freeway - field of red lights ahead
left lane driver shifts right, right to center, center to left
same result - all stop

"Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves." - Albert Einstein

frenetically weaving in and out
daredevil's actions gains total of zero
freeway

"Patience is something you admire in the driver behind you and scorn in the one ahead." - Mac McCleary

Yeah! Seattle Celebrates Compassion

There is a celebration taking place today at Center for Spiritual Living, 5801 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, Washington.

Seattle has made history again by being the first city to affirm the Charter for Compassion and to commit to the 10-year Campaign for Compassionate Cities.

The Compassionate Action Network & Seeds of Compassion for: Compassionate Seattle: It's Up to Us!This event marks the two-year anniversary of Seeds of Compassion, which was the largest event in the history of Washington State.

Religion scholar and popular author Karen Armstrong will be the keynote speaker along with James O'Dea, and Courtney E. Martin.

It is wonderful to see the seeds planted growing and taking root.

Bananas

I read a wonderful book review by Theresa Poalucci, entitled The Infamous Banana - a fruit with a jaded past and uncertain future, in local Edmonds paper The Journal. The review was of Dan Koeppel's book Banana - The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World.

I am intrigued enough about the history, the infamous banana republics, to consider reading the book. The thing I found most curious in the review was the fact bananas plants have a disease that is killing them off, they don't grow from seeds, and are herbs.

So I decided to see what the Oxford Dictionary had to say, from AskOxford.com

Is a banana a fruit or a herb?

Both. A banana (the yellow thing you peel and eat) is undoubtedly a fruit (containing the seeds of the plant: see answer regarding tomatoes), though since commercially grown banana plants are sterile, the seeds are reduced to little specks. However, the banana plant, though it is called a 'banana-tree' in popular usage, is technically regarded as a herbaceous plant (or 'herb'), not a tree, because the stem does not contain true woody tissue

with a flick of her wrist ash clouds appear
we can only watch and wait
nature is still mistress of this realm

"As we move through life, the force of fate creates events that we only appreciate when we reflect on our existence." Ronald Harmon

Poem and excerpt from blog post Season of Resurrection - April 12, 2010 · by Christine on website abbeyofthearts.com:

Do you have a body? Don’t sit on the porch!
Go out and walk in the rain!
If you are in love,
then why are you asleep?
Wake up, wake up!
You have slept millions of years
Why not wake up this morning

-Kabir

Something always amazing happens when I cocoon.  Cocooning is the revolutionary act of taking care of yourself rather than pushing through. It means quieting and listening to the body’s gentle, insistent whispers.  It means slowing down rather than speeding up.  Cocooning creates space for the body to heal and in the process the spirit has space to roam freely and ponder the wide landscape of possibility.  While turning inward I rediscovered some essential things about self-nourishment which have gone neglected for too long in this overly full season of my life.  So I return back home with a longing to respond to Kabir’s invitation to walk in the rain and awaken my senses.

"Just remember, there's a right way and a wrong way to do everything and the wrong way is to keep trying to make everybody else do it the right way." - M*A*S*H, Colonel Potter

"To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else." - Emily Dickinson

hurry scurry long day done
a hurdle easily cleared surprise
naptime

"The miracle is not to fly in the air, or to walk on the water, but to walk on the earth." - Chinese Proverb

a little threadbare
snuggling into bed
such a blessing

“The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live.” - Flora Whittemore

disheartened
dead printer
ah, shopping

"Whoever said money can't buy happiness simply didn't know where to go shopping."   - Bo Derek

I was feeling a little maudlin about Easter. A young co-worker mentioned not getting an Easter candy this year for the first time. I replied I hadn't bought any this year either. She took her last 50 cents, and bought us a bag of peanut M & M's to share. Chocolate Easter eggs.

Happy, Healthy Easter

"When your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt." Henry Kaiser

finally dark of night, sleep
dreams become work saturated
where is the pause

Desire For Solitude

I finally found a favorite, special quote written by Peter Hoeg from the movie Smilla's Sense of Snow

“I feel the same way about solitude as some people feel about the blessing of the church. It's the light of grace for me. I never close my door behind me without the awareness that I am carrying out an act of mercy toward myself."

The world around me has felt unsettled this week:

I was unnerved by the drive by shooting at 1 am in my neighborhood last week. So close to where I live, so close to when I come home.

I received a summons for jury duty, but had to request a postponement as we had people on vacation for the scheduled week, and it was the week of a computer system change. Now, I'll go June 21. I pondered wanting to legally past judgement on someone. I am willing to go yet reticent. The only time I served on a jury in the past it was a civil suit - truck and car accident. I was the hold out sitting in a roomful of people whose most fervent desire was to go home for dinner.

We were about to under go the switch over to the new company's computer system when it was announced that it is postponed.

A new quality assurance program started. While I can see the need, most of us aren't comfortable with being under a new microscope.

One co-worker's husband is almost home on leave from a 6 month deployment. She is praying he won't be held up in Kuwait for de-briefing.

One co-worker has almost broken free of a controlling boyfriend. I have seen some of the complications of breakups in the age of social media. In the midst of all the emotional pain of love gone wrong, one must do something about shared Facebook relationships. Then there was the fact the young man sent 9 text messages during a 15 minute break period. And, I learned T-Mobile charges $6 a month to block a number.

Another co-worker received a call from her daughter who was in the Emergency Room. Her daughter, fortunately, survived a car crashed where her Geo was totalled with only bruises (thanks to the airbags).

Another co-worker was the victim of a bump and grab robbery at a Wal-mart. The man made off with wallet, took off in his car, and she took off after him. She chased him down in her car while calling the police. They, of course, told her not to approach the man. She actually forced his car off the road, got out and started pounding on his window yelling, "Give me my f...king wallet back." He finally rolled down the window, and denied having it.
She continued, "Give me my f...king wallet back or I am going f...king drag you out of the car and beat the shit out of you." He relented and gave her back her wallet, and took off.
She went back to Wal-mart to go over the security tapes. Her son and daughter-in-law who, also, work with us were horrified that she went after the guy. You see she's only about 5'4" maybe 120 pounds and in her mid to late 60's. It was hard not to admire her. It was funny hear her normally quiet, reserved daughter-in-law repeat the story colorful language and all. Then in the second or third telling a new fact came out. I was surprised to see how this new twist changed people's feeling about the same event. I was equally interested to see the factor didn't change my feelings. The new twist? The thief was probably at least 70.
Immediately, people made up stories about why a man that age would do something like, he'd probably fallen on hard times. The thief went from being despicable to the being the object of mutterings, "oh the poor man."

Then the "blessings":

 - I stopped on the way to work to bring fresh cookies a co-worker. The man who parked next to me noticed a big rusty nail sticking out of my tire on the passenger side. Kindness begets kindness. Because he stopped to tell me I was able to get the tire replaced before it went flat. It turned out the other tire on the passenger side had problem the a bubble in the sidewall as well. Whew, an easy fix.

I have been listening to a relaxing weight loss visualization by Jon Gabriel as I go to sleep. I noticed that one of the lines mentioned something like you will be supported in healthy eating by people around you. I hadn't said anything to co-workers about the visualization. The second day after listening to it one of my co-workers decided to bring me a healthy home cooked meal. Then three more home cooked meals were brought to me. Someone brought ice cream, Skinny Cow. The last was the most touching. One of my co-workers who telecommutes actually took a bus into the office and brought me a warm home cooked meal for my dinner break. The world is an amazing place.


I got a new cart to wheel groceries in from the car, and a new office chair. I haven't had an office chair at home since I was a kid. I decided both were worthwhile expenditures. And, then the next day, I had an offer I couldn't easily refuse to work an extra day. That will pay for them.

I wasn't going to write anything, but I was inspired after looking at Sandy's pictures and reading Jan's blog with a recounting of her class. Thank you.

Now for a bite of tangerine sherbert, and re-runs of The Patty Duke Show.

Octavio Paz

Since it was his birthday March 31,  I thought I would post this poem by Octavio Paz

Between going and staying the day wavers,
in love with its own transparency.
The circular afternoon is now a bay
where the world in stillness rocks.

All is visible and all elusive,
all is near and can't be touched.

Paper, book, pencil, glass,
rest in the shade of their names.

Time throbbing in my temples repeats
the same unchanging syllable of blood.

The light turns the indifferent wall
into a ghostly theater of reflections.

I find myself in the middle of an eye,
watching myself in its blank stare.

The moment scatters. Motionless,
I stay and go: I am a pause.