Love vs. Compassion... etc. And Rentals

                                                                                 

"Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn, or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude. “
~Denis Waitley

This past week I learned that my landlord has reconsidered and is extending the lease on the house I’ve been renting…one more year ~ a reprieve!  I feel happy but I doubt that in the moment that I got the news  I was living life with “love, grace, and gratitude”.   Although, be assured, that I am grateful  that he and his wife have changed their minds.  The pressure to move has been lifted and the need to pack up is gone.  It frees my mind to ponder questions such as:  what exactly is “living every minute with love, grace and gratitude”?    Every minute - is that even possible?  Sounds like a rather  lofty goal - something one would put in a mission statement for a not-for- profit business.

 

“You are also caught with the fact that man is a creature who walks in two worlds and traces upon the wall of his cave the wonders and the nightmare experience of his spiritual pilgrimage”

~ Morris West

My blog forms the ‘walls of my cave’.   It allows me a place to post the good, the lovely and thrilling as well as the bad, the ugly, painful and unpleasant that I see when working as a nurse and observe as just another human being on this road called life.  My good hearted landlord would be happy about this Internet device as my having a blog undoubtedly prevents me writing out these stories on the walls of his rental or at least writing on sheets of paper and tacking them to the wall while I pondered what to do with the words. 

Alright then, turning my attention back to that first quote - I am reminded of yet another quote (in fact one that I may have posted here before):

“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.   If you want to be happy, practice compassion” 

~ Dalai Lama

I find that practicing compassion can be difficult, sometimes nearly impossible – no, make that sometimes it is impossible to be compassionate all the time, at least for me.  Compassion makes more sense to me than aiming for happiness based on a life lived in “grace, love and gratitude”.  Each is something to strive for but in combination, I wonder that it can be done.   All creatures suffer and suffering for people creates human drama. "Drama" is a buzz word these days.  Not all drama is manipulative.  The old woman losing her cognition and repetitively asking if it is ‘time to eat’ is not trying to “bug” anyone.  She suffering from a disease that is killing her brain and she is suffering a complete loss of the sense of time.  The man down the hall who calls a young nurse a ‘stupid cow’ because he is in intractable pain from his colon cancer is suffering.   So was the new nurse who was trying to help and was insulted.   I wonder what Denis Waitley  meant by “love” “grace” and “gratitude”.  Mr. Waitley is a motivational speaker.   He has motivated me to understand where his prospective is rooted.  I wonder if he is a born-again Christian for instance…words like “grace” are suspect for me.  Does that make me a cynic?  In my opinion, however,  Mr. Waitley did get the bit right about what happiness was not!

 

"The mind wants to live forever, or to learn a very good reason why not. The mind wants the world to return its love, or its awareness... The mind's sidekick, however, will settle for two eggs over easy. The dear, stupid body is easily satisfied as a spaniel. And, incredibly, the simple spaniel can lure the brawling mind to its dish. It is everlastingly funny that the proud, metaphysically ambitious mind will hush if you give it an egg." 

~Annie Dillard

Okay, I'm done for now, but oh, by the way…I’ll have mine scrambled please!

Springing Forward with the Unwilling

Last week she put finger tips to keyboard to write a note to the land lord...had he considered renewing the lease. A week ticked by and finally the response appeared. They have decided to put the house on the market to sell it. Two homes have proved to much to carry right now.

She sat in the living room and stared at the book cases filled with books and wondered how many should be given away with this move: some, none, all? Packing up closets and dishes to difficult to even consider for the time being. For now the answer is not known. There are worse things than packing and unpacking. Even finding a rental that will take two dogs and has a fenced yard, while daunting, is not impossible.

Still, she would rather not move. This space felt like home. She had not even fully unpacked for fear of finally feeling settled and trusting that feeling again. Settled ~ hmmm, when did that last happen. 2001. Exhaling. Note to self: 1) be careful with trust, 2) avoid bookstores.

Measuring Time in Spring

Spring evening -  at 8:30 PM  -  2011

It is light until almost 9 PM.  Before long we will have light until nearly 11 PM.  The sky is light again just before 5 AM.  My favorite time of the year. Makes the winter rain and darkness seem very far away!  :-)  Okay, the rain is still here but not for much longer.  Brilliant flowers are every where and trees are completely leafed...these are the content recipients of the deluge.

"We all grow up with the weight of history on us. Our ancestors dwell in the attics of our brains as they do in the spiraling chains of knowledge hidden in every cell of our bodies."                       ~Shirley Abbott

So much has been going on that it has been difficult to sort through much less note on a blog.  Violin practice continues a pace but am thinking of changing to the Irish whistle or perhaps the banjo (for all things country).  Arthritis is such a nagging drag ~ my neck complains about leaning to the left (so does my family but that is another story).  However the stiffness keeps my massage therapist gainfully employed.  Speaking of violin I should add here that I began learning this wonderful instrument because I so enjoy Celtic fiddle music.  To make a long story short, I've been on a journey of discovery about my family's genealogy.  It seems I have deep Celtic roots.  Ferguson's from Dundee, Scotland, Gavin's from Ireland and the Reynolds' from St. David, Wales.  Are those the strands of genetic code that whisper a love of the jig and reel?  I found relatives in Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts back to the founding of the country...perhaps that is why I felt instantly at home in those places. Found one soul who fought the British  long ago and died doing so.  These generations of cousins were not nobleman but hard working folk who helped build a nation: mainly farmers but also miners, laborers and builders of homes and towns.  I've found myself reading some of their stories from letters and family histories as relatives moved across this nation. I've felt very proud of their courage and strength.   I also found Mormon and Catholic roots and two male cousins many times removed who were polygamists.   A female Scottish cousin married a Mormon minister after she converted in Scotland and followed him to the States.  Her first husband was a sailor who died at sea.  There are two cousins from almost 100 years ago who were nurses and midwives.  One of those brave women served her community in Utah when that state was a territory and her people live in dugouts.  She also cared for some of the Ute tribe and her husband's cattle and farm were never scarred during the war between the Settlers and the Ute...even after her husband died from wounds he received in those battles her home remained intact and cattle left alone.  She like so many women buried most of the children they birthed.  There are long lists of cousins who did not live beyond their first year.  One grandfather remains a mystery.  He was an orphan. He died in a mining accident in Utah.  He was possibly Navajo or Mexican or Portuguese. I know only that his father was from New Mexico.  His mother from Arizona but to date those great grandparents remain nameless.  If my half-brother were to decide to have his DNA tested we might be able to find out which human migration that side of the family is followed - for now that greatgrandparent's story is encased in silence.


The genealogy search was rekindled because I have been traveling back and forth between the Northwest and the Southern Utah desert to check on my aged Mother.  Her energy, memory, and heart are failing her.   Sometimes she can not remember why I've come to see her.  Sometimes she is angry that I'm helping her pay her bills.  Sometimes she is mellow and full of old stories.  She will not leave her home - she is frail but the whole of her being wants to be fiercely independent to her last breath.  Managing fiances and health care from 1000 miles away is daunting.  Have even driven down once.  I have to admit I love to drive and eventually will get back to editing the photos taken on the journey.   So my own mother is failing.  My children are developing their families and careers.  The youngest son completes graduate school in June and the eldest is teaching English as a second language at a university in Texas.  We are  living life as it unfolds.  For now life continues to be relatively calm...not without its sorrows but that is to be expected.  The ebb and flow of each day feels connected and 'normal'.   There is a pleasure in knowing I am moving through my 60s with family secrets unlocked.  I now hold information about my connection to the generations who went before me.  There is a promise in it all.   It all seems appropriate to the season. 


"I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world.  This makes it hard to plan the day."  ~Elwyn Brooks White

Learning Curve...

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow.  Learn as if you were to live forever." ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Life has changed.  It is calm.  There are some speed bumps now and then, but for this small moment, my little life is calm.  I am captivated by the struggle of learning  to play the violin ~ of learning to make music.  It absorbs me in the way that yoga absorbs and releases tension.  In fact without the music, yoga would not be used. It all calms the mind.  I wonder that 60+ year old fingers can still develop muscle memory and find their way to C# and so on.  That the 60+ is capable of knowing when a note is flat. I had no idea that I was capable of hearing the difference between between notes.   Slowly bits of a phrase begin to sound like a part of a whole.  The 60+ year old eye practices engaging with the brain to remember notes on flash cards.  I, who have found every excuse in the book to avoid yoga as a middle class fad and yet another form of proselytizing, find that some stretches are helping an old learner build strength in a bowing arm and assist in clearing a over-busy brain to settle and focus.  I would never have imagined that I would look forward to practicing an instrument.  Sometimes I record my practices.  The first recordings were painful to the ear. In fact my Lab would RUN to the back room the moment violin noise began to fill the living room.  He hid there until practice ended.  Now this music is less scratchy.   The dog plays with is toys in the same room during the practice.  While these notes are indeed still scratchy, there is an improvement.  That is that is an amazing relief. :-)  Progress!   And the progress is a simple joy!  Although the goal is to learn Celtic and Country fiddling, I hear more in all violin music now and I wonder at the beauty and mystery of different instruments.   When visiting the music store to browse through sheet music, I sometimes listen to the hallway outside the practice studios.  I listen to children and adults struggle with the learning of the language of music.  This business of being human and our ancient connection to music is fills me with awe.  What led us to that first note?

There are struggles behind the calm.  My work environment is pressured.  The struggles of the economy with its threaten as well as actual health care cut and the shortage of experienced nurses interested in working in long term care collide to make for a tense and unsettled stew.  In this arena one can only try to do one's best.  But for now, at least, when I come home, a rented violin awaits me.  It is a magic carpet and transports me to someplace peaceful.  Governments, health care  execs and staff can be put aside for a moment while an old gal learns.

Fiddlin' Around...

" Oh this learning, what a thing it is!"

~ William Shakespeare

Life has picked up speed these last few months.  Good thing, because it makes it easier to ignore the long dark of winter.  No sun rise here until almost 8 AM.  The evenings have improved though as it is not dark until nearly 5:15 PM.   A renewed interest in learning something new has been spurred by a desire to look just past the darkness that is  this very long winter.  This January finds me studying the Celtic fiddle.  What a challenge it is but exciting when something other nerve killing scratching issues forth from my student violin.  My Grandfather's family was from Edinburgh, Scotland.  So part of this feels a nod to part of my genetic code and family history.  Decided to take the course offered for adult learners at a local college's evening division.  There are 11 of us who meet one night a week with a wonderful and talented instructor who happens to know how to work well with adult learners.  The age of the group span from 50 to 70.  I sit comfortably in the middle range.  We learn by ear rather than reading music.  One challenge at a time seems to be about right.  

"That knowledge is great riches, which is not plundered by kinsman, nor carried off by thieves nor decreased by giving"

~ Bhavabhuti

Attended a day long Photoshop Elements class this week-end.  Ah, just what the doctor ordered ~ finally I can make use of this program.  It has reignited my passion for photography.  The instructor was wonderful.   He managed to be so funny for the entire 8 hours of class time and still meet all the course objectives.  No one was left in the cyber-dust as he seemed to know exactly who was lagging and gave each person some individual tutoring as it was needed.  Of course it helps to have 10 in the class.  I can hear a collective sigh of the cyber village  teachers who have been trying to make just that point for years.

"To improve the golden moment of opportunity, and catch the good that is within out reach, is the great art of life."

~ Johnson

This past Autumn some friends asked if I would join them for an afternoon at the Opera.  The day has arrived!  How very exciting as I have not been to listen to live Opera since leaving Boston back in what...2000.  Today we will drive to Seattle for a matinee performance of the Barber of Seville.   What a joy this is.  Wrapping oneself in a celebration of site and sound is a delight. 


Back to a work-a-day life in the morning.  But for now I can continue to celebrate the week-end and pretend as though I had the luxury of being retired.  :-)

Sunday Rain

"Life is the fire that burns and the sun that gives light.  Life is the wing and the rain and the thunder is the sky.  Life is matter and is the earth, what is and what is not and what beyond is in eternity"   

 ~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca

There is a dim gray light just beyond the window, peeping around the wooden blinds.  I can not hear the rain abut I know she is there.   It is nearly 8:40 A.M. and for the past 40 minutes the sun has been hinting that she sits just on the other side of the clouds.  Another sunrise that almost isn't.  This is not a complaint.  The rain here in the Northwest serves as a reminder of some other primordial time.  A time when forests were abundant every where.

"You pray for rain, you gotta deal with the mud too. That's part of it."  

 ~ Denzel Washington

Daily there is winter rain.  She is our constant companion.  The lawn remains green  ~ 1000 miles north of the California's Central Valley, the gardener continues to show up for work on Thursdays to mow the lawns.  Frost, Rain's significant Other, shows up now  and then as well but seems to toy only with the flowers.  The icy pansies that flourished on the Island in Puget Sound were transferred to this more in land home.  Although I thought they were destroyed beyond help ... severely frost bitten, somehow they regenerated.  Little purple and white pansy lion faces greeted me when I let the dogs out this morning.  The roses perished - lost.  Pots did not meet their needs nor offer sufficient protection from Frost's icy fingers.  But then that is the stuff that is composted and will serve other roses in some future Spring.  

"Let the rain kiss you.  Let the rain beat down upon your head with silver drops.  Let the rain sing a lullaby"

~ Langston Hughes

This slow motion, rainy day is underway.  Wet me, wet camera, wet dogs.  So be it.  The price of life here in the Northwest.  

Good heavens "I'm late!"

"No wonder you're late.  Why this watch is exactly two days slow."  

~ Alice in Wonderland

It has been so long since I've posted that I'd completely forgotten my password.  Grim and silly ~ but true.

"An author doesn't necessarily understand the meaning of his own story better than anyone else."   ~Alice in Wonderland

Occasionally I get into a 'why write?' spiral.  Thinking I should understand my "own story" better than I do.  To whom am I comparing myself...I know not.  Perhaps some familial gremlin that comes to roost periodically in my head and murmurs wicked things about not being the  writer in our family nor the photographer BLAH BLAH.  And who cares about that?  Not a soul I know, including myself.  I can tell a tale, my own, whether well written or not.  OR whether I understand all of it or not.  So here I am again.  Am heading out to take some photos.


To those dear people who checked in while I was gathering my wits and getting stronger...thank you so much for simply being there!  I'm am in the process of catching up on blogs.  

"You mean you can't take less.  It is very easy to take 'more' than nothing."

~Alice in Wonderland

The knee is much better and life has gradually picked up pace.  Have been having a twice a month DVD night at the house.  The current theme is: men who dance.  Watched that tender film entitled "Billy Elliot" and then "White Nights" which was so so even though Baryshnikov is a pleasure to observe.  Not sure what the next theme is as now it is an other's turn to chose.  Still looking for a book group.  

"If you survive long enough, you're revered-rather like an old building." 

~ Katherine Hepburn

 Have whittle down the isolation that was mine (my life does need to be more than just work and expanding something from nothing takes time) by having friends (new and old) over to dinner.  YES it's true WR is cooking again.  A new knee and and back in the kitchen.  There is life for those over 60!   :-)


Alright ~ time to go outside...night fall comes early these days....precious little time for natural light!

Stretching out in Autumn

“My sorrow, when she's here with me, thinks these dark days of autumn rain are beautiful as days can be; she loves the bare, the withered tree; she walks the sodden pasture lane.”

Robert Frost

The time has come to write again.  It is daunting.  Some mental muscle stretches with resistance.  The resistance triggers old tapes that play a tiresome haunt: who is suppose to write in the family and who should not do so.  A defense begins to mount ~ this is a blog after all not a vetted scientific publication or some such thing.  Then it occurs in some dim recess of my mind that most of my life 'projects' begin in Autumn.  The Fall has a unique killing beauty that draws one's attention.  "Resistance is futile."

"Autumn is a second Spring where every leaf is just a flower"

~ Albert Camus

Okay, I'm holding on to that thought...the 'second Spring'.  Summer  is a blur.  One that was filled with pain, surgery and recovery.  Time to move on with life.  Time to observe that some trees are bare here and other tenaciously hold their leafs.  Certainly all the trees in my yard, those frisky wooden devils, (six in count) are holding on to their leafs.  The household has a gardening service but they "don't do leafs".   I can see myself, the electric leaf blower and trusty rake in the crisp and RAINY weather that is November...raking leafs on a weekend that was meant for an adventure.    Makes me wish my dogs had apposable thumbs so they could be conscripted into yard service.   Surely a smart Lab could learn to rake?   When my internal whine gets too loud, as it is now, I remember to ask 'would you rather rake leafs or be frantically stacking wood against the on-coming New England winter'.  Dang, I have to vote for raking leafs in the Northwest.  The pity party is forced to  close.

"But I remember more dearly Autumn afternoons in bottoms that lay intensely silent under old great trees."           ~ C.S. Lewis

Lying  'under old great trees' would have happened in my much younger years.  Some where between Utah and New England.  The past is the past and I prefer to not wander there often.  Today the past whispers in my ear...asking for a visit.  I remember Provo canyon, the whisper of wind in the pines, nature's patch work quilt on the mountain side and I remember that cold weather meant a kid could wander without having to listen for rattlesnakes.  But  then the deer hunters would be in the woods...a danger of a different kind.  Ah Autumn you are a frisky visitor.  

"Autumn, the year's last loveliest smile."

~ Wm. Cullen Bryant

Time to shake off the reverie, lace up and go to the gym and then head out to finally get some new photos.  There is much chatter here about it being an "El Nina" year.  What does it mean to a transplanted neo-New Englander?  Are they meaning six feet of snow and 40 below temps?  The Subaru sits in the garage willing and able to drive over six inches of unplowed snow.  Still have an emergency kit for the car.  I'll see what needs to be stocked for the house.   But six cords of wood ... not on the agenda! This Autumn, El Nina or not, can be viewed with deep appreciation.  Time is on the march ~ up and out of the house.

Technical Difficulties! Photo Challenge

I actually have photos for the Brenda Photo Challenge but have run into transfer problems.  Am resorting to older photos that have been previously posted until I can resolve the camera - computer connection problem:

1) autumn on Fox Island

2) Farm Stand in Gig Harbor

3) Water feature at the Spring garden show in Seattle.


Hope all are well and thriving out there in Cyberville.

As a catch up.  I am 6.5 weeks post op and working five days a week again.  Still working on getting full range of motion in the knee.  Just joined the Y to take advantage of their pools and exercise equipment.  July, August and September are sort of a blur.  Just really feeling like me again.  Have nearly unpacked.  Am watching the evening sunlight fade and long for the late sun filled evenings of summer.  Autumn has her own rewards....a festival of color, warm days and crisp nights.

Now that I am walker/crutch/cane free I hope to be out peering at nature again.  Will spend some time visiting all your blogs ~ then out into the world...I've missed it! :-)

Labor Day ~ an update.

Hope everyone out there is enjoying a day off.

Am gradually coming back to life. 26 days since surgery.  Returned to work  on a part-time basis this past week.  Four hours a day for three days a week.  To be honest it was exhausting.  The effects of anesthesia and surgery have gradually subsided.  Physical therapy two days a week and that is an agony and so pain medication before those visits.  Am a few degrees from being able to completely straighten my leg but getting flex back is another matter.  Man is that painful!  Last week was at 93 degrees.  Want to get to 120 but this is slow process.  If I can reach 120 then gardening and kayaking become real possibilities again.  Am using a cane instead of walker now and think that will go away in a week or so.  Progress.  Would like to order an out of body experience for exercise and rehab but don't think that is working.  Am searching for a Y or health club with a pool.  Hopefully swimming in warm water with help loosen tight tendons.  It is amazing that knee joints can be replaced isn't it.

Am watching the news in the mornings.  Wondering what the mid-term elections will bring.  The economy is still struggling.  Lay offs continue in the Northwest.  I see more houses go on the market in my new neighborhood.  With each for sale sign I wonder if someone is moving to a better job, someone retired or perhaps someone is desperate to get out from under a mortgage.

No photography yet ~  two more weeks.  In the mean time...hoping each cyber friend is happy and healthy!

Home again, Home again

                                             hospital + home

Whew A LOT  has happened in just weeks.  Moved the household a week and a half ago.  LOVE the new (to me) abode.  My sister was my right hand.  Truth be told, I simply could not have done this without her help.  Sisterhood is a wonderful thing and a special blessing!  Then one week after the move, I checked into the hospital for a total knee replacement.   What a journey.  Went to St. Joseph's in Tacoma where the "Joint Camp" staff of therapists, nurses, physicians and nursing assistants were simply outstanding.  Three and half days later I was able to go home with my son up from So Cal and a walker in tow.  Am gradually learning to trust my new bionic knee.    Have to exercise three to four times a day.  Also have to stay ahead of pain.  It is a amazing journey that has been made so much more attainable thanks to a whole team of intelligent,  compassionate caregivers!  My son will stay at home with me for a week.  As I regain mobility and find that the pain of bone on bone begins to fade  ~ I feel joyful, thankful and blessed.  Okay,  I am sort of heating our heat wave but that too will pass!

 Hope summer is treating all my cyber-writing friends well.   When I am on less pain meds will write more.

Mobilty or whatever...

Two weeks ago I sat through and participated in a long but productive meeting.  A six month plan was mapped out for the corporation and although tired we were all pleased with the possibilities the hovered on the horizon.  Then I stood up at the conference table. It was the last able bodied step I was able to take.  That cranky right knee had gone as far as it was going to go.  It locked tightly in place. Future and plans suddenly seemed elusive at best. An emergency room visit later followed by a trip to the primary doc and then the orthopedic specialist,,,total knee replacement in mid-August.  Several professionals used words like "bone on bone" and "X weeks of recovery".  Groan...  I forgot to mention that I am moving on the first...to the other side of the Sound but oddly enough will be much closer to work therefore some of  the "green" goals are being met (AND the new home has gas heat, a real attached garage and a huge fenced yard for the pups)...the jury is still out on the corporate  agenda but what the heck...I can write policy and procedure from home.

I will not be participating in the photo challenge as I can not bear weight on the right leg.  As I am unbelievably ungainly on crutches adding a camera to the mix might prove dangerous to me and possibly any other living creature near me.  Trying to pack for the move is enough of a challenge but as there is no choice...it is slowly getting done...one box at a time.  

In the mean time, I will write about this little life  and continue to follow the blogs of my cyber- neighbors.  Here to all of us...wishing everyone a happy remainder of the summer.

Brenda's Photo Challenge: Freedom

Freedom of Speech!!!!!

WORDS ~ WRITTEN ~ SPOKEN ~ SIGNED ~ TRANSMITTED VIA THE INTERNET! ~ PHOTOGRAPHED

"The test of democracy is freedom of criticism."  

~David Ben-Gurion

"We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values.  For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people."  

~John F. Kennedy

"If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all."

  ~Noam Chomsky

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."  

~Voltaire

IN THE POST 9/11 WORLD IT BECOMES A CHALLENGE TO DEFEND FREEDOM OF SPEECH.  REMEMBER ON THIS JULY 4TH THAT OUR FOUNDING FATHERS GAVE THEIR LIVES FOR THAT FREEDOM!

Early morning...

Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace.

~May Sarton 

The yard just beyond this small office contains the very smallest of gardens.  A very short runway of mismatched annuals and a few containers of roses and even two pots with tomato plants.  These little specimens do their very level best to blossom and be the simple, lovely bits of life that each one is and each one fulfills its destiny with precious little support from the resident gardener.  Still, each stalwart plant manages to  occasionally capture my attention and silently reminds me to 'stop!'.  Simply stop.  That pause to tend to the silent partners in life is in and of itself ... life sustaining.  To steal a moment to pull a few weeds and nip back blossoms that have passed is soothing.  A reminder ... "Breathe".

A Pause That Refreshes!

The blissful news of the day....my youngest son and his adorable girl-friend are officially engaged!  Wedding next year after Grad School graduation!!!!   Who knew my heart could be this happy! :-D

Oh No ~ Not That!

“Do not wait for Leaders; do it alone, person to person”

~ Mother Teresa

OH NO not personal responsibility! I hate this part of life. Surely there is an easier way deal with the oil leak that has spewed 100 million + gallons of crude into the Gulf.

“I want you to be concerned about your next door neighbor. Do you know your next door neighbor?”

~ Mother Teresa

Does that leak mean that now might be the time to learn the most we can about how we each use oil in our lives? We in the States are at least listening to the nightly news if not watching or reading it. We know that our industries (those that are left, that is) are oil dependent. We know that many of us must use oil to heat home during the winter season. Most us drive cars that require oil and oil by-products. Some of us believe that if we have a lot of money we can use whatever we can pay for and the rest of us, reeling from the recession, know that we can spend what we can scrape together for what we want. Somewhere along the line that became confused/ fused with what we 'need'. Not a constitutional right, eh.

“I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.”

~ Mother Teresa

How much do we love our primary home...Mother Earth? Drive less, use public transportation, give up that convenient plastic shopping bags, decided to recycle and reuse rather that buy, buy, buy... What discomfort are we willing to go through for the sake of loving the place we are living?  Rally together so that industry left can have the black gold to help a crippled economy and save/ create jobs.  Find those illusive "alternative energies" and actually use them.  Listen.  There is a subtle sound in the back ground...tick, tick, tick....   There is no "love it or leave it" choice in the here and now.

Brenda's Photo Challenge: Bedtime

This was a challenge ~ on two levels:  the reality of my life and finding a subject!  I live by myself, there are no grandchildren and the adult children are out and about in the world and I work on average six days a week.  So decided to go with the critters who inhabit my household.  They are all in bed before I even realize it is  time to call it a day.  Sometimes that leaves a challenge of a different kind...where in the world am I suppose to sleep! :-)

Tye has a kennel.  But after a busy 12 hour day at doggie day care this lab/border collie mix always attempts to sack-out on on the Mom's bed first.  Perhaps he hopes I won't notice the large furry lump taking up most of the bed...

Aging coon hounds do three things, eat, sleep and sniff stuff.  Reb gets his own chair and everyone including me stays out of it!

Pip the Love Bird goes to bed at 8 PM and is up with all of Mother Nature's avian friends at 4 AM ~ who needs an alarm clock?

Then there are the visitors:  Sukie and Juneau.  Their Mom was the main course for a coyote and her pups when these little ones were about two weeks old.  These little feral friends are being "socialized".  But like all their feline kin,  socialized or not,  BEDTIME comes and they wake up!  At least for the time being I don't startle at strange sounds in the house....Suk and Juju are just having HS (hour of sleep) fun!!!

Not the Price of Oil ~ What Price Oil!

“ We will look upon the earth and her sister planets as being with us, not for us. One does not rape a sister.” ~ Mary Daly

I am going to spare you the rant I can feel brewing inside my head...at least for now. At the moment it is a conglomeration of facts but the birthing process for that rant is near term. The “abstract” is this: I am not agitated about what I am paying for gas at the pump. I am feeling a fury about the plunder of the earth for that gas at the pump...for the oil that fosters industry and greed...for the lack of effective government response. I feel a fury toward BP (no matter how many people they employ) and the insipid Obama administration response. My heart both aches and rages for the damage to the environment and the lives of the people who depend on the environment for a living.

The late Prof. Daly wrote “one does not rape a sister” but, in fact, just that has happened ~ continues to happen and we will be reeling from the consequences for generations. The oil leak in the Gulf produces numbers that are too large for most of us to comprehend. It hands us another “genocide” dilemma....numbers too large to understand when held up to what so many think of as every day life. Sometimes that number is six million Jews, sometimes one million Armenians or Rwandans and sometimes thousands of species that may not recover or disappear altogether from the land that encircles the Gulf.

To those who want to kiss this disaster boo-boo and make it go away...keep puckering up, this is going to take everything you've got and more.