Yearly Archives: 2011

The lighthouse never sleeps

My real life, longtime friend and spiritual brother Frank Lorie is a bright shining example of how someone can live with decades-long chronic pain and keep an uplifted and positive outlook on life.  He wrote on Facebook today:  “It’s 4:00 in the morning and it may as well be 5:00 in the afternoon.  Sleep is not to be again this day, but maybe I will get in a nap later.  Back a few years ago the loss of sleep had a greater effect on me, but I have since come to deal without it much better.  Pain sucks… it is debilitating and can bring out some pretty negative feelings.  It also can make one appreciate many things to a far greater extent.  There is a positive way to look at just about everything  : )

I commented, “Frankie, the Universe had to find some way to keep you awake so the rest of us have a lighthouse that’s constantly on 🙂  He knows you’re fit for the challenge.  I love you so much I could squeeze the stuffin outa you, my brother (hug) Thanks for being the light that’s always on.  You can sleep when you’re dead.

Daily exercises to be more patient, more tolerant, more joyous

Ever wish you were more patient, more tolerant, more joyous?   Wish you could become peacefully serene just by wishing it so?   With a little practice, you can consciously invoke any quality you wish to acquire.   During daily meditation, take a few extra minutes for the following:  Imagine yourself in a peaceful, serene setting, being very relaxed.  Breathe in the relaxation and serenity and feel it all through your mind and body. Then imagine yourself in a stressful situation, one which calls for you to act with patience, tolerance and understanding:  i.e., with a bad driver, an angry child, a frustrating boss. Imagine yourself acting appropriately and displaying the desired qualities. Place yourself in another stressful situation, one that is likely to come up during the day; envision yourself acting appropriately and again displaying the desired qualities.  Take note of how you feel during the exercise.  As you continue this daily meditation, you are preconditioning yourself for appropriate action, so that when a stressful situation occurs, your response will be automatic.  This exercise can be used to invoke any quality you may wish to acquire.  Remember to give thanks for the opportunity to learn a new quality. Continue reading →

Monday’s uncluttering

I spent the entire day yesterday uncluttering.  Here’s what I put on Facebook:
What am I going to be for Halloween? Clutter free! I just cleaned out the linen closet. I should have taken all these pillows to the Melbourne Free Market when I went Sunday.  Aaaarrrgh!  The linen closet would be much more empty if I didn’t use it to store all my “sheets to cover all the plants in case it freezes.”  Note to self: stop buying light bulbs and batteries. Now.  I need to find somewhere else for the tall filing cabinet to go so I can get it out of the back office. If I took down my dining room cabinets and reinstalled them 2” higher I would have lots of options.  Hmmm, I just went thru the cabinet and I can probably 86 about half the files, yikes, shredder here I come.  I’m thinking I don’t need the film – yes film – from the 90’s Horizons Mag covers, Nor the hard copy files of the writers and speakers from way back then. Continue reading →

THE WORM’S WAKING by Rumi

This is how a human being  can change:  there’s a worm  addicted to eating grape leaves.  Suddenly he wakes up, call it grace, whatever, something wakes him, and he’s no longer a worm.  He’s the entire vineyard,and the orchard too, the fruit, the trunks, a growing wisdom and joy that doesn’t need to devour.

Oh happy day

I posted a link on Facebook to Edwin Hawkin singing Oh Happy Day and said, “I love receiving good news. ”  Then I thought, ” Oh heck, I love bad news, too.  ‘sall good, right? Like, if we’re in the midst of God’s will, how can we not rejoice?

If it’s not happy yet, it’s not the end

I just got a neat msg from someone: “I wanted to take a moment to thank you , as you predicted I received an Angel on earth to bring me the information I needed to move on with my problem it happened yesterday again thank you.” I love happy endings. Oh, and if it’s not happy yet, it’s not the end.

What does it matter if it’s come before? Love is the river

Domino asked, “What am I supposed to think?   I met Brad when he began a week long affair with my roommate, the married Tina.  When Tina came home 3 days later, she told me she’d found her soul mate, they spent the whole weekend talking about spirituality, they’re madly in love and she told her husband she wanted a divorce.  By the 8th day, Brad told her they’d made a mistake.  Their first conversations were about how much she wanted to work things out with her husband and Brad’s thoughts kept going back to that.  Tina felt hurt and played.  So what am I supposed to think,” Domino asked me, “now that Brad has been coming around and saying to me the same things Tina told me he said to her?  You said sometimes your heart opens wide for one person and another falls into it, is that what happened for him?  Is this a rebound, is this his M.O.?   What am I supposed to think?”   Continue reading →

The American dream: What does it look like to you and how does it relate to today’s events?

My good buddy Dominick Durso says, “So Andrea, you ask many questions of those on your Facebook wall,  I have one . What is the American dream?  How does it relate to today’s events, describe what it looks like to you.  Is it relevant?  If you please?”  To me, the American dream looks pretty much like the life I’m living.  I’ve worked all my life and keep educating myself so I can change careers when one stops working.  I love the work I do and the people I come in contact with.  Every day is a joy.    Everyone has a different view of “today’s events.”  To me, today’s events are tending my garden since a good rain is here, doing my billing and answering the questions of everyone who calls or emails.  To me, today’s events are I’ll take my aunt to the market and see if she can find fresh produce that pleases her.  I’ll give my uncle a pedicure because he needs one and I’m thinking of baking a peach pie for my cousin since he’s done the heavy lifting this week.

I know you’re not asking me about Occupy Wall Street or Occupy Melbourne, because all I’m interested in is occupying NOW.  When I fully occupy NOW, the Now moment, where I am right now, with whoever is in front of me, that is when my life unfolds in magical ways, ways that let me know I live apart from the world that stays glued to the news and worries about problems half way across town, or across the globe.  What is mine to do is put right in front of me.  What is mine to do will be persons placed in my path for good or bad, for pleasure or pain, for a blessing or a lesson and I have enough causes of my own to occupy my mind, than to take up the cause of fighting against Wall Street or the war or whatever someone else may see as “today’s events.”

My fave childhood pal Wally

I just got off the phone with my most favorite of all childhood friends, Wally.  We both grew up on East 27th Street, me at 10th Ave and he at 8th, 2 blocks closer to Hialeah Race Track.  We went all through school together.   When I wanted to sneak out of the house, Wally would come pick me up on his motorcycle.  My folks trusted Wally, he could do no wrong 🙂   We spent years out of touch.  Then when I first moved up to Melbourne in 1983 and was suddenly feeling homesick for Miami and wondering “WTF have I done?”  I called Wally in the middle of the night and he drove right up and spent a few days and our fun adventure helped me feel at home here.  He now has a home in Sebastian, just 45 minutes from me.  He’s a weird duck like me.  While I’m reclusive, he’s elusive.   I’m glad we staying in touch now on a regular basis.

Rest in Peace, Wally