Miraculous Moments

We live in an age of wonder, in a world of wonder. We  have so much, we often live in a state of numb unawareness.


When you look outside, is the earth daily regenerating itself, plants, animals, air and water constantly in a state of renewal and revival?
Do birds build nests, raise their young and sing songs in your trees?
Have you enjoyed the variety yet predictability of the seasons, each with their own beauty?
Do dogs love you and cats make you love them?
Do plants and flowers flourish around you with a rainbow of colorful blooms and fruits with numerous hues and textures of green leaves?
If you have family, do you know the companionship that comes from being related in blood?
Have you looked at your children lately and remembered that they are a product of mutual love, new creatures literally called into being by two others, and two others alone?
Have you noticed the insects in your lawn, the worms eating and releasing waste to enrich the soil?

When you got up this morning, did a device that you pre-programmed, make a noise of your choosing to wake you?
Did you don clothing that was made in a factory by someone you've never met, and displayed in a temperature controlled, fashionably decorated building and sold to you by clerks who sign agreements guaranteeing they'll be treated with fair and equitable business practices?
Did you go to work in a metal box ten times faster than you could walk yourself, the temperature controlled,  while listening to the latest happenings all over the globe, and the music of musicians you've never met playing songs that are heard all over the world?
At lunch, did you eat food that had been transported from as far away as China, grown in hothouses if it was out of season, and shipped to you in a variety of conveyances, while drinking water that had been filtered through a hygienic system, and pumped to your facility and possibly even dispensed to a cool drinking temperature by a chemical and electronic process?
At your place of employment is it a given that your employer won't usually ask you to do any work without being paid on the scale you both agreed on, and that if you are laid off, you will be eligible for government aid?

Does the current administration hold it's position because the majority of citizens decreed by vote that it should be so, and not by a military victory over all opponents, or by blood lineage?
 Are you confident that if you should have an emergency, competent help at no charge will be dispatched to your aid within a matter of minutes?
Do you know people, or are you one of the fortunate, that have been cured through modern medicine of diseases that in the last century would have wiped out entire populations?
Do you have access to information that has been gathered for milliniums, and organized into a system that allows you to retrieve it by either typing in a keyword, or speaking that word into a device from the comfort of your own home?
Can you connect with someone in nearly any country of the world with no more effort than the flick of a wrist, and for approximately the price of a week's pay, travel to the farthest country in the world in less than a week?

Well if it was true in Robert Louis Stevenson's day, it must certainly hold true in ours:

"The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings."

An Orange Bracelet

A beautiful and wonderful thing.

E. Nesbit says, "Beautiful and wonderful things do happen, and we live all our lives in the hope of them.

My husband and I enjoyed a lovely evening at the Modesto Symphony's Picnic at the Pops, on the Gallo Winery grounds. We were hosted by our oldest friends in Modesto. This is no commentary on their age, only on how long we have known them!

It was a delightful treat to be with friends, some new, some old, and enjoy live music from 'our' era. Usually we are making music for other people, so this was indeed a treat!

I saved the orange bracelet they gave us and wrapped it around the steering wheel of my car, because I didn't want to forget that 'beautiful and wonderful things' do happen to me and I don't want to forget them, especially when those beautiful and wonderful things are not happening. Perhaps the opposite. Those happen too.

When something beautiful and wonderful happens to you, how do you remind yourself of it?
When was the last time you did something beautiful and wonderful for someone else?
It's our turn now!

Kaleidescope of Ideas

It's been a quick week, and Friday is upon us...my laundry is piled up, dinner is as yet uncooked, the house is only passably clean, and for a creative, that bar is considerably lower than average. I've written minimally and not even finished reading a book I'm reviewing. Outrageous, for a bookish nosher who eats print non-stop!
I've spent nearly half of this week on twitter in the company of creative individuals that threatened to take my breath away, and then take my confidence with it. The mind-numbing trip I've been on is worthy of note, simply because it shouted like a collective voice into my soul. I'm more than a little bit intimidated.

Instead, I'm deciding to be inspired.
Here's just a few of the spots I've lingered in.

http://wakeupmyfaith.wordpress.com/ Kevin Adams frank admission of his hardships and ensuing need to walk by faith was so honest, I had to read it twice to believe it.


http://a7p3q.th8.us/ Sarah Cunningham's story about a boy who lived on her couch was touching, and made me glad when I said yes to someone sleeping on my couch.

'got some projects in mind for my own happiness' was a phrase I pulled from an artist blog linked with twitter acct @magicplum. I've since lost the link. (Sorry) I love that! If you said it, let me know and I'll give you credit!


 http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/ has a tablescape section that  is a magical place where dinner tables become worlds in their own right, making mealtime the ultimate escape into bliss! Check out the one about Lord Byron.

@nathanbransford continues his heavy-hand-up for the struggling author by serving fare on publishing and book news that I can hardly live without.

So, while the dirty clothes are waiting and my family wonders if I still live here, I'll leave you to lose yourself in this wonderful room we call inexplicably 'the web' and marvel at the spacious place our minds are.

September 12

It's the day after.

A horrendous event shook our country to it's very core 9 years ago yesterday.

All the adrenaline, fervor, unity and everything it took to make it through was at it's peak on that day, or perhaps peaking a few months after, and with each passing day, the memory fades and pales in comparison to the shockingly sharp and painful blow we felt that day.

And now it's the day after. The day after 9 years ago.

Elementary school students now know about the event only from hearing about it from their teachers and parents and by reading about it in textbooks. 8 year old children and younger were born after.

The day after reveals who we really are, after the knee-jerk reaction is replaced by business as usual.

The day after the wedding, the birth, the funeral, the spiritual rebirth, the opening of a new company.

Everything that comes after the event is what defines the people we truly want to be.

And what have we done with our day after?

For it is still the day after, and it is never too late to be the people we really want to be.

 God Bless America. America Be a Blessing!

On Being Humble

Naturally, since this is about humility, I'm not going to go on and on about my own humility. Instead I'm going to get 'round the back way, and give you a story of humility that I was in the middle of, that's not to say the actual center...but I digress. There is no easy way to talk about humility, because once you become aware of the concept, your mind does a circus act trying to be humble without thinking it is, thus ruining the neat little house of cards you had set up.

I was at a bridal shower today, along with my daughter. It was the second one this season we had attended and at the first one someone took the ribbons and bows off the gifts and made that fancy little paper bridal bouquet that brides like to use for their rehearsals. If you've never heard of this, don't worry. I never used one for my wedding and I'm still legally married. Although there is that matter of the official copy that we never sent to the... oh, never mind!

So, since my daughter and I are really 'into weddings' (she makes custom garters, and  I am a wedding coordinator) I volunteered us to make that little do-hickey. We had seen one done, and I was pretty sure we could do it.

Someone brought us some tape and scissors, and the plastic plate with holes already pre-punched. We were in business. Well, we fussed around with loads of tissue, and became a bit uncertain as to our ability. Actually I was feeling a little like Jane Austen's Mrs. Bennet as I had been the loudest to tout our willingness and advance my daughter as a 'wedding specialist'.

Just then a woman from the party came up behind me and asked, "Would you like me to make some tissue paper roses for you?"

I think instead I heard, "Would you like me to do the creative crafter's equivalent of the Heimlich maneuver?"

Gratefully we told her, "Yes, please." She taught us how to make beautiful rosettes with tissue paper that transformed our feeble attempt into a true art form. Truthfully, it was my daughter who did all the work, while I sat by admiringly. Then she sat on the grass, hidden from anyone else, continuing to make paper flowers while we got all the accolades for having made a wondrous thing of beauty. I looked up, and she was gone.

That, my friend, is humility.

Energy Drain

Do you know how much your attitude drains or pumps up the energy of others?

I don't, but I do know how others affects me.

I had a couple incidents that totally drained me today. They hit me unexpectedly and after a couple of these, I was ready for a nap. so I took one, and everything felt better. Surprising how much we rub off on others, and how catastrophic and even simple disappointing events wreak havoc on our psyche. Can you even imagine what our fellow humans are experiencing in Afghanistan, or even San Bruno for that matter?

The plain fact is that no man is an island. It simply is not possible to make a meaningful decision that does not affect anyone else. So much for "I can do what I want as long as it doesn't hurt anyone." Our very attitudes create waves.

If our positive and negative energy were visible, it would look like some sci-fi warfare blasting back and forth and spewing out waves of mental ammunition.

Guard that energy carefully.  The world depends on it.

Wound Up

waiting for the show to begin

I guess I am having the new teacher jitters and I'm not even a new teacher...

You know that skidding response you have when something you've hoped for and looked forward to for a long time is almost upon you? Yeah, weird, huh?

Chalk it up to being human.

I'm going to read a mystery and go to sleep. Or is it go to sleep and read a mystery?

After all tomorrow is always a mystery, isn't it?