it's today

"What day is it?" 
"It's today," squeaked Piglet. 
"My favorite day," said Pooh.

A.A. Milne

pumpkins. no frost yet.

kefir lime

love thursday 09.20.12 ~ actions beget feelings

The rule for us all is perfectly simple. Do not waste time bothering whether you 'love' your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him [or her].

C.S Lewis

It's true, you know. I wrote about my airport experience several days ago--the part where I go in with a Love Bomb and people are nicer. I've been doing that more and more. I don't know about anyone else, but I feel better.

Good enough. And if it changes them as well as me...so much the better.

our nightly ritual

 

If you're going to care about the fall of the sparrow you can't pick and choose who's going to be the sparrow. It's everybody.

Madeleine L'Engle

Every night when I go to bed, I take a handful of food for Mijo and put it on the table at the head of my bed. He comes in to say good night and have a snack before retiring. Sometimes he cuddles a while. Other times he can't get out of there fast enough.

In the morning, he waits for me in the hall outside my room...sprawled to cover as much area as possible. At his size, that's a lot of area.

my hawaiian ink

Wrinkles will only go where the smiles have been.

Jimmy Buffett

It's almost gone now. Only the part on the underside of my arm remains, fading fast. Surely, this can't mean that vacation is over and I have been back at work for over a week.

Turtle ink--fun while it lasted. Made room for some wrinkles, we did.

a little tune for monday....

jet ski launch

 

 

We have lived our lives by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. We have been wrong. We must change our lives so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption, that what is good for the world will be good for us. And that requires that we make the effort to know the world and learn what is good for it.

Wendell Berry

We sat on the patio of Lava Java. Most days we drank fresh juice and coffee. Many days we ate meals there because it was fresh, local, organic.

It was good for us.

pork chop @ manago hotel

One of the things Jesus did was to step aside from the organized religion of his time because it had become corrupt and bogged down with rules. Rules became more important than feeding the hungry.

Corita Kent

In Captain Cook, Hawaii, the restaurant at the Manago Hotel is famous for pork chops. Cast iron pans have been used for 100 years to prepare them. Only pork chops are cooked in those pans.

hawaiian henna

 

 

For grace to be grace, it must give us things we didn't know we needed and take us places where we didn't know we didn't want to go. As we stumble through the crazily altered landscape of our lives, we find that God is enjoying our attention as never before.

Kathleen Norris

We got tattoos...temporary ones, but it was fun while it lasted. I don't have a picture of mine. (Maybe my sister can send me a picture?)

love thursday 09.13.12 ~ he's not broken

 

(this is what i wake up to....)

I love these guys. 

kona airport--where i sat soaking up the last of the rays before coming home

mom's home and all is right with the world

brazilian cardinal

the daughter of the drunk at the bar

(click on the picture to see the whole sign)

Undressing Learn the alchemy true human beings know. The moment you accept what troubles you’ve been given, the door will open. Welcome difficulty, as a familiar comrade. Joke with torment brought by the Friend. Sorrows are the rags of old clothes and jackets that serve to cover and then are taken off. That undressing, and the naked body underneath, is the sweetness that comes after grief.

Rumi

Michelle O'Neill at Full Soul Ahead sent me a copy of The Daughter of the Drunk at the Bar so that Janie could go on vacation.

She liked it so much, she stayed. Now she lives at the Kailua-Kona Public Library.

Aloha, Janie.

Mahalo, Michelle.

(If you haven't read it yet...do. It's powerful!)

the clan waiting to be fed

Along with love, compassion is the face of altruism. It is a feeling from deep in the heart that you cannot bear others’ suffering without acting to relieve it. As compassion grows stronger, so does your willingness to commit yourself to the welfare of all beings, even if you have to do it alone. You will be unbiased in your service to all beings, no matter how they respond to you.

Dalai Lama

I'm such a softie and these guys got my number. They are feral cats who do quite well getting the tourists to feed them.

One of the orange guys didn't look well. He had weepy eyes. He looked old. As we were leaving on the last day, he came out of the garbage can. I don't know if he was rummaging or had spent the night there. I managed to coax him back to our unit where I put out a can of food. He was the only one there at the time so I hope he got his fill before the others arrived.

 I don't know whether they made me miss my kitties more or less....

coconuts and trumpets

love thursday 09.06.12 ~ love in the airport bathroom

Let me tell you how to love all equally…Do not demand anything from those you love. If you make demands, some will give you more and some less. In any case you will love more those who give you more and less those who give you less. Thus your love will not be the same for all. You will not be able to love all impartially.

Sarada Devi

blackbird of paradise

 

According to the Talmud, every blade of grass has its own angel bending over it, whispering, 'Grow, grow.'

Barbara Brown Taylor

I have never seen one of these before.

foliage below the lanai

 

morning moon from the lanai

Do not worry if you have built your castles in the air. They are where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

Henry David Thoreau

hawaii--where the serengeti meets the ocean

(my sister went to hawaii with
me and we got the giggles taking
this shot, so i had to share it)

Laughter is an instant vacation.

Milton Berle

Magic Sands Beach. With a name like that, one hopes for good things.

The shorebreak looked like fun. Not so much.

And that is where the Serengeti met the ocean. The sunglasses, not the desert.

I made an offering. I hope Mother Ocean is styling with her new shades.

looking for signs?

(photo by my sister)

Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair, but manifestations of strength and resolution.

Kahlil Gibran

hawaiian kitty

Holiness consists in doing God’s will joyfully. Faithfulness makes saints. The spiritual life is a union with Jesus: the divine and the human giving themselves to each other. The only thing Jesus asks of us is to give ourselves to [God], in total poverty and total self-forgetfulness.

Mother Teresa

A small colony of feral cats live at the resort where we are staying. Though skittish, they are very sweet and grateful for whatever food the guests supply.

One night we fed them left over dinner meat. The next morning when I opened the drapes to the lanai, two kitty faces waited for me. They know a sucker when they see one. From then on, I couldn't not feed them.

All I can say is, it is good I didn't stay longer or my poverty would be much greater...and I would have lots of cats.

love thursday 08.30.12 ~ love bomb

We are love, and we are made for love, and our natural abiding place is inside of divine love. As St. Catherine of Genoa said, “My deepest me is God!”

Richard Rohr

My least favorite part of traveling is the airport. Now that we have to undress and parade our toiletries while being x-rayed, it's a bit more than my delicate sensibilities can handle. I decided to change the experience.

When I arrive at an airport from which I plan to travel, I love bomb them. I create a big sphere of love energy around myself and send it in the door before me.

I'll take off my shoes and jacket. I'll put my liquids and gels in a baggie. I'll put my computer in its own tray.

I won't be x-rayed. I opted instead for the pat down. In spite of all the horror stories I have read about people being groped and otherwise handled inappropriately, that risk was much more acceptable to me than being exposed to the rays. I know a doctor who says, "They can give me a rectal exam if they want. I'm not going through that machine."

The woman who did the pat down was very nice--respectful. She told me what to expect and did exactly that. She asked if I hurt anywhere that she should know about. She was pleasant and her touch was--well...nice! As she ran her hands down my back, I said, "Who knew I would get to start my vacation with a massage!" She laughed.

Later I said to SO, "It's kind of fun to love bomb people and see how nice you can get them to be."

If you're going to the airport, I recommend Love Bombs. They can only be detected by seeing others' kindness and pleasantness.

For me, love bombing sets the tone for the whole trip.

last artichoke update before pruning

do snakes have souls?

Wherever you stand,
be the soul of that place.

Rumi

Do cucumbers?

blooming artichoke update

Don't wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.

Mark Victor Hansen

Each step of the bloom has its own level of beauty.

vipers

(cucumber)

You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.

Matthew 12:34

Not only are we what we eat...we are what comes out of our mouths. May we speak words of kindness and lift one another up.

naked lady

Never think that you need to protect God. Because anytime you think you need to protect God, you can be sure that you are worshipping an idol.

Stanley Hauerwas

Did I get your attention? That's the name of the plant...naked lady. She's about to bloom.

I suppose some people worship naked ladies. I wish more were interested in protecting them.

this is how i ought to feel

When you carry out acts of kindness you get a wonderful feeling inside. It is as though something inside your body responds and says, yes, this is how I ought to feel.

Rabbi Harold Kushner

Surely, this is how the lime tree feels about these future limes, too.

love thursday 08.23.12 ~ love in the dark

Love is what carries you, for it is always there, even in the dark, or most in the dark, but shining out at times like gold stitches in a piece of embroidery.

Wendell Berry

Or new limes on a tree.

eternity is now

Eternity is not something that begins after you are dead. It is going on all the time.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Yeah...what she said. Eternity is what you make it NOW.

well...there you go.

One good thing that silence and waiting has taught me is that our lives are always usable by God. We need not always be effective, but only transparent and vulnerable. Then we are instruments, no matter what we do. Silence is the ability to trust that God is acting, teaching, and using me—even before I perform, or after my seeming failures. Silence is the necessary space around things that allows them to develop and flourish without my pushing.

Richard Rohr

It seems that suiting up and showing up is enough. I don't mean sitting on the bench playing games on one's phone...I mean, sitting on the bench being fully engaged in the game before you on the playing field--in case one gets called into active duty.

i wish i had that much faith

It is a time of hope; it is a time of despair. I have seen enough of God’s wily ways with the Powers to stake my life on the side of hope. I believe that even these rebellious Powers can be transformed in the crucible of God’s Love.

Walter Wink

from The Powers that Be

I continue to be stretched.

Perhaps it would help if I would just remember to expand.

because sometimes we just can't get enough cute

a good reminder

Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.

Luke 6:37-38

I've always loved these verses. I haven't always been successful at living by them--yet, I try.

I know a lot of people don't like the word "try." I think it gets a bad rap. If we don't get to try, we don't get to do. If we don't get to try, we don't get to fail.

Try. Don't let trying be an excuse, but let it be a path to success.

9 years

The built in obsolescence of our appliances.

Air conditioner. Check.

Refrigerator / freezer. Check.

Washing machine. Check.

How do I know you ask?

Sigh.

I just do.

love thursday 08.16.12 ~ love is love is love is love is love

A life without love is a waste. “Should I look for spiritual love, or material, or physical love?” Don’t ask yourself this question. Discrimination leads to discrimination. Love doesn’t need any name, category or definition. Love is a world itself. Either you are in, at the center…either you are out, yearning.

Attributed to Rumi

Those who live in the center of love know.

Not always a warm fuzzy feeling, love is action...decision...choosing to be in an act of love toward the other--all others. Love is acting toward others as the Beloved.

So be it.

happy birthday, so

My beloved speaks and says to me: "Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away; for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our land. The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away."

Song of Solomon 2:10-13

You are my beloved.

artichoke in bloom

hannah's potato

This is a volunteer from her compost bin. 43 ounces! (Yeah...almost 3 pounds.)

today i can walk...

...because of Rubin.

I was moving our annual load of wood chips from the street end of the driveway to the beds needing cover. We get free wood chips from arborists. They need somewhere to put them. We need mulch for the beds. It's a great deal all around.

Moving slowly, because that's what I do these days, I filled the wheelbarrow and pushed it to the bed. Dumping the wood chips in piles, I cover the whole area then come back later with a rake to even the coverage. This is no small pile of chips. I figure it will take me days to get it all spread.

A nice young (to me) man on his morning walk says hi as he passes and I return the greeting. Then he stops. "Do you want some help?"

I smile. "Yeah."

"I'll help you."

"Really? You want to get sweaty and dirty?"

He shrugs and comes closer. So I hand him the shovel and tell him my work plan. He starts loading the wheelbarrow and we add a couple of unused recycling bins to make the work go faster. He loads. I haul and dump.

For three hours we work together and visit. He is from Mexico and just returned from a visit to his family. His oldest son, now 19, is there and wants to stay. Rubin would move back in a heartbeat if he could--but he has a house and is suffering from the drop in property values. He doesn't want to lose money by selling it now. I think he is lonely and a bit homesick.

Rubin suddenly says, "Well...I gotta go." We shake hands. I thank him again. "Thank you for giving me something to do," he says, and he is on his way. I send him off with zucchini and cucumber and invite him to come back in a few weeks to get tomatoes and serranos. (I hope he will.)

To me, Rubin is an angel. He worked tirelessly for three hours, making my work much faster and easier. We spread 3/4 of the chips. The remainder my neighbor will use.

Today, because I didn't have to do both the loading and hauling yesterday, my usually cranky low back is only speaking to me when I first start to move, but it loosens up easily. I can walk without struggle.

this one fits in the sink

guess which one is the pumpkin....

love thursday 08.09.12 ~ greg, 30 years later

Life-transforming ideas have always come to me through books.

Bell Hooks

I had lunch yesterday with a former student. We reconnected on Facebook. He lives in the East and was returning to go to his high school's 30 year reunion. He wanted to connect and I was happy to oblige.

Not only did I get to meet his lovely wife, Debbie, but I also received the most wonderful gift. Greg wanted to tell me how much he learned from being in my class. It wasn't just the grammar; although I know he learned that. The ideas he encountered from books I "required" them to read changed his life.

He was studying for seminary. Then he thought about ideas he read in those books. He switched his field of study to philosophy where he is PhD, ABD. And...he is a songwriter.

That's one. If that is the only student I reached (and I don't believe it is) it was worth it.

Thanks, Greg, for delivering the message in person. Thanks for showing me the love.

how many of us love our enemies?

The Christian tradition became so concerned with making Jesus into its God and making sure everybody believed that Jesus was God that it often ignored his very practical and clear teachings. (How many of us love our enemies?) Instead, we made the questions theological and metaphysical ones about the nature of God (which asked almost nothing of us!). Most of our church fights have been on that level, and no one ever really "wins,” so it goes on for centuries.

What Buddha made clear is that the questions are first of all psychological and personal and here and now. We created huge theories about how the world was saved by Jesus. I think what Jesus was primarily talking about was the human situation and describing liberation for us right now. Clearly the Kingdom of God is here and now, as Jesus said. However, we turned Jesus' message into a reward or punishment contest that would come later, instead of a transformational experience that was verifiable here and now by the fruits of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). For Jesus and for the Buddha both rewards and punishments are first of all inherent to the action and in this world. Goodness is its own reward and evil is its own punishment, and then we must leave the future to the mercy and love of God, instead of thinking we are the umpires and judges of who goes where, when, and how.

Richard Rohr

I have to stop and think that Love is not just a feeling. It is a behavior--a verb.

"…Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.

(Matt 5:39-40, also see Luke 6:29-30)

And wasn't it nice of Paul to give us vengeful humans another reason to do good when he said:

If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.

(Romans 12:20, citing Proverbs 25:21-22)

Okay...okay....

Before you get too excited, it doesn't appear that "heaping burning coals" upon the heads of one's enemy is really about revenge. It is about waking them up. Among those who are truly seeking the divine--it will wake them up and cause them to feel remorse for their own bad behavior.

I get so sad when I see how badly we treat each other in the name of the divine. Truly.

and while we're on the subject of gardens....

We cannot hope to create a sustainable culture with any but sustainable souls.

Derrick Jensen

from Endgame Vol.1: The Problem of Civilization

What is it about municipalities not allowing residents to grow vegetable gardens in their front yards? I mean...really? Some will allow it if the garden is not more than 30% of the area. Some are outlawing them (or trying) altogether. I've even heard of authorities coming and pulling up the garden planted in an area that was previously construction dirt and debris.

Isn't this an answer? Isn't this a way to get people to eat more vegetables and start putting a dent in the obesity epidemic? Lowering health care costs?

God help us all...please.

isn't that what santana said?

Indeed, a quick glance around this broken world makes it painfully obvious that we don't need more arguments on behalf of God; we need more people who live as if they are in covenant with Unconditional Love, which is our best definition of God.

Robin R. Meyers

from Saving Jesus from the Church

I have always believed in the definition of "christian"--to be a little christ. It's not what we say about what we believe or what words we use to describe our religion or faith. It's how we live.

Put up or shut up...in the vernacular, of course.

here's one for today's political climate

Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

I hope I make it to November...and I hope we all make it beyond that.

saturday haiku

Summer day hottest
Air conditioner deadest
After hours repair

me

divine manner

Peace has never come from dropping bombs. Real peace comes from enlightenment and educating people to behave more in a divine manner.

Carlos Santana

I love this quote. While I believe that there are "things" worth fighting for--I wish it weren't so often necessary the first line of problem solving.

"Divine manner..." wouldn't that be lovely? We could all use more divine manners, methinks.

live

It's time to start living the life you've imagined.

Henry James

Like this cucumber. I guess if you are a vegetable, being a reptile is evolution.

love thursday 08.02.12 ~ a part of you has always said yes

It is good to remember that a part of you has always loved God. There is a part of you that has always said yes. There is a part of you that is Love itself, and that is what we must fall into. It is already there. Once you move your identity to that level of deep inner contentment, you will realize you are drawing upon a Life that is much larger than your own and from a deeper abundance. Once you learn this, why would you ever again settle for scarcity in your life? “I’m not enough! This is not enough! I do not have enough!” I am afraid this is the way culture trains you to think. It is a kind of learned helplessness. The Gospel message is just the opposite—inherent power.

Richard Rohr

I think I am going to have to keep learning what this is all about. It's one thing to say, "I won't settle for scarcity." Quite another to turn around the tides of this great rolling ship on the ebbing waves.

I'd rather have my fortunes turn...not just my attitude about it.

And yet, I know...a part of me has always loved God--always said yes.

may i offer you tea or water?

(i don't know whose picture this is.
i'd attribute credit if i did.)

a mouse is a mouse

The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.

Joseph Joubert

I bought a charging cord for my phone so I will have one in each place I need it. It didn't work.

First, when I plugged it in, my phone didn't indicate it was charging. Then the second time I plugged it in, the light on the transformer (is that what they call them these days) didn't light up. Defective.

I took it back and got a wireless mouse. Brought my mouse home and HoneyBoy wanted to show me his mouse. Oh...yes, he did.

His was a shrew. It was dead...under the TV cabinet. Oh, yes. It was.

I hate to say it, but I am grateful.

do anything fun over the weekend?

If a man insisted always on being serious, and never allowed himself a bit of fun and relaxation, he would go mad or become unstable without knowing it.

Herodotus

...or a cat.

at the grocery store

from my sister

I myself feel that I cannot get along with this society very well. There are so many things that make me want to withdraw, to go back to myself. But my practice helps me remain in society, because I am aware that if I leave society, I will not be able to help it change.

Thich Nhat Hanh

from Being Peace

Boy, can I relate to that quote. I don't feel like I get along with this society very well most of the time. I have never really felt like I fit.

But here I am. So I show up and suit up. I do what I can when I can.

I don't know if I am helping to change it. I guess my act of being here and continuing on changes things. And that has to be worth something. It has to be enough for right now.

for real

My fake plants died because I did not pretend to water them.

Mitch Hedberg

love thursday 07.26.12 ~ even blueberries must be planted in pairs

(our first blueberry harvest)

Sin is to avoid this path of intimacy and communion by any guise whatsoever, even celibacy or abstinence. Evil is to deny anyone, including ourselves, the possibility of this path by making their or our sexuality inferior, in any sense enslaved or controlled, or mere entertainment. If humans cannot enjoy the delighting and delightful face of at least one other, how will they ever seek or surrender to the seductive and loving face of God? They will not even know how. Sexuality and spirituality really are two sides of the same coin: one is body and the other is Spirit.

Richard Rohr

from “What Do We Mean by the ‘Sacred’ Character of Gender?”

banana is an optimist

I am quite happy to be called an optimist, but my optimism is not of the utopian variety. It is based on hope. What is an optimist? I can answer for myself in a very simple fashion: He or she is a person who has the conviction that God knows, can do, and will do what is best...

Pedro Arrupe

from One Jesuit’s Spiritual Journey

i guess he likes the music....

In case it doesn't load, try this link.

let it be so...

a jolting message

I have no words for you today...

...but Richard Rohr does.

music

one good thing about music...
when it hits you,
you feel no pain

bob marley

oh. my. god. #2

love thursday 07.19.12 ~ the mightiest word

What if the mightiest word is love, love beyond marital, filial, national. Love that casts a widening pool of light. Love with no need to preempt grievance. In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun. On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp -- praise song for walking forward in that light.

Elizabeth Alexander

from Praise Song for the Day

I continue in my quest to know this. Not just to use the word gratuitously...nor lightly.

I continue to find in me the seed of Love that will allow me to love beyond understanding or measure. Not because. Not in spite of.

Love. Period.

That is mighty, indeed.

what would i do if i couldn't read?

The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.

Mark Twain

Read any good books lately?

I am reading Healing Through the Akashic Records. I am simply reading through it first. Then I will go back and start working on the exercises in the records.

What are you reading?

empowering others

The beauty of empowering others is that your own power is not diminished in the process.

Barbara Colorose

Some gifts don't cost us a thing!

why do you go away?

Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.

Terry Pratchett

from A Hat Full of Sky

Why do you go away? In recent years, I try to go as a pilgrim rather than a tourist. A Sufi teacher told me that pilgrims travel with the idea of giving something back. I never know what I am giving--only that I want to do more than take away from my adventure.

Any plans to go away? A little over 6 weeks from now, I get to go t0 my beloved islands. Oh, yes...I do.

Aloha....

dialog

( mijo likes to eat from my bedside table. you will note...
he pretty much covers the table.)

I'm not in the business of converting anybody. Dialogue is not about bringing people around to your side of things. It's about offering them something, and if they don't like it, fine. Dialogue is about being prepared to be changed by the encounter.

Karen Armstrong

now *that* could have been a very bad day...

Correction: This IS a bad day. Come on people...you post videos on YouTube and then remove them before we can share?

The video showed an elephant charging a car driving down the road. The elephant hid behind a bush and ran out at the car--much like HoneyBoy attacking Mijo these days.

love friday 07.13.12 ~ because i totally spaced love thursday this week and who can't use more love on friday the 13th?

Even if it's a little thing, do something for those who need help, something for which you get no pay but the privilege of doing it.

Albert Schweitzer

Have you ever stopped to notice how good it feels to do something for someone else? We need more of that...both the feeling good and the doing for others.

If someone does something for you, is it hard to receive it without feeling like you have to pay them back? It's good to want to be reciprocal, yet every gift doesn't have to be repaid--that takes away some of the joy of the giver.

So...do something for someone else. We all get the good juice that way. And we need more of that.

how to defeat fear

Once there was a young warrior. Her teacher told her that she had to do battle with fear. She didn’t want to do that. It seemed too aggressive; it was scary; it seemed unfriendly. But the teacher said she had to do it and gave instructions for the battle.

The day arrived. The student warrior stood on one side, and fear stood on the other. The warrior was feeling very small, and fear was looking big and wrathful. The young warrior roused herself and went toward fear, prostrated three times, and asked, “May I have permission to go into battle with you?”

Fear said, “Thank you for showing me so much respect that you ask permission.”

Then the young warrior said, “How can I defeat you?”

Fear replied, “My weapons are that I talk fast, and I get very close to your face. Then you get completely unnerved, and you do whatever I say. If you don’t do what I tell you, I have no power. You can listen to me, and you can have respect for me. You can even be convinced by me. But if you don’t do what I say, I have no power.”

In that way, the student warrior learned how to defeat fear.

Pema Chödrön

Too often as women, we are unwilling to do battle. We have much to learn from the Eastern traditions and martial arts about this.

Not all battle requires aggression...or blood...or violence.

Sometimes, battle means being willing to show up and face down the opponent...attacker...problem. Sometimes the opponent is just a bully who needs to know that we may be afraid, but we will not give in or give up.

Sometimes that is enough.

i declare....

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Declaration of Independence

Oh, that the rest of us would learn what it means to pledge our Lives, Fortunes, and sacred Honor to each other. Wouldn't this be an amazing place to be?

new task

Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your imperfections but instantly set about remedying them – every day begin the new task.

Francis de Sales

I started a new old task today. I (hopefully) am on the last leg of the painting project in the kitchen/dining room. Fortunately, this wall is small. I'll finish it tomorrow. (Maybe even post some pics.)

I've needed patience with myself in this process. I wanted it done months ago.

It is what it is.

are we still first world?

(no, he's not leaning against a mirror...that's his brother's back)

No one should live a third world life in a first world country.

Chuck Currie

where there's a will....

Lead your life so you wouldn't be ashamed to sell the family parrot to the town gossip.

Will Rogers

what part of speech would you be?

Why indeed must 'God' be a noun? Why not a verb - the most active and dynamic of all.

Mary Daly

Happy birthday, brother mine!

courage

Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Each journey may begin with a single step, but it is a collection of those that takes one to the end of the trail. Consider the possibilities of what the critics have to say because sometimes they hold a partial truth. All the while, hang onto what is true and right.

You'll know it when you see it.

moving forward

Once social change begins it cannot be reversed. You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore.

Cesar Chavez

I love this: You cannot uneducate.

When I was teaching high school, kids would ask me why they had to read. I told them that if they could read there was nothing that they couldn't learn to do.

I wonder how many of them believed me. Even one would have been worth it.

indendence: a sinister beginning

Richard Rohr says it so well:

In the biblical tradition, the power on the Right and the power on the Left are symbolized by the kings and the prophets, respectively. There is almost a necessary tension and even opposition between them. There is only one time in all the Hebrew Scriptures that those two ever made friends, and then only barely. That is when David the King accepted the critique of Nathan the prophet, after Nathan accused him of his sinfulness and David had the humility to say that he was correct: “I have sinned against the Lord” (see 2 Samuel 12).

The Right always considers itself the product of rationality, experience and civilization. The people on the Left are always the product of these “silly” people’s movements arising out of high-minded ideology, unbearable injustices, or both. Neither of these currents is totally rational (even the Supreme Court disagrees on what is rational). Movements from the Left are normally not well-planned at the beginning. They are intuitive and come from what is suffered by the little people, who at that point are of no account and have no press or status. Thus they rely on symbols, songs, slogans, and momentary charismatic leaders to get off the ground. Remember when white people laughed at black people for singing, “We Shall Overcome”? Today we can remember those naive English colonists on the East Coast of America who said “No taxation without representation.” The pattern is always the same: “kings” (power) versus “prophets” (truth).

Richard Rohr

Adapted from A Lever and a Place to Stand, pp. 97-98

clouds come and go

The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problems.

Mahatma Gandhi

So does the sun. I thought about mowing today. Perhaps tomorrow I will put some legs on that thought.

In the meantime, doing those tasks that I can do from my chair seems like a really good idea.

Have a safe and joyous 4th of July!

alone together

Language...has created the word "loneliness" to express the pain of being alone
And it has created the word "solitude" to express the glory of being alone.

Paul Tillich

We're managing. All four of us. The sweet little girl had a big presence.

She no longer greets me, the first one up, and follows me around until I feed her. She no longer arrives just as I finish my shower and waits for attention--preferably with the brush. She no longer tolerates my cutting her toenails or giving her baths because she just can't keep it up herself.

She showed me herself, tail held high in the full plumage she used to sport, running and playing. She is happy. In her last days, she couldn't lift her tail. She wanted attention and wanted to be fed but could only eat a teaspoon at a time.

Now she is her beautiful self again. And she is happy.

farewell, misi

(honeyboy keeping misi company)

I don't care if you're dead
Jesus is here, and he wants
To resurrect somebody.

Rumi

Misi failed quickly and it became clear that she was in pain and suffering. We made the very hard decision to help her leave.

While we waited for the doctor to come to the house, I told HoneyBoy that it was time to say goodbye to Misi. We sat on the porch and I let HoneyBoy in the house. When we came in, this is what we saw.

So long, Misi. We miss you.