Following the herd

Musings of an ancient wounded healer after a lifetime of listening

This is a picture of Mark and I on Wednesday at the Brew Kettle. We brew our own beer every year for Christmas gifts. This is our 13th year of doing it.

Hope you enjoy the poem below!!! I have posted this on here before....It is one of my very favorites and resonates with me so much!!!!
Namaste,
Michele

Musings of an ancient wounded healer after a lifetime of listening

Were I Godde I would dive
into the darkest shadows
of being human,
into profound pain,
outrageous loss,
unbearable suffering,
embracing all the tears and the joy I could find,
and I would swim towards Light taking with me
as much of the brokenness everywhere and of all time
as I could gather.
Were I Godde I would live in despair and in hope.
I would be  the inspiration of a poem,
the rainbow, the dew on the grass,
the color of fall, the gentle breeze,
the kind word, the tender touch,
the laughter of children.
I would abide in every flower,
every seed, every cry and sigh,
I would be the possibility of  each new moment.
I would be weakness finding strength,
never lording it over others,
but in every humble service,
pitching my tent among the poor,
preferring the outsiders.
I would nestle in vulnerability:
risking and giving Self.
Were I Godde I would hide
so subtly within all creation
that I could never be caught.
I would be so unutterable
as to resist being talked about,
and hate the name "God"
remembering the oppression
done in my name.
I would exist beyond any word
any symbol, any possible expression,
but I would dwell in every human groan.
I would avoid expected places:
some pulpits, rituals, churches.
I would never be snared
by theology, religion or even prayer.
No sacred book, system or creed could capture
or contain Me-- my incomprehensible awful immensities.
I would exist solely to be given away,
with heart not mind,
never to be comprehended or
held by safe orthodoxy:
far more verb than noun.
I would be yearning for freedom,
passion for justice, thirsting for peace,
searching for truth, craving for affirmation,
ardor for sharing, the making of love,
and the ecstasy of surrender.
I would be in every form of hurting
and its transcendence.
I would be gleamed in lowly favors, generosity,
courage, simplicity, compassion
but especially in forgiveness.
I would be aborning ever new
in the bruised and lonely heart.
I would be found more in doubt than in certainty
more in questioning than in righteousness.
I would need to be intimately concealed
because the human ego is so ready to use Me
to elevate itself by judging others.
I would despise the use of presumed truths about
Me to divide the human race, for every sectarian purpose.

Were I Godde I would enjoy leaving clues, riddles
and traces everywhere, being tracked only
by valiant searchers.
I would glory in the incompleteness  of my creatures
and all of my creation, knowing that the human spirit
I sustain could triumph over any human mess
and bring love and equity even as I do,
out of chaos.
I would luv (sic) transforming futility.

I would let myself be glimpsed in sunrises and sunsets
in the wonders of nature planet earth
--ship and voyager--
cosmic immensities
galaxies and darkness,
in human loving,
yearning and striving,
in quiet stillness and
becoming little
in EVERY human story.

Christmas, 1991,1997.1998 Paschal Bernard Baute

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

My friend Katie sent me this picture in a forwarded email and Mark sent me the thankful prayer below. Okay, so after reading that, I have to say that I am thankful for working on Thanksgiving because it means my family has really good health benefits now.
I am thankful for all the legos all over our living room floor right now because that means Marko is building something with them and Not playing video games.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone and thank you for you!!!!
see below.
Namaste,
Michele

I am thankful for:

The partner who hogs the covers every night,
BECAUSE he/she is not out with someone else.

The teenager who is not doing dishes but is watching TV,
BECAUSE that means she is at home and not on the streets.

For the taxes I pay,
BECAUSE it means that I am employed.

For the mess to clean after a party,
BECAUSE it means that I have been surrounded by friends.

For the clothes that fit a little too snug,
BECAUSE it means I have enough to eat.

For mowing the lawn, cleaning the windows and fixing the gutters,
BECAUSE it means I have a home.

For all the whining I hear about politicians,
BECAUSE it means that we have freedom of speech.

For large piles of laundry and ironing,
BECAUSE it means we have clothes to wear.

For weariness and aching muscles at the end of the day,
BECAUSE it means I have been capable of working hard.

For the alarm that goes off early in the morning,
BECAUSE it means that I am alive.

Have an extraordinary day!!!

Look at your highest dreams
-your highest desires

With a courageous heart,
take a positive action
& pursue them vigorously
today.


Life is not meant to be wasted
doing what you don't want to do.

Let every day be extraordinary.


-Reiki quote

coming alive

wise words

Below is a picture of my mom and Marko watching the "light up Medina parade" on Saturday night. I hope you like the quote below also. Have a great day.
love,
Michele

Laughing

-quote from the movie, "Garden State."
Garden State is one of my favorite movies in the whole world:)

understanding

Life

Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.

-Soren Kierkegaaard

The Prophet

Below are pictures of Marko's Thanksgiving performance on Friday afternoon...it was really cute...Marko had a special reading part. Both sisters got out of school to come see this and Mark, myself and my parents got to go to this see this also.

then, the next 3 pictures are of our friend, Johnny Thomas....he sang at the Medina Art Council's fundraiser Friday night. He sang my very favorite song, "Imagine." He is my friend, Helen's, son. He has a beautiful voice.

The last two pictures are of Mira and Macy.....performing Hero last night at the same event and then tonight dancing in the Light-up Medina parade.















busy and fun weekend.....hope you like the words below.
they connect me to spirit.
Namaste,
Michele



The Prophet

"Like sheaves of corn it gathers you unto itself.

It threshes you to make you naked.

It sifts you to free you from your husks.

It grinds you to whiteness.

It kneads you until you are pliant.

And then it assigns you to its sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God’s sacred feast.

All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life’s Heart."

-Gibran Khalil Gibran

love

I saw this picture at River's Edge when I was out with Sue last week.


Once you love someone they stay in your heart forever.
-unknown

The Practice

we got to see the Lennons last night..it was a lot of fun..above is a picture of both of our families.
Why do they look so normal and we look like maniacs???
read below!!! hope you like it!!
Namaste,
Michele


Practice for the New Millennium by the Dalai Lama
The Practice:


1. Spend 5 minutes at the beginning of each day remembering
we all want the same things (to be happy and be loved)
and we are all connected to one another.

2. Spend 5 minutes breathing in, cherishing yourself; and, breathing out
cherishing others. If you think about people you have difficulty cherishing,
extend your cherishing to them anyway.

3. During the day extend that attitude to everyone you meet.
Practice cherishing the "simplest" person (clerks, attendants, etc)
or people you dislike.

4. Continue this practice no matter what happens or what anyone does to you.

These thoughts are very simple, inspiring and helpful.
The practice of cherishing can be taken very deeply if done wordlessly,
allowing yourself to feel the love and appreciation that
already exists in your heart.

Essense.......Nittus Grittus

This picture was taken by my new "deadhead" friend, David McQuaid. He gave me permission to post this picture that he took of a lake in East Texas. Isn't it beautiful???
Below is a beautiful poem that I am dedicating to his daughter Cassidy....named after one of my favorite Grateful Dead songs. Please send Cassidy some positive energy because she is going through a very rough time and needs to call her spirit back.
Namaste,
Michele

The Essense, The Nittus Grittus

If you are unhappy, be unhappy.
Do not judge yourself for being that way.
It is wonderful to be unhappy, it is God expressing emotion.
Love your unhappiness. It means you are ready for change.
You are ready to go forward, yet you mourn for the old;
you are not ready to let go.
Allow the unhappiness, there is purposefulness in it.

Remove from your life everything that inhibits you
from being the totality of yourself. That is called "becoming".
Remove from your thoughts all the have to's, should's, must's.
Remove the images you think you must be and just be.

Embrace your life. Know that you created it.
Love all that you have been, said and done.
Know it was all purposeful.

Never see anything as a failure.
See everything as an accomplishment.
Love the hurt, the pain, the sorrow.
For what an experience! What a wonderment!
What jewels of wisdom are now in your treasure!

Be your own teacher, friend, counsel.
Confide in yourself, speak to yourself.

Seek answers that feel right within your soul.
Your soul knows what the truth is,
and it will tell you through feelings.
Always listen to your feelings. They know ... they know.

Live, experience, feel. Do not seek to identify yourself.
You will never have a point of understanding from which you
can say, "This is who I am!", for in each expanding moment
of consciousness, of being God, who you are will have
changed into the next moment of being.
To know who you are is to feel what you feel each moment.

Never do anything, no matter how far you are into it,
if you lose the joy of it and it becomes monotonous and mundane.
Do away with it and do something else that brings happiness.
For perhaps what you needed to learn from it
you have already achieved.
Go wherever you want to go,
Do whatever you want to do,
for as long as you want to.

Create only for the mere joy of creating.
When you create for you, you will soon find youself living in joy.

Don't ever strive to have anyone understand you.
If they wish to understand, they will.

Love everyone. Have compassion for all other entities.
You do not need to go and take care of them.
Love them by allowing them to express however they choose.
That is the greatest thing you can do!
If they are angered or disappointed by your life, love them
by allowing them to be thay way.
Then you have become a great god, a great light!

Author Unknown

Love

I love our neighborhood......everyone is so generous.....last fall all I did was put a few sentences in the newsletter about fellow neighbors that lost their son and asked for donations to plant a tree in his honor.....the response was overwhelming......this is a picture of the engraved marker that was purchased to go under the tree. Mira took this picture....it is planted in front of our neighborhood lake. Below is a beautiful statement about love by Eileen Caddy.
I found it on a posting of this group that I joined on facebook....called Positive People.
I hope that you enjoy it too.
Namaste,
Michele



Life is so thrilling, so exciting. Everything has meaning. There is a pattern and plan running through it all and nothing is by chance.
Always remember that nothing can quench Love, nothing can withstand it. Perfect Love casts out all fear. Love dissolves all guilt. It is Love that will bring peace and unity to the world and nothing else can do it. Where there is Love there is peace.”

~ Eileen Caddy

Joy

Here is another picture that I saw when I was out with my friend Sue yesterday.
hope you like the quote below.
Namaste,
Michele



Every single one of us can do things that no one else can do
-can love things that no one else can love. We are like violins.
We can be used for doorstops, or we can make music.
You know what to do!!
-Barbara Sher

Love

I was hanging with my friend Sue today. One of the places we stopped at had this beautiful painting hanging in the room. I loved it, so I snapped a picture of it.
Please keep my friend Sue in your prayers. She says they are running out of options to treat her cancer. She is such a beautiful soul.
hope you enjoy the quote below!!!
love,
Michele


"In my life there is an infinite supply of love, it is inexhaustible, I can never use it all in this lifetime so I don't have to be sparing with it!"
---Louise Hay

Illusions

It is " parent watch week" at the dance studio this week.
This was Macy on pointe tonight.
hope you like the quote below as much as I do!!!
Namaste,
Michele


"There are no perfect human beings! Persons can be found who are good, very good indeed, in fact, great. There do in fact exist creators, seers, sages, saints, shakers, and movers...even if they are uncommon and do not come by the dozen. And yet these very same people can at times be boring, irritating, petulant, selfish, angry, or depressed. To avoid disillusionment with human nature, we must first give up our illusions about it."
---Abraham Maslow

radiating love from deep inside

I think that those who serve most potently, work on levels of consciousness that have to do with radiating love — maybe God’s love. My own experience is that people who work with love operate on some level deeper than the conscious. It is important that you have a brain and use it, but that is secondary. The basic premise is that you allow something to come through you. Then you use your intelligence to give your work form, to give your heart’s work discipline and logic. But the transformative energy, that which can change events, that heals, that helps, that serves, comes from somewhere deep inside.
-Julie Glover

I shall not pass this way again.

I shall pass through this world but once.

Any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now.

Let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.

– Etienne de Grellet

Love is all there is.

What will survive of us is love.
-Philip Larkin

Love

Mira has this picture of her and Macy posted on her facebook.
It is from her album titled "back in the day."
hope you enjoy the quote below....I love, love, love it!
Namaste,
Michele


The question of love is one that cannot be evaded.
Whether or not you claim to be interested in it, from the
moment you are alive you are bound to be concerned
with love,
because love is not just something that happens to you: It is a certain special way of being alive. Love is,
in fact, an intensification of life, a completeness, a fullness,
a wholeness of life.

-Thomas Merton

on being free

Here is another good friend of mine from the Zoo.
He makes me smile. I had a crappy day today....just a bunch of stuff going on that I would like to be different from how it is. I know that is the definition of suffering....wanting things to be different from how they are....huh?

Oh well, tomorrow is a new day:)

hope you like the words below!!!

Namaste,

Michele

Freedom means not being owned, not occupied, not bought.

Freedom means finding the place in me that connects with every person I meet rather than thinking of myself as different, better or on top.

It means opening my heart to my granddaughter’s little perfect fingers, taking in the fragility, the tenderness there, the potential loss.

It means feeling what the suicide bombers must have been feeling at the same moment I am grieving those who died in the bombing.

Believing there is a power determining everything at the same moment I know there is absolutely no one in charge.

Feeling angry at my teenage son for doing the opposite of what I suggested at the same moment I marvel at his independence.

Freedom is not knowing where you are but being deeply there.

Not waiting for someone to save or rescue you or heal your terrible past but doing that for yourself.

Not putting your flag in the ground.

Being willing to get lost.

Living without borders and passports.

Evolving.

Becoming.

Freedom is about being vulnerable to one another, realizing that our ability to connect is more important than feeling secure, in control and alone.

-Eve Ensler

When the music starts to happen

Mira and her friend, Allie being goofs.
hope you enjoy the words below:)
Namaste,
Michele

If I can get out of the way,
if I can be pure enough,
if I can be selfless enough,
and if I can be generous and loving
and caring enough to abandon
what I have and my own preconceived,
silly notions of what I think I am
-and become truly
who in fact I am,
which is really just another child of God
-then the music can really use me.
And therein lies my fulfillment.
That's when the music starts to happen.
-John McLaughlin

Our diets

One of my friends from Boo at the Zoo. :)

Our mental and emotional diets determine our overall energy levels, health and well-being more than we realize. Every thought and feeling, no matter how big or small, impacts our inner energy reserves. --Doc Childre

Life is a series of moments

This is a picture from my parents last trip they took to the holy lands.
I thought it was really beautiful.
My dad took this picture with his camera phone.....he says he doesn't know the couple posing in the picuture....do any of you know them??
hope you like the quote below!!!
namaste,
Michele


"Life is a series of moments.
The quality of attention
and action that we bring
to each moment
determines the quality
of our lives."
-Dan Millman

Become as little children

As you can see, my dad has no problem being like little children:)
This is a picture of him on his porch on Halloween.
This is how he handed out candy.
hope you like the words below...one of my favorites.
have a great day!!!
Namaste,
Michele

"Become as little children..........unless you start again
Become that trusting OPEN SURRENDERED BEING
the energy can't come in
that is the kindom of heaven
THE ENERGY
it is the same thing.
COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS."
-Ram Dass

PEACE

Macy and two of her best friends on Halloween.
hope you like the quote below.
namaste,
Michele

Responsibility does not only lie with the leaders of our countries or with those who have been appointed or elected to do a particular job. It lies with each of us individually. Peace, for example starts within each one of us. When we have inner peace, we can be at peace with those around us. When our community is in a state of peace, it can share that peace with neighboring communities, and so on. When we feel love and kindness towards others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace. And there are ways in which we can consciously work to develop feelings of love and kindness. For some of us, the most effective way to do so is through religious practice. For others it may be non-religious practices. What is important is that we each make a sincere effort to take seriously our responsibility for each other and for the natural environment.

-The Dalai Lama

At this party

Mira took this picture above at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo last week when
we went for Boo at the Zoo. I hope you enjoy the poem below.
Have a great day!!
Namaste,
Michele



AT THIS PARTY
~ Hafiz (c. 1320-1389)

I don't want to be the only one here
Telling all the secrets--

Filling up all the bowls at this party,
Taking all the laughs.

I would like you
To start putting things on the table
That can also feed the soul
The way I do.

That way
We can invite

A hell of a lot more
Friends.

(from The Subject Tonight Is Love: Sixty Wild and Sweet Poems of Hafiz,
versions by Daniel Ladinsky, Pumpkin House Press, 3rd ed, 2000)

Love all, Serve all

Above are pictures from the Obama rally in downtown Cleveland yesterday.
We had so much fun. Bruce Springstein played a beautiful concert.
It was very uplifting for me. Below is a note from Rob Brezsny that I have been holding close to my heart. It is a good reminder for me. I like it because it honors all people and all opinions.
I am learning to not to have to change others opinions that are different from me.
I respect the way others feel and realize that there is no way that I can know the whole truth about anything in this physical form. So, I will stick with my motto "love all, serve all" and will do the best that I can to live it:)
Namaste,
Michele



"There's another factor that makes me cautious about getting embroiled in
partisan politics and the narrow-minded hostility that fuels it. One of my
main goals in life is to love everyone with passionate intensity -- no
exceptions. Not just the people I find beautiful and helpful and interesting
and attractive. But also the people I don't like and the people who don't
like me and the people I disagree with and the people who can't or won't
do anything for me.

In order to become the gorgeous genius I aspire to be, in order to fulfill
the unique destiny I came to Earth to embody, I have to hold EVERYONE
in my heart with compassion and empathy. As I contemplate how every
single part of creation is interconnected, I've got to be aware that the
creatures I'm allergic to and inclined to feel alienated from are also part of
the great web of life.

That's my spiritual goal; it's essential to awakening my best self and
cultivating an intimate connection to Spirit. It's also my selfish goal; it's
critical to my physical and mental health. Hatred always sickens me. Love
always invigorates me."
-Rob Brezsny

Faith in what you want in your life.

above are pictures from my friend Nikki's birthday party last night. We had a lot of fun...isn't her daughter so cute???? Hope you like the quote below...it appeared on my starbucks coffee yesterday at work!!!
Namaste,
Michele

The world bursts at the seams
with people ready to tell you you're
not good enough. On occasion,
some may be correct. But, do not
do their work for them.
Seek any job; ask anyone out;
pursue any goal.
Don't take it personally when they
say "no"- they may not be
smart enough to say "yes."
-Keith Olbermann

Smile!!!

"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society."
- Krishnamurti