Happy Halloween - Samhain!

 

Thanks to young friends making the scary pumpkin above...

I'm hoping kids of all ages have fun dancing and prancing and getting treats...no tricks this year. Wearing masks under masks must be pretty weird.

I just saw a notification on Facebook that there are drive through treats for kids being done at the town offices building in Black Mountain. That's nice, but nobody will see the kids prancing in their costumes. Sad about that.

I've had my hands full this week...with deadlines and rehab, and a kind of distant family member who was hospitalized. Then his wife collapsed after he went home, and she was hospitalized and died within a few days. I am too distant to be given information until time has passed...but in my meditation I was pretty sure she had died. There's the thinness of the veil between our material world and the spirit world at this time of year.

If you grew up in Mexico, or have friends who celebrate Dia de los Muertos, you would know that the spirits of our ancestors and dearly departed may be aware of us as we celebrate their lives. There are many who take flowers to graves on the 2nd of Nov., and sit and have a feast in the honor of those who have passed.

So though I know her friends and family are sad to not have her among us, there is also the sense of her continuation through whatever her beliefs might have been...her soul or spirit travels on.

And here's my favorite costume of the year! Ruth Vader Ginsburg!

Or maybe this image...

Oh, I almost forgot...the Rehab folks had seven dwarfs or something costumes...

Tonya as Fiery (very appropriate!) the head Respiratory Therapist of Pulmonary rehab, David, who was the only nurse around and is wearing little whales on his mask, and Carolyn as Spunky...our rehab physiologist.

A rehab friend had dressed up in fun costume, and had this stilly black cat! It mewed cute for a minute, then it's head spun around crazily as it yowled. We all cracked up!

The next week and a surprise at the Lake

 

I stood on the footbridge and wondered at the tracks left by machinery on the floor of Lake Tomahawk, on Oct. 27, 2020.

Looking towards the lake from the little foot bridge

Some Facebook friends have mentioned the trees that were cut down...it's beyond them (and me) why they took out these healthy trees.

Several earth movers were parked, since the crew had already gone home.

Looking up the stream from the footbridge

There's steady water going across the lake bottom.

From the dam looking north to the Seven Sisters Mountains...notice the mechanism for turning on or off the drainage valve, on the dock-like wooden structure on the right

.

This is normally a wet area that drains water over these rocks down a concrete chute beside the dam.

I like this view, looking towards the Blue Ridge Parkway on these distant mountains.

And the workers must not have been able to do much on Thurs, Oct. 29...because Zeta Tropical Storm hit here in the early hours, and was gone by 11 am...leaving trees down and power lines cut, so many residents of Black Mountain were without power for several hours. Mine was only off 1-1/2 hours.

The lake showing the recreation building at noon on Thurs. Oct. 29. The valve draining the lake had been closed. At first I thought the water had gone up to the base of the trees on the left.

There's the little dock with the draining mechanism off the dam, where the photographer was standing. (posted on Facebook.)

And  this shot shows some people walking on the path on the far left, so it must have been above the water line. But the rocks next to that path are not showing.

I will have to go over there again soon and see whether the construction was cleared up before the flood! I am glad the dam held back all this rain-water which came down in our small community so fast. I have friends who live in nice homes below the dam!

Lake Tomahawk being drained

These shots finished my walk around the lake in early morning on Oct. 10

Tomorrow I'll show you my walk around on Oct. 27

This is apparently where they want to work on the feeding creek.

Today's quote:

I am a child of the Milky Way. The night is my mother. I am made of the dust of stars. Every atom in my body was forged in a star. When the universe exploded into being, already the bird longed for the wood and the fish for the pool. When the first galaxies fell into luminous clumps, already matter was struggling toward consciousness. The star clouds of Sagittarius are a burning bush. If there is a voice in Sagittarius, I’d be a fool not to listen. If God’s voice in the night is a scrawny cry, then I’ll prick up my ears. If night’s faint lights fail to knock me off my feet, then I’ll sit back on a dark hillside and wait and watch. A hint here and a trait there. Listening and watching. Waiting, always waiting, for the tingle in the spine.

I am a child of the Milky Way. The night is my mother. I am made of the dust of stars. Every atom in my body was forged in a star. When the universe exploded into being, already the bird longed for the wood and the fish for the pool. When the first galaxies fell into luminous clumps, already matter was struggling toward consciousness. The star clouds of Sagittarius are a burning bush. If there is a voice in Sagittarius, I’d be a fool not to listen. If God’s voice in the night is a scrawny cry, then I’ll prick up my ears. If night’s faint lights fail to knock me off my feet, then I’ll sit back on a dark hillside and wait and watch. A hint here and a trait there. Listening and watching. Waiting, always waiting, for the tingle in the spine.

Chet Raymo, The Soul of the Night: An Astronomical Pilgrimage The Soul of the Night: An Astronomical Pilgrimage
 

From the window

 At the Rehab gym at Mission Cardiac Center...third floor. I've been working out there for 3 months now, doing first cardio rehab for 9 weeks, and now my 8 weeks of pulmonary rehab is almost over.

This view is noteworthy, that the mountains in the distance actually include Mt. Mitchell. That's the highest mountain in the eastern US...though of course my little phone camera doesn't indicate which one it is. Probably a bit of zoom might help...

The mountain with a big radio tower on it is right next to Mt. Mitchell, and some with very good eyes can see that. I just only "kinda" saw it.

The last time I had my photo taken 2018...at Mt. Mitchell. And you can see some of the weight I've happily lost! Down 25 pounds from there!

I'm going to be joining a YMCA here in Black Mountain in order to keep exercising during the winter months. I do feel better, and have lost some of the extra weight my bad eating habits helped put on. Now I eat low-fat plant based foods. And meditate daily again. And make efforts to stay in touch with friends so we can support one another with fun and shoulders to cry on as needed.

Hope you have a good day.  Yesterday the rain from Hurricane Zeta arrived before dawn...though we won't feel as much of the storm as those on the Gulf coast will. 

Today's Quote:

The irony of hiding the dark side of our humanness is that our
secret is not really a secret at all.  How can it be when we're all
safeguarding the very same story?  That's why Rumi calls it an
Open Secret.  It's almost a joke - a laughable admission that each
one of us has a shadow self - a bumbling, bad-tempered twin.

Big surprise!  Just like you, I can be a jerk sometimes.  I do unkind,
cowardly things, harbor unmerciful thoughts, and mope around
when I should be doing something constructive.  Just like you,
I wonder if life has meaning;  I worry and fret over things that I
can't control; and I often feel overcome with a longing for
something that I cannot even name.  For all of my strengths and

gifts, I am also a vulnerable and insecure person, in need of
connection and reassurance.  This is the secret I try to keep from
you, and you from me, and in doing so, we do each other a grave
disservice.

Rumi tells us that the moment we accept what troubles we've been
given, the door will open.  Sounds easy, sounds attractive, but it is
difficult, and most of us pound on the door to freedom and happiness
with every manipulative ploy save the one that actually works.  If

you're interested in the door to the heavens opening, start with the
door to your own secret self.  See what happens when you offer to
another a glimpse of who you really are.  Start slowly.  Without
getting dramatic, share the simple dignity of yourself in each moment -
your triumphs and your failures, your satisfaction and your sorrow.

Face your embarrassment at being human, and you'll uncover a deep
well of passion and compassion.  It's a great power, your Open Secret.

When you heart is undefended you make it safe for whomever you
meet to put down his/her burden of hiding, and then you both can
walk through the open door.

Elizabeth Lesser
from: Broken Open

The little town that Rocks

 That's Black Mountain...who's Tourist industry came up with that slogan, and we've got artist-painted rocking chairs around town for visitors to sit in and enjoy.

Last Thursday a friend from my Ornish Rehab program met me for lunch, then we went window-shopping. It was a lot of fun!

Seven Sisters gallery had these lovely glass witches balls...and this one matched my friend's outfit...so we had to have a photo!

Today's quote:

This magnificent refuge is inside you.
Enter.
Shatter the darkness that shrouds the doorway...
Be bold.  Be humble.
Put away the incense and forget
the incantations they taught you.
Ask no permission from the authorities.
Close your eyes and follow your breath
to the still place that leads to the
invisible path that leads you
home.

St. Teresa of Avila

A couple of interesting sights in the car

Remember the tree at the bank I showed you last week? HERE  And this was on Tues, Oct 20, 2020

As I was coming home, this rugged jeep was uphill at the stop light, and I took its photo through the windshield. I'm sitting in Black Mountain NC and that jeep is from Montana! I dare say that's about the furthest away tourist in town right now.

Today's quote:

There is a birthing happening through women today: a new voice essential to our evolution. We are asked to be willing to stay in the discomfort of the stillness, the waiting and the brewing.

Let us honor the vague, the impulses that we cannot yet put into words. Let us hold space for each other in the insecurity, in the un-clarity, the not finding of words, the dry mouth, the stuttering.

There is a lot of pressure both from within and without to make things solid and to push for definition and clarity prematurely. As long as we try to fit our wisdom and expression into the linear, rational paradigm of communication, we will just keep creating the old and cheat the world of this deeper wisdom longing to speak through us in a different way.

~ Chameli Ardagh

 

Sunset

 

I looked up from what I was doing...and the sky was ablaze! Walked quickly out on the balcony and clicked a few pics with the phone...I'm so glad to see the ridge of the mountains in the distance...but everything was bathed in this rosy light!

Today's quote:

Courage is your willingness to not know. 
To speak your truth. 
To walk your path.
To face ridicule and rejection.
To keep going, despite the voices in your head and the judgments of others.
And there are no guarantees you will make it.
Nobody can walk for you!
You walk in radical aloneness, naked in the face of life, no protection, no crutches, no external authority.
No ideology to save you. 
No promises anymore. 
Only the beating of the heart, and the air in the lungs, and the thrill and terror of being utterly free, and no longer numb.
And a knowing from deep within.
And the call of your ancestors.
And the ground holding you.
And the Sun warming you.
And the fragrance of love everywhere. 
And warm tears running down your cheeks.
And this gorgeous vulnerability
which makes you unbreakable.

~ Jeff Foster

Post Script

(This is added after I finished this blog, ready to publish.) Earlier in the day, while fixing breakfast, I had my Omega-3 capsule sitting on the counter, ready to take it before starting my food. I cut up my pear, then spooned 2 kinds of fat-free yogurt in the bowl with the organic pear, heated up a mug of yesterday's coffee and spooned a teaspoon of honey into the mug. Now where was that pill? I looked everywhere. I couldn't find it in the yogurt/pear bowl. And I did the honey last, so I couldn't have taken it with a swig of coffee. Then I looked closer into the mug, and saw a few globs of oil floating on the surface. That had been a clean cup, where did oil come from? Oh no. I must have dropped the capsule into the hot coffee. I was diligent and not wasteful, and tried drinking my fishy coffee for the first half cup. Then my poor coated mouth and tongue couldn't take any more. Threw that out and started with a new mug, coffee and honey!

Muddy lake walk

 Photos in reverse order again...

The lake is being drained so some work can be done on the stream which feeds the lake.

Today's quote:

Autumnal sun streams through
these yellow maple leaves
translucent as stained glass.

The ground beneath my feet
is strewn with pine cones, acorns.
The random pattern of continuance.

Etched columns of pine and oak.
Incense of resin and fungi.
Great glacial stones for altars.

High winds and choirs of
minor breezes, the whispering hush.
It is the Sabbath. It is enough.

Dolores Stewart
from The Nature of Things

from blogger, Beyond the Fields we Know

Passionate couple(s)

 

The Sepia Saturday meme shows a kiss from a movie...full of passion! Of course they aren't quite kissing. But they sure look about ready to do so. I love the idea of actors giving such passion, while of course they are only acting.

Any photos of passion in my archives?

San Antonio, Texas. From my father's album...another photo said "before we were "we" and cupid hit us. I think all the rest of his photos were after cupid had struck between my parents.

My parents around the time they married in San Antonio, Texas.

My parents in their first home after their marriage in 1939.

My grandparents (my father's parents) Gummy and Poppy in 1955 in Houston, TX. 

My oldest son and his wife, Marty and Barbara.

Middle son Russ and his wife Michelle!

Youngest son Tai and his wife Kendra!

Today's quote:

We waste so much energy trying to cover up who we are

when beneath every attitude is the want to be loved,
and beneath every anger is a wound to be healed
and beneath every sadness is the fear that there
will not be enough time...

When we hesitate in being direct (authentic), we unknowingly
slip something on, some added layer of protection
that keeps us from feeling the world/life...

Our challenge every day is not to get dressed to
face the world, but to unglove ourselves so that
the doorknob feels cold, and the car handle
feels wet, and the kiss goodbye feels
the lips of another being...

Mark Nepo

From: The Book of Awakening

And a link to those who like the messages from the Dali Lama... Dalai Lama Global Vision Summit through learn@lionsroar.com  It's free and goes on all day, with 48 hours to see each of the speakers.