Saturday Wordzzle Challenge: Week 48

This is week 48 of the Saturday Wordzzle challenge. Anyone new to the process can refer back here to find out how it works. I completely lost track of the fact that today is Friday. Completely. Until about 6:45. And I'm tired. So anyway, luckily someone wrote and asked me something about Wordzzles or I'd have simply forgotten and I wrote these at the very last minute, very tired under pressure and they are AWFUL! I mean the stink up the joint. And my imagination will simply not kick in to add any imagination to them, so all I can do is post them - late - and apologize that they are so bad. I didn't think this batch of words would be that tough, but they were for some reason. Not too happy with next week's words either. My brain seems to be vacationing in the Bahamas while the rest of me shivers and moans about cold and snow. But I'm writing all this because I just hate the idea of posting what I've written.... but eventually I have to, so... guess I will... Sorry....

The words for this week's ten word challenge were: snow and ice, vegetarian chili, pampered kitty, anthropology, do you own a home, coronation, you can change the world, hideous curtains, stammering, premonitions Mini Challenge: Is there a doctor in the house, blowing in the breeze, shadows, comedian, sleeping disorder

Here's my ten-word offering for this week:

Snow days are the best. Nothing beats a nice bowl of vegetarian chili and a pampered kitty purring on your lap on a cold winter day when snow and ice are making the outside world too miserable to venture into. Yesterday was a TV all the way day for me. A little Discovery Channel programming on anthropology followed by HDTV asking me, “Do you own your own home?” and telling me how to shop for one, then showing me seven easy ways to take my hideous curtains and make them into show pieces. Next I watched a PBS documentary on the coronation of Queen Elizabeth. At one point I must have fallen asleep and I think kitty changed the channel because I woke up to some strange woman stammering premonitions and muttering something like You can change the world. I closed my wonderful snow day with a big bowl of popcorn and great Netflix movie – if you haven’t seen “Lars and the Real Girl,” you really should – and had the best night’s sleep I’ve had in ages.

And here's my mini challenge:

His long hair blowing in the breeze, the comedian Gary Giggles stood in the shadows thanking his lucky stars that he had already finished his act an hour earlier, before the man with the sleep disorder had arrived. He felt sorry for his colleague – alone on the huge outdoor stage - trying unsuccessfully to turn the problem of into comic gold. He had now resorted – only have joking - to the desperate cry of “Is there a doctor in the house?” Alas there as no reply,

And for the mega challenge:

As a result of her sleeping disorder, Marissa had been having terrible dreams and premonitions for several weeks. In one of the dreams, which she had almost nightly, she was in a strange, horribly decorated house with the most hideous curtains and furnishing she had ever seen and walls decorated with posters that said things like You Can Change the World and Anthropology is the Best Ology. There was also a collection of gaudy dishes each with a different cat and the world pampered kitty in gold, but as far as she could tell, no actual cat. On the stove was a can that said Coronation Vegetarian Chili. Outside everything was snow and ice so it was a shock when the door swung open and Frankenstein, who had long hair that was blowing in the breeze, stood there holding out a real estate card and alternately stammering, “Do you own your own home?” and “Is there a doctor in the house?”. Frankenstein was followed in short order by the comedian Groucho Marx singing Me and My Shadow. Something must be done, she muttered over and over. The curtains are bad enough, Frankenstein reminding me over and over that I don’t own my own home is painful in the extreme, but Groucho Marx singing is the absolutely the worst.

~~~~~~~~~~~

This week’s vanity wordzzle: feathered dream-catcher, silence, sea wrack, total, absolute, dolphin, eerie, living room, magisterial, bird feeder, munitions dump, God-jar

“I know what the feathered dream-catcher is for, but what’s a God-jar, sir? I’ve never heard of that before.” The old man gave her an eerie smile and studied her quietly for a moment. “Hmm. I did not recognize you at first,” he muttered, as though by her question, he knew her now. “Not many ask about the God-jar, only the true seekers. The God-jar is something different to each person’s journey. It is not some quaint conversation piece with which to decorate your living room. It is a thing of great power.” Lucinda was strangely shaken, not just by his words but by the stern, magisterial tone of them. “Oh, I was just curious, really. . . I mean, I’m not . . .” He just nodded and smiled quietly. “Not many ask about the God-jar. Not many are ready for its wonders.” “Yes, I see. Oh, what a lovely bird feeder,” she exclaimed, trying desperately to change the subject. She felt like she had stumbled into a minefield or a munitions dump with one innocent question. He smiled at her again, this time with a twinkle in his eye. “Ah, dear child, you do not understand. You did not ask about the God-jar, it has asked about you. You see, it is the God-jar which seeks people out, not the other way around. It does not call many, but now it has called you and its call is absolute and must be answered. Although you do not realize it yet, you are a light seeker. I am a shaman to my people and I would be honored to act as your guide and teacher on this journey. Are you willing to listen?” Lucinda nodded quietly, not sure why she was saying yes, but knowing somehow that there was no other answer. “Good. Now, you must clear three weeks time on your calendar which you can spend and when you are ready, return to me here. I will be waiting. Before you return, however, you must spend one day in total silence. Go down to the shore, sit on the sand, among the sea wrack and listen to the whispers of the wind and the ocean, and especially watch for the dolphins. They will speak to you and you will tell me what they have said. We will go from there.

~~~~~~~~~~

Next Week's 10 Word Challenge: author, Wall Street, rage, lemons, channel changer, cookies and milk, candelabra, Pine Cone Motel, illusory, fluffer-doodle.

And the mini challenge: war, wooden shoes, flabbergast, chimera, vodka martini

Thanks for playing. For those who are new, here are some guidelines to make the process more fun.

Enjoy! See you next week.

DON'T FORGET TO ADD YOUR NAME TO MR. LINKY!!!!!

Obsessed with Icicles

I seem unable to stop taking photo after photo of the icicles hanging off my eaves right now, hoping to catch how interesting and odd the shapes are and how the light glints inside them. So far I haven't satisfied myself really... and then some new glow pops up and I have to try again. Yesterday, even though it was still very cold, the sun was out and they were dripping. This morning they seem to have stretched a bit, but there's no melting. So not many words today. Don't think I have enough energy to do Skywatch today, so I'm just going to post my icicles and go take a nap. Hope those who are in the hardest hit parts of the country have their power back and are snug and warm and safe. So far it has been cold here and snowy, but that's all. Only February left, which means Spring is on the way, right? It is coming, isn't it?

My Weekend

Well, I'm pretty much caught up on Shadow Shot Sunday and Wordzzles and it's gloomy and snowing hard outside - we are supposed to get at least 8 inches, I think - so I thought maybe I'd share a little bit about my weekend. Afraid it's a bit garbled. A lot happened over two days and as you know already, reiki is hard to explain. It's more experiential. But I'll try to share anyway because I have nothing else much to talk about today.

My thanks to Shannon. She took a lot of wonderful pictures (all of the ones here today). I can't really share any of the workshop shots without violating people's privacy so you will get mostly cats and objects and a picture of me and my mad scientist eyebrows hidden behind a cup of chai tea.

My friends Nate and Dan had long asked me to teach them Reiki but although I had shared information about the concepts, we had never set a date. Then sweet Shannon asked me to teach her and in the way of kids wanted a "when." This was the push I needed to set a date and it became my Christmas gift to my friends. Originally I expected four but ended up with six. Wow. What a joy! And how terrifying. It's been at least 12 years since I've attuned anyone to reiki and my inner demons had a grand party at my expense. I didn't sleep well for the two nights before the workshop. My brain went wild with "what ifs" and "you cant's." (Too bad I didn't remind myself of the reiki principles listed below, eh?)


I always have a bit of trouble with the second one. Worry is second nature to me. And I had a brief struggle with a one/two combo since everyone (except Rosalie) was very late the first day and I had truckloads of material to get through. I discovered there is still quite a bit of my mother lying dormant in my psyche, though, to be honest the anger part (such as it was) was more anxiety. I made a big joke of "yelling" at all of them for being late and got it out of my system and pretty much threw my schedule out, only to discover that I had built in so much time that we quickly caught up with my schedule anyway. Just for today I will not worry. Such good advice.


So anyway, we began the day with some sharing, did a meditation on and talked about the above principles and then did the first attunements. (Attunement? What's that?) Well, an attunement is a ritual that formally "turns on" the reiki connection. For people like Melli (hi, Melli), let me say that I believe Reiki is God's Love or Unconditional Love and I believe that everyone on earth has the capacity to channel it with or without attunements. I think tuning in to Reiki is like turning the dial to a specific station on the radio. It's all radio waves, simply a different band width or frequency, so to speak. Attunements don't put anything into the recipients - at least not from my perspective - they help turn the switch on for what God has already put there. So anyway, the attunements aren't strenuously physical for someone who can stand and walk, but for me it was quite an adventure and I was worried that I would fail my friends. But then I reminded myself that God/Spirit would never punish them for my failings... and He/She/It didn't.

The rest of day one involved practicing - first self-healing, then working on each other. One of the best things about reiki is that you can use it on yourself... and when you share with others, the energy moves through you as well, so you also receive at the same time you offer the energy to someone else. At the core of what I teach and believe is that we ourselves are not the healer. We offer ourselves as channels and what happens is between God and the recipient. It's unfortunate that so many humans put up barriers to receiving this unconditional gift from God. I love working on animals because they have the wisdom to just open their hearts and being to love when it comes their way.

We had a lovely lunch break in the middle of the day with vegetarian chili that Rosalie made and other good things that the others brought. It was a long day. They didn't leave until almost 8:30. I don't know about them, but I was as tired as I've been in a very long time. I felt almost too tired to get up and go to bed, which I did at 11:00 - incredibly early for me.

Sunday was a much easier day. We started with sharing and a meditation, had two more attunements and practiced sending reiki energy long distance. I was slightly less exhausted on Sunday but very tired indeed! It's so much fun to watch people experience the feeling of this warmth and love moving through their hands and open to the potential to be of service to themselves and others in such a pure and simple way.

Angel and Tara Grace, of course, felt a need to participate. Tara is in one of her talkative phases - and sang to us quite a bit. Angel decided that a nice loud toy that she ordinarily never plays with would be the perfect background for the quiet of meditation time.

It felt wonderful to share something that is such a profound and precious part of my life with people I love. Magical as it is to use (or really be used) by this sacred energy to help others, it is even more miraculous to be able to pass the gift along to others. And now I have a wonderful pool of six people who can send reiki energy to ME when I need it. How cool is that!

Obama Speaks to the Muslim World

I'm still trying to catch up from two memes and two days away from the computer over the weekend, but I thought this was worth sharing for anyone who hasn't seen it. What a joy to have someone truly working towards peace and recognizing that while violence may sometimes be required (I guess), as a rule, violence breeds more violence, not less. I'm not deluded into thinking that problems as old and entrenched as these will be solved over night or even over years, still there is something so powerful about listening to both sides. I know for me personally, sometimes being listened to has been the most powerful healing agent there is... and not being listened to has just made me want to shout louder and louder.

Shadow Shot Sunday

It's Shadow Shot Sunday and since I couldn't play last week (no monitor), I have a TRILLION shadow pictures. Hopefully I haven't put any duplicates in. Afraid there are lots of snow shadows again, but I think they are a little different from the last ones I posted. I hope they aren't too repetitive. I'm leading a two-day reiki workshop this weekend, so I'm not sure when I'll get to visit others, but I will get there, I promise.

Shadow Shot Sunday hosted over at Hey Harriet's blog and if you like shadows (as I do), check out all the wonderful posts featuring shadows of all kinds. Here's what I came up with for this week.

Seem to have taken lots of pictures of this book. I liked the title, but didn't like the book that much. Such is life.

Tara Grace in shadow....

Just so you know, the crow in this photo is fine. He is hunched for take-off.

If I put the cats in, there has to be one of each... this is Angel.

Happy Sunday! May all your shadows be beautiful!

Saturday Wordzzle Challenge: Week 47

(Please scroll down for Skywatch Friday.)

This is week 47 of the Saturday Wordzzle challenge. Anyone new to the process can refer back here to find out how it works. I was really glad that everyone kept the process going last week even in my absence. Those words were so awful that I felt compelled to try and use them so I have included them in my paragraphs this week. Whew! Not easy! Also, I want to apologize in advance. I am leading a 2-day reiki workshop this weekend so I will be late visiting - possibly not until Monday, though if I'm not too keyed up and can settle down, I'll try to visit earlier.

Also... I have no idea why these come out in all different sizes and shapes. They get pasted in one size, one font. Beats me what cyber imp makes them all goofy like this. My apologies. I tried to fix it and just made it worse. Sigh.

The words for this week's ten word challenge were: air tight seal, bitter cold, draft card, diner, paragon of virtue, broken computer monitor, CPR, a love of folk music, scatter-brained, can of worms (last week's words were: tuna on rye, ghost hunters, I'm as corny as Kansas in August, sympathetic ear, science fiction, muffler, cavernous, giraffes, prospecting, paraphernalia) and the mini challenge: California here I come, Springtime in Alberta, panorama, etchings, miracle foot repair, (last week''s words were: Key Lime Pie, porcupine, Library of Congress, fingernails, spell-bound)

Here's my ten-word offering for this week:

I’m no paragon of virtue. I smoked pot in the sixties, protested the war, and even burned my draft card, but basically, I’m a pretty normal guy. Science fiction and a love of folk music are among my greatest passions in this life. I spend much of my time prospecting online for information and paraphernalia to pursue my new-found interest in ghost hunting. Had some problems with the computer this week. Let me tell you that a broken computer monitor does a real number on a scatter-brained computer junkie like me. What organization I’ve been able to manage is all on line. No computer no world and I’m as crazy as Kansas in August – oops, I guess it’s as corny as Kansas in August – but anyway, I’m pretty much a basket case without cyber space. My wife practically had to do CPR on me when the light blinked out. It was like a great cavernous can of worms formed under my feet and sucked me in. It was touch and go for a while. Luckily my wife is a smart and sensible woman and knows how to lend a sympathetic ear no matter how foolish my problems are. She did a great job of talking me down from the edge of despair. Got me break out of the air tight seal (so to speak) in front of the computer. In fact she talked me into putting on the hideous wool muffler she knit for me with these weird giraffe-like things on it and go out into the bitter cold of a January day. We went to the local diner and had a fine lunch. She had tuna on rye and I had a cheeseburger. Then we had some apple pie a la mode. It was one of those blessing in disguise, spending a nice day with my wife like that.

And here's my mini challenge:

Springtime in Alberta may be beautiful, but winter is not so fine unless you like snow, cold and lots of it, so California here I come. Standing here at Porcupine Ridge Outlook, and looking at the Panoramic vista, I am spell-bound by the beauty of the scene. It reminds me of old etchings from the 1800s that I saw doing research at the Library of Congress. The narrow windy roads left me chewing my fingernails and my hiking weary feet are in desperate need of some miracle foot repair, but the stop and the walk at sunrise were worth any pain I may be feeling now. My camera is full of pictures, my lungs of clean pure air and my heart is singing with joy at the experience of such pristine beauty. Next stop is the the Porcupine Ridge Diner for a cup of coffee, an omelet and – even if it’s breakfast – some of their famous key lime pie.

And for the mega challenge:

My life sucks. I’m sitting here in front of my broken computer monitor shivering from the bitter cold because there’s not a single door or window in my little house that has anything close to an air tight seal. When I was young I was a virtual paragon of virtue. But then the Vietnam War started and virtue met civil disobedience and that opened a whole new world to me along with a half dozen cans of worms. I went from being the kid who walked around humming I’m as corny as Kansas in August to a long haired, scatter-brained hippie who burned his draft card and developed a love of folk music and rock. Being good hippies, it was all California here I come and my friends and I gathered our collective paraphernalia, jumped into an old jalopy with broken muffler and in hopes of prospecting for girls and LSD in that order. Took my first and last acid trip at an incredibly beautiful spot with the odd name of Porcupine Pond State Park. If I’d been smarter, I’d have realized that glorious natural panorama before me was better than anything drugs could offer, but I was young. On our way to the park, we stopped at a little diner and picked up a half dozen cups of coffee, several tuna on rye sandwiches for each of us and for some reason a whole key lime pie. Man that pie was good. Glad I ate it BEFORE I did the drugs because my trip wasn’t that happy. It was like living through some bad science fiction. God knows why, but I found myself wandering through the Library of Congress and then I was in a cavernous room looking at etchings that were hung on the wall and each one I looked at came to life. The scariest one was these space aliens who looked like giraffes only they were purple and orange and had glowing green eyes. They spoke in a kind of pigeon English and went on and on about fingernails and toenails and miracle foot repair. They were followed shortly by a flock of pelicans pretending to be ghost hunters when in fact they were cannibals in disguise. I was terrified but spellbound, wanting to run but paralyzed. I think my heart must have stopped. I know it did, actually. Lucky for a park ranger came by who knew CPR. He was able to bring me back. Even luckier for me, he was a cool guy who also hated the war. He listened to me with a kind and sympathetic ear as I came down from my bad trip and instead of arresting me, suggested pointedly that there were few things finer than springtime in Alberta. That’s how I ended up in a dead-end job in Canada instead of either California, jail or Nam. Even though I complain a lot, I'm alive and well and I have a beautiful wife and the daughter and son you could ask for, so now that I think about it, my life doesn't really suck, it's pretty darned good.

This week’s vanity wordzzle: Culture, sheep, skin, mentally, box, desert, several people, church.

From his seat near the back of the sanctuary, the hungry young man furtively eyed the alms box that hung on the far wall. He watched thoughtfully as several people stopped to drop coins and bills into the small box and mentally calculated how much money he might find inside. He had never robbed a church before and was not entirely comfortable with the idea, but he was desperate. He had not always been the creature of skin and bone who now sat huddled in the shadows of this great cathedral. He had been a man of culture, a solid citizen. He had been kind and generous, had always done - or tried to do - unto others as he would have done unto him. But then the thing had happened - he could not say the word - and his world was ripped apart, his wife and children gone and he cast into a desert of the soul where he had found himself increasingly lost. He looked at the beautiful stained glass window and the serene Jesus carrying a lamb in his arms and thought bitterly that somehow the deity had forgotten this sheep. It was indeed all hype and God had forsaken him after all. God, he figured at least owed him a little cash. But suddenly, as though in answer to those thoughts, a ray of light came through the rich glass - straight from the heart of Jesus - and shone directly on his thin, tired face. "My son," a rich voice said, "may I help you?" and turning he looked into the kind face of an elderly priest and wept.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Next Week's Ten Word Challenge will be: snow and ice, vegetarian chili, pampered kitty, anthropology, do you own a home, coronation, you can change the world, hideous curtains, stammering, premonitions

Mini Challenge: Is there a doctor in the house, blowing in the breeze, shadows, comedian, sleeping disorder

Thanks for playing. For those who are new, here are some guidelines to make the process more fun.

Enjoy! See you next week.

DON'T FORGET TO ADD YOUR NAME TO MR. LINKY!!!!!

Skywatch Friday-ish

It's Skywatch Friday (Thursday, actually) again. Between endlessly gray skies and computer problems, I haven't participated for a few weeks. Don't have much to share despite that. Please check out all the other sky-watchers at the link above and you'll see lots of glorious sunsets and sunrises and clouds and other wonderful sky scenes. We haven't had much sun this month, but we did have a few days when the sky was something other than gray.



This is what the sky has been like most of the time. I posted a bunch of snow photos a couple of days ago and the sky is so gray that some thought the pictures were black and white. I have to admit that the world feels very monochrome these days and the rare blue skies are especially nurturing to the spirit.

Oh Happy Day!

Well, anybody who isn't new here, knows that I'm happy to see our former president safely tucked away in Texas, though I still wish he was tucked away in jail. But let me stick to the positive.

I'm so happy that we have such a good - truly good, I believe - man holding the highest office in the land. I listened to his inaugural address yesterday and I felt like the ventriloquists who have been putting ugly words into the mouth of my nation had left the building and our real voice was speaking out again. My favorite sentence.... or one of them was this:

"As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals."

And in the next paragraph he added that

...earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions.They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please.

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect.To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West - know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy.

There was more, but these words - this kind of attitude gives me hope and it makes me feel safer than I have felt in many years. A world of us and them, a world of might makes right is a dangerous and ugly world in which to live. I have no children, but I have nieces and nephews and great nieces and nephews. I want them to live in a world where we don't meet hate with hate and bombs with bombs, where our leaders understand that true power isn't about controlling others, but about knowing and trusting yourself.

Anyway, I' think we are about to rediscover that our strength lies in living our ideals, not talking about them.

On another note, since I had all sorts of time on my hands away from the computer, I was thinking about some things. It's odd to me that for me - despite having grown up when racism was still overtly rampant in this country, it seems perfectly natural to me to have a black president. I'm thrilled not by Mr. Obama's blackness, but by his character. I have a feeling that for much of white America, Martin Luther King, followed by Oprah, Denzel Washington, Bill Cosby and others, have changed our race consciousness without our really even knowing it. Few voices have had a more far-reaching impact on our culture than Oprah. Brilliant, eloquent black people are part of our national culture now. I realize that this isn't true for all white people. There is still rampant racism out there. But I think we have long been more changed than we realized.

What has been interesting and deeply moving to me is to see what this means for BLACK Americans. For them the earth has truly shifted and it's beautiful to see the joy and excitement on their faces, to hear it in their voices. This is a profound healing for a huge segment of our society and therefor for our society as a whole. How glorious!

*****

I should probably leave it here - but I have to add a little peeve on a non inaugural note. Is everyone in the media stuck in the third grade? The whole "cabinet of rivals" crap and the idea that grown-ups can't disagree, compete against one another and then get over it and be friends and team members really irritates me. I'm sure that Hilary Clinton was disappointed when she lost and may have needed to lick her wounds for a few days, but the idea that she and Obama are eternal competitors or enemies is idiotic and reflects a kind of emotional immaturity, not on the part of Obama and Clinton (and all the others onto whom it is projected), but on the media people who seem bent on living in a world of people with the maturity of gnats. It seems to be beyond their comprehension that one can listen with genuine interest and respect to ideas with which you disagree. We have too long been in the grips of people who have operated that way, I fear. But a grown-up has now taken office. Above and beyond what he offers us in practical and policy terms - and he has a huge task ahead of him there - Mr. Obama seems to clearly recognize the power of the bully pulpit, the power of inspiring others - young and old - to become their highest and best selves.

I think President Obama is speaking/appealing to our better angels. Hopefully we will let our better angels out to dance and sing and work and play.

It Was a Snowy Sunday in Hancock

Hi all,

Cyber-vision has been restored to me at last. I'm a bit tired tonight so I'll just post a few pictures of Sunday's winter whiteness. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to think of something intelligent to say. Or even something unintelligent. I've missed you. Feels good to have a working screen again, though I did enjoy getting some reading in during my week without cyberspace.

Saturday Wordzzle Challenge: Week 46

Missing you all. Will look forward to reading your stories when I can have more than 3 seconds at a time to read them. Hopefully I'll be back on Tuesday... Wednesday at the latest. Don't forget to sign into Mr. Linky.

Words for Next Week:

10 Word Challenge: air tight seal, bitter cold, draft card, diner, paragon of virtue, broken computer monitor, CPR, a love of folk music, scatter-brained, can of worms

mini challenge: California here I come, Springtime in Alberta, panorama, etchings, miracle foot repair,

Update: Agghhhhh!

Luckily I can type without looking so I can leave very short notes. Monitor is cooked. Found a new one at Amazon.com (I love them!) for $116. Alas it will not arrive until next week. If I am still sane, I'll be back next Tuesday or Wednesday. If not....

I will try to put Mr. Linky up on Friday so anyone who wants to do wordzzles can still play, but I can't do something that complex in three second flashes so I won't be playing this week.

I miss you all. I miss my computer. I did clean the house a bit yesterday and did some reading. Maybe it's not all bad not having the computer.

Eeeeeeek!!!!!

Computer Problems

My apologies. Something wrong with my monitor. Have to turn it on and off every secondto see anything. I'm hoping it's going to be fixable. Not sure when I'll be back. Aggggghhh!!!!!

Ruby Tuesday

Ruby Tuesday - hosted by Mary/the Teach at Work of the Poet - is here again. I didn't think to check and see if there is a theme this week and it's too late now, so I'm just offering the odd hodge-podge below. Not very happy with any of these, but I'm in a kind of blue mood for posting reds. My eyes are hungry for green right now... and winter has barely begun. But time will fly and one day soon I'll wake up and be surprised that Spring is here, I guess.

It is bleak and gray today, but I noticed this tiny

touch of red in the back yard.

Inside, I noticed these. A few months back, I got a year (18-month)
supply of garbage bags from Amazon.com. Really good buy and
now I don't have to worry about running out.

In another life, I worked for the Lutheran Church in American
when I lived in NYC. One year they gave all of us a collection
of rice paper paintings of scenes from the Bible. This is my least
favorite, but it was handy.

A really bad photo of one of my new prayer flags.

My friend Rosalie came for a visit last weekend and brought me this
beautiful red bowl (with the oranges). I thought I'd put the little red
from the rain stick into the shot too. That's a picture of my late father
and if you look really carefully you can see a red plaid shirt that's part
of a picture of my niece and her husband.

And that's my Ruby Tuesday submission for this week.
Have a great day!

Change.gov

I thought this was worth sharing.

Shadow Shot Sunday

Decided to participate in Shadow Shot Sunday again this week, though I don't have that many shots - and I didn't want to bore everyone with more pictures of tree shadows on my neighbor's front lawn. Gets pretty repetitive after a while. I did include one from a different part of the yard that's a bit different, I hope. Shadow Shot Sunday hosted over at Hey Harriet's blog and if you like shadows (as I do), check out all the wonderful posts featuring shadows of all kinds. Here's what I came up with for this week.

Not sure this icicle really counts as having shadows or
is just kind of made of light and shadow, but I like the
reflectionsin the drop... You can see my little house.

Different spot in my neighbor's yard...

Angel and Tara Grace graciously made shadows for me
behind the curtains.

I contemplated saving this one for Ruby Tuesday but... these are my new prayer flags.
Hopefully, I can get someone to hang them for me in the near future.

That's it for me. May all your shadows be beautiful.

Curmudgeon Lite

(Please scroll down for the Saturday Wordzzle Challenge.)

Well, this isn't really curmudgeony (I don't think), but it is the second half of what I was going to talk about on Tuesday. It's a difficult subject for me because it's something profoundly important to me and the fact that other people don't feel the same as I do is really my problem and not theirs, but... it makes me sad. So here goes...

Most of you who visit here with any regularity know that I'm a reiki master and that reiki (more here and here) is a big part of my life and who I am. I don't think there's anyone who holds this against me, but I know that large numbers of people - in life and in the blogosphere - just go kind of quiet when the subject comes up and sort of tip toe quietly out of the room hoping that I won't hear the silence. I understand that. I really do. We are not a naturally airy-fairy society. We are taught to believe in science and the "provable." There are also people who feel that the idea of reiki is "un-Christian." That one puzzles me because I think the opposite is true. Jesus performed and talked about everyone being able to do healing and always stated clearly that healing had much to do with the faith to receive it.... But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I have to admit that I thought reiki was a lot of hooey when I first encountered the idea of offering healing touch to anybody. This was at a workshop. "Oh, Lord," I thought. "These people are goofy." Then we started doing some experiments. First we took dowsing rods and started exploring people's energy fields. My eyes were rolling at first but then the dowsing rods started responding as people expanded and contracted their "energy," myself included. Different people could impact the rods from different distances. Hmmm. Imagination? Manipulation? If would have been hard to manipulate. There were about 40 of us, all having similar but unique experiences. This was before I had even heard of reiki. At this workshop we experimented with sending loving energy to each other. I later made some home-made dowsing rods and got my mathematician/actuary father - the ultimate skeptic - to experiment with me. He couldn't explain the rods or rationalize them away, though he tried. Then we got my mother, who was already fairly deep into the throes of dementia, to get onto a make-shift table. After I worked on her, she was more coherent than she had been in a long time and that lasted for several days. My father let me work on him too and then rationalized away his own experiences... and my mother's. But at least he pried the door of his mind open for an hour. I give him that. It just bothered him that he couldn't find a logial explanation, so he dismissed his experience. I see that often. How sad. And how unscientific. Worse still are those who won't even try reiki but simply dismiss it as bull****. I find it very illogical and unscientific to simply dismiss reiki without trying it. My nephew - another skeptic - got on my table to humor me and had the pain in his wrists and elbows (he was studying martial arts) go away. It bothered him that he couldn't explain what happened, but he didn't deny his experience. He sent a friend to me who had gone through doctors, chiropractors, medications and even surgery for a shoulder injury with no success. Reiki helped him when nothing else did. It baffles me why reiki works. It is an act of faith both to offer it and to receive it. It's a mystery... and a wonderful one.

I experimented with the concept of energy in another context when I was attending Seminary. Our thoughts and energy have much more power than we traditionally acknowledge. One of the more interesting courses I took at General Seminary was something called "Vision and Audition in the Bible." The professor was a priest who had been a scientist and not put much stock in things like dreams or intuition until he himself had a profound personal experience that changed his life. He then became deeply enmeshed in the idea of dreams and energy. At one point he had each of us hook ourselves up to a machine that monitors alpha and delta waves. Alpha is supposed to be our waking/thinking state. Delta is associated with dreaming and with deep meditation. The idea of this machine was to use it to bring yourself into a delta state. It would start buzzing when you got to a delta state. According to the machine, I live in a delta state as it went off immediately. I kept thinking I was doing it wrong, but I double and triple checked and I consistently set it off just plugging it in. Maybe that has something to do with me being empathic. I don't know. It would be interesting to do a study on that. Do empaths and people who work with the healing arts operate from a different energetic place naturally? I know some of you out there don't believe in empaths either, but you haven't lived in my body so don't dismiss what you don't understand. One of the reasons I got interested in learning reiki was because it is supposed to help protect you from taking other peoples feelings into your own body. Sounded good to me.

But I have way digressed from what I wanted to talk about. Whew. This subject is so huge for me and so impossible to explain in a way that makes sense to people. My main point was that I don't understand total resistance to something like reiki. I understand skepticism. I think that's healthy. Dismissal bugs me. It's like turning away angels because they might be mythical. Or maybe a smarter parallel might be refusing water when you are thirsty because you like orange juice better. Or maybe there is no analogy.

Reiki is no more fool-proof than allopathic medicine, which works differently for different people and which sometimes heals and sometimes doesn't.. I don't think I'm Jesus. Reiki practitioners don't make promises. What happens is between you and the energy. We are channels through which it comes. That said, sometimes my own and the recipient's expectations are disappointed. When I'm doing it right - truly remembering that I'm just a channel and not a "doer," I avoid expectation and disappointment. I'm not really quite so wise that I can do that completely but I'm better at it than I used to be. Ever time I send reiki is always different because each human and each day are different. Sometimes I feel nothing and the recipient feels a great deal. Sometimes I feel things and the person at the other end doesn't. Sometimes - this is when it's most fun - we have matching experiences. I used to reiki a freind of mine while we talked on the phone. She could always tell me where on the teddy bear surrogate my hands were. That was great fun. Animals are fun to do. They way too smart to second guess a gift. With few exceptions, they soak the reiki energy in gladly. They don't question whether it's logical or possible. They just know it feels good. Humans are more prone to doubt and resistence.

Still, it makes me sad that there are people suffering who could suffer less, that there are gifted people like Dennis Puffett out there offering a great gift and asking nothing in return and people tip-toe out of the room as though they have overheard something wicked being discussed. I don't get not exploring something so potentially wonderful. The worst that can happen is that it doesn't work. But there's always the possiblity that you might feel better.

So this isn't a criticism or really curmudgeonyness. It's puzzlement and sadness because I love reiki and I love to share those things that are precious to me. When I offer reiki, when I talk about it, I am opening my heart. I am stepping out of my own comfort zone in some ways because I know not everyone believes in it and some even have judgements about it. I won't say that rejection of something so important to me doesn't make me a touch sad, but even worse than rejection for me, is silence.

Thanks for listening to me here. I hope I have made a little bit of sense.

Saturday Wordzzle Challenge: Week 45

Yippee! Wordzzles are back! This is week 45 of the Saturday Wordzzle challenge. Anyone new to the process can refer back here to find out how it works.

The words for this week's ten word challenge were: We were born on the same day in the same hospital, Weeping willow, two for one sale, Highway robbery, Burial ground, roll of paper towels, gospel singer, gallows, weirdo, volcano Mini Challenge: Symbiosis, Sagging breasts, Navaho blanket, Frogmen, Who says I got no heart?

Here's my ten-word offering for this week:

Strange but true. We met standing on line at Macy’s which was running an incredible two for one sale on everything from rolls of paper towels to flat screen TVs of all things. As it turned out, prices were still highway robbery. At first I thought he was some kind of weirdo, but somehow we started talking anyway and I discovered that we were almost twins – well, sort of… We were born on the same day in the same hospital. Really. I kid you not. I had just gotten the leading role in a play called Weeping Willow. I was playing the part of a white woman raised by Indians. Our campground was at the foot of a volcano for some reason – I think the volcano was supposed to be symbolic of the social and emotional turmoil or something like that. Much of the story was set at the tribe’s burial grounds where I was burying my native father who had been wrongly hanged on the gallows for allegedly murdering a white man. The real killer had turned out to be my birth father. It was a strange play. Turns out Zach – that was his name – was a gospel singer – and really good, too. Weeping Willow had one uncast role – for a singing shaman. He got the part and – unlike me – got rave reviews. It was the start of his career and the end of mine – at least my acting career. Lucky for me we fell in love and I got the role of a life-time. Mother to sweet baby Louie and his sister Samanatha. The TVs may have been overpriced, but that day at Macy’s was the best shopping day of my life.

And here's my mini challenge:

Who says I got no heart? My ancient and sadly sagging breasts have no sex appeal left in them. Nor do I. Now that I don’t have to worry about sex any more, I have achieved a kind of uneasy truce – a symbiosis of sorts – with my body. I know it seems odd to call it a symbiosis since that implies that my body is an other and not me – but that is how it always felt – like my enemy or something. I was raised to be ashamed if it and it took old age and isolation to get me past that. Maybe I’m not past it and only pretending. Works out just the same. I wrap myself in my big floaty Navaho blanket with the frog-men woven into it and am reasonably at peace. Still, I cry a sometimes for all that I have missed in this life. I don’t know if my heart is broken, but it is surely there.

And for the mega challenge:

Marty and I, we were born on the same day in the same hospital, and we were friends for our whole lives. We were like brothers and our parents used to joke that we were like getting a two for one sale on kids. We considered ourselves really lucky because it was like we each had two families. We both loved music, though our tastes were a bit different. Marty was a gospel singer and I was more into folk and rock and roll. Because we were so close we couldn’t think of not performing together and our friendship created a kind of symbiosis of our different styles that turned out to be magical. You may have heard of us – we called ourselves Eagle and the Frogman. We never told anybody who was which. We were both weirdos so maybe we were both each role depending on the day, if you know what I mean. Our first album was called Burial Ground and it even had a hit single called Weeping Willow. We made two hit albums – Voice of the Volcano and Highway Robbery – after that and we stayed friends until he met Veronica. I admit it. I was jealous. She took my place and I didn’t understand it... well not until I met my wife, Mary, and then we all got close again and THEY joked about how they had gotten a two for one sale on husbands and friends. So here I am waking up from my heart transplant and my wife and two best friends are there with flowers and gifts and lots of laughter. Mary, is there with her obligatory roll of paper towels cleaning and polishing. It’s how she copes with emotion. She cleans. They’ve all brought flowers and music and my favorite Navaho blanket that I got when Marty and I were on the road. My favorite thing, though, was this gallows humor t-shirt, which they had also made into a poster. It’s got this little old man with sort of sagging breasts and big scar between them and in big letters it says WHO SAYS I GOT NO HEART? That just cracks me up every time I see it. They say humor is the best medicine and it must be true because my new heart is just bursting with love and joy. I’m a lucky man.

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This week’s vanity wordzzle: tiger, false, camera, obsolete, velvet, novelty, timeless, contract, mellifluous, sandalwood, perfection, xylophone, topography

I don't know whether I fell in love with it's mellifluous, velvety sound, or with the novelty of finding a tiger-shaped xylophone carved out of rich smelling sandalwood, but I was a woman obsessed. It was perfection, not one false line or curve to be found! It spoke to all my senses at once - touch, smell, sound, sight. It was so rich, so timeless in its artistry that I had to have it. The shop was a bit like walking into a fairy tale. Know what I mean? The owner was this weird little man named Sven Zen - or that's what he told me. I kind of think he must have made that name up, because Sven Zen had quite an imagination. I always thought he looked a bit like a gnome, you know, being so short like he was and wearing those funny clothes. I mean his outfits weren't just out of style, they were obsolete. Besides the xylophone, his shop was just filled with the most wonderful and unusual items. There was this funny camera that Sven Zen said took pictures of people's true nature. He took my picture and then showed me what he claimed were photos of other customers. They were really strange. This one woman's face came out all sickly green and twisted. Ugh. And then he showed me one of a man who looked all glowy, sort of like you'd imagine an angel would look. Mine was all pink and green and golden light and there were flowers in my hair and I kind of looked like I was singing. It was really cool. I asked him if I could have it, but he said no, he liked to keep a record of his customers. Then there was the topography book that when you opened it up, the maps seemed to really have mountains and valleys and you could almost see the grass and trees and flowers and hear the birds singing. You looked at those maps and you actually felt like you'd been to the places they depicted. The book must have been pretty old, because I never even heard of some of the places that book had maps of. It was just a wonderful shop. I could go on and on, because everything there seemed to be one of a kind and there was a sort of enchantment about the place. I couldn't stay away. There were half a dozen items that I wouldn't have minded taking home, but the xylophone just had my heart. I knew I had to have it. Once Sven Zen took my picture and called me a customer, I kind of knew he was gonna let me have the xylophone. I guess he knew I couldn't really afford it, because he offered to draw up a contract in which I would barter some services for the xylophone. I was a little nervous at first. 'Cause he was kind of strange, you know, and for some reason I kept thinking of Rumplestiltskin, but it turned out ok, I think. The deal is I have to take my Tiger-phone, as I like to call it, and make music for children and old people. And I have to write a book of poems and, if it's published, share the profits with Sven Zen. At least he didn't want my first-born child.

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Next Week's Ten Word Challenge will be: tuna on rye, ghost hunters, I'm as corny as Kansas in August, sympathetic ear, science fiction, muffler, cavernous, giraffes, prospecting, paraphenalia

Mini Challenge: Key Lime Pie, porcupine, Library of Congress, fingernails, spell-bound

Thanks for playing. For those who are new, here are some guidelines to make the process more fun.

Enjoy! See you next week.

DON'T FORGET TO ADD YOUR NAME TO MR. LINKY!!!!!

Curmudgeon Stuff: I Hate Awards

There are so many really important things I could write about today. I could write about world peace and the insanity being perpetrated by both sides in Gaza. I could write about political ambition over common sense and the nonsense that still seems to be rampant in my government. I could write about... well lots of things. But instead I have decided to grumble a bit.

I kind of hesitate to write what I'm about to say. It seems ungracious, though I don't mean it to be ungracious. I am always thrilled when anybody visits my little blog, especially when you say nice things to me. I thrive on kind words. I post something and I wait eagerly for someone to comment. Thank you to each and every person who has ever commented here.

Ok... here comes the curmudgeon part. I also appreciate the thought behind awards. But I hate awards. I really hate them. Give me a good comment any day but please don't ever give me an award, even a wonderful, beautiful one. I hate them. Even when they are pretty. Even when I love the sentiment behind them. I just hate them. To me they are like those gooey emails that I'm supposed to pass along to ten or twenty people. I hate those too, even when they are clever and beautiful. I especially hate the ones that say if I'm really your friend I'll send it back to you. If you were really my friend you wouldn't ask. (That's my inner curmudgeon speaking. I know that people send things on for many reasons and true friends have sent me those emails and I still love them just as much even though I HATE the emails.) But back to awards. They feel a lot like those emails to me. I feel very mean spirited saying this. I mean how ungracious can I be? But I can't help it. I've tried to hint about it... what I've said in the past is true - getting awards freaks me out and I do have a hard time receiving them above and beyond the fact that I just HATE them. I think I kind of hate awards in general. I seldom watch things like the Academy awards except maybe to see movie clips. I'm no opposed to praise and compliments. Praise and compliments are cool. I guess I'm not opposed to awards exactly... for anybody who likes getting them. For myself, though, I feel more like I'm being punished than giving a gift. For that reason, I guess, I don't much like giving them either. (How curmudgeony is THAT!?) I love praising people. I love giving gifts, but I really hate giving awards. I mean, how meaningful is it if I'm required by it's rules to give it to x number of other people? How sincere is the passing along? And I know that's an unfair question. On those occasions when I've passed awards along, I've passed them to people I truly and sincerely admire. So anyway, please don't ever give me an award again even if you think I'm wonderful and deserving.... because... need I repeat it again.... I really, really, really hate awards. What a mean-spirited, grouchy old curmudgeon I am!

I was going to add a second part to this - not curmudgeony really but something that I want to talk about. I think I'll wait and make it a separate post tomorrow. Meanwhile, here are some pictures to hopefully atone for my bad manners posting this. I really do appreciate the thought behind those of you who have given me awards but I just hate awards. I'm sorry. I just do.

Ruby Tuesday

Ruby Tuesday - hosted by Mary/the Teach at Work of the Poet - is here again. This week Mary suggested that that we find "signs" with red in them. Since I don't leave the house, she offered me the leeway of sign-like thing such as packaging. I did dig into my archives for a couple of real signs. These are from before I had my nice new camera. The first is from my nightmarish (but scenic) apartment in Lake Huntington, NY and the second is near another pretty awful apartment (in the cute little white house up the hill) in a pretty town on the Delaware River called Narrowsburg, NY. The last three pictures are current and are from inside my house. I had to/chose to redden Dr. Bronner's packaging a little bit. That's it from me this week. Not terribly excited about these. Please drop by Mary's and check out all the wonderful ruby shots from all around the world.


The past...



Here and now...

HAPPY RUBY TUESDAY!!

Shadow Shot Sunday

I had a lot fun with Shadow Shot Sunday last week and the sun came out a few times this week so I thought I'd give it another try. Shadow Shot Sunday hosted over at Hey Harriet's blog and if you like shadows (as I do), check out all the wonderful posts featuring shadows of all kinds. Here's what I came up with for this week.

Just a Reminder

There seemed to be some confusion, so I just wanted to let everyone know that the Saturday Wordzzle Challenge will return next week. Hope to see you all then.

Just a reminder so you don't have to bother searching... here are the words for the next challenge.

Next Week's Ten Word Challenge will be: We were born on the same day in the same hospital, Weeping willow, Two for one sale, Highway robbery, Burial ground, roll of paper towels, gospel singer, gallows, weirdo, volcano

Mini Challenge: Symbiosis, Sagging breasts, Navaho blanket, Frogmen, Who says I got no heart?

Skywatch Friday

It's Skywatch Friday (Thursday, actually) again. Haven't participated for a few weeks so I have a are gazillion shots and no self control about posting a lot. Please check out all the other skywatchers at the link above and you'll see lots of glorious sunsets and sunrises and clouds and other wonderful sky scenes. We haven't had much sun this month, but we did have a few days when the sky was something other than gray.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!