Sunday night...

 

Natural Bridges State Park...somewhere in ole Virginny.....

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Ah....how sweet it is to be back on the computer tonight!   I wasn't gone that long....but it sure has felt like it. And I think as much as anything, it was [is]  that everything is so discombobulated....everything is a mess. Stuff stacked up everywhere. Furniture in the hallway.  I don't do well immersed in this kind of chaos, even for a short time. The good news is that it motivates me to get things finished. The bad news is, I kill myself trying to get it done. lol  There's some major overhaul going on here, folks.  I plan to relocate the bookcases, remove the loveseat, and rearrange some other stuff as well. The computer desk had to go back in the same place, because of the location of the cables and stuff coming in the wall.  Look out world....the change is on the way!!!!    lol

Didn't get much of anything done today  because it was the Area Assembly and I had to make the 1+ hour trip to do my part. We left around 6:30 AM and got home around 4 PM...the Irishman has an infected tooth or something...around a crown, and it's affecting his sinuses on that side of his face. Of course, it started on a Friday evening and has gotten progressively worse. He didn't sleep much last night and has been pretty miserable all day. Poor baby.  He'll be on the phone first thing in the morning.... We're both pretty tired. The Assembly was good. I am also the Public Information chair  for my District, so I attended a workshop on that today.  In 2 weeks I am putting on a sponsorship workshop, following the District meeting.(The Alt DCM is also the workshop chair). I didn't know I would have to chair that meeting as well, or I would have done the workshop  on a different day. Sigh...oh  well....Alt DCM gets to wear a lot of hats from time to time... I'm honored and blessed to get to do it.

When I put my computer back together, after putting the desk back, I couldn't get the monitor to work. It would come on and then immediately power down and go into sleep mode. No picture whatever. I could hear the dang thing running...called my nephew the computer genius and asked if he had any idea what it could be,....he was sweet, but not all that helpful at 9 PM on a Sunday night.  lol  Suggested a few things, and when I hung up, I messed with it a little more and then got a screen to come up....but it was all weird and dark blue and almost unreadable. I putzed around some more and it went away again. The I remembered  that I had a HP monitor in the closet....pulled it out and hooked it up, and it works like a charm. Not sure if maybe it was the cord or what....but I really like this monitor and the display. I think it's bigger than my other one too. So, I hooked it up and away I go.  The only problem I'm having is for some reason I can't seem to get the sound to work.  I'll mess around and figure it out tomorrow when I am not so tired....

The inlaws are coming on Tuesday sometime...I guess I'll roast a chicken for supper and make some french bread and dazzle them with some roasted veggies and a brilliant dessert.  Aldi's has some fantastic vegetable sales this week too....so I'll stock up on some of that and since onions are something crazy like 59 cents for 3 pounds, I'll make some French Onion soup. They also have carrots for 39 cents a package--just in time for me to buy some more for juicing.  WooHoo.  IN fact--maybe I'll make a carrot cake....hmmm....

All the critters are in and sleeping. This morning early we had an altercation between the dogs and something. Could have been a raccoon, but you could sure hear the coyotes yipping and yelling...and so of course that was our first thought  [fear].  Whatever it was, the Jack Russell Terrorist got it, as she came home covered with blood (not hers). The lab was in on it too, and she got a minor scratch across the top of her head. A quick examination showed neither of them to be hurt....so....it's hard on a heart....lol.

  I'm off to bed.  Blessing each and every one of you as you begin your new week....

Namaste.

Fridays ROCK !

 

  Alright...I know it's late, but I had to reassemble my computer.  (I'm sanding and painting this room!!!)  Anyways, It's still Friday here in Corntown, so I'm posting today's 55...a continuation of last week's.  Which IS NOT ABOUT A CAT, Steve.  LOL

G-Daddy...I'm up!  Go see the man about the 55...he's sitting there in his old ratty bathrobe just waiting for you to visit him.

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Undulating hips.  The Dance of the Seven Veils. The mesmerizing tinkle of small golden bells  held him spellbound. Unable to take his eyes off her lithe  breath of a body, he could feel himself being pulled into a world thousands of years old. A world where the senses were infused with spirit, traversing the heavens.

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Namaste

Pax, Ashtee, Shanti, Mtendere,Shalom

 

   " We will comprehend the word, serenity, and we will know peace." pg83, BB

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I think a lot about the nature of serenity and peace in my life.  In the 60's and early 70's, I was all about peace signs and peace and love and the end of the war in VietNam. In the 80's the only peace I could find in my life was at the bottom of a bottle. In 1989, the Universe conspired to land me in a holding cell one night in early  November. I had been arrested for drunk driving and blew a .29 on the Richter scale.  lol  It felt like the Richter...Nothing in my life was ever the same after that.  Between the arrest and the preliminary hearing, I collapsed at work and was taken to the hospital, where I was diagnosed with uterine cancer. The ensuing months of surgery and treatment kept me out of court until May of 1990.  When I finally got there, the judge looked down at me and said that I was a lucky girl, and that he was going to save my life. He sentenced me to 10 AA meetings and fined me out the wazoo.  I was outraged.   My lawyer kept hissing at me to "shut up."   I didn't think he could make me go to AA....I said as much.  He looked at me again over those little glasses settling down his nose and said something to the effect that he could do anything he wanted...and that was that.  Powerless?  Looked like it.  lol

 I spent a lot of my life being filled with rage. rage at the way my life was. Rage at all the things I never got to do.  Rage at how unfair the world had been  to me.  Rage (unbeknownst to me) at the fact that I never got to be a kid after I was about 5 years old.  It was like I had this big soup pot setting on the back burner, simmering away. And it didn't take much at all, ever, to ratchet that burner up enough to send me into a boiling furious firestorm. I had anger issues long before it was  a labeled issue, lol.  I was hateful and spiteful and miserable for a long time.  Booze and drugs were the only thing that ever helped make my life manageable. To shut off the noise, turn down the fire, calm the storms.

  I only talk about this tonight, because I want to remember how little peace I had in my life. I seemed to have 2 speeds.  Furious and unconscious.

After I was around the rooms for a while (ok- a long while) I started learning to identify my feelings and pull things out of my head and look at them honestly.  I started to learn that I did not have to be at the mercy of my rage.  I found out that there were people in the world who understood how it was to be me...they had the same problems I had and they had found solutions to those problems. I started to have some hope that maybe, just maybe, this could work for me as well. By the time I was 5 years away from my last drink, I realized that the anger was dissipating and that I was having moments of peacefulness in my days.

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I am filled with gratitude that I have learned to pray and meditate, to be open to the wonders of the world. I feel an inner peace just looking at the wild geese on my pond, and knowing that their Creator and my Creator are one and the same.  I have many moments of peace and serenity throughout my day, no matter where I am or what I'm doing.  Peace is the rule rather than the exception for me today.

At church we sing, Let there be Peace on Earth, and let it begin with me....

It does begin with me today.  And I am forever grateful for that.

Namaste.

Wonderfully Wednesday

 

This cave was one we visited somewhere in Virginia...we were on our way to the Poconos from North Carolina. The trip took us through Gettysburgh and Lancaster,PA (Amish terrirtory) and eventually to Bainbridge , NY (home of Elmer's Glue!) and Woodstock.  It was one of the best vacations we ever had...Got to visit our dearest friends T&J as well as a bunch of internet friends (the reason for the Poconos Gathering). The Poconos was spectacularly beautiful, as were the mountains in New York. 

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Today was one of those days when all the best laid plans went awry, only to lead to even better non-plans. At the very last minute my appt for the massage fell through when the provider got a call for a last minute job interview. So I went to a noon meeting at our local Central Service Office. Afterwards I stopped by the Walmart to return a set of seat covers I had purchased for the car.  I took that money and bought mini blinds for the studio apartment, clear caulk for the office windows, and shampoo and toothpaste. I ran through the Wendy's drive-thru and had a small chicken sandwich and a glass of iced tea and headed home. I vacuumed, spackled a couple of holes in the walls back here, and made dinner. It felt like a pretty productive day, since I also finished reading Fall On Your Knees.

I fielded several phone calls today....2 of my sponslings are moving this week and in various modes of panic. One going back to NC and one moving off to the Islands.  I wish them both the very best and happy trails and Grand Adventures, and all that jazz. 

Making plans for Sundays trip, one of our past Delegates called and offered a ride there with his little group. Not sure if we will...but maybe. It would save us gas, but we might want to have dinner while we're in the state capitol.  Tough call...

I've been approached about filling a vacant position on the CSO Board of Directors again....I don't know...

  Life is good today. Those feelings of uselessness and self pity have disappeared. And if I'm not careful I'll be too busy...and we're coming up on the time of year when I get pretty busy with gardens and all. Need to be prudent.

Our local markets are suddenly flooded with apples from Michigan at a very reasonable price. I think it might be time to get my new dehydrator out that Santa brought.  Dried apples are a wonderful snack. I plan to dry some tomatoes this summer, and I just realized that it might be a good idea to go back to Aldi's and buy a few more of those 99 cent pineapples. They are great dried too.. I've been dying to get that bad boy out and play with it.  I've been seeing some great granola recipes on the raw food blogs made using your dehydrator.

I'm about ready to hit the hay. The dogs scared up a skunk tonight and the air outside is heavy with the nasty smell of it. Luckily they seem to have missed the worst of it...sigh...I've had a good long day and tomorrow have company coming for lunch. Not sure what I'll fix yet. I do need to bake bread tomorrow...

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The writer Andre Gide  relates this experience of a trip he took into the Belgian Congo:

"My party had been pushing ahead at a fast pace for a number of days, and one morning when we ready to set out, our native bearers, who carried the food and equipment, were found sitting about without any preparations made for starting the day.

Upon being questioned, they said, quite simply, that they had been traveling so fast in these last days  that they had gotten ahead of their souls, and were going to stay quietly in camp for the day in order for their souls to catch up with them.

So they came to a complete stop."

Namaste.

Marching onward....

 This cat appears to have dropped out of the March...sleeping sweetly at the foot of my computer chair..

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   I am so glad to hear your news, Andrew!!  I wondered if that might not be the problem..I've known a few who used that CPap machine and it works miracles...once they get used to it.  lol  xoxoxoxoxo

  I worked around the house as much as I could today.  I finished taking the evergreen garlands down out on the front porch rails, and I swept down the porch and sidewalk.  I worked in here a little more, taking all the stuff off the walls and finding the paint (yup--buttercup yellow).  I cleaned the chicken coop and did a few other little chores.  All this was done hobbling around because my knee is hurting pretty good today and I have that sciatic pinch going on too...wagghh!!!  Must have done it kneeling down and cleaning my sisters bathtub and helping her in and out of the shower yesterday. Hurts like the dickens.  Lucky me though...tomorrow I am going to a friends for a hot stones massage.  It'll be a Godsend.

  I made waffles and ham steaks and apples fried in butter for supper.  The minute I was finished eating, I was ready to sleep. lol.. Sure was good though.  I make my waffles from scratch, of course, with buttermilk and melted butter and whipped egg whites folded in at the end. They are so good...I couldn't think of anything easier to make, although I have to tell you....I ran down to our little market in town for a couple of H&B  Ham steaks. It's the single best ham I have ever eaten.  It's produced locally and just magnificent.  It isn't cheap, but I had no idea what I was doing when I asked for 2 ham steaks about a half inch thick.  It was almost 10 dollars!!!!!  LOL....I thought I was getting about five bucks worth. I bought them anyway, and when I got home and opened the butcher paper, and realized that 1 would have been plenty....they were huge. So, I cut one in half and re-wrapped the other one, for use at a later date. sheesh....

  I made a really great batch of juice this morning....carrot, celery, orange, pineapple and apples.  I drank a big old glass of it and have enough for me and the Irishman both to have a glass for breakfast tomorrow.  And did I tell you??    The chickens are LOVING the pulp!!  I take it out to the coop and they fall all over themselves getting to it.  Sometimes I keep the pulp and bake it into a loaf of bread too...adds more fiber and probably a few nutrients. I gotta tell ya, though--this Jack LaLanne power juicer really juices the heck out of everything that goes in there.  There seems to be about half the amount of pulp that came out of my other [dead] juicer...

  I have some things I need to get posted on Craig's List and I keep not doing it. No particular reason, I'm just stalling for some reason.  I need to get that done.  Sigh....

  Funny how I am feeling very [en] lightened by the removal of junk in this room.  It's been a mess, and I'm really making some headway.  I'm excited to see how it's going to turn out. Hopefully getting one room done will motivate me to get some other little jobs done around here that need doing.  That's how I usually work...it helps get the ball rolling.  I can accomplish some major stuff...once I get going.  That's always the problem for me. But once I'm motivated--LOOK OUT !!   lol

  Trying to re-establish a decent sleep pattern too...and get to bed by midnight or shortly thereafter.  Actually making it some nights.  lol

  Let me leave you with this thought:

    "There is no great difference in the reality of one country or another, because it is always people you meet everywhere.  They may look different or be dressed differently,or may have a different education or position. But they are all the same. They are all people to be loved.  They are all hungry for love."

~~~~~~~~~~Sister Teresa

Namaste.

Helllllllllllllllllllooo, March!

I just love this graphic...from interfaith resources. It has the version of the Golden Rule of 6 different faiths:

Baha'i--..choose thou for thy neighbor that which thou choosest for thyself.

Buddhism- Make thine own self the measure of the others, and so abstain from casing hurt to them.

Christianity- And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye to them likewise.

Hinduism- Do not to others what ye do not wish done to yourself; and wish for others too what ye desire and long for, for yourself.

Islam-None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.

Judaism- Love thy neighbor as thyself.

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   The day was grey and blustery, but in the high 30's low 40's.  It was one of those days when you  think it's warm enough for a light to medium weight jacket and then when you get about 10 miles from home, wish you'd worn your real coat. I got some beautiful pineapples today at Aldi's for 99 cents apiece. I got carrots too, and apples and grapefruits and lemons.  I won't use them all at once in juice (WAY too much citrus!!)  but I can mix it up.There were a couple of items on my list that I didn't get (romaine, garlic, ginger)   and a couple of things that I bought that weren't on the list.(gorgonzola cheese and spinach)..  For supper tonight I made a lovely salad with spinach and the last of the romaine, pistachios, gorgonzola, carrot, English cucumber cabbage and onion.  Then I topped it with a freshly made mustard vinaigrette. Yum.  Along with some pork chops in mushroom sauce and mashed garlic potatoes, we ate like kings.

  I went to the market today after going to my sisters...forgetting that it was the 1st. The place was a zoo. Oh well.  I survived (barely)  lol.   Then I came running home and rested a little and got dinner going. Picked up 2 sponslings and went to a mtg tonight...a good one, where we talked about turning our will and our lives over to the care of God.  Had to rush thru dinner, but that's okay.  Tomorrow I will stay home all day, and work on the office walls a little more.  Wednesday I have to head south to another sponslings house for some step work.  And then Sunday is our Area Assembly, where I am to fill in for the DCM as he can't make it. Being the Alt-DCM, it's my job. He has to work shift work every so often and when that happens, he passes me the baton, lol. It's good practice in the event that I am NUTS enough to stand for the chair position next election (November).  I will be chairing the next GSR meeting as well, as he is unavailable that weekend too. The Area meeting is in a city about an hour north of us, so it will be a nice little trip for us. I do service at this level because it keeps me connected to AA. I enjoy it....I know a lot of people don't. 

  I sure will be glad when the weather gets a little nicer and warmer.   Winter is about to get on my last nerve.

  Not much to say tonight, so I shall sally forth to bed.  Sweet dreams and peaceful journeys to all....

Namaste.

Moving out of February...

 

Today was a gorgeous tribute to the end of a short but brutal month. The temps hovered around 50 degrees and the sun shone brightly, bidding good-bye to the month of February. All that said, there was just enough wind to make it chilly if you stood in one place too long, reminding us all that spring is not yet here.

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We drove about 35 miles today to visit a Unity church in Collinsville. It was a very small congregation and a small and beautifully simple place. Also just happened to be the Sunday monthly birthdays potluck, so we got lunch. lol  The folks we met were very welcoming and it was a lovely service all about God's love for us and our love for each other. There was a reading by Emmet  Fox and a nice meditation time as well. We attended Unity in North Carolina and always liked the upbeat tone of the services.  Anyway, it was about a 45 minute drive for us, which is a little far.  I think next week I will go check out my neighbors church, which is about 15 minutes max down the road. They attend a United Church of Christ, and I've never been to a service in that denomination.  There was a nice poem on the back of the program for today's service by James Dillet Freeman:

The Church That I Love Best

The church that I love best is small,

It is no grand pretentious hall'

 Set round with works of holy art--

It is the chamber of my heart.

Where else but in this secret place

May I catch glimpses of Truth's face,

And even catch, however dim,

A sense of being one with Him?

 I have no church until I find

Holiness in my own mind;

Once found, wherever I may be

Becomes the house of God for me.

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Tomorrow I have to go down and help my sister who has broken her wrist and her ankle. Poor thing...she is beside herself and her husband is like a lump and completely unable (or unwilling, according to her) to help her at all.  So, I'll put on my big sister hat and go down and help her in and out of the bathtub and wash her hair and get her straightened away.  I have a feeling part of the problem is that she's taking pain pills and she has a hard time with that.  It scares her and because she has had petit mal seizures in the past, it feels like that to her. So...I'll see what I can sort out and what I cannot.

I have to get to work on clearing out the spare room too (it's full of Xmas decos that I haven't been able to get back to the storage because of the weather. A week from Tuesday, my inlaws will be here, so that room has to be cleaned and ready for them,. They'll only stay one night, but I need to get it cleaned up anyway. And then I'm going to start in on this office. I've started taking things off the walls, so I'll finish that and clean it and get it ready to paint. I'm painting it something bright and cheery, like buttercup yellow, I think.

I'm going to sleep early so I can get a head start on the day tomorrow.  Lots to do, one thing at a time.  Someone to meet at a noon meeting, go to my sisters, pick someone else up who's come back in after a scouting expedition and take her to an evening meeting.  I'm grateful to know it is NOT any better out there.  Think I'll just stay put.  lol

I'm feeling a lot of gratitude tonight...for my husband, who took such good care of me when I was in that industrial accident 9 years ago, and again when I have had my surgery this time.  Over and again, I am shown how much I am loved and cherished by that man...and that is a real gift.  I forget that every woman doesn't get that.   I am grateful for people who trust that they can talk to me when they're having a hard time or are scared or sad. That is a true blessing indeed.   I am especially grateful for my own family, and my friends...all of whom, are there for me any time I need help. All I have to do is pick up a phone. Sometimes not even that--they anticipate my needs and they shower me with love.  Sometimes my world is so saturated with LOVE that I forget that there are lonely people in the world, people who don't have any family, or anyone's dirty socks to pick up from the floor, or breakfasts to cook. And I am most grateful for the gift of Hope...in a world where there are so many without it, and so many who live hopeless lives of desperation, because they can't find any other way to go.  My prayers today are that every one of us get what we need and maybe even some of what we want, if it is for our highest good.  And that we can make a difference in someone's life, no matter how small. 

  I'll end tonight with a part of the quote from Emmet Fox....

..."It makes no difference how deeply seated may be the trouble; How hopeless the outlook; How muddled the tangle; How great the mistake.

A sufficient realization of Love will dissolve it all...If only you could love enough you would be the happiest and most powerful being in the world..."

Namaste.