I can smell beautiful gardenias as I return calls and answer emails. I’ve got a dozen in a bowl of water in the living room, the scent is intoxicating. The weather is beautiful outside, I love my working environment, I have the best office and best boss on the planet.   Two months ago I began taking cuttings from the night blooming jasmine outside my bedroom, and now the east garden is filled with it. This time next year it will all be in full bloom. I’ve recently transplanted some honeysuckle into the east yard. I don’t have much luck with honeysuckle. My mothering pattern is smother/ignore, so living things have to be durable and self sufficient.

Domino stopped smoking this year.  Her husband, a long time smoker, stopped as well.  His sister said she found it hard to believe that he would quit just like that.  The sister and her family have always been smokers.  What they don’t understand is that when you know it is a life or death situation, you do what it takes to support your loved one.  He doesn’t just go outside to do it, or do it out of her sight.  He doesn’t want to be the one who triggers her due to his habits.  As a result, their clothes no longer smell of smoke, they’ve both stopped coughing and they can’t believe the money they save by not buying cigarettes and lighters.  They don’t feel triggered when family members smoke, but they are becoming increasingly sensitive to the smell of it, now that they can smell again.  They don’t fault the family members who put less importance on it than Domino and her husband do.  We all do what we can from where we are with what we know.  That’s what our parents did and what their parents did and what we all do now.  Here’s to ever increasing awareness through conscious mindfulness.
Andrea

April 23, 2012.  Izzy DeBig-giantkitty gets to go to the vet today to have the bubble on his back checked out. He’s not happy about skipping breakfast and he may now be tying that to the carrying cage I placed by the door on Friday… If he doesn’t get breakfast yet, I don’t get breakfast yet. It’s only fair.  I took him in 90 minutes early so he could get used to the office before they began poking and prodding him. He needed to have this done, even though the vet makes me bring his shots up to date when he’s treated. I like my cats to be vaccine free as long as possible, except for what the law requires. It’s healthier since they eat a partially natural diet.  Dr. Joiner at Animal Medical Clinic (they rock!) removed the bubble tumor the same day.  I am glad they could do it in one visit for him, Izzy is such a scaredy cat. The tech was having a time getting his long and sleek 20+ lbs into his carrying case, so I showed her how to back him into it.   He slept at the foot of the bed the first two nights. His sutures are healing nicely.  I’ve dabbed them with aloe from the garden. He’s such a trooper, he acts like his back isn’t all stiched up like Frankenstein. Yinnie DeMini-Cow has been leaving him alone for once. Continue reading →

Today was a flurry of luck and synchronistic happenings. There was a leak at my rental home and I called in my friend and master craftsman Tod McNeal.  Together Jeremy and I went over and the two of them went to work upgrading some plumbing fixtures and re-sinking the mail post, plus the hundred and one other things Tod did before we got there.  I was dispatched to Home Depot then they installed a new faucet and new drain assembly and replaced some parts.  Everything came together like clockwork: the parts we got were the right ones, the fixes were obvious and minor.   Within four hours everything had been taken care of and we were on our way back home.  I’ve told Jeremy that he’s a lucky charm.  He’s been working with me while looking for a job close to home.  He signed his truck over to his ex and discovered there’s a real freedom in not driving, not to mention no car payments, no insurance payments.  We live in the Bayside area of SE Palm Bay, where everything is within biking distance: Brevard Community College, all chain stores, boutiques and franchise stores and eateries, Home Depot, Lowes, you name it.  We’ve been joking about what kind of job he could find within a few miles of home.  We mused that he might consider volunteering somewhere just to be doing good work while he waits to see where the Universe directs him.  Home Depot had several positions available and he enquired about that.  Before he could apply, a friend had already offered him some work.  As usual, we were just talking about that.  I love watching synchronicity unfold. Continue reading →

Domino  and I have some lotto tickets and we haven’t checked them yet.   Walking the other day we mused that we may already be winners.  If so, what would we do with the money?  Besides paying off our homes,  there wasn’t really anything we wanted right now other than what we have.  Maybe we’re thinking too small, but it feels like we’re in a giant place when we have all we want and can’t think of anything that would make it better.

Knowledge is the ultimate freedom

A friend and I have been working together and, as part of the work, we’ve been keeping track of the synchronicities  and manifestations we notice.  The more we notice them, the more they happen.  The more they happen, the more we know we are “in the flow.”  In the flow of the good that is coming our way, in the flow of everything we’re been dreaming about and hoping for all these years, yet haven’t attracted up until now because we’ve had a little too much resistance going on.  In the work I do, we uncover the layers of resistant thought that the mind is used to having.  Resistant thought is the only thing that ever keeps you from having what you want, from having a richer and fuller life.  It’s all related. Continue reading →

Is there someone who is a priority to you?  Are you their priority as well?  I admit, I’m fairly self absorbed. If someone requires a lot of attention, I may fail to meet their expectations.  That’s cool with me.  Then there are some I want to give a lot of attention to because I see the rose within the bud, and it’s fulfilling for me to share in the unfolding.  I know how to tend that garden.  And more often than not, it’s a lesson in contrasts at the same time.  Domino is getting those lessons right now. Continue reading →

Friends on the Path

Say what you want about romantic and sexual love, but sometimes there’s nothing better than a friend on the Path to share space and time with.  It doesn’t even have to be someone who believes all the same things I do, we don’t have to have the same philosophy or theology although it’s cool when that happens.  I’m someone who likes to spend inordinate amounts of time alone.  I’m very selective about who I spend time with because I’m busy with lots of fulfilling projects and always have something I am waiting to do.  Other people don’t always figure into the equation. So it’s beyond cool when I find a friend on the Path who figures so easily into the equation.

I’m noticing a lot of things lately that I do the hard way.  I do it that way because I’m used to it and haven’t taken time to give thought as to what I’m doing and why I’m doing it.  Sometimes a little thought time is all it takes to have a revelation that makes my whole life easier and more fun.  Like I wrote at I am kinking my own hose, I’m my own harshest taskmaster.  However, I’m always in the process of lightening up, once it’s been pointed out to me. Continue reading →