Beauty

I stole this quote from a facebook friend, Emily.
I loved it.
I hope you have a great day.
Namaste,
Michele





"Every man who has shown the world the way to beauty,
to true culture, has been a rebel, a 'universal' without patriotism,
without home, who has found his people everywhere."

-Chaim Potok

Distractions

Blue man on the wall of House of Blues.


Most people are so distracted
by their thoughts,
so identified with the
voices in their heads,
they can no longer feel
the aliveness within them.
To be unable to feel the life
that animates the physical body,
the very life that you are,
is the greatest deprivation
that can happen to you.

-Eckart Tolle

join the dance!!!!!

Mark and I ate at the House of Blues last night and this picture was on the wall there.
I love it...and the words below!!!!!
have a great day!!!
Namaste,
Michele


"The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance."
-Alan Watts

DSO

Paul and I look like old people.......
Nikki, Nikki, Nikki....you are so fun!!!!

Well I can't find the setlist from last night...but it was an awesome show.
Dark Star Orchestra is one of my favorite bands..........
Always a good time.
I will put the setlist on this post when I get it.
Namaste'
Michele

Show: 1650 • 02/25/2009 House of Blues Cleveland, Cleveland, OH Setlist: 7/25/74 - International Amphitheatre, Chicago, IL Set 1: Me & My Uncle, Loose Lucy, Black Throated Wind, Loser, BIODTL, Sugaree, Mexicali, Brown Eyed Women, El Paso, Row Jimmy, WRS Prelude> WRS Part 1> Let It Grow> Around & Around
Set 2: Scarlet Begonias, Big River, Roses, Jack Straw, Dark Star> Slipknot> Stella Blue, Johnny B. Goode, Uncle John's Band> U. S. Blues, Saturday Night
Encore: Ship Of Fools
"Filler:" You Ain't Woman Enough



"Don't throw anyone out of your heart." Neem Karoli Baba

The long and winding road

do you like this poem??????

The Path

You enter the forest
at the darkest point,
where there is no path.

Where there is a way or path,
it is someone else's path.

You are not on your own path.

If you follow someone else's way,
you are not going to realize
your potential.

It takes courage
to do what you want.
Other people
have a lot of plans for you.

Nobody wants you to do
what you want to do.
They want you to go on their trip...

- Joseph Campbell

love

what did one coconut say to another???




In the end these things matter most;
How well did you love? How fully did you love?
How deeply did you learn to let go?
– Buddha

does it hurt???

I think Marko took this picture at Omega Institute.

I was driving Marko to school yesterday and he asked me, "mom does it hurt to have a baby come out from inside you." I told him yes, but the pain was so worth it.

so, he says, "well, I am glad that I decided to be a boy. Girls get a lot of advantages in this world, but I am glad I don't have to have a baby." "I am also glad that I am not a seahorse because the boy seahorse has the babies."

have a great day!!!

love,

Michele

WHEN YOU TOUCH ONE THING
with deep awareness,
you touch everything.

– Thich Nhat Hanh

distractions

Mira and her friend, Lauren


It makes no sense to resist quietude, yet we create distractions all the time because we fear the consequences of guidance. Paradoxically, we pray for stillness and seek it because we yearn to quiet our distractions. – Caroline Myss, “Entering the Castle: An Inner Path to God and Your Soul”

On our growth

"Growth is demanding and may seem dangerous,
for there is loss as well as gain in growth. But why go on living if one has ceased to grow."
-May Sarton

Sonnet XVII: Love

This is a picture of the new stadium in Arizona that the Cleveland Indians play in now during spring training.
It just opened up this week and my parents are there for spring training.
My dad keeps sending me pictures......lots of pictures.
hope you enjoy the poem below...very beautiful.
peace,
Michele



XVII
I don ’t love you as if you were a rose of salt, topaz,

or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:

I love you as one loves certain obscure things,

secretly, between the shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant that doesn’t bloom but carries

the light of those flowers, hidden, within itself,

and thanks to your love the tight aroma that arose

from the earth lives dimly in my body.
I love you without knowing how, or when, or

from whereI love you directly without problems or pride:

I love you like this because I don’t know any other way

to love,
except in this form in which I am not nor are you,

so close that your hand upon my chest is mine,

so close that your eyes close with my dreams.

—Translated and © Mark Eisner 2004, from City Lights' The Essential Neruda

Dark Star Orchestra

Dark Star Orchestra is going to be at the House of Blues in Cleveland on Wednesday at 7pm!!!
Hope to see you there!!!
They are amazing!!!!



“There is a road, no simple highway, between the dawn and the dark of night, and if you go, no one may follow, that path is for your steps alone”- lyrics from the song: Ripple

the dance of life

doesn't this tree look like a dancer???
ohhhhh so cool!!!
read below and have a great day!!!
Peace,
Michele
We must pass through solitude and difficulty, isolation and silence, to find that enchanted place where we can dance our clumsy dance and sing our sorrowful song. But in that dance, and in that song, the most ancient rites of our conscience fulfill themselves in the awareness of being human.
--Pablo Neruda

on coming alive again

Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by an encounter with another human being. Each of us owes the deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this inner light.
-Albert Schweitzer

Why I Sit

Why I Sit
--Paul Fleischman


This morning, the first thing I did was to sit for an hour.
I have done that regularly for twenty years, and
have spent many evenings, days and weeks doing the same.

I would like to know myself.
It is remarkable that while ordinarily we spend most of our lives studying,
contemplating, observing and manipulating the world around us,
the structured gaze of the thoughtful mind is so rarely turned inwards.
This avoidance must measure some anxiety, reluctance or fear.

Most of our lives are spent in externally oriented functions
that distract from self-observation. This relentless, obsessive
drive persists independently of survival needs such as food and warmth,
and even of pleasure. Second to second,
we couple ourselves to sights , tastes, words, motions
or electronic stimuli, until we fall dead.
It is striking how many ordinary activities,
from smoking a pipe to watching sunsets,
veer towards, but ultimately avoid,
sustained attention to the reality of our own life.

Sitting helps me overcome my deepest fears.
I become freer to live from my heart and to face the consequences,
but also to reap the rewards of this authenticity.
Much of what I called pain was really loneliness and fear.
It passes, dissolves, with that observation.
The vibrations of my body are humming the song that can be heard
only when dawn and dusk are simultaneous, instantaneous, continuous.
I feel that a burst of stern effort is a small price to pay to hear
this inner music- fertile music from the heart of life itself.

I sit to anchor and organise my life around my heart and mind,
and to radiate out to others what I find. Though I shake in strong winds,
I return to this basic way of living. The easy, soothing comfort
and deep relaxation that accompany intense awareness in stillness,
peel my life like an onion to deeper layers of truth,
which in turn are scoured and soothed until the next layer opens.
I sit to discipline my life by what is clear, simple, self-fulfilling
and universal in my heart. There is no end to this job.
I have failed to really live many days of my life,
but I dive again and again into the plain
guidance of self-containment and loving receipt.
I sit to find and express simple human love and common decency.

--Paul Fleischman

Happy Birthday

picture of Kurt Cobain painted by Mrs. Werger

Happy Birthday....today would have been Kurt Cobain's 42nd birthday.

hope you like the words below!!!
Namaste,

Michele

IF I HAD MY LIFE TO LIVE OVER - by Erma Bombeck

I would have gone to bed when I was sick instead of pretending the earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren't there for the day. I would have burned the pink candle sculpted like a rose before it melted in storage. I would have talked less and listened more. I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained or the sofa faded. I would have eaten the popcorn in the 'good' living room and worried much less about the dirt when someone wanted to light a fire in the fireplace. I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather ramble about his youth. I would never have insisted the car windows be rolled up on a summer day because my hair had just been teased and sprayed. I would have sat on the lawn with my children and not worried about grass stains. I would have cried and laughed less while watching television and more while watching life. I would never have bought anything just because it was practical, wouldn't show soil, or was guaranteed to last a lifetime. Instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy, I'd have cherished every moment and realized that the wonderment growing inside me was the only chance in life to assist God in a miracle. When my kids kissed me impetuously, I would never have said, "Later. Now go get washed up for dinner." There would have been more "I love you's." More "I'm sorry's." But mostly, given another shot at life, I would seize every minute, look at it and really see it , live it and never give it back.

letting go

I am telling you.....I have some of the best friends in the world.
today, after work, we went our to Pier-W to celebrate Roberta's birthday.
thank you so much Arlene!!!!! what a fun night....hope you enjoy the words below...something that I need to read from time to time.
Peace,
Michele

Letting Go

I let go my need for security and survival.
I let go my need for power and control.
I let go my need for esteem and affection.
I let go my need to change the situation.

-- Cynthia Bourgeault

inner light

Marko being a goof......have a great day!!! peace, Michele

Allow Your Own Inner Light to Guide You author unknown There comes a time when you must stand alone. You must feel confident enough within yourself to follow your own dreams. You must be willing to make sacrifices. You must be capable of changing and rearranging your priorities so that your final goal can be achieved. Sometimes, familiarity and comfort need to be challenged. There are times when you must take a few extra chances and create your own realities. Be strong enough to at least try to make your life better. Be confident enough that you won't settle for a compromise just to get by. Appreciate yourself by allowing yourself the opportunities to grow, develop, and find your true sense of purpose in this life. Don't stand in someone else's shadow when it's your sunlight that should lead the way.

Who I am

I've always liked the time before dawn
because there's no one around to remind
me who I'm supposed to be
so it's easier to remember
who I am.
-Brian Andreas

Nobody is ever REALLY alone... :)

back in the day.

I loved the words below and hope you do too.
love,
Michele


Peace of mind does not result from the attempt to control our lives.
In fact, it is just the opposite.
It comes from the wisdom that is illuminated
when we learn how to relax in a way that allows us to "be with what is."
In our practice, we learn how to engage in something
when it is appropriate and how to disengage as well.
Peace of mind comes from recognizing how one fits into the scheme of things, the degree to which all life is interconnected,
and the realization that nobody is ever alone
-David Cooper

Human laptops

We spent the weekend in Dearborn Michigan for a dance convention/competition for the girls.....Mark, Marko and grandma and grandpa came too.
above is the whole purple Posse----Trinity Dance Company....I hope you enjoy the words below.
Namaste,
Michele

All children need a laptop. Not a computer, but a human laptop. Moms, Dads, Grannies and Grandpas, Aunts, Uncles – someone to hold them, read to them, teach them. Loved ones who will embrace them and pass on the experience, rituals and knowledge of a hundred previous generations. Loved ones who will pass to the next generation their expectations of them, their hopes, and their dreams.

-- General Colin L. Powell

I saw a werewolf drinking a Pina Colada at Trader Vic's; his hair was perfect.

this is me cleaning the house.



The irony of commitment is that it's deeply liberating - in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around as rational hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life.



--Anne Morriss, Starbucks customer, "The Way I See It" #76

bob

Mrs. Werger painted this picture too!!

He not busy being born is busy dying
- B0b Dylan

being content

Mark made this piece of art. I hope you enjoy the words below.
Namaste,
Michele

"Being Content. Just now, being here, being content.
Not wanting anything or if you want anything that's fine.
Not trying to change anything - not judging the moment.
Content. Content with the way things are. Being at ease.
We've all pushed and achieved and realized our dreams. That's all right.
But are you content?"
-Ram Dass


sometimes I am and sometimes I am not :)

New Eyes

I took this picture at Root Middle school also.....I don't know the artist....it was taken on the night that my dad took us to meet some of the Indians.
Namaste,
Michele




The only real voyage consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes; in seeing the universe through the eyes of another, one hundred others -- in seeing the hundred universes that each of them sees.
--Marcel Proust

go Tribe

My dad took us to meet some of the Indians on their "press tour"
when they stopped in Medina. My dad was as excited as Marko to meet the players that came.
Do you recognize anyone in these pictures???....well anyone besides Marko and my cousin's daughter, Eliza :)
My dad and mom leave for Arizona in few days for spring training.
They will go to the Indian's practices and games for 10 days!!!
My dad is very excited.
hope you like the words below!!!
Namaste,
Michele



"When we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours," wrote author Robert Fulghum, "we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness -- and call it love."

old friends

My friend Chris is visiting here from Massachusetts with her dog, Ichie.
Dusty had to go visit with his grandpa because he is not the best host.
My friend Leslie came over too last night.....it is good to visit with old friends.
hope you like the words below!!!
Love,
Michele




1. Be Impeccable With Your Word
Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

2. Don't Take Anything Personally
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering.

3. Don't Make Assumptions
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

4. Always Do Your Best
Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.

—Don Miguel Ruiz

love

I found this picture on a Root Middle school wall...but do not have the artist to give credit.
I love, love, love this picture.
hope you Love the words below!!
Namaste,
Michele

---

"Love is everything it's cracked up to be. It really is worth fighting for,
being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk
everything, you risk even more."

- Erica Jong

A different path

Mira took this picture after the last big snow.
hope enjoy the words below.
Peace,
Michele

a different path -

Again and again
Some people in the crowd wake up.
They have no ground in the crowd
And they emerge according to broader laws.
They carry strange customs with them,
And demand room for bold gestures.

The future speaks ruthlessly through them.

- Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Stephen Mitchell

One special, specific task

yet another goofy picture...this time of Mira and her friend, Kate.
hope you enjoy the words below!!!
Namaste,
Michele




It is as if a king had sent you to a country to carry out one special, specific task. You go to the country, and you perform a hundred other tasks, but if you have not performed the task you were sent for, it is as if you have performed nothing at all. So man has come into the world for a particular task, and that is his purpose. If he doesn't perform it, he will have done nothing
-Rumi

just another manic Monday:)

This is a picture that I found on my computer today......it is of Mira and Macy being goofy.
I thought that was a fun picture.
Below is a lunch quiz that I used to today in Marko's lunch. Mark or I put one in his lunch whenever he packs.
hope you enjoy it....what would you answer??? (yes, it is a true story...:)
Namaste,
Michele



Marko's lunch quiz for 2/9/09:
Your sister, Macy, kicks you out of the bathroom that you should be sharing.
She takes all of your things and puts them in your room. What should you do?

--- 1. give her a kiss and a hug and then move your stuff back into the bathroom.

--- 2. get your attack dog, Dusty, to get her.

--- 3. Cry, kick and scream and lay on the floor

abnormal life?

this picture shows why I am up so late tonight and trying to stay awake.....
"after sweetheart's dance party" at our house:)
Hope you enjoy the words below!!!
Namaste,
Michele



The ordinary man is living a very abnormal life,
because his values are upside down.
Money is more important than meditation; logic is
more important than love; mind is more important than heart;
power over others is more important than power over one's own being.
Mundane things are more important than finding some treasures which death cannot destroy.

-Osho

understanding

These are pictures from before the Sweetheart's dance tonight.
I love seeing the kids before they go off to the dance.
have a great day!!! I hope you enjoy the quote below.
Namaste,
Michele

When you understand yourself,
that very day you have understood the whole of humanity.
Then nobody can make you miserable...

-Osho

To play or not to play....that is the question

By any chance do you think my daughter is mocking me????????(ha-ha)



Good Day!!!
I am working on figuring out how to clone myself...then maybe I could get everyone where they need to be today.
or maybe I should just go meditate and try to be here now:)
have a great day and hope you enjoy the quote below!!!!
Namaste,
Michele




Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that
will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers,
the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.

-Sir Cecil Beaton