is it really summer?

This is an old picture...but it feels like this today. Rainy, dark...damp. Summer doesn't start until July 5th in Oregon. Great....

our souls are connected

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

Langston Hughes

I've taken a break from input lately. Long ago I stopped reading, listening to, or watching the news. More recently I decided to stop looking at Facebook. I'll probably go back to it some day. Just not now.

I'm feeling a need for connection and what I see there is divisive, derisive, and...frankly, often upsetting. I get enough of that without seeking it out on my community pages.

For the time being if there is something you want me to see or know about, send it to me directly since I won't be seeing the posts.

Time for a little soul straightening, I guess.

a hand to hold

Is there better advice than this: to hold hands? Think about what it means. Packed in there is taking care of each other, feeling connected and maintaining the safety of our kids. We need a hand to hold--metaphorically when we want support and literally when we're crossing the street. Robert Fulghum, of All I really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten fame, includes this nugget of wisdom in an essay: "When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together."

Did you hear about the Iowa couple married for 72 years who died an hour apart? They'd been in a car accident and were in the emergency room. When it was clear their injuries were not improving, they were placed side by side. Guess what they did? They held hands. When they died, they were still holding hands, the husband departing an hour before his wife. After he died, her heartbeat was visible on his heart monitor. Why? Because they were holding hands.

Andy Smallman

reprinted in its entirety from Ode Magazine
read more of Andy's posts at www.odewire.com

the whole family did yard work today

I'm not sure what this chore was...
but he did it faithfully.

happy 18th, misi

words to live by #2

It's time for greatness -- not for greed. It's a time for idealism -- not ideology. It is a time not just for compassionate words, but compassionate action.

Marian Wright Edelman

Every once in a while, it would be nice if we could all hear the same words at the same time, wouldn't it?

I keep struggling with the compassionate action being my first move. I do think about my need to move in that direction--even if it is just an ideal some days.

love thursday 06.14.12 ~ heaven now

“Everything exposed to the light itself becomes light,” says Ephesians 5:13. In prayer, we merely keep returning the divine gaze and we become its reflection, almost in spite of ourselves (2 Corinthians 3:18). The word “prayer” has often been trivialized by making it into a way of getting what we want. But I use “prayer” as the umbrella word for any interior journeys or practices that allow you to experience faith, hope, and love within yourself. It is not a technique for getting things, a pious exercise that somehow makes God happy, or a requirement for entry into heaven. It is much more like practicing heaven now.

Richard Rohr

Happy Love Thursday, everyone. May you pray Heaven now.

smooth move

Always take hold of things by the smooth handle.

Thomas Jefferson

And make sure it is not hot when you do it...

...said she who is minus a few fingerprints, left behind on the grill.

(I'm fine...truly. Just one of those unthinking moves that, fortunately, did not cause lasting pain--just some I-can't-believe-I-did-that reminders.)

mijo and the puppy

This earth is a garden, the Lord its gardener, cherishing all, none neglected.

Sikh blessing

Mijo loves him, too. See how the puppy imitates his BIG brother?

honeyboy grooming puppy

My friend Mary gave me a puppy. (Note to self: Never admire the possessions of someone who is packing to move across the country.) He's the kind I like:

1) Corgi

2) Battery powered

3) Doesn't have to be walked, fed, or potty trained

4) The cats love him

tattoo step two

There is nothing to share. It didn't work. The product is supposed to be kind of like henna only black so it looks like a real tattoo. Now I am going to have to go back to the drawing board...so to speak...to see if I can make it work.

I was so looking forward to surprising you all.

tattoo step one

tattoo day

I'll keep you posted....

:)

love thursday 06.07.12 ~ he truly never met a stranger

Every morning when I wake up, I dedicate myself to helping others to find peace of mind. Then, when I meet people, I think of them as long term friends; I don't regard others as strangers.

HH Dalai Lama

mijo knows the way to peace

(prime real estate)

If there is righteousness in the heart / There will be beauty in character / If there is beauty in character / There will be harmony in the home / When there is harmony in the home / There will be order in the nation / When there is order in the nation / There will be peace in the world.

Sri Sathya sai Baba

sharing...

(guess which one is bigger)

...sort of.

honeyboy germinating the seeds

Mysteriously hidden within each of us are the seeds that can germinate into a new society, a new planet. Like the corn, we have hidden deep within our living process a wisdom that reaches back to all knowledge and beyond all possibilities.... We have the wisdom of the ancestors reaching back to the mighty power of all creation... within us."

Anne Wilson Schaef

mijo flipflops

lily

blooms