so tempting - is it a "good" thing or a "bad" thing

huh, an empty basket in an empty lot at night

it is actually a view of shopping all done - yipee

softness of evening settling in
slowly the pace and focus shifts
now is the time to prepare our dreams

Swaying to and forth with circumstances

bacon - splendid, loud phone calls surrounding me - hard

so where the contentment of neutrality where "I" rests

i like the feel of shifting perspectives

how nice to allow something to soften in focus

realizing the relativity of truth

Naughty or good, I am Thy child. - Paramahansa Yogananda

Worldprayers.org:


O our Father, the Sky, hear us
and make us strong.
O our Mother, the Earth, hear us
and give us support.
O Spirit of the East,
send us your Wisdom.
O Spirit of the South,
may we tread your path.
O Spirit of the West,
may we always be ready for the long journey.
O Spirit of the North, purify us
with your cleansing winds.


american indian - sioux

Worldprayers.org:


Om asato ma sadgamaya,
tamaso ma jyotirgamaya,
mrityorma amritamgamaya
Om shantih shantih shantih


Oh Almighty! Lead us from the unreal (falsity)
to the real (truth) from darkness to light!
From death to immortality!
Oh Almighty! May there be Peace! Peace! Peace!


brihdaranyaka upanisada 1:3:27 - india

Worldprayers.org:


KHAMEMI SAVVE JIVA
We forgive all the living beings,


SAVVE JIVA KHAMANTU ME
We seek pardon from all the living beings,


MITTI ME SAVVA BHUTESU
We are friendly towards all the living beings,


VERAM MAJJHAM NA KENVI
And we seek enmity with none,


MICHHAMI DUKKADDAM!
Moreover, we ask for forgiveness from all!


michchhami dukkadam - jain prayer of forgiveness

"Seeing is different than being told." Proverb

You Who Stand in the Doorway, Come in

From a Seattle based blog post whose title I love: You Who Stand in the Doorway, Come in:

 Chimamanda Adichie: The Danger of a single story

"The problem with the stereotype is not that it is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story. . . 

. . . The consequence of the single story is this: that it robs people of dignity."

Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign. But stories can also be used to empower, and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people. But stories can also repair that broken dignity.

Power is the ability not just to tell the story of another person, but to make it the definitive story of that person. The Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti writes that if you want to dispossess a people, the simplest way to do it is to tell their story, and to start with, "secondly." Start the story with the arrows of the Native Americans, and not with the arrival of the British, and you have and entirely different story. Start the story with the failure of the African state, and not with the colonial creation of the African state, and you have an entirely different story.

Invitation

Adapt International and Compassionate Action Network

cordially invite you to a week-long program to celebrate

Children's Peace Day

Program begins with  

You Who Stand in the Doorway, Come in

 a community oral storytelling festival to build bridges of understanding across cultures & generations

October 16 & 17, 2010
1:00PM - 5:00PM


 Inscape (the former Immigration & Naturalization Services building)
 815 Airport Way South, Seattle


The festival is curated by Amineh Ayyad as part of the Passages event at Inscape, a collective re-visioning and transforming of this historic building into its future role as an arts and culture hub for Seattle's diverse communities.

 We are transforming an old detention dorm in the building into a traditional hospitality room representing various cultures around the world.  Come to share coffee, tea, and  stories.  We will listen and share stories about hospitality, compassion, perseverance, friendship, and the struggles & legacies of immigrants, refugees and other communities in diverse Seattle. Humor, greed, global health and healing are other themes included in the festival

“The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not ‘Eureka!’ but ‘That’s funny….’” - Isaac Asimov

"Man's mind is not a container to be filled but rather a fire to be kindled." - Dorothea Brande

“The beginning of wisdom is found in doubting; by doubting we come to the question, and by seeking we may come upon the truth.” - Pierre Abelard

"To me the desire to create and to have control over your own life, irrespective of the politics of the time or social structures, has always been a part of the human spirit. What I did not fully realize was that work could open the doors to my heart." - Anita Roddick, Founder/CEO, The Body Shop

"Light brings knowledge, knowledge brings compassion."  Aqune - Spider Riders TV cartoon.

"In the presence of eternity, the mountains are as transient as the clouds."  - Robert Green Ingersol

"Each moment is a place you've never been."   - Mark Strand

"A child on a farm sees a plane fly overhead and dreams of a faraway place.  A traveler on the plane sees the farmhouse below and dreams of home." - Robert Brault

soft workshirt blue to dusky blue black sky
they say the light of stars is from long, long ago
so am i living in two moments at once

To Beautiful Food

suffering through Tuesday
buffered by healthy home cooked food
shifting slightly away from struggle


My co-worker, Melissa, has grown increasing health consciousness.She listens to what sound like excellent pod casts from the Nutrition Diva.So far what Melissa has shared is excellent information, i.e. Basmati rice is a little lower fiber than brown rice it, also, lower in sugar content and higher in minerals.


I am now benefiting from some delicious cooking experiments due Melissa's intelligent creativity. She reframed the adage of eating more vegetables for a healthy diet and weight. She brought in a stunningly beautiful "salad" with adzuki bean(cooked) raw spinach, whole wheat fresh cooked pastas of different shapes, small tomatoes, cheeses, and a can't remember what else at the moment. Ah, yes, real bacon bits, and more. She called it her "Lynn" salad.
She decided the more beauty there was in the food she seemed be more satisfied, eat less, and healthier. I know I think this supposed to be what the gourmet chefs in the fancy restaurants may proclaim. However, the gourmet restaurants I often see scarcity along with beauty which is followed by the real or imagined continuing hungry.


With meals, Melissa has brought in have indeed been healthy and filling. I am admiring her creativity and joy in being willing to experiment as well. Last night, she told me there were multi-colored beans sitting at home in kitchen soaking in water with garlic cloves waiting to become part of some larger. Which means that there may a beautiful dinner awaiting me at work.

"I never ask God to give me anything; I only ask him to put me where things are."   - Mexican Proverb

"Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world."   - Arthur Schopenhauer

"The average man will bristle if you say his father was dishonest, but he will brag a little if he discovers that his great-grandfather was a pirate."  - Bern Williams

"The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress."  - Joseph Joubert

"I went to a cafe that advertised breakfast anytime, so I ordered French Toast during the Rennaisance."  - Steven Wright