I'll try to rally for Love Thursday.

2/11/11 to 10/28/11: universal underworld of the mayan calendar

You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.

Buckminster Fuller

There's a new world coming, they say. The Universal Underworld is all about unity. No more us and them. That would make the existing model obsolete.

voiceless

We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.

Plato

The bad news is my ears hurt and I have no voice. The good news is...I am better than yesterday. May the trend continue.

hoping for a short lived crud

For all that has been, THANKS! For all that will be, YES!

Dag Hammarskjold

I got it. Apparently, I breathed too much of SO's air.

Will she be well enough to go to work on Monday? Only the Beloved knows.

hello 2011

First, a few of my favorite photos of 2010:












Word for 2011:

Beloved

More than once, you who visit often have heard me say, "I'm a mystic." My definition of mystic is one whose spirituality is defined by her relationship with the Beloved.

I'm no Hafiz...nor Rumi. My words may never be so profound nor poetic. The Beloved only wants me. Just as I am. Authentically, whole-heartedly me. (Thanks, Brené.)

For New Year's Eve, I had planned to spend time with my beloved chosen family having a celebratory meal. However, my beloved SO was bedridden with the crud (so much so that I really didn't want to be in the same room breathing the same air). Instead, the Beloved and I spent time hanging out--getting reacquainted. You see, the Beloved wants me to know that I am beloved, too.

No doubt, I will be seeing the Beloved everywhere this year...including in myself...and you.

Glorious! Just glorious.