September 2022

"Awakens us to the healing wisdom of the Earth itself." p. 33 The Way of the Rose

Bonnie and Bill's 50th Wedding Anniversary 

Cards for Christine, Michelle, and Amanda

Divine Direction: end of life Doula, because ...

Everyone needs a listening Ear: "Everyone I know, everywhere I go / People need some reason to believe." ~ Jackson Browne 

Friday Flower

Golden Guidance

Home Happiness

"I'll find you when the sun goes black" ~ My Chemical Romance "Kids from Yesterday"

Jackson Browne - Running on Empty

"Knots we didn't even know were there gradually come undone." p. 96 The Way of the Rose

"Look around for the friends that I used to turn to to pull me through / Looking into their eyes, I see them running too." ~ Jackson Browne's "Running on Empty"

Most people have forgotten that their true voice comes up throught the soles of their feet." p. 99

"Now, we are the kids from yesterday" ~ My Chemical Romance

"O paper soul, and against all the preceding bitterness and bile, this One shining scrawl ... maybe I should fold you away to..."

"...Pull you out again in a decade, see whether the flowering that now seems promised, came;" ~ Keri Hulme The Bone People

"Quest for human supremacy has been fueled by a need for domination and control. The end result is a species-wide crusade against nature that value obedience and conformity, profit and power, and order above everything else. But within our hearts are the long dormant seeds of all that has sustained us through the axons-- the longing for love, the desire for beauty,  the wisdom of story and song, the yearning for connection and community." p. 98 The Way of the Rose by Clark Strand and Perdita Finn

Reading The Way of the Rose by Clark Strand and Perdita Finn is shifting everything I thought I *knew*

Saw a child Skipping to the School bus 9/9/22

"Understand that it is very difficult to accept the simplicity and truth of that." p. 67

Violet's Vibrance is invigorating

"When we were young, we used to say... We don't care about the message or the rules they make... 

You only live forever in the lights you make...You only hear the music when your heart begins to break" ~ "Kids from Yesterday" by My Chemical Romance

"Zen meditation practice p. 14...Zen koans, I began using the mystery of the rosary to untie the knots in my heart." p.48 The Way of the Rose by Clark Strand and Perdita Finn

Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self by Richard Rohr

Amanuenis: someone who takes down dictation. [visceral response 17 Aug 22 "That's it! The ONLY BEING from whom I ought do that is GOD

"Bask in the accomplishments of bringing (^ that ^) into the world each day." SBB Simple Abundance 

"Come with empty hands...stare into the lake astonished, there, in the cold light reflecting pure snow, the true shape of your face." ~

David Whyte, "Tilicho Lake" p. 1

"Every viewpoint is a view from a point, and our vantage point is utterly changed by God. Only then is the gap overcome." p. 106

"Finding God... look in the very place [I] abandoned God." p. 108

"God has given such grace and given life so Abundantly and so Broadly- who am I to stand in God's way?" Acts 11:17 qtd p. xxv 

Humming p. xvii "I feel a presence, a reverence humming within me that was, and is, difficult to articulate." ~ Jane Fonda qtd p. xvii

"I am calling all of you, but so few of you allow yourselves to be chosen." Matthew 22:14 qtd p. 4 Immortal Diamond 

Julia Esquivel's Threatened with Resurrection: Prayers and Poems from an Exiled Guatemalan Woman

"...Know ourselves already resurrected!" ~ Julia Esquivel

"Late have I loved you! You were within, but I was without." St. Augustine Confessions

"My only job, and yours too, is to imitate God in the same love of life." The Book of Wisdom 11:23-12:1 qtd. p. xxv

"My deepest me is God!" St. Catherine of Genoa qtd. p. 5

"New kind of knowing." p. 60

"Our wounds are our glory," as Lady Julian of Norwich puts it, is the utterly counterintuitive message of the risen Jesus." p. 85

"Perfect spirituality is just to imitate God." p. xxv

"Quest: looking for an immortal diamond: something utterly reliable,  something loyal and true... unforgettable and shining." pp. 1-2

"Resurrection is when one moment reveals the meaningof all moments." p. 84

"Spirit-based morality : not motivated by outside reward or punishment but actually looking out from inside the Mystery yourself. So carrots are neither needed or helpful." p. 105

"There is a truth that lives within us that will be with us forever" 2 John 2 qtd. p. 2

"Union with the Divine." p. 123

Virtue of hope

"What I do is me: for that I came." ~ Gerard Manley Hopkins qtd. p. 18

eXquisite balance :  "beyond me and yet totally within me at the same time is the exquisite balance that most religion seldom achieves." p. 5

"Your soul is who you are in God and who God is in you." p. 16

Zen chores p. 111source

Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen

"Audacity of finally feeling like she could let go of the ghost of her past." p. 248

Brugmansa:  source

Camille: "So it's time for me to go now... Because going doesn't mean all gone..." p. 275

Dancing With Dellawisps

“Everyone wants those things, it’s not wrong.” p. 274

“For the first time in five years, the memory of Camille hadn’t snowed, covering him with grief.” p. 276

“Glints of raindrops lingering on Garden foliage.” p. 149

“How odd that pretending to be someone elae made me happier than I was when I was just being myself." Roscoe Avanger p. 99 

“Invisible does not always mean imaginary.” p. 94 "I go now to settle in a place where there is always happiness. But how can I be happy when my soul still needs to fly?” p.283

“Javier plucked the menus from Christine’s hands.”

Kello’s used bookstore... “questionable standards on what was sellable...” p. 99

“Lascivious tale…” p. 160 (this reminded me of Chaucer :)

“Maybe some stories aren’t meant to be told.” p. 146

“Not everything has to be real to be true.” p. 281 

Oliver Lime - Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen

“Pigeon spent her days on the patio, cooing with irritation and Peevishly knocking over cleaning supplies.” p. 96 Portentous p. 248 [being a grave or serious matter]

“Quivering like bony branches.” p.141

“Resting on your laurels isn't as comfortable as it sounds... it was more like sitting on thorns.” p. 122

“Second chances are not to be wasted... on of the most valuable lessons we can ever learn.” p. 99

“This grown-up thing isn’t for sissies.” p. 87 “There are birds, and then there are other birds." p. 123 

“…Until I had no voice left.” p. 284

“Visual experience was like dreaming of faraway summer while staring at Christmas lights through a frosty window." p. 167

Witch ball  source

“could feel the eXcitement of summer coming...” p. 167

“You’re good at sweeping people up in Your enthusiasm.” p.132

“Zoey believed in things other people never would.” p. 94

Summer 2022 - Gratitude, Peace and Contentment

Allison visit July 21, 2022, picked up right where we left off... lifetimes ago

"But you spare all things, because they are yours, O Ruler and Lover of souls, for your imperishable spirit is in all things!" Book of Wisdom 11:26-12:1 qtd. Immortal Diamond by Richard Rohr

Contentment and "Cool Love" by Pablo Cruise and "Cool Change" by Little River Band

Dear friends and Dragonflies

"Each morning that we’re given the chance to admire yet another rising sun, is an extraordinary gift...  

"From the moment we open our eyes, exquisite blessings surround us, waiting to be witnessed.  All we have to do is gaze upon them. As the years of life pass, it is quite common to keep our eyes on the horizon..."

God has given such grace and given life so abundantly and so broadly - who am I to stand in God's way?" Acts 11:17 qtd in preface of Immortal Diamond by Richard Rohr 

Heather Laidlaw 50th birthday party with Ken, Sept 3, Mom & Dad’s Anniversary 

Jackson Browne's "These Days" listen here

"Known for issuing her opinions with the bark on..." read Dr. Elizabeth Vann's full obit here

Lynette was "Home" for about 6 waking hours, but we made the most of the time we shared 

Mary Johnson (and her hubby and pups) met me at  Stone Acre Farms

"New kind of knowing" p. 60 Immortal Diamond by Richard Rohr

Old Friends

Priscilla's Sunday morning class on the beach was a beautiful blending of souls

 thank you Priscilla and Ken too

"Quest to survive and succeed, we look ahead to what is often just out of reach – our next goal, a new career or pay raise we are waiting for, relationships we are dreaming of, maybe even the weekend fun we have planned. Focused on the destination. A great Indian poet...

Rabindranath Tagore, wrote… “If life’s journey be endless, where is its goal?” The answer is: It is everywhere." Deepak Chopra, Desire and Destiny Meditation Day 10 - FB post August 25, 2015

"Softly comes the rain at last / The sound of someone walking - no ... dancing on leaves" ~ Gunilla Norris On the Wing: Lyrical Moments, A book of Days with paintings by Toinette Lippe

"There is a truth that lives within us that will be with us forever" (2 John 2). p. 2

"Utter honesty"Buddism allows no compromise or softening of this essential message" There is a self that has to be found and one that has to be let go of or even 'renounced' (Mark 8:35; Matthew 10:39, 16:25; Luke 9:24; John 12:26). p. 3

Vann, Elizabeth, Meredith College memories and Martha Fonville: "I concluded that it would take a very good man to be better than no man at all, and I never found him." ~ Dr. Elizabeth Vann - Meredith College Class of 1917

"Written from the most tender depths of a healing heart exploring themes of love, loss, grief, loneliness and self-worth." source: Zara Bas Poetry

Xavier Rudd - "Follow the Sun" thank you, Susie

“You don’t choose a life, dad. You live one.” ~ The Way

Zara Bas Poetry on Instagram: