Peacemakers 5 - us!

  

Signs and symbols...

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From the internet...feel free to share!

Remember that the happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving more.

H. JACKSON BROWN JR. Check out Yesterday's Pages on The Ukraine.

Feeling good

 First...my word for the week is contentment (thanks Jenny)

Second, I woke up feeling great yesterday! (when I wrote this). It was confusing to not be too out of breath, coughing was reasonable, and all my muscles seemed to obey my wishes without aches or pains.

 So I went for a  drive, couldn't quite manage a walk, but I did skip using the cane getting to the car. First to pick up a prescription and use my 30% off at CVS. I felt good enough I got my COVID vaccination.  Then to a favorite restaurant, where I usually have gone with friends on Saturday's after working the Tailgate Market selling our pottery. Those days are long gone.

But I had been telling friends how much I wanted the turkey & dressing meal...which is so much I never could eat it all in one sitting. Nobody else said they wanted to go, so I went alone! I seldom do that, usually just taking things "to-go". But I really liked the presentation of their meal, and it didn't seem it would meet my "comfort food need" in a box! I kept thinking, it may be my last chance to eat this, so I'll pay whatever it costs. I'm worth it!

To start the meal...

This much went home with me in a box!

And I decided I needed to treat myself to the delightful desert, Bistro Bites, which is a warm brownie with ice cream and whipped cream...and some decaf coffee on the side.

It was surprisingly not crowded, since it was warm enough for many people to sit outside under the red umbrellas with a bit of sunshine.

An older photo of the umbrellas and patio seating at The Bistro.

I proceeded to drive away leaving my boxed dinner sitting there, drove around the block and came back for it, and fortunately they'd saved it for me!

This (above) may be true, but sure goes in the face of other "flow philosopies!"

Inspiration

 

Debutant ball in Harlem in the 1940s

Winter Solstice in 4 days

Christmas in 8 days

Looking for inspiration in the laundromat

There's the smell of clean clothes, with overlays of those dryer sheets giving floral stink. I can't stand them, and usually start sneezing if they are too close. Fortunately I'm wearing a mask these days, so it's bearable.

Where is inspiration? Doing the mundane tasks? Or somewhere between the lines, maybe as I drive to or fro one of my many destinations...mainly just missing inspiration in my life these days.

My destinations include a lot more interaction with friends, as well as merchants. I'm learning a new way of shopping for my new life-style which has different vegetarian choices. I think I may break down and make a menu for a week. It's just too much confusion otherwise.

Twice a week I do get an excellent lunch of Ornish recipes at the Cardiac center, which then can be tracked onto forms which I fill out daily. But there are 7 dinners a week, of which I have many left overs from earlier dates.

Tonight I have some brown rice and some asparagus which are already cooked. Then there are 4 summer squash begging to be cooked. And the salad spinach is ready to turn into cooked spinach. Not exactly what a cook book would give me. But I think the 3 vegetables will work well topping a mound of brown rice. I'll probably pour some sauce or another over them all.

Well, I found another leftover - 2 little Gimmie Lean vegetable sausage substitute patties, which I broke up into the rice and then sprinkled a tablespoon of Teriaki sauce on them. The veggie of one squash was steamed with the spinach, and then the leftover asparagus was also heated with them. A vegetable medley is what I'm calling it. A nice pairing of tastes. And there's another serving left of each for tomorrow!

Today's quote (sorry, it's a bit long, but seemed to reflect some of my feelings.)

SINGULARITY
by Marie Howe

          (after Stephen Hawking)

Do you sometimes want to wake up to the singularity
we once were?

so compact nobody
needed a bed, or food or money — 

nobody hiding in the school bathroom
or home alone

pulling open the drawer
where the pills are kept.

For every atom belonging to me as good
Belongs to you.   Remember?

There was no   Nature.    No
 them.   No tests

to determine if the elephant
grieves her calf    or if 

the coral reef feels pain.    Trashed
oceans don’t speak English or Farsi or French;

would that we could wake up   to what we were
— when we were ocean    and before that 

to when sky was earth, and animal was energy, and rock was
liquid and stars were space and space was not

at all — nothing

before we came to believe humans were so important
before this awful loneliness.

Can molecules recall it?
what once was?    before anything happened?

No I, no We, no one. No was
No verb      no noun
only a tiny tiny dot brimming with 

is is is is is

All   everything   home. 

More thoughts of eternity

So skip this if you don't want to think of inspiration.
Skip this if you want to look at the funny papers...
and not consider the divine.

The good thing about my thoughts on eternity are that I won't use the G (od) word once.

I even will refrain from calling the Source of all by any name besides that.  I like that Jews don't have a name for the eternal one that is spoken.  Kind of smart.

Anyway, in a group last evening, I shared a couple of really important (for me) thoughts.  They were maybe considered by others, but quickly the topic was changed.  I think I may have gotten off into my comfortable place, but the others weren't there with me.  Happens a lot.

I have a watercolor which I painted on the wall where I usually see it when I first wake up in the morning, and when I go to sleep at night (when I can't really see it because it's dark then).

The painting has a pair of hands posed as if in prayer, within a circle.  Then above the hands and touching the tips of the fingers is another pair of hands, also in a prayer position, but facing downward.  They are both my hands as model.  They both are within the circle.  One pair has thumb closest (the bottom set) and the other has pinkie showing close to view.

For me this always was just a pleasant picture, reminding me of the circle of connection between what I know and what I don't know.

But in the last week or so I've become more aware that people do pray with fervent desire, even yearning in their hearts.  I may have prayed like this during crisis, but I seldom do it as part of my daily meditation.  I spend most of that time being empty of thought, and listening for something, which I don't think is considered prayer.

So back to praying and yearning for something from the Source.  I realized that perhaps the Source of all could have similar feelings toward the people praying; that the infinite all knowing might be yearning for us to do/say/think/be as much as we might be yearning for Source to do/say/think/be.

So when I look at the painting now I've got a different slant on things.

Today I noticed how much love I feel toward my small animals.  It's similar to parental affection and perhaps replacing that since my kids are all grown and not part of my daily life any more.

  Again the big jump to thinking that Source of all might feel the same love and affection toward the beings that walk around on earth.  This is very much like my sense of Buddhist  reverence for all life.  But it goes one step further in having that emotion of love shared equally but magnified to include me.  Am I loved in the same way that my animals are by me?

When was the last time you felt like you were embraced in love by a diety?  I gotta say most of my sense of love has been from humans.  I feel that the beauty and blessings and grace from a divine source are part of my existence, but that love, mmm, maybe not so much.

I can't say I've ever thought "well, that experience sure says that the divine loves me."  Unless it was the kind of "I must be loved or I wouldn't have had that experience."  No, really never felt love from the Source...warm fuzzy comforting.  Nope.  Missed out there.

There's more, but I'm tired of writing for now.  I'm not posting my picture of praying hands meeting hands from "above".  I don't want it out there in the land of internet.  It's too personal.