"A charmed life grows out of real experiences and real relationships. These can be at a premium in our age of virtual reality, when images routinely stand in for the actual. Computers call you up and pretend to be people. Pieces of plastic pretend to be money. Chemicals pretend to be food." - Victoria Moran

"Things anchor us emotionally. Being surrounded by our stuff is comforting, an innocent buffer to the harsh realities of the world. . . we can deny our impermanence more easily more easily when we see that we have a huge sofa or dining room table dozens of dinner plates and enough flatware to serve sixteen." Eve Eliot from Attention Shoppers!

"You are a dot on a sphere that is only one of many spheres in the vastness of outer space. This sphere you are a dot on is in a galaxy that is one of many galaxies. The sphere you are on is rotating on its axis around a huge ball of fire, and its velocity is not affected one bit by what you weigh."  Eve Eliot

"There is nothing wrong with the search. It brought us to this moment.
But if we continue our identity as seekers, we can overlook the deeper
revelations, the deeper feast (ourselves). " Gangaji

from Gratefulness.org;

 WORD FOR THE DAY

 Friday, Mar. 30

 Make visible what, without you, might perhaps never have been seen. Robert Bresson

Final WUF Promo 2_328 from Sounds True on Vimeo.

Some very interesting observations by the founder of Sounds True, Tami Simon, there is a wealth of information of her website, Sounds True.com

Remembering by Rilke

Remembering

And you wait. You wait for the one thing
that will change your life,
make it more than it is—
something wonderful, exceptional,
stones awakening, depths opening to you.

In the dusky bookstalls
old books glimmer gold and brown.
You think of lands you journeyed through,
of paintings and a dress once worn
by a woman you never found again.

And suddenly you know: that was enough.
You rise and there appears before you
in all its longings and hesitations
the shape of what you lived.

Rilke

Book of Images

"Everything - absolutely everything - is progress." Danielle LaPorte

"APPROACH EVERYTHING AS A CREATIVE OPPORTUNITY. There is no separation between life and work. The same opportunities to express yourself or get great ideas are at the dinner table, in the stock exchange, and on the subway." - Danielle LaPorte

 “Most of the time - 99 percent of the time - you just don't know how and why the threads are looped together, and that's okay. Do a good thing and something bad happens. Do a bad thing and something good happens. Do nothing and everything explodes.

And very, very rarely - by some miracle of chance and coincidence, butterflies beating their wings just so and all the threads hanging together for a minute - you get the chance to do the right thing.”
― Lauren Oliver

More Random Threads

 satisfaction, paper shredding done old bills, old now irrelevant pieces hopefully going to be reborn into some new life. . . perhaps a kleenex box. . .heck I haven't given much thought to the myriad of possibilities these may turn into. . . just another thread of the thought . . . of my new teal blanket. .  . I see it was made in China. . . and have a flicker of thought of it being in some storage container in the middle of the ocean. . .in a factory becoming larger and larger with someone watching over it. . . and what did they have for breakfast, and are they now. . .have they lost their wonder of all the colors and watching the miracle of becoming . . is it not amazing I can see a little screen. . . press little buttons . . .and summon an object from so far away. . . what would Marco Polo think. . .is it relevant  . . .will pieces of my past life become something that is summoned by a little box pressed by the fingers or even the mere voice of someone in China, Australia, South Carolina. . .maybe grocery bags . . . maybe my old medical statements with carry peaches home for someone in the Bronx. . . well I don't know . . .and I suppose they could return to me in the shape of a wrapper around my book . . . or tissue in a shoe. . .

So on a scrap of paper now destined for a new life, I found words I don't remember writing:

life bubbles over everywhere as we try to contain it, like containing air in a napkin

indeed

Small Shopping Puzzle & New Delights

Product Details
    Product Dimensions: 16.8 x 35.5 x 61 inches ; 180 pounds
    Shipping Weight: 136 pounds

(so if I was always in transit would I weigh less . . . ? )

and seen at Cost Plus - Citrus Basil Turkey Jerky

enjoyed as my new favorite candy bar - Coconut Secret Almond Bar

Made from Coconut, real chocolate coating (cocoa mass, cocoa butter, coconut crystals), almonds, coconut oil, coconut nectar, vanilla extract, sunflower lecithin. Certified organic. 

This bar has 9 grams of sugar and by random comparison Hershey's Milk Chocolate 31 grams of sugar

Besides Coconut Secret Bars taste way better, and are more satisfying. They are the normal size for a candy bar. I can be happy with half a bar.  And the story sold me the first bar:

It all began in the Spring of 2008, with an overwhelming desire to create a low glycemic, gluten-free snack line that was truly safe for diabetics, using the purest, most organic, least processed ingredients we could find.  A few years earlier both our parents were diagnosed with Diabetes, and we quickly became appalled at what was being passed off as "diabetic-safe" foods, especially in the snack category. . . (the rest on their website)

and the new favorite crackers I wanted to get from Whole Food: 

Coconut Curry Vegan Raw Gourmet Crackers by Living Spoonful

Organic sunflower seeds, organic carrots, organic flax seed, coconut, organic onion, organic lemon juice, organic garlic, organic raisins, organic dates, celtic sea salt, organic jalapeno, organic lemon grass, organic coriander seed, organic cumin seed, organic ginger, organic turmeric.

They are soooo good.

And while I am writing this I have been enjoying my new favorite kale chips Lydia's Organics, Kale Krunchies, Mega Green - (they have a wonderful tag line "How May We Feed You?" on there website): Ingredients: Kale*, sprouted sunflower seeds*, sprouted pumpkin seeds*, sesame seeds*, cashews*, cold pressed sunflower oil*, spirulina*, himalayan salt*, dill*, cayenne* & . * Organic  while searching for company links I managed to find a yummy looking cooking site with a recipe for kale chips, and baked cherry tomatoes (I have an abundance from the sale on them at Whole Foods): Gluten Free Goddess definitely a food oriented frame of mind. . .   decided must have a few food quotes so just found on Food Quotes: One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well. —-Virginia Woolf We are indeed much more than what we eat, but what we eat can nevertheless help us to be much more than what we are. —-Adelle Davis The greatest delight the fields and woods minister is the suggestion of an occult relation between man and the vegetable. I am not alone and unacknowledged. They nod to me and I to them. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson (and now hungry for more than a snack . . . )           One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating. ~Luciano Pavarotti and William Wright, Pavarotti courtesy of Google translation in the language of my Lithuanian ancestors Geras maistas Gero apetito Gali Jūs turite pakankamai (Good Eating Bon Appetit May You Have Enough )

to eat, to shop, to read. . .

Whole Foods & PCC

well, apparently having momentarily lost my my sanity, I felt I had to go to our new Lynnwood Whole Foods on the day they opened. Now I could I have thought this would be a good idea, fun, well I don't know.

Even when I got there, seeing, the parking lot behind full, there was the line of cars circling in hopes of an opening, once in the lot it seemed harder to get out, well not seemed, it was impossible to drive through and get right back out. So as I got to the last aisle leading to escape back to street, someone pulled out of a space so I went ahead and parked.

The inside of the store was even more crowded than the parking. However, now I am determined to buy something, that will prove I should have come, my favorite crackers I have only food in Whole Foods. However, the poor staff, on their first day, have no clue about my crackers, when I hunt and find the section they should be in, all the neighboring foods are their, but not my crackers - I am a little unnerved the section is so differently placed from the other store (which to me has a logical arrangements).

Ok, so forget the crackers which I really, really want now. There are fresh bakery goods. Wonderful, I see the sign in large print, perfect - a WHEAT FREE Banana Muffin oh yeah, looks so good. As, I reach for one, still looking a the sign which in smaller print lists the ingredients: Bananas, whole wheat . . . wait a minute. . .did I mistake which sign I am reading  . . . nope . .  . and at the end of the list it even repeats contains wheat.  . . so I didn't get it . . . it was too crowded to get to the bakery staff to apprise them of this dreadful situation. . . well not to be completely thwarted I decided to get a sweet potato scone with spelt flour  . . . yes, still wheat, but at least it was not misrepresented by improper signage . . .

ah, now for a stevia sweetened soda. . . dang $1.29, but I just bought one at PCC Edmonds for  . . . well they were around $.79 . . .

well, there is a sale on cherry tomatoes and avocados. . . and I am done . . .

one thing Whole Foods had handled, plenty of checkers so really no waiting . . .

The sweet potato scone was absolutely delicious and within minutes I was having a reaction to the wheat/gluten . . . sigh, well a good reminder. . .

Got home signed up for Facebook just so I could post a comment on the non-wheat free/Wheat Free Banana Muffin. . .then not particularly liking my Facebook sign up experience and maze of settings, access issues, deactivated the account after posting my comment . . .

I was ever so happy to shopping at PCC Edmonds where I could park, find what I wanted in their normal places, and no noticeable incongruent labeling . . .

Of course, I will, also, shop at Whole Foods again, but not for awhile  .. . I will have to go back to check their bakery signage. . .

and it was member discount day at PCC. . .I to like belonging to a market. . .  I do like spending money in a co-op, I do like all the good works they do, saving local farmland. . . just right amount of conversation and familiarity the people who work there. . .

“Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but usually manages to pick himself up, walk over or around it, and carry on.”  - Benjamin Franklin

Heard on Writers Almanac yesterday:

Garbage Truck

by Michael Ryan

Once I had two strong young men hanging off my butt
and a distinctive stink that announced
when I was inching down your street
at the regal, elephantine pace
that let my men step down from me running
to heave your garbage into my gut
then fling the clanging metal cans
to tumble and rumble, crash and leap
back to sort-of-where you'd lugged them to the curb
before another oblivious night of sleep.
Did you think life was tough?
I reveled in it, all the stuff
you threw out, used up, let rot,
the pretty packaging, the scum, the snot,
vomit and filth, everything you thought
useless, dangerous, or repugnant:
I ate it for breakfast. I hauled it
out of sight. And what did I get?
You were annoyed by my noise.
You coughed at my exhaust.
Your kids stopped playing in the street
to pinch their noses and gag theatrically
with no clue how sick they'd be without me.
I was the lowest of the low, an untouchable,
yet I did what I did and did it well.
Now I am not laughable: a "waste management vehicle"
denatured robotic sanitized presentable.
My strong young men are gone. I have no smell.
I'm painted deep green to look organic and clean.
Your "residential trash carts" are matching green
injection-molded high-density polyethylene
that barely thuds when I lower them to the ground
after I've stabbed and lifted and upended them
with twin prongs that retract into my side
so not to scratch anything or scare anyone.
Who can complain? Right there on your street
I mash and compact and obliterate your waste.
You need never give it a second thought.
It's safe it's easy nobody gets dirty.
It's how you want your life to be.
But life's not garbage. Garbage is life.
Look what you've got. Look what you throw out.
"Garbage Truck" by Michael Ryan, from This Morning. © Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012

Thanks Sandy

Curious about a link Sandy posted I had to check out Society of Canadian Catholic Bloggers there I found a link to an art blog http://salliesart.blogspot.com/which opened with a gorgeous drawing Acca sellowiana -- Feijoa followed by these wonderful, funny pictures of which there are more on her site

also from salliesART blog 

Things you may not have known!  (If you know all of this already, just pretend you don't so that I can continue to feel very pleased with myself)

SAHARA
In the Sahara Desert , there is a town named Tidikelt, Algeria, that did not receive a drop of rain for ten years.  Technically, though, the driest place on Earth is in the valleys of the Antarctic near Ross Island.  There has been no rainfall there for two million years.

beauty, humor ever so reality based, and facts new to me - cool