When you have the kind of day that makes you throw up your hands and surrender, that is when you start to touch on the lessons you are being given.  Rejoice in the surrender.

I love it when people make “I” statements, telling they’ve lived through something and own up to what is being said.  I like it personal, detailed and specific.  That’s what interests me. That’s what holds my attention. That’s what teaches me.

This evening I am sitting on my new patio area overlooking the east garden, watching the squirrels play in the pines and the bamboo.  They chase each other and leap fearlessly long distances.  They are a good lesson in faith.  In trusting that the leap will land them where they want to go, even though it seems reeeealy far away.  It seems like such a giant leap, yet they always make it and go on their merry way.  Squirrels, you are my guru.

Amanda Palmer is a burning flame in this world.  This is a beautiful dialog on art, the state of the music industry, connection, and trust.  An elegant insight to the art of simply asking.  See her Ted talk at How an 8 foot tall woman is destroying the entire music industry.  How?  ”Mission Statement of Amanda F. Palmer: DEAR DOWNLOADER of MUSIC, this store is built on a “pay what you want” philosophy for my digital music. i firmly believe in music being as free as possible. unlocked. shared and spread. i believe that in order for artists to survive and create, their audiences need to step up and directly support them. honor system.   no judgment. if you’re broke – take it. if you love it, come back and kick in later when you have the money. if you’re rich, think about who you might be karmically covering if you really love this record. once you have it, SHARE SHARE SHARE! COPY COPY COPY! SPREAD THE EVIL!!! we are the media. I also release all of my music and writing using the Creative Commons “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA)” license. If you want to understand what this means, google Creative Commons.  LOVE, afp”  She raised over a million dollars with about 25,000 donations.   Continue reading →

“Come move the sprinkler,” it says, “deadhead my spent blossoms, come pick up some wood for tonight’s fire and weave more fronds into the bamboo and palmetto wall.  Come outside.  It’s sunny, it’s 61 degrees.  Don’t delay.  This is only today and there is only now.”

Just because you are a trusting person who gave their love to a person who could not receive it, do not stop loving.  Hold them in your heart with gratitude and good wishes. Wish for others what you wish for yourself.

An insight came during meditation this morning: I either just gave someone the tools to help carve a new path to wholeness, or to be very dangerous in this world.  The tools were my gift.  I cannot be attached to what happens to my gift after giving it. What I CAN do is take time to consider before giving friends “secrets” and methods for work they do not yet understand.  Until they have a basic understanding, the words they hear do not convey the meaning of the words I say.  If I am under illusion at the time or in my ego, my vanity lets me fill in the blanks and stay in the illusion that we are on the same page. That we both will use use our super powers for good.  Hope springs eternal. I must take responsibility for those in whom I awaken the kundalini shakti, if my ego allows me to do it simply because they asked. Is it my place to judge whether they are ready for the implications? Or is it my place to simply give what is asked if I am a vibrational match to a child of God who walks to my door and asks for something I’m capable of giving?

I walked through the Wickham Farmer’s Market yesterday afternoon with a friend and, after buying a beautiful bouquet of organic kale, we looked at all the goodies the vendors had on display.  ”Bread,” I said, “I miss bread.”  I told him I eat very little processed food now.  ”What is considered processed food?”  he asked.  Good question.  Usually anything with a label of ingredients that has been through a cooking process.  A can of soup is processed.  Bread and pasta are processed, snack foods are processed, cookies, crackers, chips, pastries, candy, box dinner mixes are all processed. Most contain sugar, salt and wheat, some are gluten free.  It’s all processed.  So what is not processed?  Fresh fruits and vegetables are not processed.  Most meats are not processed, potatoes are not processed.  Dehydrated fruits and veggies have been through a process, however I consider them unprocessed.  I eat the occasional can of soup, pasta or Joseph’s oat bran and flax pita, but it’s not every week.  Continue reading →

When you meet someone new and they have all sorts of trouble going on in their life and say they have no one at all willing to help them, what do you do?  How did they get to a place where no one they know is willing to help them any longer?

Yesterday was a busy day of administrative work and catching up on phone calls and emails.  I took a few breaks to walk through the property, picking up fallen branches and moving the sprinkler.  Earlier in the week, I’d cut a lot of the older, lower fronds off my sabal minor palmettos.  I also have some sabal minor Mccurtains that I leave untrimmed.  I picked up the trimmed fronds (with gloves this time!) and wove them into the driveway wall, filling in the empty spaces.  I have to leave the structure very airy so the wind can blow freely, and not knock it down.  Until the freeze in February 2000 something, a five feet tall ficus hedge lined the driveway.  It just last year began coming back.   I love that the plants have a cycle, that all of Nature has a cycle.  It lets me know that nothing dies, everything is reborn in another form, ever changing.  That keeps me hopeful for the future.  Not just about my yard, but about my life.   Continue reading →