The path of nonresistance

This is a picture of Mark and Carlos outside of my apartment at Ohio State.
I laugh whenever I see this picture. I love the note below...hope you do too Love, Michele

Sydney Harris, the distinguished news columnist, tells of visiting a friend for a weekend. Each evening, he would walk to the corner with the friend to by the evening newspaper. The man would be cheerful and pleasant but the newsie would always reply with a grunt.

Harris commented one night, “He is a mighty unpleasant fellow, isn’t he?” The friend replied, “Oh, he is always that way.” But why are you so nice to him?” The answer is a classic that reflects a deep understanding of nonresistance. The friend said, “But why should I let him determine how I am going to act?”

Here was a man who knew that his chief responsibility in life was to act the part of his divinity. Why should he let any man on the street cause him to lower his consciousness and thus reduce his whole experience of life?

Remember, you may not be able to change or control the people around you, but you can determine the level of consciousness on which you meet them and react to them. This is one of the most significant discoveries that man can make.

Restful Sleep????

This is a picture of Jim Thome holding Marko when he was a baby......Marko smiled and laughed in his arms.
Marko came to me last month, when we were starting to open the windows at night and he was waking up to "Scarey noises", and said the following:
"Mom I think that I am going to need some of that Lunesta to sleep better."
I asked him where he heard about Lunesta and he told me about a commercial that he saw on television for Lunesta.....He talked about a butterfly that touches you and helps you sleep.

Weird......Marko gets only 2 hours of technology per day. (technology= video games, television or internet...like webkinz) The commercials are doing their job to help Marko fall asleep at night....that is very comforting to know!!!

why we create

Here is a watercolor picture I created.....you like???
Namaste!!!- Michele



There is for me no legitimate reason for drawing, painting, sculpting, other than in this intensified awareness of the eye awakened from half-sleep.
-Frederick Franck

The wisdom of not having to Know

This is a hazy morning at the Berea quarry taken a few years ago....Mark and I lived in Berea for about 5 years before kids. .....kinda illustrates what Maya Angelou says below......just observing the mysteries of the world and not needing to know the "why" or "how" of anything.....just falling into the wonder.
Good Day!! Love, Michele



Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for. Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us. We need hours of aimless wandering or spates of time sitting on park benches, observing the mysterious world of ants and the canopy of treetops. - Maya Angelou.

Advice to Beginners

Above is a picture of Macy on the beach at Hilton Head. This is where she learned to walk. (5/98) Have a great day. I hope you enjoy the poem below. Happy first day of Summer!!! Love, Michele






Advice to Beginners
—Ellen Kort

Begin. Keep on beginning.

Nibble on everything. Take a hike.

Teach yourself to whistle.

Lie. The older you get the more they'll want your stories.

Make them up. Talk to stones.

Short-out electric fences. Swim with the sea turtle into the moon.

Learn how to die. Eat moonshine pie.

Drink wild geranium tea.

Run naked in the rain.

Everything that happens will happen and none of us will be safe from it.

Pull up anchors. Sit close to the god of night.

Lie still in a stream and breathe water.

Climb to the top of the highest tree

until you come to the branch where the blue hereon sleeps.

Eat poems for breakfast. Wear them on your forehead.

Lick the mountains bare shoulder.

Measure the color of days around your mother's death.

Put your hands over your face and listen to what they tell you.

Someday

Jim Kelly (or uncle Jim Bob) as the kids call him .....and I at a Grateful Dead Concert a few years ago. (BLH.....before long hair.) Have a great Day! Love, Michele

that someday, sometime, you will be somewhere, maybe on a day like today--a berm overlooking a pond in Vermont, the lip of the Grand Canyon at sunset. Maybe something bad will have happened: you will have lost someone you loved, or failed at something you wanted to succeed at very much.

And sitting there, you will fall into the center of yourself. You will look for that core to sustain you. If you have been perfect all your life, and have managed to meet all the expectations of your family, your friends, your community, your society, chances are excellent that there will be a black hole where your core ought to be.

Don't take that chance. Begin to say no to the Greek chorus that thinks it knows the parameters of a happy life when all it knows is the homogenization of human experience. Listen to that small voice from inside you, that tells you to go another way. George Eliot wrote, "It is never too late to be what you might have been." It is never too early, either. And it will make all the difference in the world.
-ANNA QUINDLEN

Rest in Peace David

David Lytle died this past weekend. He is my second cousin. He was a beautiful soul who did not let his handicap get in his way....He was a quadriplegic for the past 13 years after an accident in Georgia.
He never let the accident get in his way.....he still kept reaching out to others.
read the below obituary and the article about him. He started a research fund in honor of his personal attendant that died from lupus.
I guess his family was worried about him because he did not come home from work on Saturday....they sent the police out to search for him and he was found slumped over in his van........Rest in Peace David.......You are an inspiration to us all!
I bet he is running and jumping where ever he is and feeling the joy of moving his legs and arms again.
Love,
Michele

David wrote this letter below and appeared on the today show for the Lupus Foundation.

"The Today Show" on NBC this morning aired a beautiful segment on Mary Katherine McMullin Biglow who died from Lupus complications.

Since 1999, "TODAY" has raised nearly $400,000 for charity with the Green Room Book project. Past beneficiaries include the National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance, the Hospice of Palm Beach County, America's Second Harvest, The Boys and Girls Club of America, Project A.L.S. and the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund. This year, we asked our viewers to nominated an organization they wanted to see as the beneficiary of this year's charity auction event. Hundreds of entries were received, and ultimately the Lupus Foundation of America was selected thanks to the following email.
My story begins 13 years ago when I suffered a Spinal Cord Injury that left me a C5-6 Quadriplegic. I have been using a wheelchair ever since. My particular charity is the Lupus Foundation. This is very important to me because my dear friend/personal care attendant passed away last October, one day before her 31st birthday leaving behind a loving husband and her 10 month old baby. Mary Katherine McMullin Biglow made what I did daily--easy. She never complained about her chronic illness. There are so many worthy charities that need our attention, however, Lupus doesn't have an identity. Kassie, as we called her, wanted to create awareness and she would have been a formidable leader. She had a lively spirit and definitely a joy to be around. She inspired me and she made tomorrow a place worth checking out. - David Lytle

David E. Lytle David E. Lytle, 39, of Litchfield Township, passed away suddenly Saturday, June 16, 2007, in Medina. He was born Feb. 21, 1968. David was a supervisor for Sterling Jewelers. He attended Ohio State University ATI and Kent State University. He was a former greenskeeper for Peachtree Country Club in Atlanta. He attended St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church. He was vice president of the Spinal Cord Association at Cleveland MetroHealth Medical Center. He is survived by his parents, James and Carol Lytle of Litchfield; sisters, Tracy Lytle of Lodi and Barbara (Michael) Lawson of Lexington, Ohio; aunt, Jean (Michael) Sheehan of Chicago; nephews, Shawn and Tim Reinke; cousin, Michelle Rihawi of Aurora, Ill.; niece, Dana Lawson; and godchild, Leo Raffo. Mass of Christian Burial: 11 a.m. Thursday at St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church, 1800 Station Road, Valley City. Father Norman Douglas will officiate. Burial: St. Martin of Tours Cemetery. Visiting hours: 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 pm. today and Wednesday at Waite & Son Funeral Homes, Medina Chapel, 765 N. Court St. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Mary Katherine "Kassie" McMullin-Biglow Research Fund in David's honor, c/o the Lupus Foundation of America, 2000 L Street NW, Suite 710, Washington, DC 20036.



read this link.
http://www.lupus.org/MatchingGift/Kassie.html

Haunted Tunnel ( Moonville Tunnel)

Above are pictures Mira took of the Moonville Tunnel......located near Lake Hope State Park.
We hiked out to the tunnel which was very beautiful, but we never saw/felt any ghosts, but I guess that lots of people have...read below.
Have a great day!!
Love,
Michele

THE GHOST STORIES!!

Now I have heard many different stories about the ghost of the moonville tunnel,
but the stories go back as far as 100 years ago. Many people believe that
there are two ghosts that haunt the area, not just one. The most popular
versions of the stories are of a headless figure who walks around inside
the tunnel and around the area waving a yellow lantern in an effort to stop
the train. The other story is of a woman in a night gown seen wondering
around the area of the tracks at night.

On my visit to Moonville, as we were about to cross the raccon creek, I
encountered a forest park ranger and interviewed him on my camcorder, he
told me that the ghost of the man who haunts the tunnel was a train conductor
who was drunk and fell in front of the train and was decapitated. Another
theory says that the conductor was having an affair with the brakeman's
wife and he was pushed out of the train and ran over.

Another local told me a story that Moonville was strucken with small pox,
and sent thier most healthy person to the tracks to walk and get help, the fellow
approached the tunnel, he was apparently sick and delerious from the small
pox and staggered in front of an oncoming train waving his yellow lantern,
and was decapitated.

As for stories about the woman, there are documented cases where a woman was
killed about a mile from the tunnel while walking the tracks in 1886. and
though this ghost story is not as popular as the headless ghost from the
tunnel, the park ranger I interviewed did say that people have talked of
a ghost that resembled a woman in a blue'ish night gown wandering around
waving his lantern and then dissapearing.
http://home.fuse.net/moonville/

Feel what is Real!!!

You'll be pure spirit some day, but darling, for today
drink a lemonade take a nap in the shade
Trust what you feel, what you feel is real.

...Ray Manzarek The Golden Scarab, a rock trip through Egypt

listen to your heart

You like Mark's shirt????

Below is a quote from Marlee Matlin's commencement speech she gave last week. I think that they are beautiful words of encouragement and I hope you enjoy them too.

have a great day!!! Namaste, Michele

Marlee Matlin

Actress

Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

Our society today is plagued with too many people who are not willing to entertain the "could be's, the maybe's, the might be's." Instead, they are focused on the "can't be's, the won't be's, or the nevers." As a woman growing up deaf, who wanted to be an actress, despite what others may have thought was impossible, I know firsthand what wonder there is if we consider what is possible. And I know the same is true for you....

Make sure you are more than what people think you are and much more even that. With that comes a responsibility to help others who may not have achieved that understanding. Along the way, don't forget to volunteer, to love, to laugh, pay your taxes, but most of all, never forget to listen. Listen to your hearts.

The emptiness that makes us whole

Old Man's cave....beautiful....ehhhh?-Michele

We join spokes together in a wheel, but it is the center hole that makes the wagon move.
We hammer wood for a house, but it is the inner space that makes it livable.
We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside
that holds whatever we want.
-Lao Tsu, 1988

Namaste

Is this beautiful or what????-Love, Michele
The extraordinary teacher, Pema Chodron, taught me, via cassette tape, Tonglen practice. Knowing how to do this ancient practice of taking in pain and suffering and sending out peace and light, has been a wonderful gift to the medicine bundle I carry in my life. One of the slogans in the Lojong teachings that accompany Tonglen is: Be grateful to everyone. Be grateful to everyone. How beautiful is that! Because everyone is a teacher. Everyone brings us something of value, even if it seems totally negative to us at the time we receive it. I would add to that, and the Buddha of course already did so: Be compassionate to everyone. Don’t just search for whatever it is that annoys and frightens you, see beyond those things to the basic human being. Especially see the child in the man or woman. Even if they are destroying you, allow a moment to see how lost in their own delusion and suffering they are. It is only this insight into brutality and any form of meanness and cruelty that lessens the pain of being oppressed and in so many cases on this planet, senselessly annihilated. -Alice Walker

What we truly Desire

In *Maldoror and Poems,*
the French poet Lautréamont wrote about holy yearning
disguised as mournful complaint.
"Whenever you hear the dogs'  howling in the fields,"
his mother told him as a child,
"don't deride what  they do:
They thirst insatiably for the infinite,
like you, me, and the rest  of us humans.
I even allow you to stand at the window
and gaze upon this  exalted spectacle."

what would love do?????

I really liked this article.....but sometimes hard for me to follow what love would do because I forget to loose the ego and I buy into the illusion.......oh well, I will keep trying.....hey stare at the picture above.....doesn't it give the illusion of movement????

have a great day.......hope you enjoy the note below.

Love,

Michele

WHAT WOULD LOVE DO?

Ever asked yourself that question? Want to see your life change, in a flash?

Starting now, see how your day is transformed when you live out that question. How would Love make breakfast? What would Love say to the people you meet today: to your beloved, to your family, to the dog, the bird, the people on the street? The guy who drives you crazy at work? The beggar on the corner? Love might give her change, or maybe just smile and acknowledge her as a human being - Love is not guilty or dogmatic. Love knows what to do, if you let it guide your steps.

The next time the phone rings, take a breath, and ask yourself: how would Love answer? Then, let love answer, no matter who is calling. Love always knows what to say.

Love is not a wimp. Love stands up for justice, for truth, for dignity, and sometimes that means being Fierce. Fierce Love, Fierce Compassion, Fierce Gentleness. Fierce Sensitivity. Don't insult Love with a hallmark imitation. We're talking about the real deal here. Love is able to remain loving, unconditionally, in every circumstance, without exception. That's fierce.

Sound like too much work to be Love all day? Then wait until it's really needed-the moment irritation or anger or fear arises. Stop for a moment before you respond. Look at what it is that's really triggering you - is it this particular person, or event, or is it really an old pattern from the past. Is it just a web of projections and past injuries and dissapointments that you have superimposed over your eyeballs, until you can no longer see whats really in front of you? Can you approach this problem with freshness, with aliveness, as it is, not with a big bundle of pre-conceptions that stops you from seeing the other as a real human being, someone who suffers and dreams, just like you?

Before you respond to anyone or anything, ask yourself: what would Love do?

Awaken yourself to Love-in a flash.

~Velcrow Ripper

(maybe related to Velcro boy)
_______________________________

There are no manuals to read

Or rules to follow

Other than the open book

Of the heart.