Holy Encounter

When you meet anyone, remember it is a holy encounter.  As you see him, you will see yourself.  As you treat him, you will treat yourself.  As you think of him, you will think of yourself.  Never forget this, for in him you will find yourself or lose yourself.   ...from A Course In Miracles.

  

Loving all of it:  Trash.  Heartache.  Wishing-it/this-were-different.  Love encompasses the messed-up as well as the possibilities.

It is not easy for me to love trash.  Litter literally sends me off the deep end.  My pockets are always full of stuff I pick up, from fish hooks through plastic bags.  There is a lot of trash in between, let me assure you.  Martyr I am not:  I grouse and grumble and write scathing horrible rants.  Oh, and I complain.

Now, I have started taking photos of everything that I see.  A miracle moves into the viewfinder, up my nose, and voila!  I'm in love.  Maybe not rhapsodising; I mean how gorgeous is a mattress and box springs thrown into a houseless 1900 cellar with last year's Xmas tree?

I admit, the little graffiti guy is just kinda cute.  Something happens in there, framing the scene in front of me brings focus.  With the focus comes new awareness.  

Old stuff, garbage, whatever... shifts with conscious seeing.  In 1970ish a book came out called "The Zen of Seeing" (I just went and picked it off the shelf: 1973 to be exact, AND I paid $3.45 for it!!!).  The author quotes Meister Eckhart, "The eye with which I see God is the same eye with which God sees me."  Spirit living within me is in this with me!  Today I look gently upon the day, and all that this day holds.

xoxoLC

Winter Recital

It is understood that we have the most amazing musicians in this family!

She practices her music and is hecka good at goalie.
Calm and cool, and Christmas Carols never sounded so good!
Um, this was the night before!  Before Poppa whupped her at Chinese Checkers.
Just so you know, that's my hat.

xoxoLC

Pammi's Orchestra

First Utah
The whole section.
OOOOOOOOOOOOmmmmmmmmmmmm!
Aw, it's all about Treats.
Give credit where due:  consider what it took to get this photo!  Pammi has SALMON treats!!!

xoxoLC

Happy Birthday Bloo Luna!

Yeah, after I got used to you it's kinda fun having a Canine Saggi around.Don't chew dare!  You big lummox you.
Oh Goddess.  Do you think they'ssssssssssss EVER going to take you back?
Okay.  Just try it.  I'll knock your block off.  
What's a birthday?  Will somebody leave something besides the blender-lid on the counter?
Ms. Luna is 2 today.  She brings all sorts of joy and hilarity to our lives.  Today while I was driving out to the lake, she put her head on top of mine with a huge sigh, "How LONG does it take?"

And after the month and a half of rice, supplements and raw turkey, her belly is clear and she is not itching.  Yay.  Last night we came home pretty late, and in front of the stove on the rug, were $1000 worth of Christmas Chocolate Money aluminum wrappers and remnants of my Peruvian Llamas from the nativity creche.  No rash yet.

Imagine her peeling those wrappers off the chocolate.  We are thinking of installing a video.

xoxoLC

Fog

Socked in fog today

and I am freezing.  Freezing.

Looking skyward I can see

blue, with striated clouds

high above the atmospheric

playground where starlings

perform fantastic twisting,

playing tornado.

Blue is hope.  Blue is the last

color one sees in advancing

blindness.  Sometimes I am

blue with longing.  Foggy

mornings muffle colors,

shrink my world.

xoxoLC

Messenger

Messenger

by Mary Oliver

My work is loving the world.

Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird---

equal seekers of sweetness.

Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.

Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.

Are my boots old?  Is my coat torn?

Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect?  Let me

keep my mind on what matters,

which is my work,

which is mostly standing still and learning to be

astonished.

The phoebe, the delphinium.

The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.

Which is mostly rejoicing, since all ingredients are here,

which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart

and these body-clothes,

a mouth with which to give shouts of joy

to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,

telling them all, over and over, how it is

that we live forever.

Listening to mine messenger, that's the quest.  Listening to Mary Oliver last night was inspiring, hilarious, and deeply moving.  She made a joke about commas being inserted into lines by poets wanting some definitive way to highlight a particularly fabulous phrase,  "...that's why you find them in my poetry, and dashes, lots of dashes!"  I just loved how she let us all know that we all have precious phrases and lines IN us, and of course we are going to search for ways to make them obvious!  Why wouldn't we?

Listening to a program about Roy Orbison as I am working today:  I loved him when I got my first Personal Stereo (not to share with Mom, or brothers, or somebody turning it off right in the middle of "Leah!").  I played his records many times every day.  Oh Lordy, now I hear him in rehersal with the Boss.  Now, HOW am I supposed to concentrate?  Oh, Sweet Dreams, Bay-beh!

Oh, and MO writes dog poems!  Hee hee hee!  Look out, Literary World!!!

What is your personal Messenger whispering today?

xoxoLC

Minutia and a loose painter

Pocket Monsters bring joy.  Someone gave the troll a haircut.String of Pearls blooming.
Mmmmmm.  This may show up as a painting.
I have been scrubbing walls, corners, and even the grate on the front of the 'fridge.  Living with dogs is a grimy affair.  Ignoring the corners does not help the situation much.  The turkey soup is simmering, cookies baked, dogs sacked out in various creative poses, one ear alert in case I pick up the fly swatter, go near the vacuum cleaner or put on the walking shoes.  The first two are reason for hiding better, the last cause for raucous milling and vocalizing.  I finished shelling the Neighbor Beans, put away 10,000 dishes and plates and bowls, too many loads of laundry, swept, and even read the label on the fire extinguisher: it was checked in June of 2000. Up to date, kind of like my paperwork.

Tonight Dev and I are going with my writer's group to listen to Mary Oliver.  I have never heard her "in person" so I am very much looking forward to this evening.  Of course, doing anything with the beautiful Dev is captivating, except walking the dogs.  They bug her.

SO, I am now going to put on the go-for-a-walk-with-the-canines shoes.  Hmmmm.  They must not know how to interpret keyboarding.  He he he.  Uh-oh.  I lied.

aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

xoxoLC

PS:  Click on the last photo for a treat!