Strange Journey

you like my leaves?? I love the poem by Rumi below.
I have the poem framed here at home. Hope you enjoy it too.
Namaste,
Michele

Rise up nimbly and go on your strange journey
to the ocean of meanings.
The stream knows it can't stay on the mountain.
Leave and don't look away from the sun as you go,
In whose light you're sometimes crescent,
sometimes full.

-Rumi

American Gothic

went to columbus yesterday to get Mark's Bongo drums that I bought him for his birthday....which picture is really us????

Being true to YOu!!

mask of the collage by Mark


I am an outside advisor to the Board of Directors of Heaven
and I see that vegetarians, people who meditate,
joggers and the faithful all die. Some of them are quite bitter
when they realize how much time and effort they put into trying to avoid death.
The message is to live fully your unique and authentic life
and then you will live your longest, fullest life.
Remember, he who seeks to save his life will lose it,
but he who is willing to lose his life will save it.
I see many people recover from life threatening illnesses
when they learn they have a short time left to live.
It is at that moment of reckoning that they begin to live their true life -
what is in their hearts. Then, they feel so good they don't die.
-Bernie Seigel

Baby!!!

This is a picture of baby Alexa.....Isn't she sweet?
My very dear friend Roberta has six kids and this is her youngest.
She came over on Tuesday for the afternoon and I got to hold Alexa a lot.
I don't know how Roberta does it......she is a very loving mom
and all of her kids are so beautiful.
My kids loved having all of them here because
there was someone for everyone to play with.
I met Roberta at work about 3 1/2 years ago....
it was like an instant friendship for me.
She is so easy to talk to and she really knows what is important in life.
Have a great day!!! Love, Michele


"I think all babies, animal and human alike, are naturally contemplative.
We are born open, present, unfocused, here-and-now.
In civilized human society, we teach children
to focus their attention, to fend off distractions,
to concentrate on the particular task in front of them.
This may be necessary for learning in the ways our schools are conducted,
but we should know that we are training our children
out of their natural contemplative presence, teaching them to devalue it,
even perhaps to fear it.
Children with attention deficit disorders tend to be more naturally contemplative,
but they can have tremendous difficulty in our focused civilization.
We treat them with drugs."
— Gerald G. May in the Wisdom of Wilderness: Experiencing the Healing Power of Nature

Hurt

eggplant anyone????



“People hurt other people the most
when they’re trying to kill their own pain, real or imagined.”
-Frank J. Page

Tomorrow's child

"Let us plant dates even though those who plant them will never eat them.
We must live by the love of what we will never see.
This is the secret discipline.
It is a refusal to let the creative act be dissolved away in immediate sense experience,
and a stubborn commitment to the future of our grandchildren.
Such disciplined love is what has given prophets, revolutionaries,
and saints the courage to die for the future they envisaged.
They make their own bodies the seed of their highest hope."
--Ruben Alves, Tomorrow's Child

Grandpa Benjamin

This is a picture of my Grandpa Benjamin.
He died in 1994, just less than 2 weeks after my
grandma died.
My favorite saying that my grandpa said to me was when I was
wearing a new very brightly colored outfit........and I asked him if he liked my new shirt
or something and he just said "Well I guess that is what they are wearing these days."


"What we have once enjoyed we can never lose.
All that we love deeply becomes a part of us."
–Helen Keller

Love

"Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place."
–Zora Neale Hurston

Dance when you're broken open

Macy in her new pointe shoes.

Dance

Dance when you're broken open.

Dance when you've torn the bandage off.

Dance in the middle of fighting.

Dance in your blood.

Dance when you're perfectly free.

Struck, the dancer hears a tambourine inside her,

like a wave that crests into foam at the very top,

Begins.

Maybe you don't hear that tambourine,

or the tree leaves clapping time.

Close the ears on your head,

that listen mostly to lies and cynical jokes.

There are other things to see, and hear.

Music. Dance.

A brilliant city inside your soul!

--Rumi

That Most Delicate Place

You like my flower that I painted??

How about the quote below????

That Most Delicate Place

 There is a place in all of us
that has remained innocent, uncorrupted
and untouched by the world. 
We have to locate that most delicate place.
It is a very sensitive place,
 it's where we feel love - where tenderness
and compassion arise, free from self-interest.
 This place is the hole we have to fall into
 - and disappear in forever.

from "Enlightenment is a Secret"  By Andrew Cohen 

An Open Mind

Maxine and Mira



AN OPEN MIND
Peace and clarity are the attributes of an open mind.

An open mind does not cherish opinions or harbor prejudices.

It is not preoccupied with judgments or interpretations.

An open mind is unfettered and free to respond to the challenges of the moment.

It does not dwell on the past or fantasize about the future.

It is present right here and now.

As a result, it is open to all of the possibilities that might arise.


Paul Ferrini

Teaching story

Teaching Story

An American tourist found himself in India on the day of the pilgrimage to the top of a sacred mountain. Thousands of people would climb the steep path to the mountaintop. The tourist, who had been jogging and doing vigorous exercise and thought he was in good shape, decided to join in and share the experience. After twenty minutes, he was out of breath and could hardly climb another step, while women carrying babies, and frail old men with canes, moved easily past him. "I don't understand it," he said to an Indian companion. "How can these people do it when I can't?" His friend answered, "It is because you have the typical American habit of seeing everything as a test. You see the mountain as your enemy and you set out to defeat it. So, naturally, the mountain fights back and it is stronger than you are. We do not see the mountain as an enemy to be conquered. The purpose of our climb is to become one with the mountain and so it lifts us up and carries us along."

— Harold Kushner in When All You've Ever Wanted Isn't Enough

RatDog

Make Bobby Shave!!
Paul, Mark and I

RatDog concert was last night. Bobby was wonderful as usual!!! Below is the set list......Going down the road feeling bad was awesome!!!

I: Jam > The Golden Road to Unlimited Devotion > Jack Straw > Easy to Slip > Supplication > Easy to Slip > Lazy River Road > Big Railroad Blues

II: K.C. Moan, Friend of the Devil, Victim or the Crime > Even So > October Queen > The Deep End > West L.A. Fadeaway* > Stuff*, Wharf Rat > GDTRFB

E: Gloria

Being Love

Marko made this collage with Mark in our art studio....do you like it???

Being Love

Remember, we are all affecting the world every moment, whether we mean to or not.

Our actions and states of mind matter, because we're so deeply interconnected with one another. Working on our own consciousness is the most important thing that we are doing at any moment, and being love is the supreme creative act.

~Ram Dass