I often say to people "Kill them with kindness." Love is the most powerful weapon we have. People stop what they’re doing when you say, "I love you." They don’t stop when you say, "I hate you, and I’ll kill you if you come across that line." When you say "I love you," they are confused, stop what they’re doing and wonder how to deal with you. That’s true, unconditional love. - Bernie Seigel

Enjoying the ride

This is Marko meditating at Severance hall. Today, we went to see my friend Mary Ann play in the cleveland women's orchestra and he took the opportunity to meditate there.?????
This is Marko at "Big Fun" in Coventry.......thank you very much...thank you very much.


Walk in the rain, smell flowers. stop along the way, build sandcastles, go on field trips, find out how things work, tell stories, say the magic words, trust the universe.
- Bruce Williamson

18 Years of Marital Bliss

This a picture of Mark and I that was taken at Put in Bay 6/87. Mark and I started going up there in 1984.
The last time I went up there, I was pregnant with Mira and drunk people were talking to me and I couldn't understand what they were saying and I thought they were annoying.....and I have not been back there since. Anyway, May 6th, is our 18th wedding anniversary.
below is a poem Mark wrote for me on our 12th anniversary....and yes the part about trading me for a motorcycle is true.
Have a nice day!!!
Love,
Michele




anniversary poem (for michele)



once a guy in a bar full of drunks offered

me his motorcycle in exchange for you,

& for a second there i gave it some thought.



there's nothing like

the feel of the wind

full against the face

roaring 80 mph down

the asphalt ribbons

of america, the sunset

behind, a two-wheeled

shadow passing over

hard pavement, broken

white lines shooting past

like blurry bullets.



but then again, there's

nothing like a barbados sunset

a maui morning, the salty

san francisco waterfront,

melrose street in l.a., the

solitary tropical islands of

the bahamas, grand florida

palatial hotels, great silent

national forest campsites,

the utter madness of a

put-in-bay weekend, the

energy of lake chatauqua,

even the casa linda, with

hookers & junkies or a

tacky las vegas italian

restaurant with bad wine

& an accordian player.



there are three tiny comedians still asleep

upstairs while you're

downstairs looking for

your keys & shoes,



yeah, once a drunk guy offered up his

harley in exchange for you, but i turned

him down, & in the long run no doubt

i got the better end of that crazy deal

-Markk

Happy Cinco De Mayo

Once upon a time.....a long, long, long time ago...like way back in 1984, one of my college friends named Carlos, came home with me from Ohio State for a visit and to eat some real food. During his visit, he dressed up like this mad person and then went with my mom and I to the airport to pick up Mark. My mom and I hid and a huge crowd gathered round to watch CARLOS jump on top of Mark and yell " DAD." Some people coming off of the plane even took pictures of the event.
the end.



Alice: But I don't want to go among mad people.
Cheshire Cat: Oh, you can't help that. Most everyone's mad here.
[Laughs maniacally; starts to disappear]
Cheshire Cat: You may have noticed that I'm not all there myself.

-from one of my stories....Alice in Wonderland

Shared World, Shared Words

Below is a beautiful poem by Naomi Shihab Nye.........my friend Barb turned me on to her.
She is Barb's friend from high school.....she grew up in SanAntonio.
hope you enjoy this as much as I do. Peace, Michele

Wandering Around an Albuquerque Airport Terminal, by Naomi Shihab Nye

After learning my flight was detained 4 hours,
I heard the announcement:
If anyone in the vicinity of gate 4-A understands any Arabic,
Please come to the gate immediately.

Well -- one pauses these days. Gate 4-A was my own gate. I went there.
An older woman in full traditional Palestinian dress,
Just like my grandma wore, was crumpled to the floor, wailing loudly.
Help, said the flight service person. Talk to her. What is her
Problem? we told her the flight was going to be four hours late and she
Did this.

I put my arm around her and spoke to her haltingly.
Shu dow-a, shu- biduck habibti, stani stani schway, min fadlick,
Sho bit se-wee?

The minute she heard any words she knew -- however poorly used -
She stopped crying.

She thought our flight had been cancelled entirely.
She needed to be in El Paso for some major medical treatment the
Following day. I said no, no, we're fine, you'll get there, just late,

Who is picking you up? Let's call him and tell him.
We called her son and I spoke with him in English.
I told him I would stay with his mother till we got on the plane and
Would ride next to her -- southwest.

She talked to him. Then we called her other sons just for the fun of it.

Then we called my dad and he and she spoke for a while in Arabic and
Found out of course they had ten shared friends.

Then I thought just for the heck of it why not call some Palestinian
Poets I know and let them chat with her. This all took up about 2 hours.

She was laughing a lot by then. Telling about her life. Answering
Questions.

She had pulled a sack of homemade mamool cookies -- little powdered
Sugar crumbly mounds stuffed with dates and nuts -- out of her bag --
And was offering them to all the women at the gate.

To my amazement, not a single woman declined one. It was like a
Sacrament. The traveler from Argentina, the traveler from California,
The lovely woman from Laredo -- we were all covered with the same
Powdered sugar. And smiling. There are no better cookies.

And then the airline broke out the free beverages from huge coolers --
Non-alcoholic -- and the two little girls for our flight, one African
American, one Mexican American -- ran around serving us all apple juice
And lemonade and they were covered with powdered sugar too.

And I noticed my new best friend -- by now we were holding hands --
Had a potted plant poking out of her bag, some medicinal thing,

With green furry leaves. Such an old country traveling tradition. Always
Carry a plant. Always stay rooted to somewhere.

And I looked around that gate of late and weary ones and thought,
This is the world I want to live in. The shared world.

Not a single person in this gate -- once the crying of confusion stopped
-- has seemed apprehensive about any other person.

They took the cookies. I wanted to hug all those other women too.
This can still happen anywhere.

Not everything is lost.

One Love

Dr. Wayne Dyer talks about the grandfather speaking to his grandson.
Grandfather said: "I feel as if I have 2 wolves barking inside me very loud.
The first wolf is filled with anger, hatred, bitterness and mostly revenge.
The 2nd wolf is filled with love, kindness, gentleness and mostly forgiveness."

The grandson looked up and said "Which wolf do you think will win, Grandpa?"
The man responded "Which ever one I feed."

I think ultimately we will have to come to a place, as a people, where we recognize that we all share the same God force, regardless for our appearances or cultural believes or location on this planet.
There is a famous Native American saying: "No tree has branches so foolish as to fight among themselves." We must learn to no longer be so foolish and do whatever it takes to support the one tree and its many branches.

May 4, 1970, Tin Soldiers and Nixon's Coming.........

On May 4, l970 members of the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of Kent State University demonstrators, killing four and wounding nine Kent State students. The shootings have certainly come to symbolize the deep political and social divisions that so sharply divided the country during the Vietnam War era.


Below is a poem by Jim Kelly

Tin Soldiers and Nixon's Coming.........

Wild Wild West

My son wants a lava lamp
for his birthday
He was born on May 4^th
I got my first lava lamp
when I was in the sixth grade
May 4^th was a memorable day that year too
Four students were shot and killed at Kent State

I can remember my teacher
telling us how she was at a gas station
in Akron, Ohio
and the car next to her had some kids filling up with gas
they said they were heading for Kent
she could see rifles in their backseat
The day after the shootings
my brother was walking
across the his college campus
early in the morning
carrying a briefcase
Two plain clothed cops ambushed him
knocked him down
and confiscated
the briefcase
His almost completed term paper was never seen again

Back home at the dinner table
my dad said Kent
looked like the wild, wild west
He also said
He wished he hadn’t gotten up that morning

My son
just got a new puppy
his dog had just died
He named it Cowboy

-James Kelly 2003

http://youtube.com/watch?v=X6Vy4Tq-5a8
click above to watch "ohio"....so intense!

The Vehicle

“It is often said that the Buddha’s teaching is only a raft to help you cross the river,
a finger pointing to the moon.
Don’t mistake the finger for the moon.
The raft is not the shore.
If we cling to the raft, if we cling to the finger, we miss everything”
- Thich Nhat Hanh.

Life!

Learning to live

It's the heart afraid of breaking
that never learns to dance.
It's the dream afraid of waking
that never takes the chance.
It's the one who won't be taken,
who cannot seem to give,
and the soul afraid of dyin'
that never learns to live. --Bette Midler

Peace Poem

Ten years ago every school around the world was invited to submit two lines of poetry about peace to the United Nations. Once collected, the lines were collated together into one long Peace Poem. Poems came in from 38 countries around the world. Says Kofi Annan in his preface, "In their wisdom, the children whose intermingled voices gave birth to the Peace Poem know that peace is far more than the absence of war. Children know that peace comes from the heart; it lives in the way we see others; it survives in the respect we show our neighbors every day." In today’s world as we struggle collectively to bring an end to violence and suffering, that understanding of peace is as crucial as ever. Check out the Peace Poem by the children of the world. click on the link below!!
http://www.un.org/cyberschoolbus/peaceday/poem/poem.asp

piano man

My first concert was BILLY JOEL....it was at the colliseum.......I was 15 years old (it was a date) in 1980....I am surprised my parents let me go. It was promoting his album...glass houses. I remember I got a t-shirt with the album cover on the front. He played "piano man" and that was my favorite!!!
do you remember you first concert? Peace and love, Michele
click below...pretty awesome!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZ1_M_L_RSI

We grow old because we stop playing

"We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing.

There are only four secrets to staying young, being happy, and achieving success. You have to laugh and find humor every day. You've got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die.

We have so many people walking around who are dead and don't even know it!

There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up.

If you are nineteen years old and lie in bed for one full year and don't do one productive thing, you will turn twenty years old. If I am eighty-seven years old and stay in bed for a year and never do anything I will turn eighty-eight.

Anybody can grow older. That doesn't take any talent or ability. The idea is to grow up by always finding opportunity in change. Have no regrets.

The elderly usually don't have regrets for what we did, but rather for things we did not do. The only people who fear death are those with

regrets."--Speech by "ROSE", age 87

What Juices you???

Dreams make you click, juice you, turn you on, excite the living daylights out of you. You cannot wait to get out of bed to continue pursuing your dream. The kind of dream I'm talking about gives meaning to your life. it is the ultimate motivator.
-Jim Collins