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Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Gardening at the Dragon's Gate



This is the book I am currently reading and can I just say that it is hands down the most informative and beautifully written gardening book I have ever seen.

Michael Ableman, farmer and author of Fields of Plenty writes, "Part Zen koan, part love poem to the land, part master's manual in the art and craft of gardening, Gardening at the Dragon's Gate satisfies body, mind, and soul like a really good meal."

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Married Gay People Who Are Sorry :P

Friday, March 20, 2009

Spring


Goodbye My Winter Suit
N. M. Bodecker

Goodbye my winter suit,
Goodbye my hat and boot,
Goodbye my ear-protecting muffs
And storms that hail and hoot.
Farewell to snow and sleet,
Farewell to Cream of Wheat,
Farewell to ice-removing salt
And slush around my feet.
Right on to daffodils,
Right on to whippoorwills,
Right on to chirp-producing eggs
And baby birds and quills.
The day is on the wing,
The kite is on the string,
The sun is where the sun should be
It's spring all right! It's spring!

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

My First Tattoo!

Brianna Bodie did a magnificent job creating this beautiful flaming chalice to represent my passion for Unitarian Universalism and my true love for a community of people who strive for a world community of love, justice and peace.
Here is a portion of an article I found about the significance of the flaming chalice found at http://www.uupuertorico.org/100_Questions_eng/Chalice.htm


Three Elements

The symbol of the chalice flame may be further understood as a metaphor for the lives of human beings, both as individuals and in community.
A cup is a familiar object made to be held and passed around -- for sharing. A flame, by contrast, is not an object. It cannot be weighed or measured. It is no static thing, but a dynamic, changing process.
The flame needs three elements. The first of these is fuel. Fuel is material. Like the human body, like the treasured buildings, books, treasure and documents of a church community. If a fire lacks fuel it is said to be "burning low" like a candle in its final moments. The flame shrinks until it is just a feeble glow.
Unitarians are not ascetic or "other-worldly" but try to take a realistic and rational view of life. Unitarians readily accept that, like kindling for a fire, people in their private lives and collectively need the fuel of physical things.
The second element is heat. Think of the heat of life itself, distinguishing the living from the dead; the spark of intelligence, the warmth of human encounter, even the friction of disagreement. If a fire lacks heat, as when you dampen a flame with water, it is said to be guttering.
To develop as human beings, people also need heat. The vitality of congregational life, activities which animate and engross, thought-provoking moments that challenge are signs of a healthy liberal religious community. Unitarians believe that society is sustained by the warmth that functioning and supportive communities can provide.
The third element is air. Spirit has always been compared with air, or wind by Greeks and Hebrews alike. If a fire lacks air, we say that it is smouldering. There is much heat and thick black smoke, but little or no light. Modern life is too often like this.
Unitarians are open to the importance of personal religious experience, whether in a meeting house or a chapel on a Sunday, on a mountain-top, or in everyday moments during the working week. To develop, people need air or spirit: the inspiration, or breathing in, of that invisible, yet vital element; the deep moments of the self in prayer or meditation; the shared movement of the heart when the spirit is felt.

A Living Flame

The flaming chalice is something to be lit, and re-lit, by every person. It requires an act of will, of purpose and of faith.
Unitarianism allows persons to develop freely while experiencing the warmth of community. Unitarians are open to the truths that science has bequeathed, including the truth that darkness has no existence in itself. Darkness is the absence of light. Unitarians believe the way to overcome the darkness is to light our lamps whenever we meet.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

The Great Emerson

I love this and hadn't seen this in a while. I ran onto it on a great homeschooling blog. http://learningumbrella.homeschooljournal.net/. Thank you Sarah for this great reminder.

Finish every day and be done with it.
You have done what you could.
Some mistakes are made, for sure.
Forget them as soon as you can,
tomorrow is a new day;
begin it well and serenely,
with too high a spirit
to be burdened with your old nonsense.
This new day is too dear,
with its hopes and invitations,
to waste a moment on the yesterdays.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, adapted

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

The Celestine Prophcy's Nine Insights

Monday, January 26, 2009

Love Love Love



"I'm Yours" Jason Mraz

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

The First Family


There are just no words.....we are so lucky:)


Saturday, January 10, 2009

The Creation of Woman

A friend of mine e-mailed this to me and I thought I would share it with all of you. Thank you Shanda

Taken from a Sanskrit fable called "The Creation of Woman":

In the beginning when Twashtri came to the creation of woman, he found that he had exhausted his materials in the making of man and that no solid elements were left. In this dilemma, after profound meditations, he did as follows: He took the rotundity of the moon and the curves of the creepers, and the clinging of the tendrils and the trembling of the grass, and the slenderness of the reed and the bloom of flowers, and the lightness of leaves and the tapering of the elephant's trunk, and the glances of deer and the blustering of rows of bees, and the joyous gayety of sunbeams and the weeping of clouds, and the fickleness of the winds and the timidity of the hare, and the vanity of the peacock and the softness of the parrot's bosom and the hardness of adamant and the sweetness of honey, and the cruelty of the tiger and the warm glow of the fire, and the coldness of snow and the chattering of jays, and the cooing of the kokila, and the hypocrisy of the crane, and the fidelity of shakrawska, and compounding all these together he made a woman and gave her to man.
But after one week, man came to him and said: "Lord, this creature that You have given me makes my life miserable. She chatters incessantly and teases me beyond endurance, never leaving me alone; and she requires incessant attention, and takes all my time up, cries about nothing and is always idle, and so I have come to give her back as I cannot live with her." So Twashtri said: "Very well," and He took her back. Then after another week an came to Him and said: "Lord, I find that my life is very lonely since I gave You back that creature. I remember how she used to dance and sing to me and look at me out of the corner of her eye, and play with me and cling to me, and her laughter was music and she was beautiful to look at and soft to touch, so give her back to me."
So Twashtri said, "Very well," and gave her back. Then after only three days man came back to Him again and said: "Lord, I know not how it is, but after all I have come to the conclusion that she is more of a trouble than a pleasure to me so please take her back again." But Twashtri said: "Out on you! Be off! I will have no more of this; you must manage how you can." The man said: "I cannot live with her." And Twashtri said: "Neither can you live without her." And He turned His back on man and went on with His work. Then man said: "What is to be done? For I cannot live either with her or without her."

Friday, January 9, 2009

The Secret

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Happy Birthday Elvis!

A tribute to the man who has been bringing the wild out of women for decades!

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Happy New Year!!!

Be generous in prosperity, and thankful in adversity. Be worthy of the trust of thy neighbor, and look upon him with a bright and friendly face. Be a treasure to the poor, an admonisher to the rich, an answerer of the cry of the needy, a preserver of the sanctity of thy pledge. Be fair in thy judgment, and guarded in thy speech. Be unjust to no man, and show all meekness to all men. Be as a lamp unto them that walk in darkness, a joy to the sorrowful, a sea for the thirsty, a haven for the distressed, an upholder and defender of the victim of oppression. Let integrity and uprightness distinguish all thine acts. Be a home for the stranger, a balm to the suffering, a tower of strength for the fugitive. Be eyes to the blind, and a guiding light unto the feet of the erring. Be an ornament to the countenance of truth, a crown to the brow of fidelity, a pillar of the temple of righteousness, a breath of life to the body of mankind, an ensign of the hosts of justice, a luminary above the horizon of virtue, a dew to the soil of the human heart, an ark on the ocean of knowledge, a sun in the heaven of bounty, a gem on the diadem of wisdom, a shining light in the firmament of thy generation, a fruit upon the tree of humility.

(Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh, CXXX, p. 285)
http://www.planetbahai.org/cgi-bin/articles.pl?article=217