Adventures In Meditation

Feeling pensive when I wake I decide to go out and meditate in the chill morning air. I build a fire in my chiminea and sit in the lotus position on my swing. The warmth from the chiminea is soothing me as I close my eyes, take a deep breath and start to relax. "Ommmmmmm...ow, ow, ow, ouch!" I look down and see my orange kitten's teeth latched onto my thumb drawing blood. Dozer, my 60 lb. bulldog hears my yelp of pain and decides he wants in my lap along with the kitten. The kitten gets scared and wraps her paws around my neck and is unwilling to let go as Dozer tries to lick me in the face. Ugh!

Sighing, no longer in the mood to meditate, I wonder if Maharishi Mahesh Yogi ever had these problems?

warmth radiating
from a fire pit
inner peace

Father's Gone Hunting

As a child I always looked forward to my father going deer hunting because it meant that I'd get to sleep with my Mom. There were four of us children but I was the lucky one who was given the honor of sleeping with Mama. She said she liked sleeping with me because I kept still when I slept and I was the best goochier [her term for cuddling]. When we would get into bed she'd say, "scoot over here, honey and let's goochie up." She would wrap her arms around me and I could feel her smell my hair and sigh. There was no better feeling in the world to my little girl's heart.

cold winter night
wrapped in
warmth and love

Going Out To Eat

Walking out the door he says "we'll go at noon...I'll give you a call." I jump up and start getting dressed so I'll be ready when he calls. The dog gets excited because he senses we are getting out of the house today. Noon comes and goes...no call. I carry the phone around with me everywhere I go so I will not miss his call. 1:00, 2:00, 3:00...still no call. Thirty eight years of waiting for calls that will not come. One day I will learn his word means nothing.

icy wind
raking desolate fields
bitterness

Heavenly Haiku

Sen. Craig's Problems

Sexual tapping
attracts the wrong attention
"you're under arrest!"

Sandy

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Shooter with Mark Wahlberg: DVD Review

Wahlberg plays Bobby Lee Swagger an ex-Marine marksman living in exile who Danny Glover [the bad guy] coaxes into helping prevent an assassination attempt on the president's life. Ultimately Swagger is double crossed and accused of the assassination attempt.

My favorite quote from the movie..."You don't understand how serious this is. They killed my dog."


It is considered a thriller and I thought it was awesome. Wahlberg ain't hard to look at either. Some of the ladies might find it offensive because of all the killing but I didn't because 1) that is what Swagger does and 2) they killed his dog...dammit!

If I'm stepping on Switter's toes with this movie review...good! AND if he calls Markie Mark gay I'm gonna go ellen on him and no doubt catch (h)ellen for doing it!!

Shooter: official site

Beautiful Oak tree

Beautiful oak tree
home to many living things
is a home no more


When we first moved to the wilds of Texas our land was covered in Oak trees and Yaupons. We cleared out the Yaupons where we built our home and left the biggest Oaks that weren't in the way. I love trees, they are some of my most favorite things on this planet.

I had a favorite Oak tree who stood just to the left of my deck. He was big and beautiful, tall and straight...proud is the word that I would use to describe him. Although he was quite beautiful on his own I decorated him with a terracotta half moon and put wind chimes in his branches. One day, four years ago I went out on the deck and noticed small pieces of bark all of over it and realized my beautiful Oak was in serious trouble.

The droughts in Texas have claimed the lives of many Oak trees. I've consistently lost 2 to 4 every year and sadly my beautiful Oak was one of the drought's victims. What the drought does is weaken the Oaks to the point where invaders move in, attacking them, sucking out their life's juices. I did everything I knew how to do to save my beautiful Oak but nothing worked....he died regardless of my best efforts.

I begged my husband to please cut down my beautiful Oak but he never did...my Oak's dead carcass is still there for me to see and to hurt for what he once was. Oddly enough much of his bark has stayed on and though no leaves remain he is still tall and straight and to me...beautiful.

Today I decided my beautiful Oak would live once again. I planted fragrant Moon flower vines around his base to adorn his beautiful, straight trunk. The vines will be allowed to climb as high as they like, 30 ft. of big green leaves and huge fragrant white blossoms, 6 in. across. The vines will bloom every evening and when the moon is full it will look like there are lights hanging on my beautiful Oak. The air around him will be fragrant with the heady scent of moon flowers. I took out the wind chimes I made for him and they will once again make music in his branches, reminding everyone who passes by to look and see what a beautiful tree he is. I will hang the terracotta half moon back up where it belongs. I've put bird houses on him so that the birds may live in his branches as they once did, raising their young to take their first flight from the security of his embrace.

My beautiful Oak will live once again and be almost as beautiful as before.

Grace

To see a World in a grain of sand,
And Heaven in a wild flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand,
And Eternity in an hour.

William Blake, "Auguries of Innocence"

I am reading the book, Invisible Acts Of Power, Channeling Grace in Your Everyday Life by Caroline Myss. I am not very far into the reading but I can already see the benefit

of questioning grace in my life, am I a generator or a reciever of grace? Hopefully I am both. I've always been turned off by the term grace because christianist are so fond of bandying that word around but as Caroline Myss [pronounced mace] explains, grace is a noun and a verb; it is a state and an action, an energy that flows between two beings. Grace is gratis, a gift and imo, you certainly do not have to be religious to give or receive it.

Whether you are an Atheist, Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindi, Democrat, Republican or Frayster grace plays an important roll in your life. We should ask ourselves, am I the kind of person who passively stands by when an opportunity arises to do something for someone, not wishing to get involved or do I prefer to help even if it is something as simple as a smile and saying good day to an eldely/lonely/sad person? You may never remember having done such a small thing but the receiver will remember it forever.

There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is.

Albert Einstein

In her book, Caroline Myss tells us what grace is and how to get it. I believe we all benefit by grace and should do whatever we can to cultivate it.

Senryu

Soused in alcohol
another failed attempt
mission accomplished

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Winter Haiku

Gray skies of winter
seem to go on forever
colour of my soul