Make Bobby Shave!!!!!

RatDog and Bobby Weir Monday July 16th Time Warner Cable Amphitheater at Tower City (Formerly Tower City Amphitheater) Cleveland, OH

Born in 1947 and adopted by a rich California engineer, Bob's dyslexia gave him trouble at school. He was labeled a troublemaker and shipped off to boarding school, where he met future songwriting partner John Perry Barlow. After being kicked out of the school, Bob returned to the Bay Area, where he bummed around the burgeoning folk scene and came into contact with musicians like Jerry Garcia, New Riders on the Purple Sage founder David Nelson, and Jefferson Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen. A series of jug bands eventually morphed into the electrified Warlocks who, in turn, became the Grateful Dead.

Bob developed his odd rhythm style playing between the sweet, articulated lead guitar of Jerry Garcia and the avant-garde bass lines of Phil Lesh. Like a jazz guitarist, Bob was often not evident in the mix, but still a profound shape on the sound.

Bob's earliest songwriting efforts mirrored those of Garcia and Lesh, though less successfully. By the early '70s, he had crossed paths with Barlow again and the two began their creative relationship in earnest. Soon, Bob was producing songs in his own distinct style—a blend of Americana and the odd voicings he specialized in. As the health of Dead frontman Ron "Pigpen" McKernan waned, Bob found his rich baritone increasingly at the center of attention and developed a stage personality to match it. His first solo album, Ace, released in 1972, featured Bob backed by the rest of the Dead.

Through the late '70s, and especially during the Dead's year off in 1975, Bob toured and recorded with a number of groups, including Kingfish and Bobby and the Midnites. As Jerry's dependence on drugs increased during the Dead's later days, Bob found himself increasingly in the position of de facto bandleader.

When Jerry died in 1995, Bob had recently formed RatDog. In addition to consistently touring with RatDog since then, Bob reunited with several former Dead bandmates for tours in 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2004. He continues to play with countless artists of varying styles and talents.

What if you slept, and what if in your sleep you dreamed,
and what if in your dream you went to heaven and there
plucked a strange and beautiful flower, and what if when you
awoke you had the flower in your hand?
Ah, what then?
-Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The Plan for Your Awakening

Hiking at Hocking Hills State Park.




Everything that happens to you is part of the plan for your awakening, including those challenging events that force you to shift out of your inertia and self-limiting behavior patterns.
From the depth of your soul, you call out for growth. You pray to be released from your burdens and to discover and express your gifts.

-Paul Ferrini

...and did the monks get mad???

wow what if everyone reacted this way?....to stay in such a place of balance..nothing is permanent....don't grasp and try to hold on to the past....what lessons..Have a great day!
Love, Michele

Toddler's dance destroys monks' intricate sand painting

By MATT CAMPBELL
Talk about a test of faith.
Eight Tibetan monks spent two days cross-legged
on the floor at Union Station, leaning over to
meticulously create an intricate design of colored
sand as an expression of their Buddhist faith.
They were more than halfway done.
And then, within seconds, their work was
destroyed by a toddler. Monks are bald,
so they couldn’t rip their hair out.
But were they angry? Did they curse?
No. They simply smiled and started over.
“No problem,” said Geshe Lobsang Sumdup,
leader of the group from
the Drepung Gomang Monastery in southern India.
“We didn’t get despondent,” he said Wednesday
through a translator. “We have three days more.
So we will have to work harder.”
That the monks were able to shrug off their
setback can be attributed to their religion.
“It teaches us that nothing is permanent,”
said Staci Olsen, a volunteer at
the Rime Buddhist Center in Kansas City.
Sometime Tuesday after the monks
had finished their labors for
the day a woman with her small
child visited the post office inside
Union Station, near where the
design was being created.
The child, apparently attracted by the pretty colors,
wandered over to play with it.
“He did a little tap dance on it,
completely destroying it,”
said Lama Chuck Stanford of the Rime center.
The mother did not report the incident,
but a security camera at Union Station captured the moment.
“She summarily picked the child up and boogied,” said Bob Smock, security manager for the station.

Jampa Tenzin, one of the monks
who can speak a little English,
said this was the first time on
this tour a mandala in progress
had been destroyed. But the monks
know the child was innocent.
“They have meditated so long
they have developed this equanimity,”
Stanford said. “Regardless of what happens
— if a kid dances on your sand mandala
— it’s OK. If everybody in the world
had that kind of stability of mind we’d be better off.”

WARNING

The above picture is of my grandma and her front yard....my mom's mom...Elizabeth VanTreuren. She is a big inspriation to me and is someone I think that I identify the most with out of all my family members. She was a bit crazy....and graduated from college at age 75. She loved her garden and had many exotic flowers in it. She died when she was 91 years old ......about 3 years ago. She was still teaching piano in her 90's.
She loved books and had thousands and thousands of them.
In the 1950's she even went to jail for selling a banned book!!! ( the book was called Tropic of Cancer)...big deal back then.
Her colorful writings inspired me to create this blog. I only saw her in person about a dozen times....but communicated with her through writing......she wrote the most colorful letters and musings to a list of people.
She used all different colored pens and the topics were very wild....she was interested in everything....especially anything bizarre.
She once went on a trip around the world with only two outfits and two pairs of underwear....she alternated washing her dirty outfit in the sink each night.
She lived in California....Eureka, California.
I will include her obituary and some of her writings on this blog sometime.
Anyway....please read the poem below......it reminds me so much of her.


by Jenny Joseph

"The nations favourite post war poem"

---

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat that doesn't go and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only eat bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

---

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers

---

But maybe I ought to practise a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old and start to wear purple.

---

Jenny Joseph has written several poetry volumes, including Rose in the Afternoon
and has written several childrens books.

Hidden treasure?

Macy took this picture last weekend at Old Man's Cave. Isn't it cool??

It is Mark walking through a tunnel.....Hope you are having a great day!!

Love, Michele

The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.

-JOSEPH CAMPBELL

May you feel loved

May you find serenity and tranquility
in a world you may not always understand.
May the pain you have known
and the conflict you have experienced
give you the strength to walk
through life facing each new situation
with courage and optimism.
Always know that there are those whose love
and understanding will always be there,
even when you feel most alone.
May you discover enough goodness in others to believe in a world of peace.
May a kind word, a reassuring touch, and a warm smile be yours every day of your life,
and may you give these gifts as well as receive them.
Remember the sunshine when the storm seems unending.
~unknown

Can you juggle???????

This is a picture of a man named Barla from Turkey. We met him on the OSU oval Monday evening. He was juggling and let us come watch. He let Marko try to juggle.
Barla can juggle up to 9 balls I think....He taught himself how to juggle....I think he said the most someone can juggle is 12 balls...I can't juggle more than one so even three is amazing to me.
Barla is at Ohio State working on his doctoral degree in engineering. Very nice guy......Thanks Barla....It was nice meeting and talking with you!!!- Michele

"We live in a world of theophanies.
Holiness comes wrapped in the 
ordinary.
There are burning bushes all around you.
Every tree is full of 
angels. Hidden beauty is waiting in every crumb.
Life wants to lead you 
from crumbs to angels,
but this can happen only if you are willing to 
unwrap the ordinary by staying
with it long enough to harvest its 
treasure."
-Macrina Wiederkehr

Baseball Season!

Marko's second baseball game this year.

Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game! ~A Cinderella Story

Love of Nature

Good day!!! Above are pictures from Old Man's Cave in Hocking Hills State Park. We went camping down there this past weekend and it is beautiful and refreshing down there. Have a great day!!!

Love, Michele

There’s a wooden plaque on my office door that reads: “Whatever we love becomes part of us.” What we love, and therefore honor, helps make us who we are now. We can’t ever let go of that, any more than a tree could let go of the sun, rain, earth, or wind
that nourished and grew it.

-Joan Borysenko, Ph.D.

Love all serve all

May you become transparent to the wholeness in you
so that it shines, and reminds people where their home is.
May you serve with everything you know and everything you are.
-Rachel Naomi Remen

an old healing prayer that comes from the Central American indigenous peoples:

Do all the good that you can,

In all the ways that you can,

By all the means that you can,

To all the people that you can,

In all the places that you can,

For as long as ever you can.

"The irony is this:
If you don't go in, you can't find out."
-Richard Stine