Matador for an instant?

Walking down this road I wished I had a red cape.

I yelled Toro, Toro.

Nothing.

Instead, I walked gingerly around the cow pies humming Moo.

Visit Stony River for variations on the theme.

Wild turkey, a story and frost

"This too shall pass."

Happy or sad, good or bad, no matter what, eventually everything changes, again and again.  I'm not going to apologize for my whiny post last night but I am happy to report that the sun is shining this morning!  The sky is only partly cloudy!  I got some sleep and am ready for a new day.

Curious, I looked up the phrase "This too shall pass" because it gets me through a lot.  I'll share something from Wikipedia about it.  Hope you enjoy it.

One day Solomon decided to humble Benaiah Ben Yehoyada, his most trusted minister. He said to him, "Benaiah, there is a certain ring that I want you to bring to me. I wish to wear it for Sukkot which gives you six months to find it." "If it exists anywhere on earth, your majesty," replied Benaiah, "I will find it and bring it to you, but what makes the ring so special?" "It has magic powers," answered the king. "If a happy man looks at it, he becomes sad, and if a sad man looks at it, he becomes happy." Solomon knew that no such ring existed in the world, but he wished to give his minister a little taste of humility. Spring passed and then summer, and still Benaiah had no idea where he could find the ring. On the night before Sukkot, he decided to take a walk in one of the poorest quarters of Jerusalem. He passed by a merchant who had begun to set out the day's wares on a shabby carpet. "Have you by any chance heard of a magic ring that makes the happy wearer forget his joy and the broken-hearted wearer forget his sorrows?" asked Benaiah. He watched the grandfather take a plain gold ring from his carpet and engrave something on it. When Benaiah read the words on the ring, his face broke out in a wide smile. That night the entire city welcomed in the holiday of Sukkot with great festivity. "Well, my friend," said Solomon, "have you found what I sent you after?" All the ministers laughed and Solomon himself smiled. To everyone's surprise, Benaiah held up a small gold ring and declared, "Here it is, your majesty!" As soon as Solomon read the inscription, the smile vanished from his face. The jeweler had written three Hebrew letters on the gold band: gimel, zayin, yud, which began the words "Gam zeh ya'avor" -- "This too shall pass." At that moment Solomon realized that all his wisdom and fabulous wealth and tremendous power were but fleeting things, for one day he would be nothing but dust.

Happy Skywatching! 

And, finally, the picture I tried to post last night of hoar frost and blue sky.

Wednesday Wishes

Ah, it seems to be a part of Murphy's Law.  Make a commitment and the Universe conspires to challenge you.  I declared Wednesday a day for me, a day dedicated to my spiritual growth and mental or creative health, a day I could take off away from the madding crowd.  Then work got in the way.  There are families out there that I am dedicated to helping, even if that means that meetings get scheduled on my day.  So it goes.

I am tired, tired physically, tired of winter and tired of gray skies.  I haven't been inspired to get my camera out because the light is so crappy.  White and gray or gray and white?

So I scrounged in my archives and found a winter bridge picture with Brogan on it for my header.  It should have switched to winter back in November but I'm a little behind schedule on that one.  I did find a nice picture of hoar frost and an inspiring quote.  It's the best I can do today.

Not to mention our DSL is running like dial up and taking forever to load anything.  Multiple calls to the phone company (local, rural), changes in telephone, cords and filters have availed us nothing.  I can't load the picture I had picked out for my post.

My office mate was wishing it was Thursday but it wasn't.

Oh well (being?)

On the horns of a dilemma

Madames et Monsieurs!  

Here I have ze human who tried to turn me into stew.  

Should I let him out?

Or turn him into a frog?

Visit Stony River for more variations on the Petit Lapin theme.

What Buddha had to say

"In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true."


"The way is not in the sky.  The way is in the heart."




May your heart be filled with Light!  


Visit Skywatch Friday to see uplifting photos from around the world.

Snow, Again

No blue in the sky, but there's a little here on our glass wind chimes.

"So comes snow after fire, even dragons have their ending."--J.R.R. Tolkein

I must admit to wanting to see the end of snow.  There are other cheerier places to be found at My World Tuesday.

Ahoy Matey

Sail the Seven Seas or Space the Final Frontier?

A captain is a captain.  Which would you prefer?

I vote for distant galaxies.

There are more variations on the pirate them at Stony River. 

Check them out or try your hand!

Loving-Kindness

Valentine's Day is a nice enough "holiday."  In many ways it's a successful commercial promotion for selling flowers, candy and cards.  Good old capitalism at its finest.  Unfortunately, it also seems to be an event that makes single people feel sad or lonely.  In other words, it's not DEEP.  (This is not to say that I don't appreciate the 6 red roses I got for Valentine's Day because I do!)

Loving-Kindness is a meditation practice taught by the Buddha 2500 years ago to develop the habit of self-less love.  Often our Western form of love has a hidden agenda, "What's in it for me?  If I love you, then you must....(fill in the blank)."  Loving-kindness promotes friendliness, compassion, joy and equanimity.  It's easy to practice with people you already love and respect, the challenge arises when it's someone that you feel hostile or angry towards.  It's even encouraged to practice this towards oneself.

There are plenty of ways to get information on lovingkindness. What would we do without google?  There are books, tapes, and websites full of knowledge about this practice.  What I like about it is that it is something for every day that promotes peace of mind and well-being.  Anyone can practice it, you don't have to be a Buddhist to try.

What I really want for our world is more peace and self-less love.

May you be free from danger.

May you have mental happiness.

May you have physical happiness.

May you have ease of well-being.

Hope you have a Happy Valentine's Day every day!

Warm Skywatch Memories

As a surprise for my 50th birthday in 2003, my husband booked our family on a trip to French Polynesia!  I had always dreamed of going to Tahiti and that year my dream came true.  I was surprised how "civilized" it was there.  I must have thought it would be similar to Paul Gaugin's experience but really it is set up for tourism.  We flew to Tahiti and then sailed on the Tahitian Princess.

The beaches were pristine and the water was perfect for snorkeling.

Ah, blue water and gorgeous skies.

Lush green vegetation covered the islands

Beautiful flowers bloom all year long.

Sail away anyone?

Look for other dreamy skies at Skywatch Friday.

New! Well-Being Wednesday

One of the activities in the 2010 Planner, designed by the brilliant and talented Leonie Allen, is to choose one word for the year, a power word for what we'd like to experience and focus on.  I chose:

Deepen

Deepen can be defined as extending far down from the surface, intense, profound or penetrating in awareness or understanding, a remote and mysterious region.

I like to write, take pictures, blog, meditate, exercise (sometimes),
eat healthy food (as much as possible).  But now I want to go deeper,
do better, strive for more profound and penetrating awareness, practice more intensely, become a better me.

Another suggested activity is to plan something special for a certain day of the week, make it a ritual.  I have already made participating in some memes routine, such as My World Tuesday and Skywatch Friday.  I've decided to establish Well-Being Wednesdays!  I already go to meditate in Curt's Yurt on Wednesday and attend a Wednesday Women's Gratitude Meeting so why not just make a day of it?  A day of centering, grounding, creativity and planning, movement, whatever works for the day.

So, I'm taking a step in facing my fears of blogging about personal feelings and experiences and putting this out into my tiny little blogosphere.  I'm letting you know what I'm up to today and if the spirit moves you, let me know how well you are doing today.

Today I feel adventurous!

Morning Chores

Sometimes I feel a little growly about doing morning chores, but not today!

I stepped outside and the birds were chirping.  (They are blended in the aspen tree, enlarge if you wish.)

Arlo is the picture of contentment because.....

The SUN is shining in a BLUE sky!

The llamas are ready for breakfast.

I didn't even mind hauling in the wood.  I could hear a pack of coyotes yipping for joy this morning too.

That's My World this beautiful morning!  How's yours looking today?

The downside of gossip

"Oh my goodness gracious!"

She was breathlessly confounded.

"I just saw Rose's husband kissing Sam's wife. Who should I call first?"

It's another Microfiction Monday at Stony River.  Enjoy.

Happy 101

Thanks, Janie for passing on the Happy Blog Award.

My list of 10 things I love:

1.  My family and friends, the positive and loving relationships in my life.

2.  The natural world in all its magical glory.

3.  Creativity and the arts, my own and others, one of the things that makes blogging so fun!

4.  Playful activities like four wheeling, hiking, camping, snorkeling in warm tropical waters.

5.  My spirituality, eclectic in nature, open and expansive as possible.

6.  Travel to far away exotic places and even the not so exotic.

7.  Animals, my pets and those animals we get to see in the far away exotic places and in the neighborhood.

8.  Good food especially when someone else makes it.

9.  Laughter, a child's giggle, a belly laugh, it's all good.

10.  People helping other people who need help, random acts of kindness, the good things people do for each other make me very happy, and being able to help others myself.

Ten blogs that make me happy:

1. Some of the same blogs that make Janie happy, Esther's Ishtar News, Betsy's Joyful Reflections, Jo's Memorable Meanders and Gaylene's Geogypsy, also make me smile.

2.  I enjoy Susan's Stony River for her wicked wit and writer's skill.

3.  Creative Copy Challenge is awesome because it challenges me to be creative.

4.  My new friend Lis and her daughter Cowgirl touch my heart at Dandelion Seeds and Dreams.

5.  Leonie Allan's blog Goddess Guidebook helps me grow spiritually and creatively.

6. Sylvia from Over the Hill fills her blog with inspiring quotes and gorgeous pictures.

7.  A Little Piece of Me for all those beautiful backyard bird shots, wish I could do the same.

8.  Lisa doesn't post often but when she does she writes from her heart about her incredible journey with her special needs son.  I am blessed to have met her through my job!

9.  I love Bill's Wild in Idaho because I used to live in Idaho and because I love wildlife.

10.  And because I so enjoy young people I love to visit Tess and Tim's Archives and see pictures of their new daughter and Janie's granddaughter) Zoey and read about Occasionally J's adventures in China and in college.

And of course there is much more to be happy about in my life but that's all for now folks!

Morning Clouds

Dry Fork Canyon lit up by the morning sun.

On another morning there were cool sundogs.  Not sure where that name came from, but wonderful to see.

Skywatch Friday is filled with pictures posted by people who like to look up!

1958

Here's a picture of my mother "back in the day."  Even though black and whites can be grainy they are a fun way to see what used to be in style.

My sister and I be stylin' too!

Remember Whensday is a fun place for reminiscing.

Some of what's most important in my world

It's well known that women are oriented towards relationships.

Here are my two daughters with friend and boyfriend.

This is my very best friend since I was 12 years old, almost 45 years of friendship between us!

And my cousin gets to enjoy her new grandson and daughter.

People are so much more important to me than places.  I love places too.  You can see many interesting places and people at  My World Tuesday.  

And by the way, I value all my blogging friends too!