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I thought it would be easier to post from here. Maybe not. More experimenting to come.

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droid x

I was hoping to be able to post from my Droid. Haven't figured out yet how to make that work, but work on it, I will.

Enjoy your weekend.

from the sublime to the mundane

(on the left--not a ray of light...but whiskers!)

Ever since you asked me to write for you and your friends about the spiritual life, I have been wondering if there might be one word I would most want you to remember when you finished reading all I wish to say. Over the past year, that special word has gradually emerged from the depths of my own heart. It is the word "Beloved," and I am convinced that it has been given to me for the sake of you and your friends.

Henri Nouwen

All of it--the sublime to the mundane--is of the Beloved.

Yesterday, the sublime--spa day. Today, the mundane--all day CEU workshop. I am trying to remind myself that it is all from the Beloved.

Even the quotes are from the Beloved.

So...how was your spa day?

love thursday 04.28.11 ~ spa day

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"

Mary Oliver

from her poem "The Summer Day"

In keeping with "birthday month," yesterday I got a Tai massage (yes...that is how they spell it) and today I am going to the hot springs for spa day with one of my oldest (as in longest time) friends. We have much catching up to do.

Love.

Happy Love Thursday, everyone. Spa yourself....

listing

There is no pleasure without a tincture of bitterness.

Hafiz

Things that are making me sad today...

...a racist bumper sticker against the President.

...the rain and gray skies.

...HoneyBoy chewing on me every time I pet him.

...HoneyBoy losing another collar.

...blackbird not surviving the winter.

...my car in the shop again so they can fix a problem they caused.

...my car was supposed to be back by noon--it wasn't.



Things that are making me happy today...

...the Beloved.

...the rain watering the lawn after I fertilize it.

...petting HoneyBoy...and Mijo...and Misi.

...Mijo finding HoneyBoy's lost collar, bringing it in with the magnet of the lost collar stuck to the collar Mijo is wearing.

...sunbreaks--for the bamboo, banana, and me.

...a motorcycle ride during a sunbreak (mostly) so that I could do something nice for SO.

...still being able to fit into my motorcycle leathers.

...new motorcycle gloves that were a gift.

...the company fixing my car was very generous trying to make it up to me that they goofed so many times.

...clean floor after sweeping.

...more sun.

...a gift of Tai massage tomorrow as part of my birthday month celebration.

...and still--the Beloved.

mri

If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Lord, have mercy...

I am not so good at remembering that. I am not so good at giving the other guy the benefit of the doubt.

One of my friends talks about the MRI. Whenever someone does or says something that is unclear, give it the MRI--Most Respectful Interpretation.

I need to apply this more broadly, in the spirit of Longfellow. More often, I need to show mercy when things don't go well. It's not that I need to be a doormat. I will not. But sometimes...

Sometimes I just need to cut people some slack.

Lord, cut me some slack...please.

see how they've grown

happy easter

(one of our new bamboo shoots)

Ever since happiness heard your name, it has been running through the streets trying to find you.

I wish I could show you when you are lonely or in the darkness, the astonishing light of your own being.

Hafiz

One spring day and everything seemed alive.

May this time bring new life and breathe into the knowing of the astonishing light of your own being.

kittens in bowls

Disclaimer: I watched with the sound off so I have no idea what the audio is.

follow up to love thursday

love thursday 04.21.11 ~ love and all that nonsense

Love sometimes wants to do us a great favor: hold us upside down and shake all the nonsense out.

Hafiz

pbr

The cold frames I built for winter didn't work out so well. However, we are putting them to use for starting the garden this wet--wet--spring. One problem...slugs.

Beer is a remedy for slugs. Did you know? Pour some beer in a shallow container, place it near the plants you want to protect and in the morning...you'll have drowned slugs. No kidding.

This evening we ate nachos at our neighborhood Mexican restaurant and with them, I had a Dos Equis. After mowing, edging, weed whacking the ditch, and blowing the sidewalk and driveway, a hoppy refreshment sounded like just what I wanted. And yes, it was good.

After supper, we stopped at the store on the way home. We needed beer for the slug traps. SO waited in the car while I ran in to get it. Cheap beer in a re-sealable container. Pabst Blue Ribbon 40 ouncer seemed like just the ticket at slightly more than $2. I grabbed a bottle and found the shortest checkout line, where I approached the conveyor to the register and stood right behind a very classy looking lady.

My trail walking shoes don't stay tied very well. Unless I specifically tie them right-over-left-left-over-right, they come untied. My normal shoe tying method is left-over-right-left-over-right. So getting these shoes to stay tied requires conscious effort on my part. I didn't do that today.

I walked up to the register conveyor, stepped on my own left shoestring with my right foot, and fell into the counter as I placed my cheap, rot gut PBR on the belt. I chuckled and commented that I stepped on my own shoelace. The classy lady smiled.

Then I thought, "Oh, man...at least she won't think I tripped because I'm drunk." Then I remembered. Dos Equis. Can she smell it on me?

"It's for the slugs...really!" I didn't say it, but I wanted to. "I don't drink this stuff. I have much better taste in beer." Honest.

imaginary friend

I love getting massage. Being a massage therapist, I have friends who are also therapists who also love getting massage. For years, I traded every week with one of my friends. He'd come see me. I'd go see him. Every week.

In my conversations with another friend, I'd tell her about our massage visits and things we talked about. She never met him. For years this went on.

Finally, she said, "I don't think he is real. I think he is your imaginary friend."

And, so...that's who he became.

One day, I was eating lunch in a sidewalk café with her when he walked by. He joined us and to her became real.

However, I so enjoyed having an imaginary friend he kept his title.

weekend delight

Stay close to any sounds that makes you glad you are alive.

Hafiz

Sun on Sunday...all day. Guess I just had to ask real nice.

Built trellises for the peas and cucumbers and the potato condo--out of reclaimed materials and used up the left over bamboo stakes.

A visit from my imaginary friend (long story).

The house is clean--and I didn't do it.

A call from another friend...just because.

Watched a movie that didn't have a single swear word in it (at least none that I remember)...and it was good.

Bamboo shoots everywhere! (Pictures to follow.)

Got the check to reimburse me for the deductible on my car repairs.

Met another neighbor and his nephew while I was outside working.

Banana is growing. (Pictures to follow of that, too.)

You?

pretty please

Even after all this time the sun never says to the Earth, “You owe me.”

Hafiz

It stopped raining. Notice I didn't say we had sun. What if the sun is thinking that the Earth owes him? (Or maybe it is just the inhabitants of the Earth who need to pay up.)

What do you want, oh Sun? Am I behind on my rent?

Oh, how I appreciate you!

Please...come back. Show your face.

education

The truly educated become conscious. They become self-aware. They do not lie to themselves. They do not pretend that fraud is moral or that corporate greed is good. They do not claim that the demands of the marketplace can morally justify the hunger of children or denial of medical care to the sick. They do not throw 6 million families from their homes as the cost of doing business.

Chris Hedges

Hey...I have an idea! Let's not defund education. Perhaps that will give us a chance to turn this ship around before it tilts on its axis.

And let's support teachers who want to (and know how to) teach kids--not just teach kids how to take tests.

I've always been a supporter of public education. I used to be a high school teacher. I have many friends and relatives who are in the profession.

How about we pay them what they are worth--especially since they hold the future in their trust.

I'm just sayin'....

signs that we are in deep doo-doo

1. Cheez-Whiz

2. anti-bacterial soap

3. plastic (in everything...see #1)

4. global warming causes earthquakes

5. having to specify and pay extra for organic

6. GMO

7. tofurkey

8. pharmaceutical companies manipulate and patent "vitamins"

9. bankers that were bailed out by the taxpayers get multi-million dollar salaries and bonuses while taxpayers continue to lose homes to foreclosure

10. Target and Walmart sell groceries

11. doctors know little about nutrition and only what drug reps tell them about pharmaceuticals

12. lobbyists write the bills that become laws

13. only the rich can run for office--regardless of how smart, educated, or knowledgeable they are

14. built in obsolescence

15. it's cheaper to buy a new printer than new ink cartridges

love thursday 04.14.11 ~ your love

Your love
Should never be offered to the mouth of a stranger,
Only to someone who has the valor and daring
To cut pieces of their soul off with a knife
Then weave them into a blanket
To protect you.

Hafiz

a prayer for peace

When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.

Jimi Hendrix

May we find the former before it is too late for the planet.

be who you are

I've been thinking about my gift message..."You don't have to."

It is amazing what can happen when we be who we are instead of doing what we think we are supposed to do.

And here is the human version:

road trip

Some people try to turn back their odometers. Not me, I want people to know why I look this way. I've traveled a long way and some of the roads weren't paved.

Will Rogers

I'd be a much better writer if I had a memory and could find words. What a ride!

sunday smile

Two of my favorite kinds of creatures (I enjoyed it more with the sound off):

marilyn

What do I wear in bed? Why, Chanel No. 5, of course.

Marilyn Monroe

I think I would have liked Marilyn...in spite of the image by which she made her living.

optimist

Optimist: someone who figures that taking a step backward after taking a step forward is not a disaster, it's a cha-cha.

Robert Brault

He is an optimist, and he dances through life knowing that what he needs will come his way and he is adored.

I get to wake up to this face every morning. This one and his brother's.

They are very respectful of my sleep and almost never wake me. When I start to rise from sleep and roll over in the morning, they park themselves and stare at me. It is my great pleasure to greet the day with their faces being the first living beings I see.

And the beat goes on....

love thursday 04.07.11 ~ love is a verb

A brother asked one of the elders, saying: There are two brothers, of whom one remains praying in his cell, fasting six days at a time and doing a great deal of penance. The other one takes care of the sick. Which one's work is more pleasing to God? The elder replied: If that brother who fasts six days at a time were to hang himself up by the nose, he could not equal the one who takes care of the sick.

The Wisdom of the Desert

Love is an action verb--not a feeling or a thought or a being verb.

Decide to love. Choose it even when you don't feel like it. (Yes, I'm talking to myself again.)

happy

When I was 5 years old, my mother told me that happiness was the key to life. ...When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grow up. I wrote down "happy". They told me I didn't understand the assignment...I told them they didn't understand life.

John Lennon

Today, the sun has appeared. I am doing what I want to do when I want to do it. Right now...this very minute...I have enough.

That's a good start, I think.

You? What's making you happy today?

being the beloved

Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the "Beloved." Being the Beloved expresses the core truth of our existence.

Henri Nouwen

I am loving Life of the Beloved. Once I turn the last page, I will likely start all over again. It is a conversation (one-sided) between a Catholic theologian (Henri) and his Jewish friend who asked him to write something for the lay person--those who don't understand or have the same kind of relationship with the Divine that Henri has.

Catholic, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, other...we all have the same issues. We all struggle with self-rejection. We all struggle with shame. We all struggle. And we all need to know and have the experience of being the Beloved.

When it comes to being the Beloved, there is no competition. I am chosen--and so are you. And the more I realize this Truth, the more it makes me smile.

Do you know that you are the Beloved?

Oh, yes...you are.

1,000

Institutionalized rejection of difference is an absolute necessity in a profit economy which needs outsiders as surplus people. As members of such an economy, we have all been programmed to respond to the human differences between us with fear and loathing ... But we have no patterns for relating across our human differences as equals. As a result, those differences have been misnamed and misused in the service of separation and confusion.

Audre Lorde

from her book Sister Outsider

One thousand posts. What is it about round numbers like 1,000 that give us such a sense of accomplishment? I could just as easily have posted yesterday at 999. Perhaps the next milestone will be 1,111. Yeah. I think so.

Have a good week, everyone. I hope you'll come back for the next thousand.

birthday update

Birthday dinner last night provided by wonderful friends: roasted leg of lamb with rosemary, beets with butter and hazelnuts, chilled asparagus, roasted potatoes with homemade aioli, Greek salad, homemade chocolate pudding. Umm...yum!

Dances of Universal Peace...two of them...just us in the living room. A delightful spiritual experience dancing with the Beloved.

And the company was exquisite.

A gift for me from one of my Beloveds: Life of the Beloved by Henri Nouwen. I started reading it last night and am loving it so far.

Today...a second birthday dinner provided by another of my Beloveds. This one includes a rotisserie chicken, homemade chocolate chip cookies, and homemade chocolate ice cream. I am sure there will be other food, as well.

I mowed the lawn for the first time this year. Even managed to get the mower started without yanking my arm out of the socket. (Thank you, Beloved--and I do mean that.)

Oh, and yesterday my birthday vest came in the mail. The color was...putrid. We took it back to the store and got TWO in beautiful colors for only $4 more! Such a deal. (Again, thanks.)

i'm no fool

Last night I watched The Corporation. See it. It'll frost your cookies.

I rented it, but it looks like you can see the whole thing on www.youtube.com by clicking the link.

Speaking of frosting cookies...today is my birthday! Thanks for coming by.

no foolin'

Today Mom and I had just finished an appointment and arranged ourselves in the car. Mom's cell phone rang. It was my sister. A man who lives near me called her. (She lives in another state.) He found my cell phone and used it to call my sister. He gave her his number and said that I could call him and stop by to pick up my phone. I did.

Thank you, Beloved.

The finder made only one phone call. He didn't start calling numbers trying to see who would answer. One call. To my sister. Who wasn't identified as my sister. She wasn't the last person I had called. She isn't even the person I call the most--sorry, sister! How do you suppose he picked her to call?

Thank you, Beloved.

Got my car back from the body shop today. The work was excellent. The service was excellent. They went beyond what they were required to do. They made extra repairs without getting paid by the insurance company and they cleaned the inside of the car and spiffed up the wheels. Because they did so much extra for me, I am happy to let others know how happy I am with their work. If you need auto body work, check out Artistic Auto Body. They are at several locations. I went to the one in West Slope.

Thank you, Beloved.

While my car was in the shop, I drove a rental. At the time I picked the car up, only one car in my "class" was available and I would have had to wait for it to be cleaned up. I expressed my frustration, given that this had been planned for weeks and when I called I was told I would have lots of vehicles to choose from. The woman who assisted me gave me a free upgrade.

Thank you, Beloved.

A representative of the car rental company called this evening to thank me for my business and tell me how much they appreciated my taking such good care of the car. How did I like my service from them? He wanted to know. I told him it was "okay." He asked for more information, so I told him the whole story. He said he understood how that would be disappointing and asked what he could do to make it up to me. I told him that they had already made it up to me by giving me a free upgrade. Then he went on to say that he would make my comments known at the next meeting. Cool. Yes, I am happy to give them a plug, too: Enterprise.

Thank you, Beloved.

Earlier this week, we removed a rug from our living room. It had been of great service to us, but one of the cats had soiled it. We decided it was time to give the rug a new home. I put it by the side of the road with a sign that said "FREE" and a note saying that it needed some serious cleaning. Within a half hour, the rug was gone. Whoever took it left a thank you note! Seriously.

Thank you, Beloved.

The Beloved has a face--okay...more than one. That face is human. It is yours and mine. We are the Beloved to one another. We are God's hands and heart on earth.

Thank you, Beloved. No foolin'.