Archive for 2008

Forgive me
in advance
I know not what I do
at least
in the moment before doing.

I stumble on this path
sometimes realizing
after
what it is
what I have said
what I have done
to hurt you.

i think sometimes
out loud
but on paper
or would that be
the blank canvas of this page?

So often
i let the words
dribble
and run
into my
my moments
not seizing them
not taking them hostage
making them
account for themselves.

Then,
without reason,
i grab a pen
or a keyboard
and make them
make themselves known
to stop
the cycle of words
without
known
consequence.

they now
commit
to ask,
why would I want
to be them?
Heads bowed
backs bent,
against and under
the weight
of
stares
arms draped down
in
anguished leather
of fingers pricked
and worn
under a machine
within dark enclosed space
the only sky
the sound
of
someone counting,
again
and again,
the worth
of
their
breath.

To open
to live
to breath
the kiss of the immortal
As I sell myself
against time
not as nice as I used to be
half as nice
as I may be tomorrow
I kick at the confines
soap bubbles dispersing
in the water
leaving film
my fingernail scratches
the outer edges
beginning to claw
the blue
at the edge
of vision
pulling back
light from beneath
shudder
now silent
resting on the counter
dishes pulled from the washer
a cycle complete

Against the sky
I breath
watching you take flight
I don’t count
how many you are
I see only
one
until later,
much later,
when I print you,
against,
time.

When do secrets stop being secrets?

Is it when we speak them out out loud?

Does it require a certain number to hear or see them to remove the status of secret?

Highlight: postsecrets

Fox News Reports: Ex-Porn Star Quits School Cafeteria Job After Uproar

Let me ask a question.

Actually, I am not asking permission.

I am here to say, what is wrong with us?

Let’s pretend for a moment, there is a lovely woman.

The woman has made her living for some years as an “adult entertainer”. Whatever that means. If she is over 18 and TRULY exercises free will, economy, or pimps or whatever, have not forced her in the role, then………

So let’s pretend, one of the three:

a) she did so with free will; or
b) she did so without choice; or
c) she was forced into same.

Ok.

Now, we meet a woman, a woman, wanting to be who she is in this moment, someone who wants to work at a school, for, forgive me, less than $5,800.00 a year, and now, parents want her out?

Did I miss something?

Is she accused, convicted beyond a reasonable doubt of doing something to innocent children? (btw: all children are innocent).

Is there anyone out here that has spent a moment in Suburbia? How it is always others and not the inhabitants, that have skeletons?

I fear a projection of misconceived issues may be afoot.

I don’t know this woman portrayed in this Fox News article and now being publicly lambasted, but what I don’t see is any allegations as to how this woman treated children.

Really people, can we grow up and give our children a better model for the future?

This is a witch hunt, Salem circa 2008.

Don’t be a part of it.

Well hello NJ.

Looks like we aren’t sitting quiet with the peace offering of civil unions.

Check it out, there may be movement afoot, allowing others to love as others love.

(yes, I meant to say it that way.  why are only alleged heterosexuals “us” and a-hem, “gays”, “homosexuals” or “those that love others of the same ‘sex’”, others?)

Can we just evolve?

Check it out:  Reuters………………

EXCERPT………………..!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

“Full marriage is the only way to meet a state constitutional requirement for equality, said the 13-member panel of public officials, clergy, lawyers and same-sex marriage advocates.”

THE EXTORTION OF US TAX PAYERS (a.k.a., the Detroit Bailout)

Let’s do the math and perhaps put it out to a poll. I’ll focus on GM, you can do the same for Ford and Chrysler. GM employs about 252,000 people globally. The company website totals its US work force at 97,624 across some 87 US zip codes. (more…)

The trees began to curl into themselves

but first

color themselves in the light

of Fall colors.

The edges began to creep,

creep,

and creep further in,

and every time they did,

the Faeries,

would curl up their toes,

closer to their immortal legs,

and hide.

The ledges of time

became smaller,

the space

to hide,

smaller yet,

and the Faeries knew,

there were not too many daylight hours

left to hide.

They unfurled in the night,

becoming themselves,

unbent from the leaves,

from human eyes.

Oh,

how they thanked the darkness for the need

of most,

humans,

to sleep.

They slipped from the leaves,

stretching their limbs,

nimbly alighting hundreds of feet to the ground,

to start the next day’s work

on the century’s task.

they had agreed to.

(more later) (copyright, The Faeries, S.E.)

Are we ever just this one thing?

I think not.

Unless we only evaluate in the space of frozen time.

My girl, my prior header on my previous design blog, she shines; yet, I changed her time and time again. I have photos of her change, all of which I have not posted.  it was an expose of moments and I dared to paint and repaint the canvas.

The point is, none of us are ever just one thing, and when we judge others, we freeze them in time.  We see an encapsulated moment, while still, perhaps, allowing ourselves evolution.

Ah, so now what, my friends, now what?  Shall we move on?

Today

the Earth fell from beneath my feet

but it was not

an unusual occurrence

because yesterday

the same occurred.

I woke,

I stood,

I put my feet upon the ground,

I lifted my arms,

stretched,

and looked to the windows,

where recently,

i hung scraps of cloth,

to obscure the view.

of them,

or me?

It does not matter.

I know there are times,

we belong to no one

but ourselves and God in our heart,

and those moments are

simple

pure

real.

they are the moments,

God willing,

when the rest of the world

stands back

and does

not come through our door uninvited

and we have moments

just for thanks and gratitude

that we are

in those moments ok.

It will be the harrowing moments after

of self realization

CNN or Fox News

where we may doubt our own

definition.

So long as we hold

strong

in the moments in between

we can gather courage

like beans

or seeds

kernals

in a pocket

promising a different now.

Peace to you. We send such loving thoughts your way.

Surface Earth

Why must people be cruel?

Silly,

innocent question,

but it begs an answer.

All of you who spend time here,

bless you,

you grant us miracles,

by your existence and your courage in stopping in,

to say hello,

and give strength.

Welcome CNN Hereos………….I cannot begin to give words to what you do……………for now, I start with this John Legend video.……..spectacular.

CNN reports on the attacks on innocents in India.  What would Ghandi say now?  I am not making light, I am serious, very, very serious, how can this be true?

It starts, I believe, with the ability to see others as less than ourselves and it morphs to such grand proportions that it becomes something that hits the news and strikes us again and again, in headlines.

None of this should be true, but I have always been one to not spend a lot of time on should, or at least try not to, because should connotes lost time in the past.

I ask tonight for the only thing I can think of:  prayer.  Ask everyone you know to pray and pray and pray………at least until we can figure out something more swift.

I am probably not unlike you, I see this and say, where is God?  where is love?

I could struggle with an intellectual debate on the issues, but that is not helping all of those hurting, shocked, damaged people.

Recently, many issues have come to light with the rights of our fellow human beings.

Rights, I want to say, trampled, but how can they be trampled when such rights have not yet arisen?

There is a lot of coverage as to “equal” marriage or “gay” marriage.  I’m not sure the word matters, I know as a lover of words it should, but I find the essence of the issue is one more pure, it is the right to love, so I don’t know what to call the right to love and marry, regardless of sexual orientation.

On a related note, from Vannessa’s corner of the world, she brought up the issue of the right to adopt and how it is curtailed due to sexual orientation.

Dear Ronnie, from Work Coach Cafe, just left an inspiring comment in regard to same and the illustrious words of at least one judge in Florida!  See Ronnie’s comment and prior thread.

Onward!

When you live on the edge of the rainbow,

hanging on to the hue,

of purple,

or blue,

the gradation,

may not matter.

When you live on the edge of the rainbow,

it is moments,

seconds,

that define,

you,

your life.

When you live on the edge of the rainbow,

you hold on,

by nail,

by a thread,

by a handful,

if you like the color,

you have grasped.

When you live on the edge of the rainbow,

yours,

hang with you.

In my hand

I hold

the promise of today

which was the breath,

the blink,

of yesterday,

unrealized.

In my hand,

I hold,

the courage,

of a moment,

fingers curled,

ready,

palms warm.

In my hands,

I hold,

the tempo,

of a new tomorrow,

watch my fingers spread,

reaching to the horizon,

refusing to meet,

a dividing line.

In my hands,

I hold,

the spark of hope,

so tiny,

I dare not look,

to see,

if it exists,

but close my eyes,

against the

sand of time,

willing granules

to become affixed,

within my eyelashes,

so short these days.

I will,

the space of time,

to exist,

as I hold it,

in my heart,

and send to you.

Peace.

Surface Earth

What is the sound,

of one heart,

sighing?

One heart,

crying,

ripping,

tearing?

What is the sound,

can there be,

when no one outside of yourself

can hear it?

Or is sound,

an image,

something transfixed,

transported,

into gesture and face?

Can we hear the sound

of a heart breaking

in visual imagery?

Imagine this,

if you will,

falling,

through a moment in time,

when life becomes reversed,

when the difference,

between what is and what isn’t,

is no difference at all,

where there are no lines.

Imagine if you will,

having,

in fact,

the wrong look,

the wrong intonation,

the wrong laugh,

and imagine,

that is all it takes

to make you into

the other.

What is the sound,

of a heart breaking?

What does it mean,

to be the other?

Who must you be first,

where must you stand,

to call

another

of your brothers

or sisters,

the other?

May peace be with you.

Surface Earth

Amber Moon writes of how we can make the world a better place. She illustrates how we are graced enough to be able to grasp a moment, or what we might conceive as a small thought or gesture, which can have ripple effects.  I imagine the ideas she gives us to help are fibers which eventually weave together with enough action to create a blanket to cover the world in kindness.  I am inspired by what she has written.

It just so happens that after reading Amber’s post, I stopped in at the land of Gyspsy Heart, and found a piece on tactile art that she had done and the photos of the children that were blessed by her art.  Absolutely amazing.  If that is not kindness, than I don’t know how to define the word.

I feel blessed today to have read these posts, to turn around my direction of thinking.  Often, as Amber said, the sheer enormity of the things to fix in the world could make us feel there is nothing we can do….ah, how misdirected that is and how empowering to hold on to the belief, that change can be made with each small moment.

Peace & blessings.

I’m Alive,

and I know this,

because I think, I breath, I feel.

I feel.

What is feeling?

What is it to walk through life,

wondering if anyone else knows what you and yours are going through?

Does it matter to daily existence?

I think not, because if it did, there could never be human unkindness.

Peace.

The Resolution, Jack’s Mannequin

Hi there regular readers & friends.  For any of you that have any online stores, would you mind jumping over to the Surface Earth Store and giving me your thoughts on design?  It’s still in the process of being put together, but would love to hear back from a few or many!

Surface Earth store

Peace, light & blessings.

Surface Earth

To me, short of love and children, there is nothing sweeter than a book.

I was over wandering at Sanity’s Place and aside from artful conversation I found a lead on a new, fresh author!

Go check out this book

Peace, blessings & light to you.

I write with mixed emotions.

I personally am ecstatic with America and the world’s choice for Obama.

Yes, we have woken up from this deep sleep.

Yet, in many states in this country, we have been awake and still asleep, voting to ban “gay” marriage.  What is “gay” marriage?

Marriage is a willing union of hearts.  It must not be defined by gender or sexual orientation.

I am sorry, I cannot write more as I am deeply saddened by this, this seemingly ignorant action on the behalf of human beings in 2008.

“Hope” is a universal word.  It is not intended and not defined for the few.  How dare we, how dare we, crush good people’s dreams?  Is it easier to do so when it is not black and white?  Is it easier to do so when it is approved unions vs. those that are not?

By whose laws do we take such actions to deprive our brothers and sisters of what we so willingly take as ours?

Raise Up!  Vote to ban hetersexual marriage, let’s see what kind of reaction that gets.

Again, I’m sorry, but this is a sad, sad state of affairs that we would, as enlightened human beings, vote down love.

I stood outside and looked up,

I could make out one star that seemed to glow, shine,

more brightly,

to me than any other.

I wondered at its size.

Then I thought,

can it see me?

I consider it a far off pinpoint of light,

yet,

it is a light that I can see.

Can it see me?

A piece of a pinpoint,

on this planet we call Earth,

not shining,

not giving any glow,

to light the vision of the night,

can it see me?

There are times,

most times,

between the spaces,

when we have,

I believe,

moments of gratitude,

singing,

in the open spaces

of amphitheaters

designed and built

both long before and after our time.

There are times,

I think,

perhaps,

within the moments,

yes, not in the spaces in between,

when our hearts swell,

and we know,

if we could only bag up and box,

the love before us,

there would not be one more thing we need to accomplish.

Have I shared with you,

the smile,

on a child’s face,

when they turn at you,

unexpectedly?

Have I shared with you,

the millions of times,

within my home,

we say,

I love you?

not to get something back,

but because it is.

Have I shared with you,

my mortal fears?

the understanding,

that our rights to love,

as humans

are fragile.

They are…..

parceled,

not by our decree, but by,

the whims,

ambitions,

egos of others.

I do not blame them.

Because to do so,

is to blame them,

for not having been loved,

this way,

the way that is beyond denial,

for those within its circle of warmth.

I wish for you today,

a better moment,

a better today, to build,

an even better tomorrow.

I wish that we,

as humanity,

would not let,

our brothers and sisters fail,

not now,

not ever,

but lift them up,

within our arms of collective consciousness.

Every child gone wrong,

every adult,

with a finger pointed at him or her,

is still the child,

no I don’t mean,

we excuse behavior that hurts one another,

i mean,

we raise a village,

we stop it before it begins,

Ubuntu.

Peace to you today.

let us know what we can do,

if you don’t,

well,

we will wish you had.

How to begin?

Sanity Found gave us a remarkable tribute, and within same, Amber Moon, made reference to the guide written on her blog, simple thoughts on Ubuntu.

Perhaps the only fair way to begin is to show you, our introduction to the word Ubuntu did not begin that  long ago.  In June of 2007, Surface Earth posted a piece on Ubuntu. It was an introduction, a recognition, that this word was new to us.

Back to the present, we were asked to share our vision, our experience of Ubuntu:

We would like to extend our congratulations to Surface Earth.  Thank you for your beautiful words and spirit.  You will be a fine addition to our Ubuntu team.  With this nomination you can choose or not to post our Ubuntu badge on your blog, but we do ask that you post a blog post article about what Ubuntu means to you in return.

First, Ubuntu to us means an all encompassing love.  It means love which has no division, no boundaries, it is the recognition that as the water feeds through the channels of the land, it is not divided, but of the same whole.

Stop.

Ubuntu means exactly what what was given and shared today, an expression of humanity, a lack of being afraid to stand on Humanity’s Team, to recognize ourselves in another or others.  And that is what occurred today.  I stand now, in the distant light, rays, of pure love that have come from people I don’t know, people that have no agenda other than to raise up their fellow man or woman or human or whatever we want to call ourselves.  This purity of spirit reached into my day, humbling me, asking, what more, what more, what more can be done?  Done, I mean, to keep this up, to keep up this compassionate web of caring, for all of you to feel as I do right now, full of belief in the love and goodness of my fellow people.

This is first draft gang, i’m sure I’ll be back to write some more, but I can only write from the heart, the editing skills come from my very loud ego, and I’m ok with silencing that loud partner.

Namaste.  May you be good to others.

Bizzare, right?

How could they possibly be related?

Well, maybe falling through the Rabbit Hole.

For now, I say, because I saw Flash of Genius today and cried.  I cried for so many reasons.  I cried because I am an attorney and I know I have advocated to settle because litigation costs would be insurmountable for my client.  I cry because i witnessed how a good man, watched his marriage and family get destroyed, because others refused to acknowledge truth.

But before I cried watching Flash of Genius i cried because I saw previews for The Changeling.  Am I confused?  Because I posted some time ago about a book, The Stolen Child, and because of my love for Irish history, my love of the lore of the Faeries, I felt The Stolen Child was important.  But the book itself humbled me to believe I knew what was important and what was not.

So I sat, waiting for Flash of Genius to begin, and had a preview to The Changeling which, if you have read, the Stolen Child, or perhaps other works, it would not be a bizarre topic for you.  If you have lived untruths forced upon you by what you believed to be law abiding, good people of society, and have been harmed because of it, then you also know what i mean.

What it means is the disillusion of truth.  Those in power preying over the good that live in truth.  And it bothers me on deeper levels because my Grandfather was an executive of Ford.  But i can only pray, he would not have done this to that man and his family. He is passed now, so I may have to wait to ask.  On another level it bothered me deeply because I am an attorney and was disgusted by what I saw in regard to the attorneys on behalf of Ford.  I spoke to Mary during that film and said please, please don’t let me be them.  But I’m judging now, aren’t I?  Ugh.

I cried. Just in the previews, I cried.  And they also had to slam us with The Soloist, let’s save that discussion for another day.

All I can say is, truth resides within, if you cannot follow your own good heart, there is no sense looking to others.

Man is distorted, I don’t know why, it makes no sense to me individually, I’d rather let the guy who cuts me of pass safely than curse him out.  But, I’m going to suffer myself, and watch The Changeling, knowing it is true and it exists today, knowing that to speak out, is often to condemn ourselves and those we love.

But, what, I ask you, because I no longer know, is,what is the point of silence?

May God and your heart guide you.  May God not be what institutions teach you, rather, may God only be what resonates when the soul and heart meet.

I pray for you.

Surface Earth

I can’t decide on the title, I could write three thousand more headings.

Here it is, I need to share this with you,

we live in the year,

2008.

(You sure this is not 1978????)

Did you know that?

And in 2008 it sometimes seems we have learned nothing.

We have become the arbiter of what is acceptable within the beds of consenting adults.  We have chosen to focus on a very small area:  whether people of the same sex are allowed to love each other.

Yes, you heard that right.  What we are talking about is ability of people to be allowed to FREELY EXPRESS LOVE TO ONE ANOTHER.

Let’s repeat that:  FREEDOM TO LOVE.

Now I’m not patronizing you, I repeat this to drill it into my own head that it could actually be true that God loving heterosexual human beings think they have the right to determine the course of love for the rest of the world.  (Oh, did I mention?  I’m God Loving and a monogamous, loving heterosexual.  Aren’t I lucky?  Arent’ I special?  Guess God must have chosen me.)

The point is, educated, allegedly loving individuals, citizens of the most free of societies, or so they herald, are actually, yes, seriously, contemplating to amend the Florida constitution to tell people, to mandate, to enact into law a prohibition against love.

Yes, that is what we are talking about, prohibiting love.

No God I have ever believed in ever considered that a possibility, two rules, remember, the essence?  Love God and Love your neighbor.

Whew.  Sorry, I’m pretty upset.

I want to know where the exit door is from this Society gone mad.  No, I don’t mean checking out, I mean escaping from the collective illusion.

Here, let me tell you what’s going on.  Received, via another, yes, my allowed and legal love, an email, copied below for you to read and digest:

“Dear all – yes this is a direct appeal for money to help a worthy cause.  It is sad that we have to spend good resources to fight for basic human rights in the US in 2008.

A worthy cause – run by a good friend I’ve known for several years.  Please help!

Kind regards,”

*****

Begin forwarded message:

From: ******

Date: 1 October 2008 9:15:31 AM

To: ********

Subject: Hello from Florida

Dear Friends,

I’ll be right up-front about this - this is an appeal for $$$.  (No, not for me.)

I hope you know I wouldn’t be asking if it wasn’t important.  Please read on and I will explain why.

There is a poisonous amendment to the Florida Constitution on the ballot this November known as Amendment 2 – the so-called “Marriage Protection” Amendment.

Yes, they’re at it again.  The right wing is using fear of gay people to try to win another election.  But they may have over reached this time.  They claim it’s about “gay marriage” but Florida already has multiple laws banning same-sex marriage.  What they’re really after is engraving discrimination into the Florida Constitution and the elimination of domestic partnership rights and benefits which are offered by several counties (e.g. Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach), municipalities and employers (think Disney) here in Florida.

The good news is that to amend the Florida Constitution the proponents need a vote of 60% + 1 to win and we need 40% +1 to send it to the trash bin where it belongs.  Polls show both sides are within 2% of the magic number.  We have seen that once we explain the negative consequences to all Florida unmarried couples, especially seniors who would be forced to choose between sharing health care and receiving government benefits, our numbers go up.  The key to our victory will be in getting the word out to as many people as possible.  That’s where you come in.

Florida Red and Blue, the group I have been working for since July, was formed solely to defeat this amendment.  As many of you know I have worked on a few campaigns in the past and I must say I am impressed with the sophistication of Florida Red and Blue.  We are using all the latest tools to fight this battle.  Included in our arsenal are TV ads which are already “in the can” and have been tested with focus groups with off-the-charts positive results.  The reason the ads are so effective is they tell real stories of real people and how they would be affected if Amendment 2 passes.  The TV time has been booked and all that remains is the money to run the ads.  All our other expenses and overhead are covered from now until Nov. 4 so every dime we raise from now on will go directly to getting these ads on the air.

Please help with a contribution of whatever you can afford,  It’s easy; just go to our web site www.SayNo2.com or send a check to Florida Red and Blue  12864 Biscayne Blvd., Suite 314 North Miami, FL  33181.  There are just 5 weeks left until the election so the need is urgent and immediate.

If this amendment is defeated here in Florida it will send shock waves across the country.  The Republicans have used this tool in the past (remember Ohio 2004) and they will keep using it until it no longer works.  If we can stop them here it will be a real turning point.  But most importantly we will preserve the limited rights and benefits available under domestic partnerships for all unmarried Florida couples and keep the government out of the private lives of individuals and families.  When government tries to make these kinds of decisions we end up with travesties like the Terry Schiavo case.

Thanks for your help.  I know there are many demands on us all these days so it’s important to choose where our dollars will have the most impact and do the most good.  Beating Amendment 2 in Florida is one of those places.  [-------] And for more information on the amendment, go to www.SayNo2.com. There you can read articles,view videos, make a contribution and find a list of our supporters like Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Patricia Ireland, NOW, the NAACP, AFL-CIO, etc.

Thank you most sincerely for your support,

******

PS – if you have any friends in Florida make sure they know to vote No on Amendment 2.  You’d be surprised how many people don’t know about this with all the attention going to the presidential race.”

UPDATE:  WE HAVE RECEIVD PERMISSION TO POST THE AUTHOR’S CONTACT INFORMATION FOR THE ABOVE QUOTED EMAIL:

dougsternyc@netscape.com

(954) 734-0171

SO THAT’S IT FOLKS.

A CHANCE TO ACT FROM THE SOUL, TO ACT FROM OUR HEARTS.

DOESN’T SEEM THAT DIFFICULT, DOES IT?

PEACE AND NAMASTE.

surface earth photos, copyright – 2008

A rose by any other name…………………………………

-surface earth, copyright 2008

GRRRRR, OUR SURFACE EARTH DESIGN, SHE IS READY, BOOTS ON………………….

YOURS,

SURFACE EARTH

my night ended, looking at flowers still opened,

just one above,

how funny,

it looks of the day.

My day started,

early,

and in one point

of that early transition,

i had a moment of grace,

i saw for some reason,

a small fleck of color,

perhaps,

i would have thought a weed,

in another given moment,

but i stopped,

crouched down and looked

at the color curled into itself,

i asked my child,

with me,

at the time,

come here,

see this color,

and the flower opened,

seen as I did,

below,

perhaps the camera quality cannot give you the sensation,

we saw,

in the early hours.

Boston Herald presents on the sighting of the image of Mother Mary

Seems like she made a stop in Springfield. M.A.

****Hey CordieB’s comment just made me update this, almost included it to begin with but didn’t, Mother Mary Come to Me………………..

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQNpEET9WqQ&rel=0&color1=0x2b405b&color2=0x6b8ab6&border=0]

sorrow11

The Labryrinth Shop

Is it my camera or is it my hand? takes blurry photos….but I needed to share, this is a woman, an artist, that shares and shares and shares.

The above is a one of a kind begging bowl.  You must see it to believe it.  You must feel it to sense the energetic love.  The card in the photo reads:

“The begging bowl is a visual reminder, it can be worn, hung on a {rearview} mirror, or anywhere it can be seen to remind you.  Remind you that every day Life brings things to you, it places these moments in the bowl of your day.  It is up to You to use these moments to nourish your heart, your mind, your spirit.”

I’m not sure how to convince you to jump to her shop, but please do, she gives back, constantly, without a thought.  Pass this on.  Let’s show what the power of kindness can do….pass it on, to ten, then ten more then ten more again.  Let’s do it, let’s see if we can pass this on to at least hit the million mark.

And Sorrow, when you stop in, feel free to tell us more, and please, do not be  humble, share with us the stories of the works on your site, the homeless that have been given a space to try to earn money, the free gifts you send your fellow bloggers, shout it from the mountain girl, I know you will only take the profits and give them away, even though I pray you keep a tiny bit for yourself.

Peace.  I never tell you to do anything, I am telling you now, pass this on to as many as you can, link it to your blogs, go to the shop, you will be rewarding the kind and gentle and unselfish heart of the artist, Sorrow11.

Surface Earth

What is he thinking?  Saying?  Rather unnerving, when I go outside he (she?) turns her head and watches my movement.

Photos are a bit blurry…but you get the picture.

CNN reports this morning on a widow with a teenage son who skips meals to give her son more food and has no resource to buy him clothes.

I looked in this article for a contact to reach out and could not find one.  Perhaps one of you will see what I could not.  Maybe it’s as simple as writing to the reporter who covered the story.

Another thought came to me, she reportedly lives in Vista, California.  There must be a family near there that can donate clothes an older boy has grown out of or a group that can share meals.  There must be ways we can still reach out and help one another, even when most of us no longer have enough money, let alone “extra” money.

***UPDATE:  AS OF 10/4/08, WE ARE TRYING TO OBTAIN THE EMAIL ADDRESS FOR THE CNN REPORTER, WE CALLED A FEW DIFFERENT NUMBERS TO TRACK HIM, WE HOPE DURING REGULAR OPERATING HOURS BEGINNING MONDAY, WE CAN TRACK HIM DOWN AND HE CAN HELP US FACILITATE WAYS TO DONATE TO THE FAMILY HE HIGHLIGHTED IN NEED.

STAY TUNED.  WE WILL APPRISE AS SOON AS WE KNOW.  PEACE TO YOU.

Ok.

Breath.

There are many things I can say about what I see on the news, but I think, I will ignore what I have heard and have seen.

Rather, I want to get back to basics here.

I think the world is becoming inverted.

What do I mean?

I think what we have known is about to change in ways we cannot imagine.

I call it:  flatline.

And I pray that what comes after is what we can live with from the best part of ourselves.

In the meantime, I’m going back to basics, stocking up on canned foods, designing vegetable gardens and rainwater collection systems.

And yes, making room and welcoming friends and family without a place to go.

May God Bless us All.

What can you make for dinner from what you have?  Those potatoes growing roots, perhaps?

Vegan Potato Soup

Updates:  I added too much wheat flour to the soup and destroyed it. Note photo below:

And now looking at the photo of the cans, I wonder why one of the four tomato cans has turned its back on the camera?  Hmmm, could of sworn wasn’t like that before……………..

Open Letter to God now updated

In a nutshell,

what truly would fit?

Is there something I can share,

impart,

that you yourself,

have not thought of?

Yes,

grammar is but a tool

to help bridge the gap

in communication,

and I will flout

those rules here.

Yesterday,

did it matter,

how your hair looked?

what car you drove?

who said what about you?

If so,

you live,

still,

within,

what I would call,

a bubble,

a protected, lovely bubble,

that is no different,

than an oxygen tank.

There is a limit.

I don’t mean to bring you down,

and in fact,

I believe the great deal of you that visit

more than once

know that automatically.

What I am trying to impart,

is that,

life,

is but a knock away.

For some of us,

it can be a knock that resounds as a winning lottery ticket,

or the sense of doom,

before the knuckles fall,

but it is fallible

and ever present

unless

we

decide

otherwise.

If I am rooted in faith,

external conditions,

well,

they can try,

can’t they?

But then,

isn’t it up to me,

as to how,

insidious,

they become?

**May you be blessed and protected today.  Namaste.

-Surface Earth

There is nothing I can add to what Sorrow has said in her post:  It matters.

I invite you to go back and read her post again and then spread the word of her Labryinth shop, the shop is selling love and generosity to help others.  Go take a peek.

“The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”

–Edmund Burke

Dear Ones:

We are not in a point of life where we can give money to those in need.  What we can do is invite you here, place your needs or petitions, if you want by location, in case of local help, but that is your choice entirely.

We will try to turn your email or comment requests into posts and some day a workable map-type web where people within localities can help each other and we can truly live a human community.

Pass this around.  All are welcome.  Evidently, we cannot vouch for the requests we will receive, we just ask you be guided by your heart.

The following is lifted entirely from Enreal’s site:  (BTW:  I WILL ANSWER ENREAL BELOW).

An interesting meme delving into the lives of other bloggers… so technically it is a YouYou and a way to “pick your brain”

The rules are:

• Choose whose brain you want to pick.
• Ask a question about what you always wanted to know from that person, never mind whether it may be indiscreet – so be cautious
• Tag (with a TrackBack) the person

Oh, yes, and of course answer the question that you were asked, more or less detailed

The answer to my question is no… I never wore braces when I was young. I did however wear really funny looking glasses.

Now my questions…

1. Ray… have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in a different century? Which would it be?

2. Gypsy Heart… what led you to painting…( thank God for your gift)… if you could imagine doing anything else as good… what would it be?

3. Zenuria… I know of your travels and adventures… if you could have an ideal set of circumstances where you could travel and see the world… where would you go first?

4. Sorrow… what’s the first thing you would do if you became president?

5. Glaize … If you witness one natural phenomenon what would it be?

6. Cordie… If you won the lottery what is the first thing you would do?

7. Sanity… this is gonna have to be a good one… if you could spend one hour in someone elses shoes… who would it be and what would you do?

8. Spaz… Imagine living in the future… what would you look forward to?

9. Surface Earth… With all the awareness you bring to us readers… all the empathy you show… all the beautiful words you share with us… what is the one message you would leave us with?

Now to all those whom I tagged… I have come to know you well through your words and time has definitely weaved us together… through the last couple of weeks I have met new friends and read beautiful essays and works of art… I am blessed… I wish to ask all of you… What does the world look like from your view??

Benafia

Dumakey

Amber

Smith

Michael M

Wow I went a bit crazy with the tagging… have fun… can’t wait to hear your answers…

“Surface Earth… With all the awareness you bring to us readers… all the empathy you show… all the beautiful words you share with us… what is the one message you would leave us with?”

Enreal:  I don’t know the “one” message.  If I was compelled to leave but one, it would be “love”.  I know you are not suprised by that.

The lack of love, for ourselves, is what causes the majority of issues in this world.  I believe, if we could be kind to ourselves first, we would find it easier to be kind to others.  The problem presents itself that we are born here, with different feelings, different language skills and are “corrected”.  The process of correction erodes our natural ability to act only from love and joy.  We then spend, if we are so blessed, the remainder of our days here, unlearning, again, and again.

I would say, look not with your eyes, but with your heart, and always, with kindness.

May God bless you in this and every moment.  May you never forget, we are part of the whole.

I was wondering, and am still wondering, how we shape our answers.

I tried to figure out if there is a way to out fox myself.  If I could pose my question in such a way that I could trick myself, then maybe I might find a different answer.

The way we post questions creates our world.  It is difficult to get beyond our own perception.  We may try to trace the origin of our perception, i.e. childhood, to find out where it has gone from there, but we then still move forward from the same point of origin.

I think, maybe, I am understanding the idea of the empty vessel.

This is a difficult subject.

Let me start again.

I am trying to express something that to me goes beyond words.

It began with a thought I had, every time I do a search for answers, a Google search, a search in the book store, a search by queries, verbally to people I meet in alleged real-time, my subconscious has already framed the questions to find a channel of answers.

The question then becomes, how do I get beyond myself to reach the pure channel of information or am I already in it?  As long as I have this other, this human self, that speaks for me, thinks for me, writes for me…will I ever truly know what lies beyond my own sphere of perception?

Namaste!  Thanks for the fireside chat.

I thought today, driving home,

ah,

sigh….the art of letters.

I don’t know how many of you can comprehend what I mean, and I certainly do not mean that from either an intellectual, emotional or spiritual capacity, I mean…….well, let’s see how it unfolds.

I mean,

the edges of my sweater, a black one of course, bought by my daughter for me, clearance Calvin, stretching across the mid-span of my palm, or in reverse, the outerside of the top of my hands, not quite at my knuckles.

I think, of fires, whether mine or others, and the timelessness of time before the advent of copiers and fax machines and cell phones you could carry without rupturing your back and the internet, remember the blue screen of seemingly nothingness?

And then bam:  the virtual world and no way to turn back.

So it made me think,

ask,

remember “letters”?

You took some paper,

maybe loose leaf,

maybe left over paper and you began

the bravest of us,

started on that creamy

stationary that was stashed in a drawer for the most important of occassions.

We sat,

we thought,

we looked around,

we walked away,

we came back,

we wrote,

and wrote,

and crossed out,

then tried to not make it look like a cross out,

and oh please,

don’t get me started on “white out”,

they actually changed the brush for a sponge foam type thing

that does not work,

and we wrote.

We often started again,

the first letter to the left or right of us,

and began again,

realizing we had more cross outs

than readable spaces,

and this would repeat itself,

over several moments,

hours or days…

but we thought,

we reflected and man

we waited before sealing the envelope and sticking on that stamp

that was not ever escalating

and walking somewhere

to find the blue metal beautiful box

on the corner

calling our name.

Some of us even circled it several times and then walked away,

pocketing the letter,

folding it,

saying,

you know,

maybe some other day.

But we did not hit send,

we didn’t have the ability to have our impulse cross out our heart.

I’m missing letter writing my friends.

I want to use that blue box on the corner,

I want my time to dream between the spaces.

Abundant blessings to you.  I send my heart out within an envelope and am happy to wait for a return!

Peace.

How was I to know, the journey began within and ended within?

I really didn’t.

It began so many years ago, do I dare to bore you?

I can if you want.

If you are sitting there flicking around looking for something, anything that takes you away for a moment,

take a moment and come back to yourself.

I need to believe for a moment,

that I,

you,

we,

are in the future.

We are looking back,

reading a textbook,

when humans

actually employed the use of tanks, planes and guns,

to deal with “civilians”.

I need to believe,

in the future,

as I read the text book,

that I am compelled to look up the word:

civilian.

I need to understand,

the fine line,

between,

expendable humans

and non-expendable humans.

I apologize.

I cannot find a 2008 defintion of same.

I need to understand,

how it can be anyone’s solution,

to put children in harm.

I digress.

Yet, I don’t,

it is all interconnected.

I ask,

perhaps,

what is your view,

do you not feel we should be beyond the “need” for violence

to resolve our

human dilemna?

Peace.

May we all take five minutes today to pray for same.

Sometime ago, Enreal tagged me here for a “tag”, “link”, I am never quite sure of the “nomenclature”, for a series of shared favorite quotes.

I thought, and I thought and I thought.  And I realized, the quotes I like best are the ones that happen spontanouesly in the day, the ones, most often born of innocence, out of the mouths of babes they say.  I continued to think.  Then, the other night, I received an email from a group I read and there they were, three beautiful, pristine quotes and I knew those are the ones I wanted to share.

Enreal, thank you for keeping me thinking.  Without further ado………..

“When the doors of perception are cleansed, man will see things as they truly are, infinitie.”

-William Blake

“We count our miseries carefully, and accept our blessings without much thought.”

-Chinese Proverb

“When we settle into the present moment, we can see beauties and wonders right before our eyes…”.

-Thich Nhat Hanh

—-Blessings

Dear Marian:

I share here, your artistic success:  The Witch of Portobello, by Marian and the Gang

To the rest of the community, this is in part, a response to an earlier post of mine, an invitation of Paulo Coehlo, a truly cool Brasilian writer, inviting emerging film artists to participate in the interpretation of one of his books:  See prior link here

Blessings.

SE

I have to believe

I gotta believe

I do believe.

In bigger, and better, and all encompassing.

I believe,

you and I,

have taken a turn being each other,

and only,

turn away,

because of the recognition of pain.

I salute,

the quiet dignity,

as a woman,

in worshipping in a belief in Islam,

quietly,

turned,

five times a day.

I believe,

in the repetition,

of the Catholic prayers,

and rejoice,

in the Catholic,

yes,

the ones,

on the wild,

holy rolling,

healing masses,

singing free.

I believe,

in the coverings,

of the women,

I  have known,

and have seen,

of Jewish faith,

yes,

covered,

and not so much,

some mainstream,

perhaps,

in belief.

I believe,

in the Celts,

that danced,

under the full moon,

while still worshipping the sun.

I believe,

in the way,

my heart,

my soul,

soars on its own,

with the beauty,

of full blown

gospel singing.

It

is

not just belief,

it is knowing,

certainty,

being,

ok,

with embracing the unknown.

This I share with you.

Knowing,

I could as easily,

ask to be part of a Gospel Church,

as a Roman Catholic,

I could ask to be divided,

on the side of a curtain,

covering my head,

my arms,

past my knees,

I could ask,

to be fully wrapped,

yet,

embracing a God,

within me,

as I bow,

scraping myself upon the ground,

not in subjection,

but in praise,

and in hope, and in love.

I ask us to remember tonight,

the words brothers and sisters,

have no

racial,

cultural,

geographic,

political,

familial,

nor economic bounds

It is simply,

the divine within,

willing to see,

the divine

within others,

the ever flowing love.

Once seen,

never forgotten.

Peace be unto you.

Come along to the new page:  Take Back America

Jon in on the flow of discussion for a full today and the today’s to follow.

Knowledge as defined by Merriam-Webster online includes the awareness of something, being familiar with something and the cognition of facts.

Many times, if things do not fall within our knowledge, we automiatically presume the “things” to not be true or to not exist.  Funny, isn’t it?

Would it not be just as easy to presume that what we don’t know may have as great of a chance of existing as not exisisting?

For instance, why is the idea of life beyond our known Earthly world so hard for many to fathom?

Today, it takes headlines because a well known, much followed former Astronaut, Dr. Edgar Mitchell, publicly speaks that the government has been covering up the existence of other life forms for at least six decades.

Shocking?

No.

What seems more shocking to me is that we could honestly believe that we are the only living beings, race of people/intelligent life/etc. in the vast unknown of space.

See also:

Fox News

I want to post something simple today.

Thanks and gratitude for my life.

This is a simple post in many ways, but I want to share, I begin…

I give thanks for the ability to receive love.

I give thanks for the ability to understand love.

I give thanks, for each part of my body, my mortal shell, that operates at its best efficiency.

I give thanks, for the numerous markets near me, to pick and choose, what shall land on my family’s plate.

I give thanks, that I can share my earnings to other family, beyond my immediate circle.

I give thanks, for the state of mind, that allows me to keep earning.

I give thanks for the ability to walk out the door, go to a store, and buy essentials that make my life easier.

I give thanks for the ability to smile in the face of adverse circumstances.

I give thanks to remember that I smiled in just such circumstances.

I give thanks for the ability to use my fingers to play across this keyboard.

I give thanks that I can stand, sit, dwell, hear and ask to pray for those that are without hope.

I give thanks that I live and was born within a county that does not stone people for adultery.

I give thanks that I can stop here and ask all of you to use the power of word and the power of prayer to hope, that only God, and not practicing mortals, decides the fate of the nine in Iran sentenced to die by stoning for alleged adultery.

I give thanks that I have the courage to ask you to stop what you are doing and send a positive prayer to the universe to save those people, our brother and sisters.

I give thanks that someday we become united again, outside the dictates of society.

I give thanks that you took a moment of your day to stop in.

Peace to you.

S.E.

I feel like writing tonight.  Not sure what will land here, but I felt like sharing, or would it be, unburdening?

I have had some really interesting dreams lately, the angels teaching me about pieces of rainbows and how to turn them to heal.

A repetitive dream about escaping from one world to the next, sneaking out through a porthole, that forgive me, was I believe a toilet bowel, the deal was, I had to have faith, dive in and let myself be flushed away.  The thing is, my consciousness, and my self, however you define it, came out from the other side.  And then it happened again and again and again until I awoke near 5 and say ok, enough of that, bring me back to the rainbows.

The rainbows are fast and furious in my mind.  If you go back to the beginning of many of my posts, there was a desperate, desperate search…I needed, wanted, demanded the answers.  Could that be the lawyer in me?  And then, it stopped, and it stopped, without my doing, by the immersion in silence and in nature.  Now, I’m not telling you I had to be in the middle of the woods, I could have been on a busy street, on a stoop, lucky enough to have a pot of geraniums at my side, but I needed to be.  And I found I could not “be” in the continuous cycle of putting on a face.  Whoever that other is, that seeks to say, hey, hey – aren’t I cool, aren’t I loveable?  Let me show you, you will see.  Well, she went somewhere else, age, you ask?  Perhaps.  And if so, blessings.

The point being, there is a quiet solitutude that has nothing to do with loneliness.  That may be because I am fortunate enough to be withn reservoirs of love, or is that because, becoming aware, I stepped within reservoirs of love and decided to stay put?

That’s it.  Sin-e.

Best of blessings, peace, wholeness, and undoubtedly, self-healing to you.  Faith can move a mountain.  I have always had a problem with it, until I got out of my own way, and realized it was true.

Live from the heart.

Live honest to you.

You’ll be ok.

Peace.

Where do we begin when we sit separate; yet, never apart

in this Divine Matrix

of energy?

I wonder at times,

why I write here,

and then wonder again,

why not?

I share with you to night, a small sliver from a beautiful, beautiful book:

(an excerpt of an excerpt)

Poem by Phillip Lopate

We who are

your closest friends

feel the time

has come to tell you

that every Thursday

we have been meeting,

as a group,

to devise ways

to keep you

in perpetual uncertainty

frustration

discontent and

torture

by neither lovng you

as much as you want

nor cuttng you adrift.

Your analyst is

in on it,

plus your boyfriend

and your ex-husband;

and we have pledged

to disappoint you

as long as you need us.

In annoucing our

association

we realize we have

placed in our hands

a possible antidote

against uncertainty

indeed against ourselves.

But since our Thursday nights

have brought us

to a community

of purpose

rare in itself

with your as

the natural center,

we feel hopeful you

will continue to make unreasonable

demands for affection

if not as a consequence

of your disastrous personality

then for the good of the collective.

For the absolute beautiful narrative leading up to and including this piece, pick up and read:

Anne Lamott

“Bird by Bird, Some Instructions on Writing and Life.”

Peace to you.

What is the story that you have not told?

Is there only one?

Is it the story that creeps upon you in the darkest part of the night,

or the one,

in the full light of the Sun,

that glares at you,

on your way to work,

daring you to deceive it?

Do you have a story untold?

One that would free your heart,

if only,

for a moment,

you were the breath

of air

that lit

the

embers

of the fire?

the most profound thing

I have heard in awhile,

is…

“there really is no Earth,

it is only dressed up,

as the Earth.”

anonymous, 5 years old

Today,
I draft a contract to myself,
one you may find amusing,
resourceful or contemplative.

I begin…

Today
I honor myself
as I did
before I knew either
the definition
or
the spelling
of honor

Today
I honor myself
as a child
with the face
turned
to the
Sun

Today
I honor myself
and forgive
my past
lack of realization

Today
I honor myself
and forgive
my past
perceived
mistakes

Today
I honor myself
and forgive
you
for what
I thought
or
think you
have done

Today
I honor myself
and covenant
that if I cannot think with love
I will neutralize
my thoughts
and think
without judgment

Peace to you today. You are beautiful.

To sit in the hands,
the palms of God,
is to live,
without fear.

Tonight,
I need to offer prayers for those I know,
and those I have come across.

Recently,
I have met,
and have known,
spiritual people,
battling odds.

I ask tonight,
that you join me,
and offer up loving intents,
not focused on their issues,
the lack,
but on the positive,
to imagine and visualize
the people I speak of,
as
whole
and beautiful
and healthy.

Think healthy,
think whole,
think loved.

I thank you in advance.
You are beautiful souls.

Peace be unto you.

I think I get it now.

I understand the positive, positive and positive bent of some of my fellow bloggers.

I finally get,
to focus on negativity is to beget negetavity.
No two ways about it.

Love resonates at a higher level.
If we embrace moments with the reflection of love,
we actually
engage
an
alchemic
change.

Hard to swallow,
because really,
who wants to believe
themselves
responsible
for the lowest moments of their lives?

Reverse,
suppose we learn we are,
and then can
unlearn
the negativity?

Peace.

Green is cool. I’m all for it. Probably because I’m not quite centered in this world and simply believe we forget to tele-transport ourselves.

I digress.

I do in fact have some kind of point. The point will though meander, be forewarned.

Here are my thoughts on Go Green.

The North East is about to experience a heat wave.

Unemployment rates have soared.

Million dollar homes are in foreclosure.

So?

I now rinse glass and plastics and ask myself, hmmm, what can this hold? Can this hold lentils, rice, vegetables from the garden? GARDEN? Yes, despite the deer, we are trying to grow one.

Ripped up clothes? I keep them. I can make rags or quilts or whatever, and yes, you may have guessed, I am not a gifted seamstress, I am an idea girl, better off spinning tales then making them come to light.

So what does Go Green mean to most of us?

Survival.

Plain and simple.

Solar panels.

Wind turbines to the extent we can make or otherwise afford them on our roofs.

Making gallons of decaf chilled green tea, pans of baked ziti, organic cookies, whatever and everything in advance before the heat index hits 100 tomorrow. And if the power fails?

Oh boy, we better eat up and eat up quick, thank God the oregano, basil, sage, rosemary and dill hit fruition. Between that and bottles of water, we will get by.

So, what is Go Green to you?

I call it the new survival economy.

Peace to you and yours.

S.E.

It is not without a certain amount of humility that I write this post.

I am not schooled in politics.

There is something within me that blocks the flow of politics, voices in the media screeching and making me recoil, like mad ravens at a window.

I don’t have much use for “politics”. But I am not so naive as to believe I have the alternative, right, best answer for the world.

Yes, Obama doesn’t have the “past”. Isn’t that why some of us like him, want him, even, as our next President?

In many ways, a Presidential hopeful, and a President, are no different than you or I. It embodies one voice, that position, one; yes, one meant to be held and heard with more fervor and weight, but that is only if we continue to play the sliding scale of humanity we somehow unwittingly inherited and continue to propogate.

What do I hear when the call sounds: “O-Bam-A”?

I hear hope for a new tomorrow. I feel something resonate that has to do with the heart of humanity.

I hear a universal voice.

I can doubt him, why not, it’s what we are taught to do, but I feel, I would rather cast my stones in the basket of hope, we are what we believe and what we manifest. So much more so, if we dare to believe.

Peace.

I read many articles. Many books. Many reflect the path back to ourselves.

If I’m to be “honest” with you, should I be anything else? I would tell you, I believe there is only one “teaching”, one “truth”, whether it is called healing, spirituality, health, religion, love, etc.

The only truth is the heart.

Now this could be confusing because where does the soul then come in?

All I know is the soul and the heart are inextricably woven, not disparate, not separate, so I’m not sure if it matters what I call it.

I can practice yoga to get to my heart.

I can preach pretty words to get to your heart.

In the end, it is the path isn’t it, that divides, sometimes joins and other times enlightens us…the path to a singular, yet timeless, unlimited space. Within and beyond us.

Namaste.

Sometimes
there is nothing
left to say
you go hollow
empty
beyond reason.

Yet,
is it a bad
place
to be?

The space in between?

Have you ever felt
the moments
when they stretch
when time defies logic
in fact
when “time” is not
even present?

When it, you, life, just is?

Belief Net: Orbs?

New York Times reports: The Risk to Children in Myanmar

I read this article today and it hit me, yes, of course, the children are not just lost, without loved ones to protect them, but now in a further position to be exploited.

What can we do?

Children are children without geographical boundaries.

All children are our responsibility to raise up, as we will be theirs, in our older years.

Resources:

Feed the Children

Unicef Organization

Bloomberg online

Save the Children

Global Giving

I share mine with you

I inadvertantly deleted beautiful comments when switching and administering my site!

Sorry guys!

Surface Earth is taking a time out.

Bless you one and all.

Namaste.

FoxNews, tongue in cheek, presents to us, or provides a channel to us, to hear a different perspective on Jesus’ alleged lineage.

Of course, I am only one reader, and hear sarcasm between the lines, as FoxNews reports on the Director, Paul Verhoeven’s, view and account of the possibility of Jesus’ lineage.

Now, I am not without sympthathy as to how such a view could be upsetting to untold millions, but if we are strong in our faith, then we can receive, process and decide for ourselves, yes? Different points of view, so long as they do not oppress, hurt, incriminate or falsely accuse, must be heralded, no?

So I think, Mr. Verhoeven’s views should at a minimum be reviewed with an open mind. Perhaps we could start with this objective viewpoint:

1. We know more today than we knew yesterday; and

2. We know less than we will tomorrow.

The other day driving to Court, I replayed the song: Let it Be from Across the Universe. Then I began to think of my routine prayers from childhood: Our Father and Hail Mary.

As I repeated the Hail Mary after several times, I began to smile, quite wide in fact, when I got to “Mother of God”. If Jesus is the Son of God and Mary is the mother of Jesus, then she is also the Mother of God?

Well, I enjoyed this hyperbole.

So when I see someone brave enough to come out and spin a different version on Jesus’ lineage, I say why not?

What’s the harm, really?

Faith begins and ends within each of us, the tenants are beautiful guidelines, but should never be used as the ultimate guidance on love or kindness and certainly, never used to oppress.

May the Divine bless all of you.

Namaste.

Life does not stop to hold us

We only grasp

Fingernails etched

Against the matrix

of continuing energy

The close of the night

Brings sweet sorrow

for

expectations

unmet

There is a cure

prepare

a shorter list

upon waking

I saw a sign this morning in front of a small church:

God forgets the past-

Imitate Him

I smiled.  How simple.  How profound.  If you do not naturally know how to forget the past, you can pretend you do. 

Wait, imitate?  what do they mean imitate?  how do I imitate “God”?  I don’t even know if God is pure light or someone that looks like me and you.  How do I imitate that which I can’t see?

Ah, I imitate the action.  But is it action or is it non-action when you forget the past?

I decided to vote in favor of action, because for many of us, forgetting the past is in fact action, it requires “something”, clearing our mind, focusing on a simple picture in our minds, but certainly, navigating ourselves from visiting past paths that cannot be changed.  The only thing you can do by visiting the past is effect the present and the next present and so on.

Ok, so I began to get a handle on this…then I thought “imitate”, as in copy?  I felt the need to look up the word imitate…not sure I really  understood.

Dictionary.com on “imitate” lead me to a variety of similar definitions, the majority of which referred to copying a person or image.

Well ok then, I was not feeling quite so foolish for my desire to look up the word imitate and take the simple six word message I saw earlier today and turn it into a voluminous meandering post.

As I continued to read the definitions, the word “act” jumped out at me, to strive to copy an act.

Ah………..long breath. 

Now, I can put this to rest, I can live with that interpretation of the word “imitate” and thereby live with the wording of the message.  I don’t know need to figure out what form God takes in order to follow the message.

So copying the Divine, I am presently, forgetting the past and signing off of the last few hours of thought.

I watch now on CNN, the explanation for keeping a plant within a temple to gain evidence for four years to have a case for prosecuting or stopping what many of us would call the abuse of children.

I digress, because it is not how I anticipated starting my post.

I am here now though, and will continue.

I hear:

“Why don’t many of these women (a/k/a children) run away”?

Well Larry, they don’t know what is outside of the walls. I mean no disrespect Larry, but please, when the world was flat, it was flat, to suggest otherwise was heresy. I still get looked at kind of funny when I suggest we may not be the only living beings in the universe/galaxy/dimensions of time.

So what am I going on about?

De-hu-man-i-za-tion.

Dehumanizing.

I need/want to understand how anyone does this, dehumanizes another. Perhaps, I need to be in their shoes. I prefer to not be, to be honest, who would want to live through that distorted, yet, real experience of the world?

I can tell you, we dehumanize, daily.

We get angry at people in traffic, not knowing why thery are oblivious or rushing, instead, probably calling them names.

We get angry when someone’s card doesn’t work in line at the foodstore.

We get mad when someone dares to question a price, (yeah, right, you kidding me? many more of us know, thirty cents makes a difference these days)

I get mad seeing these idiots in Texas abusing young women, and I want to know, when did the deception of reality, faith begin?

I no longer proscribe to any given religion, because I don’t believe in the one true, right religion, I only believe in the following:

dignity

compassion

love

respect

If that could be my religion, I could adhere to it, I cannot condemn, I cannot say other loving humans should not be saved, etc., etc., etc.

I know, we all contribute to what I call de-humanization.

What I want to know is, will we contribute to stopping this societal nightmare?

Slumber
Envelops me
Its knotty
Gnarled veins
Disguised
As time
Creeping
Slithering
Tip
Tip
Toeing
As
Otherwise mine

Soft
Velvet
Fingers tracing
The Navaho existence
Of the planes
Of my
Cheeks
Standing
Against the sky

Except

When

They

Don’t

Falling
Pray
Prey
To this
Mortal
Immortal
Existence
Playing bingo
With time

You must have heard them, haven’t you?

The almost, indescribable sounds of night.

Not the ones that keep you waiting on your next breath,

the ones removed,

silent,

peacefully exhaling.

You wonder sometimes,

how it can be,

that the same darkness

can breed such separate sets of emotion,

but it happens,

doesn’t it?

Just like in the day.

I was touched this evening,

very touched,

by words in a book,

I found,

in a dollar store today.

I mean no disrespect to the author,

paying such a slight amount.

Is it an excuse that it is all the vendor asked

and I did not bargain down further?

Without further ado, I share:

“Don’t you know she is the one who came out of her mother’s womb, leaving her mother dead?

Do you know who brought her from the hospital? Her mother’s brother, who didn’t even cry that night. Not one teardrop? No.

Unknown to them, you see what they say.

Will you keep your back turned, angry and hurt? Or will you put on a smile, walk straight into their waiting arms, into their trap of pity? I don’t know.

All I know is that in this city of twelve million, if six or seven, even ten people, say words that hurt, they are a speck in the ocean. Wait for a while, the moon will slide into the right place, the clouds will gather, there will come a tide and with it a wave that will wash this speck away.”

-The Blue Bedspread, by Raj Kamal Jha

I say to you then, namaste, in your deepest moments of the night, “the moon will slide into the right place.”

I have seen

the bottom

of tomorrow

it looks

not much

different

than

today

God’s Vision

Is only limited

by the sight

of our own eyes

The sweet smell of freedom

the chorus

of unrehearsed melody

Today,

I had a day “off”

I sifted through “old” writings

I sifted through “old” drawings

and

I threw them out

I feel lighter.

Tranquility

creeps

the ivy on the vine

forgotten

but for a few

the car travelling

an unknown path

feet taking

around a corner

the eye

willing to see

what was not seen before

but tranquility

ah

it almost pardons itself

excuse me,

is this seat taken?

I want to tell you

how the sun looks

against the trees

tonight

I actually

love you

my loyal readers

so much

i ran outside

but picked the camera

without a card

I wanted

you to see

what I see

the horizon

of the end

of today

against tomorrow

and

I wanted

to get that for you

a glimpse

because that is often

all it is

namaste

my friends

may you brighten

the moments

of those

you walk

across

Do you ever wonder,

why you are here?

In blogland?

Is that even a word, blogland?

I sit in the spaces,

of the music tonight,

Sarah McLaughlin playing,

I could not find the other cds I wanted to hear,

it does not make her unworthy,

but perhaps,

timely.

Did I tell you the story?

Once upon a time,

there was a little girl,

she was too big,

yet too small,

she set off for school,

on one of those buses,

you know,

the yellow ones,

she couldn’t reach the first step,

but refused the help of her family,

the bus driver reached down,

across three ascending steps,

a hand,

and grabbed her,

into tomorrow.

He reached,

and she held,

and she stepped,

into the time,

that was not defined.

She was gone.

She spent the days after,

sometimes,

well,

maybe only once,

being forgotten,

on the very front seat of the bus,

the one behind the driver,

reflected in that big mirror,

but not seen,

the littlest one,

there that day,

into the bus pulled into the yard,

and someone,

a stranger,

found her,

unaccounted for….

she arose the next day,

nonetheless,

and got back up those stairs,

without a hand that time,

she did not want one.

She got off the bus,

the right stop this time,

and at three,

or was it four,

she remembered,

the sun playing across the cement,

the butter in her hand,

eaten,

without the excuse of bread.

The way the sun

sat upon the world,

not asking,

but,

saw.

And in this moment,

this fresh, new Spring,

she wonders,

if the girl,

will have her back.

Don’t criticize yourself

there may already

be

a long line

of people

behind you

unable themselves

to look within the mirror

I turned my head

And You were gone

I hear sounds around the realm of me

I don’t know what they are

What You are doing

Yet

I claim

To know You

Better than anyone

But I can’t feel

What would happen

If we surrendered

To the world around us

If we hung our heads

And just admitted

That it was not for us to see

But since

We don’t know

It’s not then pretend,

is it?

I make rules

And regulations

On Your speech

When I defend others

Whose rules?

Not Jesus

I lift from my seat typing those six letters

Lord hear me

If I could explode the world would tremble

If I gave even a percentage

Of what happens inside of me

Even witnessed a moment

Of how

I want to scoop

Up the pain

In the world and tend to it

A gardener

In an untended basket

I want my hat pulled low

My brim to the Earth

I want to bow in thanks

I want to dance

And tell You

Celebrate

When my feet hit Your contours

I want to say

I am sorry for being ashamed

Of

Being alive

I am sorry

I apologize for who I am

that would bow

to You

Yet

kiss the dandelion

peeking out

between the cement slabs

The Lord God

is beautiful

He lives within

the valley of my days

He stands

watches

and wrings His hands

as I

set the water to warm

fingers crossed

and stuff

the sink

with a handtowel

as the stopper

stopped long ago

as I take one of ten

of a pack

worn

and sink them into the water

and two of four

of a pack

and sink them

too

and

rub

the Dove

I wish organic

soap

beneath the trickle

and say

how wonderful

how divine

I have withstood time

I have taken

the necessities

of a woman in business

and parceled them to

and

within

a value pack

and have further

elongated

the value

beneath my tap

I have laid

the efforts of my days

against the cracked

tile of the tub

and

have thrown

in

upon

within the graying water

the rest that

keeps me whole

setting it

wringing

it

along the path

of my legs

my feet

that raise

me

each

day

So, guess what?

I have been blessed.

I am (in part) a litigation attorney.

Today, I need to work, despite my preference to go out and place bread and apples among the trees, my offering to nature on Good Friday.

So be it, I will find time later.

In the midst of working, I need a favor, some documents e-mailed. The other attorney has her assistant respond. She responds professionally and quickly on this day that many offices and the Courts are closed.

She signed her e-mail, the salutation, “Peace & Blessings”.

Oh yes, God spoke to me today.

How exciting to see such a sign off in the litigation world.

I responded of course: Namaste.

I have been blessed today and I offer it up to all of you, we can crawl from beneath the rocks and send peace and blessings in our everyday and our otherwise work/professional communities.

I said to my husband the above.

He said, and what would you have done if she said: Praise be to Allah?

I said: God has many names.

He reminded me of a conversation he had with a taxi driver, sometime ago, when he was discussing faith and religion and said:

“God is good in every language”.

Now you must know, this morning in my head, in between the spaces of law, I have been writing a piece (in my head) on the Divine and foreign languages.

Synchronicity?

Blessings in Abundance!

I’m reading now Anderson Cooper’s, Dispatches from the Edge, A Memoir of War, Disasters, and Survival.

I find it surprisingly self-effacing.  I want to share with you a short piece therein that spoke to me (pp. 103-104):

“Here they treat the worst cases first.  That’s what TV wants as well.  The illest, the greatest in need.  It’s a sad selection process that happens in your head.

‘That child’s bad, but I think we can find worse,’ I say to myself, deciding whose suffering merits time on TV.  You tell yourself it’s okay, that your motives are good — at the moment you might even believe it.  But later, alone, lying in bed, you go over the day and feel like a fraud.  Each child’s story is worthy of telling.  There shouldn’t be a sliding scale of death.  The weight is crushing.

They die, I live.  It’s such a thin line to cross.  Money makes the difference.  If you have it, you can always survive, always find a place to stay, something to eat.  For the first few days in Maradi, I’m not even hungry.  It’s not just the heat, the dust.  I’ve become disgusted with myself.  My body fat, my health, my minor aches and pains.  I brought with me a bagful of food — cans of tuna and Power Bars — but the thought of eating anything makes me want to throw up.  That changes, of course.  After a couple days I forget why I’m depriving myself.

They die, I live.  It’s the way of the world, the way it’s always been.  I used to think that some good would come of my stories, that someone might be moved to act because of what I’d reported.  I’m not sure I believe that anymore.  Once place improves, another falls apart.  The map keeps changing; it’s impossible to keep up.  No matter how well I write, how truthful my tales, I can’t do anything to save the lives of the children here, now.”

You must know,

when I started here,

at beloved wordpress,

I had no clue what was meant by a MEME,

by what it meant to be tagged for one.

I have now enjoyed many,

although like Ronnie,

have never felt compelled to respond,

simply to respond,

rather the senders,

somehow sensed,

it was right for me.

And so it went.

So now, I introduce one from S.E.

It is simple,

and,

hopefully,

pure.

List 5-10 things of commanility that you have in common with the human race and/or nature.

List 5-10 things that you may have in common with the human race and/or nature.

Most of all,

peace among us.

S.E.’s Commanality MEME:

In common:

1. We breathe

2. We eat (I think, jury is still out on this one)

3. We sleep

4. We awake

5. We love

6. We worry

7. We battle perception

8. We have inherited Society

What we may have in common…

1. We judge

2. We perceive

3. We protect

4. We struggle

5. We love

6. We laugh

7. We hope

8. We dream

9. We wish for something “bigger” than ourselves

***Kindly send back, I want to see the evolution……….

On deck:

Ronnie

Grace

Everyone else, join in, leave a comment, e-mail me at surfaceearth@gmail.com or ping away.

Peace, blessings and healing light to all who enter here.

Namaste.

See?

Hear?

Feel?

I don’t end.

It hit me like a ton of bricks tonight, an 18 wheeler when I was looking left rather than right.

I simply
Do
Not end.

I can give you verbatim
Transcripts
Of this ordinary; yet, unusual mind of mine
Or I can stay silent
And give
Pieces
Bait at the
End of the string_

Regardless,
I remain
As
Do
You.

Meme, again?

What six words define me? If you are anything like me, often beyond definition even to yourself, there is only one way to do this….what six words define me in the moment of that thought?

Let me give you the outline of the meme and then my answer:

Here are the rules:

1. Write your own six word memoir.
2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like.
3. Link to the person who tagged you in your post and to this original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the web.
4. Tag five more blogs with links.
5. And don’t forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!

My six word memoir:

The dawn before the day remains.

Now tagging….

1. Ronnie at Outofmyhead

2. Gypsyheart

3. Tumel

4. Sorrow

5. Tobeme

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFHjUzEk0iI&rel=1]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQNpEET9WqQ&rel=0&color1=0x2b405b&color2=0x6b8ab6&border=0]

He was given

two hands

on which to count

to hold

to grasp

On one

he counted

the injustice

of

the favors

unreturned

The other

lay empty

waiting

for

return

I sit

feet beneath me

crawled into

the depth of a chair

I sit

knowing

God

is somewhere

on the edge of my being

I falter

hanging on

fingers on the edge

wondering

how hard

I should hold on

I want

to send you a picture

a sketch

a charcoal

sketched against

off white

rough paper

to show you

what my words mean

but I lack the materials

and the time

in this moment

***

I sit on the edge of the universe

my faery feet

flying

into the foam of the ocean caps

I dip

my toes

the toes I sometimes

dip

dip

dip

I dip them in

those little things

I dip them in and out

do you see them now?

those five points

dipped in foam?

those happy

little

digits

sprayed against the

horizon of the sky

against the epicenter

of the unknown?

****

I sit

on the edge

of a moss covered rock

I dip

my toes

into the clear

clear

clear waters of a meandering stream

I watch what I think

are the

never moving rocks

the pebbles

watching the

water go by

I dip and dip again

****

My faery feet

I see them well

I never asked

I never told

just a little one

a wee one

they said

so

spry

so slight

when they sucked my breath

I didn’t

know how to say

no

You have asked me

In no uncertain terms

To broker a deal

Against a sky with no moon

I have sifted

The moments of my time

Against the hourglass

Never fashioned

I bowed my head

Never

Only once

And allowed the definition

Ok regular readers…you know I always change templates, it’s like moving furniture. I need to give this a go and see what’s what…I will go back to the original format (huh? which one is that?), but in the meantime, let’s try out the new WP format.

Jump on over, the water’s fine….Update:  Humanitarian News Update

Quadriplegic man about to be booked for “fleeing”?

Reading the story reveals a photo of an officer dumping the man from his wheelchair as he was about to be booked. I am wondering, was he still fleeing?

Come on, give me a break. What, did Jimmy Neutron design the wheelchair? Attempt to elude an officer? Ok, ok, I know nothing about the officer attempting to arrest him, he may have been “speed-challenged”.

Onward:

High frequency devices drive children from stores: UK

Limbaugh as McCain’s best asset (pay attention to first three letters, he’s not doing McCain a favor)

Ok, ok, I’m just playing, but I really don’t know whether to laugh or cry when I see the headlines on the news. I understand why Polar is banning television in the campaign.

Take a look at any of the major news media sites, look at the margins, the size of the pages, what they decide is the headline news for a planet filled with billions.

Go ahead, tread lightly, you may not come back the same.

I woke up this morning,

storm clouds brewing outside,

and in that moment before my waking self realized I was awake,

a song was singing in my head,

and I say singing,

because it was a chorus of voices ringing out….

“Rise and Shine….and give God your glory, glory!  Rise and Shine…and give God your glory, glory….Rise and Shine and give God your glory, glory, children of the …(Lord?  World?  Earth?  No, scratch that, go with one of the first two.)

So there I am with this song blaring in my otherwise semi-unconscious mind looking out at tree limbs and storm clouds and believing it is Saturday…..yet, despite this lack of lucidity (hmmm, lack?) the song persisted.

Then it hit me after a few refrains….I hadn’t thought or heard of the song since I was a kid at camp sleeping in the woods in platform tents.  Where had that memory been hiding?  Had it been snatched from the Universe circling around on its way to the Recycle Bin?  Was it pre-programmed to kick start some part of myself that had been dormant?

Regardless it’s back and it’s still blaring in my mind, yes, right in the background even as I type these words to you.  And the cool part is, we used to see who could be the loudest singing and stamping our feet during that song, so I’ve got a whole singing stampede heralding me through the day!

Today, sing as loud as you can and stamp those feet, raise your arms up and live!

Greetings fellow citizens.

My name is Surface Earth.

I welcome you this evening to improve my life and my future income.

See, if you vote for me,

My ego will inflate,

My social circle will inflate,

And down the road,

I can make lots and lots of money from that,

And,

Have friends in power to give me tax cuts,

So even though shopping for food, gas, homes may be difficult for you,

I will be in good stead.

And oh yeah?

“God bless America!”

Have you heard me lately?

I think the old me, may need to be recycled.

I still call you Lord.  And no, I don’t think it’s simply habit, I think it is recognition.

Yet, I know you don’t judge.  Not me, not yourself, not anyone.

I wish to emulate the fluid peace I resonate on hearing, My Lord, within my head, or is it within a place I do not yet know?

I believe, there is more to be seen, heard and known, than we can yet incorporate as third dimensional beings.

Thank you.  I’m still on the journey.

Peace.

Yesterday I heard a commotion.

I was unsure as to what the sounds were. Yes, I presumed the noise to be birds but I could not identify what was going on. I stopped and listened and heard separate cadences.

Then, I saw a raven chase my hawk out of its tree. They swooped, I thought they might go within an inch of my head, but they didn’t. I was mesmerized because the day before, I walked out the door and a sea of birds flew over my head, like a symphony, defining my view of the sky. I ran for the camera, the new batteries I put on were on the blink. So I stood and watched.

This came back to me as I watched the raven chase the hawk, and saw two of the raven’s friends in the background. Bodyguards? They chased that hawk right out of the safe haven of the tree it fled too. Later that day I took the bread I could no longer find a recipe for to mask or revive the staleness. so I took some bags and went outside and placed piles of ripped bread upon the ground in different gathering places.

Today, again, the three ravens sat. I could not see them at first: caw, caw, caw. Space. Silence. Caw, caw, caw.

One sat within the tree, the other joined and the last swooping above on its way.

I went out later. No sign of them. In my head I repeated: caw, caw, caw. I turned the corner and there the leader sat, and repeated it back to me.

Resources on Ravens:

Raven, by Susan Morgan Black

Symbols of the Saints

Heather Blakey on Squidoo: Ravens

Integral Options Cafe: Raven