Departure

Overwhelming joy gives way to overwhelming grief as his time to depart draws near. The two month separation has done nothing to prepare me for, or diminish the pain I feel when contemplating the next six months. 

Tecumseh

"Live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart.
Trouble no one about his religion.
Respect others in their views and demand that they respect yours.
Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life.
Seek to make your life long and of service to your people.
Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.
Always give a word or sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend,
or even a stranger, if in a lonely place.
Show respect to all people, but grovel to none.
When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light,
for your life, for your strength.
Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living.
If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself.
Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools
and robs the spirit of its vision.
When your time comes to die,
be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear of death,
so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time
to live their lives over again in a different way.
Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home."
-- Tecumseh
(1768-1813) Shawnee Chief

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Many have sacrificed their lives for our Liberty.
Let us renew our commitment to Freedom.

"Life is a gift, Freedom is a responsibility."
Liberty-Tree.ca (c) Copyright 2010

Life IS like a box of chocolates

Sometimes you go out for the meteors and comeback with a bunch of howling Coyotes.

Cool

61 and light showers, my kind of day. Apparently not only my kind as the frogs are out of the water and can sit on rocks without baking, the fawns are racing around the pond and the geese are putting on their own air races. It seems like the last 3 or 4 months have been so hot and dry. Not just the physical weather, but emotionally and spiritually as well. People, things, situations all moving so fast. Scorched like rockets on re-entry. Somehow now, cool equal slow, wet equals refreshed. This morning is aloe on a sunburn. And for that I am grateful.  I hope this lasts for a while, as the burns don't heal overnight. I need to build up some some....vitality? (Best word at the moment) for the next scorching. In 50 days my #2 is shipping out for training and a new life. He has made the best XO, calm, cool, capable, careful, compassionate. Just lacking in worldly experience. I still can't comprehend daily life without him. Today my pride and excitement for him is still outweighed by my self-pity. 50 days to tip the scales. I guess in the meantime it's fake it till you make it.

 

If you wish to experience peace, provide peace for another. 

If you wish to know that you are safe, cause another to know that they are safe. 

If you wish to better understand seemingly incomprehensible things, help another to better understand. 

If you wish to heal your own sadness or anger, seek to heal the sadness or anger of another.

-Dalai Lama

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A slippery slope...

And how do you benefit if you gain the entire world and lose or forfeit your soul in the process? Luke 9:25

Transmutation

Out of the mud she rises, a product of some of the foulest materials and a splash of sunlight.  And like most of us, she blossoms and responds to the light.

Coffee anyone?

Wisdom Story – 111

by PAUL on JUNE 29, 2012

A group of alumni got together to visit their old university professor. The conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups – porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain-looking, some expensive, and some exquisite – telling them to help themselves to the coffee. After all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress."

"Be assured that the cup itself adds no real quality to the coffee. In most cases, it's just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups and then began eyeing each other's cups."

"Now consider this: Life is the coffee. . .and the jobs, houses, cars, things, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life, and the type of cup we have does not define nor change the quality of life we live. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee God has provided us. God brews the coffee, not the cups . . . enjoy your coffee."

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31 Days with St. Ignatius, 2012 Edition

by PAUL on JUNE 28, 2012

Woke up with this in my head...

They that go down to sea in ships, that do business in great waters:
These see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep.
107th Psalm

Today...

I am grateful for the sound of trickling water, the feel of a cool breeze and the sight of sunlight through moving leaves.

Dear Mother Nature

You were doing just fine without us, weren't you? So sorry for the trouble. At this point we are just a bunch of children beating you like a pinata and scrambling for the goodies.

Good Morning

The sun hasn't yet cleared the tree tops. The shadows are still long and cool. The air is heavy and sweet with the moisture it can hold and the rest it leaves behind on every leaf and blade of grass.
The peacefulness of a morning like this is without equal.

A Note from the Universe

 

One of the most stringent conditions all angels must meet, other than double-advanced harp playing and skydiving abilities (not necessarily at the same time), is that they must not allow themselves to feel hurt or rejected by the choices made by others, no matter how much they've done for them nor how great their love.

Unique?

I will call this a sand feather. Can't ever remember seeing something like this before, but they are cool and somewhat elaborate.  I would like to think it is unique, like me? But I wonder. It's probably like those fractal thing. I bet if you look at topological maps you will see similar designs in river and creek systems. Make me wonder about us. Are we a smaller version of something?  Maybe a larger version. I am increasingly getting the feeling that we aren't as unique as we would like to believe. We almost all respond to toxins and medication the same way. So we look a little different, but bio physically are basically the same. Emotionally we all know people who respond similarly to stimuli. Psychology is similar except for what seems to be organic, chemical or traumatic differences. So what is it? Or is that the point. Just different enough to be able to tell us a part without the need for butt sniffing, but enough the same to see what we do with this lincoln log set we are given?

Feeling at home

Feeling more at home here than at home. Why?

Learn to ignore what others love, and to love what others ignore.

Pensive

Can a place be pensive? Or is it a reflection of my own mind. The bay is calm today and the hills surrounding her are shrouded in fog and mist. Not ready to reveal there true selves perhaps. Maybe later in the day the sun can coax them out. For the time being it seems oddly appropriate and fitting.

2012

Possibly the most written about year ever. Will the world end? Will it dramatically change? Will it be nothing more than another year and another calendar? Perhaps if nothing else, it's prompting people to be more. More reflective, more spiritual, more compassionate, etc.
I am not sure what to hope for, much less what to expect. So, I will keep paddling, keep swinging, keep trying to live a life that brings joy to me and those around me. And for me, that's easier said than done.
I think my resolution will be to do the things that make me happy while doing the things that make others happy. Somehow, someway I need to find a way to blend them both
Happy New Year to all