cleaning day

Today I am cleaning house. I'm trying to break the suction that keeps me stuck somewhere between "what's the use?" and "I don't care." I get up and move. I do the little things that stare at me:

fold a pile of laundry that has been waiting for days

move the holder for the outside temperature gauge because we continue to bump it where it is and the sensor falls on cement

change a litter box

start by washing the floor in the laundry room where Misi pees outside the box--oh yes, we are a creative household here

feed the squirrels

take the magazines to the recycle bin

sit a spell

get up and start the next room

I am taking it a room at a time. I will get as far as I get today. Maybe just downstairs--or part of downstairs. Maybe I'll even start upstairs. Maybe not. One. Room. At. A. Time.

That is good enough. The flow may be interrupted, yet it is better than no flow at all.

Maybe I will even go outside and sit in the sun. I hear it calling me....

spirit

As one's fortunes are reduced, one's spirit must expand to fill the void.

Winston Churchill

Sometimes, I'd like a little less opportunity to expand spirit to fill the void.

planting the garden

I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.

George Washington Carver

Potatoes, brussel sprouts, cilantro, zucchini--probably something else I am not remembering. All in the ground today.

Lawn mowed.

That's the nature broadcast to me today.

like a cat

You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has not choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.

Franz Kafka

My friend who sent this wondered if that is what my cats are doing when they are at my feet--rolling in ecstasy. I think yes. Especially, Mijo who rolls at my feet every morning while I am doing my ablutions, waiting for me to brush him.

It works.

banana so far this year

love thursday 05.03.12 ~ ease

God always entices us through love.

Richard Rohr

I'm still thinking about ease. Being in the Beloved is ease. How quickly I forget. How I love being reminded in all ways, big and small.

I can't say that I am entirely uncranky yet. This patch of attitude still needs some weeding, yet the fruit still grows. Truth is, I am enticed by love. I keep returning to that flow and wanting to walk in it--swim in it daily.

Sigh. Some days I float downstream. Other days, I just can't overcome the upstream current. I am remembering that it is the same for others. At least for today, I remember.

rich life of ease

We've forgotten that a rich life consists fundamentally of serving others, trying to leave the world a little better than you found it. We need the courage to question the powers that be, the courage to be impatient with evil and patient with people, the courage to fight for social justice. In many instances we will be stepping out on nothing, and just hoping to land on something. But that's the struggle. To live is to wrestle with despair, yet never allow despair to have the last word.

Cornel West

from The Impossible Will Take a Little While

On a day when I am frustrated by the things I'm not getting accomplished, the problems that are beyond my control to solve, the people who are oblivious to the rest of us moving through the same place and time with them, it is good to remember that serving others and improving the planet are always in my realm of choice.

I keep forgetting that this year's word is ease. Many parts have not and do not seem easy at all. Yet, I have learned from this process in years past that the path is not always one defined by the key word. The path usually challenges me to find my word in the midst of...something else.

Finding ease in the midst of frustration, confusion, struggle, and despair--that's my challenge this year. May you find ease in the middle of it all.

here's to dreams...and to mothers

But my mother never laughed at my dreams. She would say, “If you really want something, if you work hard, if you take advantage of opportunity and if you never give up, you will find a way.” See, how lucky I was. I’m now working so much with young people because I could kill myself trying to save chimps and forests, but if we’re not raising new generations to be better stewards than we’ve been, then we might as well give up. So I can go to kids living in poverty in Tanzania or the inner-city Bronx, and tell them my story, and say, “Follow your dreams.” And they write to me and say, “You taught us that because you did it, I can do it, too.” And that is just right.

Jane Goodall

Thanks, Mom.

homeopathy

Poison is in everything, and no thing is without poison. The dosage makes it a poison or a remedy.

Paracelsus

HoneyBoy is recovering well from his amputation. It's been less than a year and I think that an event so big takes a long time to heal. Just after the accident and surgery, I asked my naturopath what homeopathic remedies I might give HoneyBoy to help manage his pain. The vet prescribed pain killers, of course, and I wanted to do whatever I could to assist HoneyBoy's healing and comfort--especially once the vet deemed that narcotics were no longer in order.

With amputation, phantom limb pain is always a possibility. Of course, we don't know what he is feeling for sure, but there are times HoneyBoy just acts like he is in pain. He doesn't purr much. His nose turns white. He isolates. He just seems off. When he starts behaving in these ways, we know it is time to give him a dose of homeopathics.

If you've ever medicated a cat, you know that getting the medicine in his mouth can be a challenge. One person with two hands is sometimes not enough. However, when HoneyBoy sees one of us coming with the dropper, he gets excited. He opens his mouth and licks his lips in anticipation. Okay...he doesn't really open his mouth, but he does hold still and doesn't pull away. I can give him his dose by squirting the liquid in the corner of his mouth. Once he has swallowed it, he frequently wants to lick the dropper. And then, within minutes, his nose pinks up and he is ready to tear around the house--chasing his brother and generally acting like alpha cat again.

It's not the taste that makes him want the meds. Basically, it tastes like water. He knows relief is coming. That's the only explanation that makes sense.

Clearly, he feels better. Is placebo effect possible in a cat? First of all...I don't think so. And second...who cares? If it works. it works. I don't really care how.

things i am doing (will do) to improve the world now

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.

Anne Frank

• keep my mouth shut
• speak up
• tell the truth
• do my share
• continue to learn to love for no reason at all
• be responsible
• blame accurately
• compost
• recycle
• suit up and show up

You?

slow jam

don't it make you want to go home?

We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love... and then we return home.

Australian Aboriginal Proverb

Sometimes it feels like I have been here so long, I've forgotten what home is like.

Tell me. What do you remember?

love thursday 04.26.12 ~ carry on

In everyone there is the capacity to wake up, to understand, and to love.

Thich Nhat Hanh

The stars and planets have been messing with me. Having so much water in my natal chart, I feel the forces shifting even when I don't know what is happening with my conscious mind.

Mars, the planet of "war," busies itself crossing everyone and everything in its path these days. Needless to say, I've been noticing the conflict cross my path moment by moment today.

I pray that I wake up more in Love and not in War.

because we haven't had enough dolly lately

When I'm inspired, I get excited because I can't wait to see what I'll come up with next!!

Dolly

Wouldn't it be a kick to sit and have tea with her? How can one person come up with so many pithy statements?

Another one I read the other day from Dolly: "I will never be like Meryl Streep...but then she will never be like Dolly." Ain't that the truth?

Wonderful, beautiful, original women--both of them. And talented and...the list goes on.

Speaking of women...did you hear that Tennessee has voted in both the Senate (28-2) and House (80-18) to make miscarriage murder? I wonder how many women are in those legislative bodies. I would guess that not more than 2 senators and not more than 18 members of the house are women. As I understand it, this bill is not limited to situations like violent attacks causing miscarriage so that the attacker can then be charged with murder. It covers any act that might be deemed contributing to miscarriage. According to whom, I wonder?

I think Dolly should run for President and Meryl should be her VP. Maybe things would change for the better...for a change.

(Have you ever noticed how many questions I ask? Must be the Socratic method.)

you know...she has a point

You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories.just change their height and hair color. No one ever once has recognized him or herself in my fiction. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should've behaved better.

Anne Lamott

what i did this weekend

I rearranged under the kitchen sink, serviced the water filter, and installed an instant hot water dispenser. It will make life much easier to have it.

The black box is the instant hot. In order to get everything to fit, I removed a space consuming shelf from the back of the cupboard. That exposed a couple of pipes with big holes around them, so I filled the holes with foam insulation.

When I removed the shelf, the conduit--which was already in the way--was even more in the way. I moved the connection from the bottom of the switch box to the top and ran the conduit/wire from the top along the front of the cabinet to where it drops down to the garbage disposal.

I also acquired and learned to use a copper tubing cutter. I love tools. I especially love cool tools that are not very expensive that make a job infinitely more doable. So now I have the job done, a new tool, and a new skill.

When we rise in the morning and listen to the radio or read the newspaper, we are confronted with the same sad news: violence, crime, wars, and disasters. I cannot recall a single day without a report of something terrible happening somewhere. Even in these modern times it is clear that one's precious life is not safe. No former generation has had to experience so much bad news as we face today; this constant awareness of fear and tension should make any sensitive and compassionate person question seriously the progress of our modern world.

HH Dalai Lama

Just thought I would share some good news.

the future

Pacifist soldiers:

I will not carry a gun, Frank. When I got thrown into this war I had a clear understanding with the Pentagon: no guns. I'll carry your books, I'll carry a torch, I'll carry a tune, I'll carry on, carry over, carry forward, Cary Grant, cash and carry, carry me back to Old Virginia, I'll even 'hari-kari' if you show me how, but I will not carry a gun!

Hawkeye

M*A*S*H

i'm here to tell you...it does exist

i have an idea... #2

Instead of charging 6th graders $100 to participate in school sports, how about professional teams (you know, the ones that make millions and pay the players large sums of money) fund school sports across the board. After all...aren't they the feeder programs?

love thursday 04.19.12 ~ it could be you

Do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.

Zechariah 7:10

You never know when the other shoe is going to drop. You never know when you will be the one in pain--in need. You never know when you will be the one required to rely on the kindness of strangers.

Even if you have everything you need and a big fat offshore bank account to boot, you never know when you might become one of the least of these. Some of us are not very far from that at the moment ourselves.

You never know.

Listen to your mother...be nice.

note to self: open wide your heart

There is no need to go searching for a remedy for the evils of the time. The remedy already exists – it is the gift of one’s self to those who have fallen so low that even hope fails them. Open wide your heart.

Rene Bazin

Love for no reason at all has escaped me lately. Today drivers, servers, pedestrians--everyone was a bit spacey.

When I took the right away (and it was mine) other drivers honked at me. Really? Yeah. Really.

What...is...up?

I have to go back to opening my heart...for all reasons and none at all.

Yeah. I do.

and god said...

"If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community in any of your towns within the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbor. You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be."

Deuteronomy 15:7-8

And that seems to be something that was said in a variety of ways in both the OLD and NEW testaments. Lest there be any confusion.

how am i affecting the world today?

(someone turn off the light...)

We are all affecting the world every moment, whether we mean to or not. Our actions and states of mind matter, because we are so deeply interconnected with one another. Working on our own consciousness is the most important thing that we are doing at any moment, and being Love is the supreme creative act.

Ram Dass

Even my kitties are affecting the world every moment. In a good way...a very good way.

good to know i'm getting it right

Doing nothing is better than being busy doing nothing.

Lao Tzu

live everything now

(strawberries liked the greenhouse, too)

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will find them gradually, without noticing it, and live along some distant day into the answer.

Rainer Maria Rilke

we have met the enemy and he is us

(first shoots of the season)

That immigrant culture that has renewed us … has been at the core of our strength. I don’t know when immigrants became the enemy.

Condoleezza Rice

former Secretary of State
speaking at Duke University

I've wondered about this for some time. Unless one is Native American, we are all immigrants or from immigrant stock. Some of our ancestors came willingly. Some did not. It is likely that Condoleezza's did not.

Some came legally. Some did not.

Perhaps I would feel different if I lived nearer a border. Perhaps not.

What's true is that we need reform--of laws, procedures, and most of all...attitudes. The attitude adjustment is needed across the board, no doubt...on both sides of the border.

love thursday 04.12.12 ~ love is just common sense

(see how much banana has grown?)

Love, compassion and concern for others are real sources of happiness. If you have these in abundance, you will not be disturbed even by the most uncomfortable circumstances. If you nurse hatred, however, you will not be happy even in the lap of luxury. Thus, if we really want happiness, we must widen the sphere of love. This is both religious thinking and basic common sense.

Dalai Lama

I'd like to sit down and have a beer with HHDL...and John Lennon...and Jesus. They got it. I'd like to be with people who get it for a while.

Happy Love Thursday. You all get it, too.

how may i serve?

Helping, fixing, and serving represent three different ways of seeing life. When you help, you see life as weak. When you fix, you see life as broken. When you serve, you see life as whole. Fixing and helping may be the work of the ego, and service the work of the soul.

Rachel Naomi Remen

A Time for Listening and Caring

I love to help--especially if it is something I am good at or it involves learning something new.

Fixing gives me great satisfaction. You will have noticed that in all the reports I make on this blog. And being a homeowner, I always have something I can fix.

I believe she is right about service. It comes from a different place. My inner experience is very different from either of the other two. Service expands us both--the server and the served--and lifts the experience to sacred.

How may I serve? How may I serve you?

another truth quote

Sometimes we tell the truth because we just can't help ourselves. Sometimes we tell the truth because the truth is all we have to give. And sometimes, we tell the truth because we owe the other person at least that much.

Author Unknown

full menu

I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights.

Bishop Desmond Tutu

YES!

happy easter

(my new boots after the 1st mow of the year)

Nothing is ever lost by courtesy. It is the cheapest of pleasures, costs nothing, and conveys much.

Erastus Wiman

A good religion for any of us.

caution: more than one swear word in this post i call "good friday confession" (and i'm not even catholic)...true story

(remember i said the fire and water
in my chart make steam? well....)

Friday afternoon at Office Max, I stood in line at the cashier. He attended to the customer ahead of me, but there was a lull after he called for help from someone on the floor. The printer cartridges in my basket qualified me for free batteries and I didn't know where to find them. I took advantage of the lull in their transaction to ask. He told me where to look--literally 5 steps from where I was standing.

I set my basket by the register and walked to the battery display. While I was procuring the batteries, two more people joined the line to pay--an older man and then a woman. The man who came after me scooted up so close to the register that I had to squeeze by him, excusing myself as I went, to return to my basket.

Since four people now stood in line, the existing cashier called for another to come check. When cashier number two arrived, he said, "I can help the next person in line." The first cashier said, "And that would be her," pointing at me. So I raised my basket and turned to go around to the other counter where the two cashiers now stood back to back.

As I did so, the male customer bumped into me, pushing past to be next. Did I mention he was behind me? I wasn't looking at him as I moved. The man growled something at me, implying that I was out of line (pun intended). My limbic brain kicked. Fight popped up--not flight. "He told me to go!" My voice probably registered as yelling to some observers in the area. Again the man grumbled.

"Be a cranky old man! I don't give a shit!" Oh, yes. I said that.

"Nice talk. What are you? A nun?" cranky man asked. Apparently, it is worse for a woman to say "shit" to a man's face than it is for a man to body-block a woman to get ahead of her in line.

"As a matter of fact, I am!" I retorted, putting my ink and batteries on the counter--ahead of him.

"It figures." He stood there for a second then dropped his would-be purchases on the counter at the next empty check stand, stomped out of the store, and drove off in his white sedan.

"What an asshole..." in not quite a stage whisper and still mad, I had my last word. Oh, yes. I did.

At the completion of my transaction, the first cashier turned to me and said, "He was cranky. He almost ran me over in the parking lot."

I apologized for my behavior. Cashier number two said, "No. You're good. You didn't hit anybody. It's okay." (That's true. I didn't...this time...but that's another story.)

Even before I left the store, I started wondering what was going on for that man. He could have been in grief or pain. He could have been in a hurry for myriad reasons. He could have just been a personality disordered asshole. I don't know. It doesn't matter. The interaction happened. I swore in his direction. I got angry--and yes, he behaved badly. At that moment, I didn't love him for no reason at all. So, I prayed for him and sent him blessings.

If you watched Brené's TED talk that I posted a few days ago, you will note that her Texas family's motto is "Lock and Load." It's probably a good thing I don't own a gun. I want to be a pacifist. I am not.

But I can continue on my quest for love--with or without reason.

time for a new story

Everywhere I go — from villages outside Kandy, Sri Lanka, to community centers in Amman, Jordan, to offices at the State Department in Washington, D.C. — I find people with a similar story. When thousands of people discover that their story is also someone else's story, they have the chance to write a new story together.

Eboo Patel

love thursday 04.05.12 ~ i love spa day with mary

Love is creative. It does not flow along the easy paths, spending itself in the attractive. It cuts new channels, goes where it is needed.

Evelyn Underhill

forward

So let us go forward quietly, each on his own path, forever making for the light.

Vincent Van Gogh

I've always loved Vincent Van Gogh's story and his work. Yes, he was a tortured soul, but what a spirit.

And I had the opportunity to see his work at the Art Institute in Chicago during my one visit there. Breathtaking. It's alive. Prints do NOT do it justice.

post birthday

Just remember, there's a right way and a wrong way to do everything and the wrong way is to keep trying to make everybody else do it the right way.

M*A*S*H, Colonel Potter

For my birthday, I was well celebrated. It was the first nice day of spring and I actually got to go topless on my way home from work. (Doesn't that just burn your eyes?)

I think I will just keep celebrating as long as someone is willing to celebrate with me. I think I am lined up through the weekend.

time for everything

(the pillow was there. it was in his way. so he sat while he ate.)

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven... a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1, 5-8

This is one of my favorite passages. It covers the middle way. It's not about always being in the middle but finding the middle through the averages.

Wisdom arrives when we know which is which.

Every time I read this passage, I hear this song (which I also love):

And now, I have an ear worm.

i like how this woman thinks

how to live in close proximity to other people

"Thou shalt not be a jerk!"

brené @ ted

love thursday 03.29.12 ~ create the climate you love

Love is creative. It does not flow along the easy paths, spending itself in the attractive. It cuts new channels, goes where it is needed.

Evelyn Underhill

I'm loving the tropical climate we've created. Makes my insides feel warm even when it is blowing and...well--Northwest outside.

Come on Spring....

where i slept

(this opens into a bed)

"Thus says the Lord: Stand at the crossroads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way lies; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls."

Jeremiah 6:16

This is where I sleep when Mom comes to visit.

It sleeps good.

entitlement

You’re entitled to your stupid, petty, awful, hateful bigoted opinion. Everyone else is entitled to call it exactly what it is.

John Scalzi

Just sayin'....

liar, liar

We have to make truth and nonviolence not matters for mere individual practice but for practice for groups and communities and nations. That at any rate is my dream. I shall live and die trying to realize it.

Mahatma Gandhi

Did you see the Jim Carrey movie, Liar, Liar? He is an attorney who is always telling lies. Some would call them white lies, some would call them half truths. Some would even say that he is trying to spare others' feelings at times. But he tells lies of commission, omission, and scant truth.

Then he is cursed (or blessed?) to only be able to tell the truth. Whatever comes out of his mouth has to be true--no matter what he starts to say when he opens his mouth. He changes. His life changes.

Wouldn't that be a great blessing on us all?

May it be so.

saturday's project

(see the dark patches? blueberry plants.)

Wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish, once these waters reach there. It will become fresh; and everything will live where the river goes. On the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.

Ezekiel 47:9, 12

...and there will be blueberries.

what ever happened...

What ever happened to live and let live?

me

...to products that last?

...to being able to reliably find the same product without it being "new and improved" (which turns out to be NOT)?

...to sharing?

...to health care really being about making us healthy instead of being lab experiments?

...to honoring differences?

...to affordable housing?

...to settling disagreements through conversation and if they can't be settled, agreeing to disagree?

...to having enough to go around for those willing to do their share?

...to living wages?

Really--what happened?

enthused for spring

(the boys are very unenthused with the snow)

Enthusiasm is the best protection in any situation. Wholeheartedness is contagious. Give yourself, if you wish to get others.

David Seabury

Today I checked things off the list. Got my licenses renewed. Made some phone calls I needed to make (now the ball is in their court).

And the snow was a flash in the...beginning of Spring.

I know it's coming. I just know it is.

love thursday 03.22.12 ~ love is creative

(i didn't take this on the 2nd day of spring, but i could have)

Love is creative. It does not flow along the easy paths, spending itself in the attractive. It cuts new channels, goes where it is needed.

Evelyn Underhill

And so, apparently, is the weather.

Happy Love Thursday!

i moved to a tropical island and made my first million

And I have a boat, a band, and a bar.

Sweet.

where i sit

the least of these

You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those
who can do nothing for them or to them.

Malcolm Forbes

He used to be only one stripe wide. Then this. Now he covers the whole seat. And his purr is even bigger than he is.

time for bed

When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.

Paulo Coelho

He was trying to get me to go to bed. When I didn't move as fast as he wanted, he took matters into his own paws.

love in action

I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the university.

Albert Einstein

I try to do that, too. It makes one popular among garbage men and can create consternation among presidents (of a certain personality type).

Too bad. So sad.

oh...hallelujah

Although violence and the use of force may appear powerful and decisive, their benefits are short-lived. Violence can never bring a lasting and long term resolution to any problem, because it is unpredictable and for every problem it seems to solve, others are created. On the other hand, truth remains constant and will ultimately prevail.

Dalai Lama

love thursday 03.15.12 ~ another perspective on how to become more loving

(sitting in the brown chair looking out the door)

I don't like that man. I need to get to know him.

Abraham Lincoln

fire and water

That you need God more than anything, you know at all times in your heart. But don’t you know also that God needs you — in the fullness of [God's] eternity, you?

Martin Buber

I will regale you over the next while with different views from my office.

Kilauea flowing into the ocean is a perfect analogy for my astrology. Fire, water, a little steam (air) and the earth...disappears. On my new wall, the print comes alive.

generosity

(he's almost learning to sleep with me)

Giving material goods is one form of generosity, but one can extend an attitude of generosity into all one's behavior. Being kind, attentive, and honest in dealing with others, offering praise where it is due, giving comfort and advice where they are needed, and simply sharing one's time with someone - all these are forms of generosity, and they do not require any particular level of material wealth.

Dalai Lama

Mijo is being very generous, sleeping on the corner of my bed just after lights out. He stays for about 5 minutes at the most. I appreciate his presence.

Funny how I love having those furry little creatures rest with me and touch me while they do it. I love their companionship and find their presence comforting. I hope I return the favor to them.

factoids about my new paint job

(i love the optical illusion)

Good management is the art of making problems so interesting and their solutions so constructive that everyone wants to get to work and deal with them.

Paul Hawken

Environmentalist

1. I didn't paint the ceiling. It was already white.

2. Devine paint by Miller is...divine. They say it goes on like yogurt. It does.

3. I love the tropics. The blue is called Caribbean Sea.

4. Half my natal astrological chart is in water. Ahh. I'm floating in the sea.

5. I love French roast coffee. The dark brown is called French Roast.

6. I love chocolate. Painting the brown wall was like painting with Hershey's syrup.

7. I have no earth in my natal chart. The dark brown grounds me.

8. I love Frog Tape. It works really well when you follow the directions. Taking the tape down and having a clean line that I didn't have to touch up was thrilling. (3M makes a product called Edge-Lock. It does the same thing. I haven't tried it.)

9. I re-learned that I truly love open, uncluttered space. You'd never know it if you saw this room before I moved everything out to paint. Now I am trying to figure out what to do instead of moving it all back in. I see many discards in my future.

10. When I finished the job, I really wanted a piece of chocolate cake...so I had one.

and how does losing an hour fit into this?

It is important that when pursuing our own self-interest we should be “wise selfish” and not “foolish selfish”. Being foolish selfish means pursuing our own interests in a narrow, shortsighted way. Being wise selfish means taking a broader view and recognizing that our own long-term individual interest lies in the welfare of everyone. Being wise selfish means being compassionate.

Dalai Lama

I love me some HHDL! I wouldn't want to be him or have his life, and I am so glad he is in this world at this time--and that I get to breathe the same air.

Working on painting my office still. I thought I would be done Saturday. I just couldn't move that fast so Sunday will have to be soon enough.

Pictures to follow....

a lot of quotes about patience are appearing

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Do you think maybe there is a message there for me?

Nah....

isn't that what yesterday's post said?

In today’s materialistic world there is a risk of people becoming slaves to money, as though they were simply cogs in a huge money-making machine. This does nothing for human dignity, freedom, and genuine well-being. Wealth should serve humanity, and not the other way around.

Dalai Lama

love thursday 03.08.12 ~ love of money

(my 4 year old great nephew
took this shot of my boots)

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains. But as for you, [people of God], shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness.

1 Timothy 6:10-11

Let's get this straight...the love of money is the root of evil. Not money, but the love of money. Got that?

Another word for that is greed.

Money is a tool. Any tool can be used for good or for ill. I once heard a spiritual teacher say that one of the problems for people on the spiritual path is their disdain for money. He said that we need money so that it will allow us to do the good we want to do.

As long as the money doesn't become the goal, I agree with him. Those who have access to that tool have a great power in their hands. And just like anything else, that which we hang onto for the sake of hanging on can become "rotten" in our possession. So can our beliefs about it.

Flow. Use tools wisely. Use them for good.

getting ready to paint the office

maybe i'll have some love to share tomorrow....

patient attention...a discovery worth making

If I have ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient attention than to any other talent.

Isaac Newton

It is amazing how much one can learn by listening and waiting...and watching.

i'm tired...

Without realizing it, we continually put up protective walls made of opinions, prejudices, and strategies, barriers that are built on a deep fear of being hurt. These walls are further fortified by emotions of all kinds: anger, craving, indifference, jealousy, and arrogance.

But fortunately for us, the soft spot—our innate ability to love and to care about things—is like a crack in these walls we erect. It’s a natural opening in the barriers we create when we’re afraid. With practice we can learn to find this opening. We can learn to seize that vulnerable moment—love, gratitude, loneliness, embarrassment, inadequacy—to awaken bodhichitta.

Pema Chodron

I'm tired of...

...inacurate blame.

...hearing those who claim superiority when what they really experience is fear.

...xenophobia masked as terrorist alerts.

...freedom of religion being one sided and not including freedom from religion.

...patriarchy without husbandry.

...decrying "socialist" or "fascist" or some other inflammatory label for the sake of tapping into that aforementioned fear.

...the war on women.

...the war on choice.

...blaming Muslims rather than fundamentalists.

...blaming Christians rather than fundamentalists.

...lack of personal responsibility.

...lack of social generosity.

...high gas prices.

...hearing people blame Obama for the high gas prices when facts point to speculators and the highest profits ever for the petroleum industry (who set the prices).

...politicians and Congressmen who want Obama to fail, rather than getting on with the business of running the country.

...talking heads who want America to fail.

...being told that something awful will happen if I don't forward emails or repost on Facebook.

...being told that if I don't repost I am part of the problem. (No, I just don't agree with you and we see different solutions to the problems.)

I'm tired. Just plain tired.

So, apparently, are HoneyBoy and Mijo.

happy birthday, mom

Laughter is the language of the Gods.

Buddhist saying

May you be forever young.

I love you.

saturday

efficiency...

...cleaning up your desk
...shredding the envelope from today's mail
...with incoming check still in it...

...not all it's cracked up to be.

love thursday 03.01.12 ~ work with love

Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.

Kahlil Gibran

Some might say this is an interesting twist on "do what you love--the money will follow."

May we all be so blessed as to love our work and be rewarded with enough.

welcome to pleasantville

Carefully I crafted a loop with the string and tossed it into the river. / I never caught a fish with buttercups or a knotted string. / But I saw them swimming by in fleets of flashing silver / And for me, that was enough.

Emily Vizzo

The third wall is finished.

When we moved into this house, the walls were all white. Okay...not all. There were three accent walls in the entire house that were painted one step away from white--pastel of pastel.

It was a good thing. Many of the new houses we looked at had colors chosen by designers. Perhaps they were the "in" colors, but we didn't like them. White suited us just fine.

Now, several years later, the white isn't any more. The walls are showing the dirt and the wear. And I am tired of white. So color is coming to live here.

I feel like I am moving to Pleasantville. You've seen it? Two teens get pulled into a black and white 50s TV show. They bring about all kinds of changes and everything begins to turn to color.

I like deep color. The dark green on the third wall, in the day time is muted as we look out onto the greenspace; at night, the wall disappears into the blackness.

It feels like the room has always been this color...these colors.

where's honeyboy

(can you find him in this picture?)

The painting project continues. The end appears on tomorrow's horizon. One half of the room is put back together. The other half was disrupted on Monday. That meant pulling back the rug so that it doesn't get paint on it and I can slide the big TV cabinet out of the way without lifting it over the rug.

HoneyBoy found solace amidst the disarray. He loves hidey-holes and dark cozy places. Can you find him?

Perhaps this will help....

two walls finished

(yes, that's me in the reflection wearing my
paint clothes, taking the picture)

And someone thinks all is right with the world again.

first coat...

Two walls...

Two colors...

guess what i am doing this weekend...

i have an idea...

I cannot persuade myself that without love to others, and without, as far as rests with me, peaceableness toward all, I can be called a worthy servant of Jesus Christ.

Saint Basil

Eight more months of election rhetoric. I am pretty sick of the accusations and inaccuracies being thrown about and the feigned indignity when candidates are confronted with their own words.

So I have an idea...let's pass a constitutional amendment that requires all candidates to campaign under oath. Some will take it seriously and tell (or continue to tell) the truth. The others? Well...maybe we would have some recourse--for impeachment, if nothing else.

Just sayin'.

love thursday 02.23.12 ~ the greatest? love.

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Matthew 22:36-40

Seems to me we could use a little more Love in the land. I wish all the Law here hung on these two.

(P.S. - I am a liberal and a Christian. Those two are not mutually exclusive. Nor is being liberal separate from personal and financial responsibility. Just sayin'....)

minority of one

Never apologize for being correct, for being years ahead of your time. If you're right and you know it, speak your mind. Even if you're a minority of one, the truth is still the truth.

Gandhi

Have you ever been a minority of one? I have. It is uncomfortable to be in that position for those who are not power hungry. For those who are it is a heady experience. To be right and know you are right is powerful.

To speak from that place is powerful, but also risky.

But then...so is not speaking.

think on these things

Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

Philippians 4:4-9

Yes, Deb. You are so right.

see yesterday's post

Every truth without exception -- and whoever may utter it -- is from the Holy Spirit.

Thomas Aquinas

no blame

Our present ecological crisis, the biggest single practical threat to our human existence in the middle to long term, has, religious people would say, a great deal to do with our failure to think of the world as existing in relation to the mystery of God, not just as a huge warehouse of stuff to be used for our convenience.

Rowan Williams

Remember that Jim Carrey movie, Liar, Liar? Sometimes, I wish that were real life for all of us. What would happen if we could say nothing that wasn't the truth?

The other one I long for...NO BLAME. Wouldn't it be great to be able to look in the mirror and see our own responsibility--our own contribution? To both the problem and the solution.

Just sayin'.

compassion

happy birthday, thithter!

(honeyboy licking the water off the rail.
yes, he got himself up there.
the healing continues.)

A lot of the problems we face are essentially man-made, so naturally as human beings we should also be able to reduce them. Natural disasters, of course, are in a different category, but according to environmental scientists even they may owe something to human behaviour. Therefore, if we are optimistic, take a longer view, and we employ realistic methods, we can contribute to making the world a better place.

HHDL

Today is "check things off the list day." Things like...

...take down the Christmas lights.

...attach the moulding at the bottom of the new stove.

...put the cat food in the storage containers.

...clean litter boxes.

...work on taxes.

I'd rather go bowling and eat pizza with my sister and her kids and grandkids.

Happy birthday, Joan!

love thursday 02.16.12 ~ language of love

I hope that one day you will have the experience of doing something you do not understand for someone you love.

Jonathan Safran Foer

from Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Love requires learning a new language--the language of the Beloved. "Do unto others" only works when we like the same things.

I need to know what makes my Beloved feel loved. Even if it doesn't make sense to me, if it works for Beloved, that's what matters.

May you one day know what it is to love someone so much that you are willing to do something for them just because you love them...and may your Beloved return the gift of Love to you.

does that mean go with the flow?

If you don’t become the ocean, you’ll be seasick every day.

Leonard Cohen

We're up to our eyeballs in projects around here. Fixing leaks and roofs and ceilings. Today the painter comes.

We're leaving....

We thought the washer was crapping out. It didn't. Whew.

happy valentine's day

To love someone deeply gives you strength.
Being loved by someone deeply gives you courage.

Lao-Tzu

oh. my. god.

As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?

Psalm 42:1-2

From a reader:

I want to listen to the Divine and I do not always like the answer. Sometimes I am afraid to act on the answer. What if I misheard? How do I have faith and let go of fear?

Who is the Divine and what is the relationship you share? I just spent a year practicing awareness of the Beloved. (And I do mean "practicing.") How do we know? How do we know when we are listening and when we are making shit up?

I believe that the Divine wants a relationship with us as much as we want one with It. And I believe that in relationship, communication goes both ways. If I talk to the Beloved, as I would with a lover, I say what's on my mind and I expect the Beloved to be forthcoming with me, as well.

I grew up in churches that told me that obedience to God was paramount. If God asks you to do something, you do it...no matter what. I've tried on authoritarian relationships from both sides and I don't like being the authority nor do I like being the unquestioning obedient. If God wanted me to be unquestioningly obedient, why give me a mind and free will?

When I see the Divine as Beloved, I enter an entirely new kind of relationship. I do things for the Beloved because of love. In the same way, the Beloved doesn't demand of me. The Beloved doesn't expect me to say, "How high?" when responding to "Jump!"

Do I always want to do the things that my Beloved wants? Not necessarily. When we have a conversation do I always like what I hear? No...not even from the Beloved. That's part of relationship. I feel the same way in relationships with humans I love.

We don't have to like the answer. We do have to decide what we are going to do with that. We might pray that our heart be changed or our attitude adjusted. We might ask for more understanding so that we "get it" in a new way that somehow makes more sense. In other words, if you don't like what you are hearing, ask the Beloved to somehow "convince" you to like it or change your mind and heart.

Fear of acting on the answer? Hmm. What is the fear? Fear of the outcome? Not understanding the consequences? Fear of the unknown?

What if you did mishear? At my age, I am always asking people to repeat themselves. "Excuse me? Could you repeat that?"

The way I see it, if you are acting on what you think the Divine is telling you, the Divine has a vested interest in what you do, too. If you step forward on what you think you heard and you're a little off target, the onus is on the Divine to help guide you. If you are not sure that you heard correctly or whether the quest is clear, ask for clarification: "This is what I think you said. If I got it right, make the way clear. If I missed something, steer me."

I don't know that letting go of fear and acting in faith are necessarily the same thing. However, I believe that if we are doing what the Beloved asks of us, we are not in it alone. In those situations, my mantra becomes, "Hmm...I wonder how the Beloved is going to work this out."

I sometimes only get to see the picture one day at a time. And most of the time, I can honestly say, "Today...everything is okay. I am blessed." Even driving in the fog, we can see a few feet ahead. Sometimes that is enough. Sometimes we stop and wait for the way to clear.

The Divine wants you...just as you want the Divine.

apparently, some things are okay to hate

If you hate injustice, tyranny, lust and greed, hate these things in yourself.

Mahatma Gandhi

to life!

Cardinal Bernardin, a friend and confidant while I was in Cincinnati, was the first to publicly call for a “consistent ethic of life” in the late 1970s. He made it clear that until the church starts being honest and defending all life from beginning to end, it cannot call itself “pro-life.” Otherwise, the very moral principle falls apart. All policies that needlessly destroy life—abortion, war, capital punishment, euthanasia, and the selfish destruction of the earth and its creatures—are all anti-life and against the fifth commandment, “Thou shalt not kill.” As you can see, we have a lot of time to make up for, and a lot of moral maturing to do before we can match the clear nonviolent teaching and example of Jesus himself (see Matthew 5:38-48).

So we not only need to be consistent between individual morality and social morality...but we need to be consistent between all of the various life issues. It is a “seamless garment,” as Cardinal Bernardin brilliantly called it. Such a theology has teeth and real authority behind it and does not just pander to the cultural values of either the Left or the Right. Like the Gospel itself, it challenges both sides and pleases nobody.

Richard Rohr

Adapted from Spiral of Violence: The World, the Flesh, and the Devil

wind

The very purpose of spirituality is self-discipline. Rather than criticizing others, we should evaluate and criticize ourselves. Ask yourself, what am I doing about my anger, my attachment, my pride, my jealousy? These are the things we should check in our day to day lives.

HHDL

Remember the greenhouse in the picture? It is flat. That's right. Completely lying flat in the garden.

We had a wind storm that broke the joints. One morning I found it completely lifted off the garden and sitting in the front yard, turned 90 degrees from its original orientation. I replaced it and put it back together.

The wind continued.

Now the greenhouse is just a pile of stuff.

Sigh.

love thursday 02.09.12 ~ a beautiful thing

To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.

Oscar Wilde

Who can't use a little romance? I mean...really?

yep...

Listen with ears of tolerance!
See through the eyes of compassion!
Speak with the language of love!

Rumi

...Love for no reason at all. I'm being challenged lately. Finding it hard to get there for some. I just have to remember that if they were wearing my moccasins, I'd want them to find a way to love me for no reason at all.

Sometimes, love just is.