Just wishing it were so...

 

Seriously now!

 

Joy

 ¨There is an ancient and well-kept secret to happiness which the Great Ones have known for centuries. They rarely speak of it, but they use it all the time, and it is fundamental to good mental health. This secret is called The Fine Art of Not Being Offended. In order to truly be a master of this art, one must be able to see that every statement, action and reaction of another human being is the sum result of their total life experience to date.

In other words, the majority of people in our world say and do what they do from their own set of fears, conclusions, defences and attempts to survive. Most of it, even when aimed directly at us, has nothing to do with us. Usually, it has more to do with all the other times, and in particular the first few times, that this person experienced a similar situation, usually when they were young.¨

From 2018 Girl God Books out of Norway on FaceBook

Link here: Uplift

I share from the "Uplift:"

3 Ways to Activate and Experience More Joy Every Day

1. Make a list of things you know you enjoy and love to do. Be imaginative and uncensored. Write it down.  And then do these things, at least one or two every day. Notice what it feels like just to start thinking about all the things you enjoy, and how you will make this happen. 

2.Find what you feel genuinely joyful about in the present moment, throughout the day, no matter what is happening, or what you’re doing,  There are always things to feel joyful about.

3. Take 5-7 minutes every morning, and before you go to sleep, to simply feel joy within you, by bringing to mind things that feel joyful to you, and focusing on the feelings and vibrations of joy in your body and heart.

Being open to new things

 I used to be a person who would turn a cold shoulder on a stranger...especially a man, except maybe one in a wheel chair.

I sat down to wait for my friend at a small coffee shop early Monday morning, while my car was being given some TLC. Then the man who had been sitting in a corner while I ordered my coffee wheeled himself into the same area I was sitting, with my back halfway to him.

I'd mentioned to the barista that it was also St. Gertrude's Day, the Saint of travelers and cats...as well as St. Patrick's day! He asked me as I turned away with my coffee and scone, what was the name? I misspoke and said St. Agnes...and later said I had trouble with names.

So here he wheeled himself halfway toward me, and mentioned, "can I tell you a little something I learned?" 

"OK," I said.

"When you say you have trouble remembering names, I've learned that you are reinforcing your not remembering them. I've learned that to imagine seeing the names written helps me to remember them," he said.

"I also remember better from visual cues," I replied.

He then introduced himself. I kept putting my coffee's sweetener in and stirring it...and listening to him, and when he said his name was Ray "Sunshine" I replied that in my 30s I'd gone by Barbara Sunshine because I was an artist who signed her work Sunshine.

He then tried to tell me how he received the name Sunshine, coming from a Shoshone Indian, but he seemed to forget part of his story. And that's when my friend arrived with her tea. I said thanks for visiting as Ray wheeled away. Later I saw him through the window walking his wheelchair across the 5 lane highway to the other side, where most of the businesses were still closed from hurricane damage. We wondered where he was going, and if maybe he lived in one of the nearby recently opened low-income apartments.

I finished my scone, still not tasting it much, and my coffee, same flavorless warm stuff. Even though the scone said cinnamon nut, I didn't have any taste of cinnamon this morning. I sure hope this goes away soon! Then called the car place, where she told me my inspection, air filters and rotating the tires would be $181.

"Geese," I said to my friend, who drove me next door to get my car. "That's a lot, I would have expected maybe $100!"

But we went through the ticket, and it showed all the expenses, as well as a note that I needed to get new brakes on the front wheels. I asked what that would cost, and said I'd be back as soon as I saved enough money for it...asking how long I could wait. If I hadn't said I use the brakes more than the accelerator it would have been a few months...but that told him I should be back in a month.

So then I came home, (no parking place so just pulled over to the side of the parking lot) and am here happily full of scone and coffee, and a bit more broke than I started out this morning! And it's only 10:45!

Moments Cafe

Spring and mountain thoughts

 

Coming of Spring - Artist~ Alexander Volkov

Looking out my window is similar...though without the forsythia! I should have clipped some branches when  I saw some about to open the other day. But it was on the town property so who knows what might have happened had I done so!

Spring is much celebrated in my life these days. When I worked, raised a family, and spent my 8-5 hours inside and my home hours either feeding, laundering, cleaning house, sleeping and maybe having some entertainment, it was only on weekends and holidays, vacations too, when I could get into my source of spiritual connection - nature. 

My view March 15 at 10:45 am

The window view does help. I see how weather changes, light from sunshine makes different colors (unfortunately not while I write this). The ever present mountain above the other side of the valley...saying stability in earth...ancient movements and gradual changes have created this form that I see.

I look at videos of Kilauea with it's current eruption and am amazed that lava is coming up from the center of the earth (or somewhere down there.) The same forces that made these mountains, where my footsteps are so miniscule in comparison to it's stability. One mountain just gradually wears down with rain and wind, another spews forth molten rock and gases. All on this same earth!

It's amazing.

The living is easy

 I read somewhere, and quickly passed on by, that those who have a firm belief system  have less worries. That struck me as probably the basis of the many Christians - those are people I am familiar with, but I imagine Hindus, Muslims, Jews, and others have a similar system. They know their superior force, their faith in that force, and their living in a certain proscribed way will take care of things. No matter what.

So I imagine they have an easy way of life.

I keep saying they, because my continued interest in differing structures of ideas that explain the universe of all ideas leaves me with questions. I don't wake up and go to sleep with a prayer to a deity to save my soul and the world. and the surety that that someone out there is taking care of things.

I wake up with expectation that this day will bring new ideas to me. That the dog people who just had such fun meeting each other by the lake this noon will give me joy to hear their enjoyment of each other and their pooches...and I can get into the same feeling just by saying "I love how dog people can interact with others so easily!:

See by saying that I acknowledge them, but don't exactly say I'm a dog person,  I'll get to pet their pooch if it's so inclined, and sometimes get a photo or two. I'm really a cat person in disguise. Nobody is out walking cats, so it's a bit harder to find other cat persons...usually friends I visit in their homes.

I digress from the spirituality of my message...but there are definitely some connections to belief systems by the kinds of pets people have. Ha ha...maybe just a jest. I'm of course open to considering it however.

So if all those with a set of rules of beliefs and behaviors have an easier life, is mine necessarily harder?

No. It's just more up to me. I have more choices. Today do I feel vegetarian? Or do I want to read all the alternative newsletters that I have in my in-box? Or is it get fit and do exercise day?

I kind of like all the choices I have. But I do admit a bit of envy for those who lie back in the great white father's lap and let him take care of their lives. Nah, not for a moment!

I learned in psychology that the belief in a great external other that takes care of you is considered external-locus-of-control. And if you believe in your own way of approaching problems, that's called internal-locus-of-control.

The undercurrents and updrafts

 There are always a few who get at and feel the undercurrent, and these simply use the surface appearances selecting them and using them as tools to express the undercurrent, the real life.

If I cannot feel an undercurrent then I see only a series of things.  They may be attractive and novel at first but soon grow tiresome.

      - Robert Henri, The Art Spirit

I watched a big bird (vulture maybe) flying as a sailor along the air currents yesterday...never flipping a wing feather that I could see, but she just coasted from here to there on these invisible warm updrafts. She somehow could feel her way forward on them, never doubting their reality. Updrafts and soaring birds happen a lot where the land crinkles with mountains and valleys. I wonder how they happen in the flatlands, but won't pursue that question today. These birds know that warm air rises, and thus certain times of day they will expect that to happen from the edges of cliffs...and can be photographed as they are seen by humans. My big bird yesterday was enjoying a free ride with just the valley floor below her, perhaps warmed by the two major highways that stream along it's sides, and probably not from the little river which flooded 5 months ago, for now it isn't big enough to offer much difference in air quality. I do wonder how an updraft happened in mid day for her to enjoy...but she knows these things, and I don't.

Invisible currents...in air and water. What are these forces saying to me? They are movements of an element, which can be felt, but not easily observed. A rip current comes to mind, or an airplane hitting a sudden "air pocket" or downdraft perhaps, where a plane suddenly looses altitude while flying steadily forward. Disturbances in the natural flow are they?

Today's thoughts

Interfaces

Edges

Borders

Water

Two of my daily inspirational sources focused on water today:

Because water is life, meditating with it can create a profound experience.

And...

Mountains and oceans have whole worlds of innumerable wondrous features. We should understand that it is not only our distant surroundings that are like this, but even what is right here, even a single drop of water.

Dōgen

And a new image I hadn't thought of, for edges, the ice on top of water as it melts. Thanks to fellow blogger, Frog and Penguin for this image of gulls at the edge of ice.

While another blogger this morning, Beyond the Fields we Know, offered this beautiful photo:

So I know what the focus of today's meditation will be!

Thanks for all the pushes in the right direction! When I thanked some friends for telling me about things that linked to my pursuit of "Edges" they kind of changed the subject. But that didn't stop me from having benefited from their inputs! Interfaces between elements, and in relationships came to me from that conversation.

Woke up late - time chang!

 

Anxiety

  Thank you, Thich Nhat Hanh, Buddhist monk.

"...What is most important is not to allow your anxiety about what happens in the world to fill your heart. If your heart is filled with anxiety, you will get sick, and you will not be able to help."

I do look at what is happening, and put it into the box called current events.

Then I look at photos of nature, and enjoy the box of the environment, and then sometimes mention what needs to be done.

I also have boxes called "my family" and "my friends."

And of course one called "blogging."

I do categorize what my life has happening. It works for me. I think leaders of spirituality have much bigger things they think about than I do, and I look seriously at what they have to say.

What is my heart filled with anyway?

Wonder. At beauty in its many forms.

Compassion towards almost everyone. There are still a few exceptions to my sense of love.

Gratitude. I am in awe that I've lived to 82-1/2 years of age, and am able to do so much, and experience so many wonderful things.

Trickster

 Have you an experience of the trickster in your life?

I'm becoming more familiar with how they operate in mine.

Here's how it started (this time)...

March 6, 2025 My journal notes:

Woke to light snow cover, 27 degrees. Then fixed coffee and sat down to read emails. Several times the electricity made lights blink on and off. By the time I sat at computer, the internet was off…though electricity blinked a few more times, it stayed on. Internet connection didn’t come back though the modem is on and lights look right.

So I’m on word, composing notes for today.

Trickster comes to mind. I'm taking a class on Paganism. In class on Monday last, I asked Matt what the trickster meant to him, since he brought it up…and he gave a long rendition of his life story, and I just wanted to know if he felt the trickster was how humor came along in times of greatest turmoil…and then it was time for class to be over. I think I now know that he likes to talk. But he is a good facilitator, and I learned a lot from him and the other participants.

Wednesday I felt so bad, I took a nap, and when I woke up, no more coughing. Of course I’d also taken all my normal meds. I had to cancel going to Sit and Be Fit. I only went out to get lunch at the Lakeview Senior Center, and take a photo of the lake being refilled with brown water, with geese and ducks sitting in it while strong wind blew us across the lake.

So I started blogging for next week and mentioned the used book I almost bought of Uncle Remus stories, and then said I “went down the rabbit hole” looking at where his museum had been that I had once visited. It was in Eatonville GA, where Joel Chandler Harris had been born. (Must wonder if he was related to the Chandlers of Coca-Cola origination.) Then there was his home and another museum in Atlanta (which I hadn’t visited) but it talked about how racism had made telling the stories less popular. That was why I considered buying the book in the library, that it was more rare these days of political correctness.

And while I was down my rabbit hole I met the star of many of Uncle Remus’ stories, Brer Rabbit. Ah ha. He was a trickster! It even called him such, and one story is about meeting the Tar Baby as devised by the mischievous fox. The smart but impetuous rabbit gets trapped by sticking to the unresponsive tar baby (or pine resin on a doll) and says do anything to me, but don’t throw me in that Briar Patch, (which of course is his home.)

The interesting thing I also learned was that in Atlanta, school classes still visit the museum where a black man tells some of the stories in character. He says that he prefers the original from Africa which was then repeated by slaves to white children in the south. The character of Brer Rabbit as trickster is central, and in other cultures, including Native American, the character was sometimes a spider. But the main story line is the same.

Trickster in my own life?

It's how things can get turned around and I find my choices lead to something much better than I expected, Or maybe they lead to much worse outcomes, which then give me more choices.

I still feel like the agent of my own life. Am I ever the trickster?

I admit to right now wishing I were the trickster, when thinking of my vulnerability from my reliance upon different federal programs that are being threatened.

Imagination, humor

OK, what can I imagine that can compensate for what I am not...my wishes?

And what can I laugh at...right now!

Well that's simple. I wish for world peace. And I'm laughing out loud.

Or maybe crying.

Light, edges

 

At a most enjoyable lunch with new friends yesterday, I had gratitude for their giving me more inspiration along the way I'd been thinking.

I was able to look further into my own thoughts on "edges" some of which occur in nature. Charlotte is an expert on mushrooms, and knew how they grow on edges of things. I began to see that edges also mean the interface, the relationship between two different things/people/ways of being. Relationships seemed to be a good theme for further thought.

 I've been studying how light and shadow create different kinds of edges.

This chandelier casts a heart shadow, as I see it on the ceiling. It serves my inner self as a reminder that love is the basis of all of life and relationships...though the lack of it seems pretty prevalent in politics these days. However, compassion is the underlying way that peace might be obtained and war ceased in several locals around the globe. Just saying...

Peace and justice

 

Thank you, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I'm writing the day after the President's speech, which I didn't watch. I flashed onto the many channels which covered it last night, then went to a recorded show to entertain myself. He may think he is entertaining, but hey, I've seen it all before.

I offer no comments, as others have already done so eloquently. 

Writer's Almanac today (March 5) reminded me that...

It was on this day in 1933 that the Nazi Party won 44 percent of the vote in German parliamentary elections, enabling it to join with the Nationalists to gain a slight majority in the Reichstag. Within three weeks, the Nazi-dominated Reichstag passed the Enabling Act, which gave Hitler dictatorial powers and ended the Weimar Republic in Germany.

Working towards justice for all who are receiving the brunt of these unjust actions...I salute all who can do so. So many people are hurting, and losing their jobs, their health care, their homes. Once again we are neighbors joining neighbors, just like many of us did after Hurricane Helene here in NC, to demonstrate, to call and write to those who might make a difference..

My health continues to stop my involvement in many activities that I promote. But I can only sit here in my apartment. Let's just say, I can network from here, and hope this energy through words to someone else might help then! Action is not inner work, but I'm thinking of each thing I can/am doing.

Kindness

 

Paganism

 Practicing a Pagan way of living

I just signed up for a class to learn more about the ways of Paganism. 
Last night was the first class.

Matt, the teacher, did most of the talking. But we did share a bit of our experiences and desires for being there as well.

The10 other participants were almost all grey-haired. One woman looked younger than her first grey hairs...and was very expressive. I had a friend who went with me into Asheville to attend the class, which made it easier for me to be in a new group. But I did say I was not only there to learn but to make new friendships.

We shall see if that is part of the 6 classes. They only go for 1-1/2 hours every 2 weeks. I hope to not miss any, at this point.

What did I learn? That we're going to be practicing some of the Pagan rituals, and learning the background of some through reading a book, "The Path of Paganism."

I will honor the other participants' individual experiences by not talking about what they shared. I've enough to think about from my own experience.

The book I purchased includes little things to do, which then might be journaled about. I had already finished the first chapter, which urged me to go outside on a clear night and look at the stars, pay attention to them, and then journal about my experience.

I'm kind of merging that with my thoughts about this first class. Because when we left the building, we could look up and see the crescent moon clearly, and Orion's belt right overhead, still in the winter sky. We know that Daylight Savings Time starts next week, March 9th, but for this evening, it was dark during the entire class-time. And fortunately there weren't any city lights to detract from seeing the night sky.

My feelings about the dark and immense sky above are pretty much the same as always. I'm in awe at my tiny place in this vast universe, and full of gratitude for my life. I know very little of the constellations, and when I try to learn them, apparently the knowledge doesn't stick. Perhaps if I were to look at the sky each night, and have that app which tells what I'm looking at, then I might have the knowledge meet the experience. I did get the app but haven't used it much actually. I am among the few people who follow the trajectory of the International Space Station when it is passing over my area. There's an app that used to let me know that, but I don't think its on my phone anymore. Don't I just love technology!

I asked before the meeting started, that Matt not use a sage smudging clarification ritual on me...that the smoke might bother my lungs. He said he appreciated that I asked, and carried the sage and sweetgrass in his abalone shell outside, where the rest of the participants could have a ritual of purification. He offered me some holy water, which came from some blessing which I forgot. We did that ritual indoors before he went outside to offer everyone else the smoke ritual before we created a sacred space in the classroom as a circle around a big wooden table (called the Boardroom). I mentioned how nice it was that he'd posted on the four walls, the names of the cardinal directions. I didn't mention that I was already attuned to knowing which direction was north etc. almost all the time. But many people say they are directionally challenged. I guess after many years of my awareness and working at attention to my place on the earth, I have a habit of knowing which direction is which. So I know my place, but not the immense sky's details. I wouldn't be able to navigate without the land, and I'm ok with that.

I took a few notes about things I was learning - mostly ideas to study more about for my own growth. Yep, this old woman still thinks she can grow...at least on the inside, and maybe in my interactions with the outside world.

The takeaway was the concept that Paganism is all about sacred relationship. I will leave that as a final note, and certainly it will be considered further.

Coming home to the mountains of North Carolina.

Repost of apache Blessing

 

And then there is working towards peace!

 

Destiny and trees

 

This photo reminded me of the following quote...

I revere trees when they live in tribes and families, in forests and groves. And even more I revere them when they stand alone. They are like lonely persons. In their highest boughs the world rustles, their roots rest in infinity; but they do not lose themselves there, they struggle with all the force of their lives for one thing only: to fulfill themselves according to their own laws, to build up their own form, to represent themselves.

A tree says: The attempt and the risk that the eternal mother took with me is unique, unique the form and veins of my skin, unique the smallest play of leaves in my branches and the smallest scar on my bark. I was made to form and reveal the eternal in my smallest special detail.

—Herman Hesse

Notes and Sketches