I was thinking that my neighbors had been cooking something particularly stinky for dinner tonite and I was getting rather annoyed by the strength of the smell.
Until I realized that the discomfiting stench was actually a piece of salmon that had fallen in my cleavage while I was eating my own dinner.
bleh.
This hippie girl just bought herself an air conditioner. I think that’s what happens when you run a fever for days on end and the thermometer is hitting triple digits both inside and out (do you like how I am justifying this?).
Seriously people, I am feeling pretty good right now. Your healing mojo is totally working its magic (and the A/C is adding its own special touch, too)…
:)
Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come.
You wait and watch and work: You don’t give up.
~Anne Lamott
Friends, I’m at a bit of a crossroads on the path to healing right now. If all goes well over the next few days, much more aggressive treatment may be avoided. So if you have a spare moment, can you send a little healing energy my way? Happy pictures, thoughts, things to make me laugh–are all good medicine.
Thank you for caring and thank you for the continued magic of our bloggerly community.
:)
This is a photo that I took at sunset yesterday. I’d made a quick trip to the garden to gather herbs for John’s Father’s Day dinner and then just had to snap a few pictures.
I came across this quotation yesterday and it’s been in my mind ever since:
“True simplicity consists not in the use of particular forms, but in foregoing over-indulgence, in maintaining humility of spirit, and in keeping the material surroundings of our lives directly serviceable to necessary ends, even though these surroundings may be properly characterized by grace, symmetry, and beauty.”
~Book of Discipline of the Religious Society of Friends, Adopted by the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, 1927
In so many ways my garden is a space echoes my desire for “humility in spirit.” When I am there I am in awe of the world and my small place in it, I am overwhelmed by my own inability at mastery, and I am constantly blessed by grace, symmetry, and beauty.
While I was in Denver, I just couldn’t get enough of the sky–the way it changed constantly with clouds moving quickly. Storms and sunlight happening almost instantaneously.
Occasionally we have clouds or fogs here in SoCal, but they are rarity. Nearly everyday our sky is that same brilliant shade of bright blue.
This is the windowsill in my kitchen and these vases hold flowers from my garden. On the other side of the window you might spy a few of my fuschia plants and a double begonia.
This is what I see when I’m washing dishes (lucky me)….
This is one my favorite summer meals. I make a batch of bread dough and then roll it paper thin. I brush the dough with olive oil, garlic, and fresh herbs like thyme, rosemary, chives, and oregano. Then I add on the fresh veggies. The pizza in this pic has fresh basil, spinach, yellow squash, tomatoes, black olives, and mushrooms. I put a light sprinkling of a high-quality parmesan on top and bake. Voila! the crust is crunchy and the taste is very fresh.
The spinach and the herbs were from my garden. Within a few weeks, I can make this pizza with toppings exclusively from my garden.
:)
This is my first rose from my favorite bush this season. The blooms smell so strongly that they scent an entire room.
This was a random flowering bush that I happened upon in a Denver park while I had my camera in hand.
I can’t decide if the flowers look better left to right or up and down. What do you think? I can’t remember how they looked on the bush itself.
For the past few days I’ve been struggling….
–to balance home demands with personal needs/goals
–to get my garden under control
–to not be dismayed by a horrible allergic reaction to some antibiotics that’s left me looking sort of like I have the chicken pox
–to keep up the pace with my research
–to affirm my loved ones
–to get caught up
–to remember what it is I am supposed to be doing
–to fulfill obligations to friends and community
So I started off today with a beautiful moment of meditation. I sat with a candle (a wee orange candle from a lovely shop that I happened upon in Denver). I felt so good during and after the meditation, so ready to take on the day, so sure of myself, etc.
So I got up and proceeded to clean the kitchen–I knew that cleaning would clear my head and give me a fresh start. As I was washing dishes I slipped–in some water that had splashed on the floor– and as I reached out to the counter to keep myself from falling, the side of my hand hit the silverware holder in the dish drainer and one of my forks stabbed deeply into the side of my hand. And it started bleeding pretty badly.
For someone who not-so-long-ago got a puncture wound on her leg in a similar manner (and who is still working with various doctors to solve the ongoing mystery of that particular infection), I was just plain scared and so deflated. I grabbed a towel to put some pressure on it to stop the bleeding and just curled up in the couch and felt so so tired of it all.
I don’t even know why I’m blogging this. My life is so good in so many ways–tonite, for example, I watched GameBoy be showered with numerous awards from his teachers and applauded loudly as he played his cello along with the school orchestra. Yesterday I baked the first blackberry crumble of the season and I can rightfully say that it is the tastiest crop yet! There are so many other wonderful and good things happening for me right now.
So why am I struggling?
Friends, these are the Queries from my Friends Meeting for this month. I wanted to share them with you, thinking that you might find them thought-provoking…
Advice and Queries, June
Social and Civic Responsibility
In the words of William Penn, “True godliness doesn’t draw men out of the world, but enables them to live better in it and excites their endeavors to mend it.” Elsewhere he commented: “It is a reproach to religion and government to suffer so much poverty and excess.”
Poverty within a wealthy society is unjust, cruel, and often linked to skin color, gender, and language. We must examine our own privilege and role in the economic order that deepens this disparity. Friends should be alert to oppression and injustice, and persistent in working against them.
We value our part in shaping the laws of our country. Our task is to see that laws serve God’s purposes and build a just social order. Our first allegiance should be to God, and if this conflicts with any compulsion of the state, we serve our country best by remaining true to our higher loyalty.
If, by divine leading, our attention is focused on a law that is contrary to God’s law, we must proceed with care. Before acting, Friends should pray for further guidance and speak with the Meeting, family members, and all those who might be affected by the decision. If a decision involves disobedience to the law, we should make the grounds of our action clear to all concerned and be prepared to suffer any penalties without evasion. As a community, we must care for those who suffer for conscience’s sake.
Advice and Queries for all individuals
What am I doing to carry my share of responsibility for the government of our community, nation, and the world?
Am I persistent in my efforts to promote constructive change?
Advice and Queries for the meeting
How do we attend to the suffering of others in our local community, in our state and nation, and in the world community?
Do we try to understand the causes of suffering, and do we address them as a Meeting?
How do we, individually and as a Meeting, support the organizations that work to bring the testimonies of Friends into reality in our society?
Advice and Queries especially for children
Social and civic responsibility means we should not be content to live in an unjust world.
What does it mean to be a good citizen?
What can I do if I see things that are unfair?
Do I know how my Meeting is helping people and do I participate in these activities?
Do I try to understand why people are poor or unhappy, not only here but throughout the world?
