Pack o' Poodles

In Wednesday's Sequim This Week in the Crime Report Section, under"Disturbances/Suspicious", I spotted the following entry:

"Several cows on reporting party's property..." Well that's a common occurence - after all we are still somewhat of a farming community.....But it was the next one that made me look twice. It read (and I kid you not) "Pack of 10 to 12 standard poodles, Happy Valley Road"........can you picture this? .......what kind of trouble would a posse of poodles be getting into? and what would they look like?

Perhaps they were a well groomed lot that resembled this lovely standard poodle?

Or maybe they looked like this one? Imagine 10 to 12 of these coming towards ya...scary, huh? would ya run for your life?

Or horror of horrors! Maybe they spotted a pack of pink & purple poodles?

What is this town coming to?
Is it even safe to leave our homes anymore?

Daughters...

Can anyone tell me where I went wrong with these two divas? They think they're 80's chicks! Hey girls! Miami Vice called - Crockett and Tubbs want their girlfriends' outfits back!

Which Way to Turn?

“If you can see your path laid out
in front of you
step by step,
you know it's not
your path."

Joseph Campbell

Well, isn't that always the way? After yesterday's Healing and Eucharist service , I was chatting with Lois Holly & mentioned that I needed to head over to the church kitchen (I'm in charge of buying kitchen supplies - a position I volunteered for). She started to laugh - and then reminded me that only a couple of months before I had sworn that I would never, ever work in the kitchen (due to my previous experiences of being a woman working in a different church kitchen)!

Well, God definitely has a sense of humor, hmmm?

Isn't That Special?

"There is an old Christian tradition that God sends each person into this world with a special message to deliver, with a special song to sing for others, with a special act of love to bestow. No one else can speak my message, or sing my song, or offer my act of love. these are entrusted only to me." -- John Powell, Through Seasons of the Heart

Part of me says, "yea, right" - (that would be my cynical self) - but deep down i know this to be true....perhaps it's the use of the word "special".....it sounds so church lady-ish! let's replace it with unique or distinct...see how that sounds?

Practice Rejoicing!

Whenever you hear that someone else has been successful, rejoice!
Always practice rejoicing for others - whether your friend or your enemy.
If you cannot practice rejoicing, no matter how long you live, you will not be happy.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Transforming Problems into Happiness

Four Types of Vessels

The Buddha compared people to four kinds of clay vessels.

One type of vessel has holes in the bottom.

We can pour in as much water as we like and it runs right out. When this type of person hears the Dharma (spiritual truth), it goes in one ear and out the other.

The second type of vessel has cracks.

Though we pour in the Dharma (spiritual truth), it seeps out slowly until the vessel is empty again.

The third vessel is full to the brim with stale water--views and opinions.

One can't pour anything new in, everything is already known.

The only useful vessel is the fourth, without holes or cracks and totally empty.

-Ayya Khema, "Be an Island"

photo taken from: Beautiful-Landscape.com
by the photographer Alain Briot

(for the most part i think i'm the third vessel - these are those moments when the Holy Spirit is faithfully nudging me
to keep my mouth shut and my mind open so that i may learn!
Where do you see yourself?)

Better Late than Never!

Jan tagged me a couple of weeks ago, and true to my procrastinating self I'm just now getting around to doing it! So here is how this works:

The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
Each player answers the questions about himself or herself.
At the end of the post, the player then tags five people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. (However, I'm not doing this part)....

Ten years ago:
This was the year I had my hysterectomy - it was a year of big changes. I returned to school as my eldest was finishing high school and leaving home. I started wondering about what I truly believed. My theology began a shifting process away from evangelicalism. It seems like a lifetime ago!

Five things on today's "to do" list:
1)Make the house look like no one lives here - yes i've been attempting this one for over a year now as our house has been on the market for that long and you never know when a realtor will call - anyone looking to purchase a lovely home in Sequim?
2) Water the plants
3) Clean out the closet in my bedroom - I actually bought some new clothes for work and this is one of those weird things i do - when i purchase something new i clean the area in which it will live. Sort of a welcoming ritual?
4) Catch up on my reading
5) Go to the gym

Things I'd do if I was a billionaire:
I really can't list anything specific. I think it would bring on such a holistic change in my own life for I would want to be able to bring about change in the world around me. So I would probably set up some sort of foundation to make the money work towards taking care of the poor, the neglected, and the abused.


Three bad habits:
(only 3? there are so many to choose from!)
Procrastinating by filling out memes at my computer
Not regularly exercising
Starting projects but not finishing them

Five places I've lived:
Belfast, Northern Ireland
San Francisco, Calif.
Pasadena, Calif.
Edinburgh, Scotland
Sequim, Washington


Five jobs I've had:
Secretary at a Hollywood TV station, JPL & Caltech
Line Dance Instructor
Sambo's Restaurant Manager
Spiritual Director
Instructor at Peninsula College

People I'm tagging:
No one - I think everyone's done this one.....but if you'd like to give it a go (Bekah) I'd love to read your responses!

A Birthday Blessing

This is the birthday of one Christine Rich. I found this in the book that she gave me for my birthday last month - Enjoy!

For Your Bithday by John O'Donohue


Blessed be the mind that dreamed the day
The blueprint of your life
Would begin to glow on earth,
Illuminating all the faces and voices
That would arrive to invite
Your soul to growth.

Praised be your father and mother,
Who loved you before you were,
And trusted to call you here
With no idea who you would be.

Blessed be those who have loved you
Into becoming who you were meant to be,
Blessed be those who have crossed your life
With dark gifts of hurt and loss
That have helped to school your mind
In the art of disappointment.

When desolations surrounded you,
Blessed be those who looked for you
And found you, their kind hands
Urgent to open a blue window
In the gray wall formed around you.

Blessed be the gifts you never notice,
Your health, eyes to behold the world,
Thoughts to countenance the unknown,
Memory to harvest vanished days,
Your heart to feel the world's waves,
Your breath to breathe the nourishment
Of distance made intimate by earth.

On the echoing-day of your birth,
May you open the gift of solitude
In order to receive your soul;
Enter the generosity of silence
To hear your hidden heart;
Know the serenity of stillness
To be enfolded anew
By the miracle of your being.

Such a Deal!

A bargain is something you can't use

at a price you can't resist.

-- Franklin P. Jones --

are those bermuda shorts?

For Solitude

May you recognize in your life the presence
power and light of your soul.

May you realize that you are never alone,
that your soul in its brightness and belonging connects you intimately with the rhythm of the universe.

May you have respect for your individuality and difference.

May you realize that the shape of your soul is unique,

that you have a special destiny here,

that behind the facade of your life
there is something beautiful and eternal happening.

May you learn to see your self
with the same delight, pride, and expectation

with which God sees you in every moment.

from To Bless the Space Between Us by John O'Donohue

Outta Milk!

The odds of going to the store
for a loaf of bread
and coming out with only a loaf of bread
are three billion to one.

-- Erma Bombeck --

- i'm out of milk and must venture into the place i really detest - the grocery store...i truly just want to purchase the milk and leave. but it's at the very back of the store and i have to walk past endless rows of temptation! poor me! oh how i wish we still had our Mil-Key Farm drive thru here in Sequim - it saved me from much temptation! :)

Trinity Sunday

Picture taken at Aldsworth West Sussex UK, 28TH March 2007 0719 BST. http://www.wunderground.com/blog/FlowerBeauty/

I bind unto myself this day,

The strong name of the Trinity,

By invocation of the same,

The Three in One and One in Three

from The Breastplate of St. Patrick

The No-No Logo!

Did you hear about the protest against Starbuck's for their retro logo? Yes it seems that a "Christian" group from California known as "The Resistance" are upset about the bare breasted mermaid with 2 tails that is replacing the usual green logo for the next few weeks in celebration of Starbuck's original Pike Place Market store that opened back in '71 - the year I graduated from High School. The "group" wants everyone to boycott Starbucks because of it.....according to one source the logo was based on a 16th century Norse maritime woodcut. What do you think?

A) With all the tragedy around the globe this week, why is anyone obsessing over a corporation's logo?

B) Well, everyone knows that if you spell Starbuck's backward you get Skcubrats which is definitely satanic!

C) Good grief, it's just a mermaid with 2 tails! People should get over themselves!

D) Fill in your own response....

My First Friday Five!

Well I'm about to play my first Friday Five from the RevGalBlogPals.....Here we go! Name five places that fall into the following categories:

1) Favorite Destination -- someplace you've visited once or often and would gladly go again.
I know that my soul aches to return to Northern Ireland, the land of my birth. Being a Spiritual Director who is in love with all things Celtic - I would also love to spend time in Iona and Lindisfarne.

2) Unfavorite Destination -- someplace you wish you had never been (and why)
As a guardian ad litem I have been in homes filled with tragedy, abuse and meth. Enough said.

3) Fantasy Destination -- someplace to visit if cost and/or time did not matter.
Well I recently watched "Where in the World is Matt Lauer" on the Today show and I would love to visit any of the exotic places he was, particularly the pristine islands of Seychelles (1000 miles off the coast of Kenya in the Indian Ocean)where he arrived by speedboat and landed on the beach.


4) Fictional Destination -- someplace from a book or movie or other art or media form you would love to visit, although it exists only in imagination.
Hogwarts of course!

5) Funny Destination -- the funniest place name you've ever visited or want to visit.
Well this is an easy one for I live in Sequim (the e is silent so it's pronounced squim)....and in this lovely town I've lived on Chicken Coop Road, Hooker Road and drive through the intersection of Woodcock Road and Kitchen-Dick Road on a regular basis!

Baum's Birthday

Hat Tip to Jan.

Did you know that today is L. Frank Baum's birthday? The author of the Oz books? When I was a child I read The Land of Oz and was hooked.....I loved, loved, loved this book because the boy character Tip actually (SPOILER ALERT) turned into a girl at the end! Yes! I sure didn't see much of THAT happening in the stories of my childhood!!!!

(In case you want to know more - the witch Mombi transformed the infant princess Ozma into Tip who grew up having no memory of being a girl. Tip then created one of my favorite characters, Jack Pumpkinhead...eventually Glinda (remember her from the Wizard of Oz?) forced Mombi to turn Tip back into the princess Ozma and she was then installed as ruler of Oz.....)

Our Reply to Violence

This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.

-Leonard Bernstein

Pentecost/Mother's Day

It is the Feast of Pentecost - the Holy Spirit's coming down party!!! May the fire of your Spirit strengthen us, making us bold to bring light to the dark places, warmth to the cold places, and love to the empty places. Spirit of the Living God, consecrate us to do your will.
Refrain: Come Holy Spirit, strengthen our hearts!

....and it also just happens to be Mothers Day!
this is a great day for many mothers and a difficult day for many others. Here's a link to a fresh way of looking at this day and below is a prayer for all manner of mums...

God our Creator, we pray:

for new mothers, coming to terms with new responsibility;

for expectant mothers, wondering and waiting;

for those who are tired, stressed or depressed;

for those who struggle to balance the tasks of work and family;

for those who are unable to feed their children due to poverty;

for those whose children have physical, mental or emotional disabilities;

for those who have children they do not want;

for those who raise children on their own;

for those who have lost a child;

for those who care for the children of others;

for those whose children have left home;

and for those whose desire to be a mother has not been fulfilled.

Bless all mothers, that their love may be deep and tender,and that they may lead their children to know and do what is good,living not for themselves alone, but for God and for others.Amen.

Everything is Grace

Everything is a grace...everything is the direct effect of our Father's love -
difficulties,
contradictions,
humiliations,
all the soul's miseries,
her burdens,
her needs,
everything,
because through them she learns humility, realizes her weakness.
Everything is a grace, because everything is God's gift.
Whatever be the character of life, or its unexpected events - to the heart that loves, all is well.

St. Therese of Lisieux

I'm Gonna Make you an Offer you can't Refuse....

Today while reading through the blogs that i enjoy i came across yet another of those online personality tests. I admit, i'm a sucker for them....this one was on which old movie you most resemble....i'm not quite sure how one single person can resemble an entire story line of a film but hey, it's just a fun little test!

The person who took it before me came out as "Schindler's List"....how fabulous is that? I started thinking about what i'd like to test out as - perhaps "The Miracle Worker" at best or "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" at worst - So i took it - and i came out as "The Godfather" - Wouldn't ya know it? Sigh........

Let me know if you fare any better.....

Ordinary People

Ordinary People
by John van de Laar
© 2006 Sacredise

Lord, life is a mystery –
far too deep for us to fathom, too large for for us to grasp.
We are just ordinary people,
seeking to make each day something special,
and hoping that in some way our lives might have meaning, might count.

And so we recognise that we need so much.
We need wisdom and strength.
We need compassion and courage.
And we turn to You as the source of what we need.

What a surprise it is to discover that You are within us!
In Jesus, You have stepped into our world.
By Your Spirit, You have stepped into our hearts.
How often we have missed this hidden treasure inside us.

Yes, we are just ordinary people,
but we are Your image, and we are filled with Your Presence.
Forgive us for our blindness,
and for our neglect of the gift of Yourself
with which You have so generously blessed us.

In Jesus' Name.
Amen.

http://www.sacredise.com/pages/Seasonal/ascenpent/prayers/ordinary.htm

Words That Make My Heart Soar

After all the contributions that were posted in response to Words That Make My Stomach Plummet I asked my daily quote group to send in Words That Make My Heart Soar.....Here is the list....What words make your heart soar?



Have you lost weight?
I'm so glad you called.
You make me laugh.
Mom, I need your advice. (Double soarage when the call is from Jordan!)
Raspberries are ripe-
The lilacs are in bloom.
Grama, I LOVE you!
I miss you can we spend the day together?
Come for dinner (lunch, breakfast, coffee, dessert)
I just read the BEST book- thought you'd love it too
Lets go to dinner & a movie. I was thinking about you today.
Hey Chrisser - what's up? (phone call from my brother Rick)
The coffee's ready. Let's play cards
The account is paid in full! In fact, you have a refund coming!
Thanks for listening. Your'e a good friend
You have been on my mind.
It's a beautiful day, let's play hooky.
Saw these cherries & knew how much you love them
Couldn't have done it without your help.
The daffodils are blooming
I just love your store.
I'm so glad I married you.
I think I owe you some money!
That color makes you look 10 years younger!

sunshine
babies
grandchildren
mercy
flower gardens
No more tears
I love you
heaven
sobriety
laughed till I cried
You are so beautiful
friendships
joy
enough
Christmas
Jesus

Your writing spoke what was in my heart, when I thought I was the only one who felt that way.
Thank you.
I'm sorry--please forgive me.
Of course I forgive you--let's start over.
Maybe that's not your job. Why don't you let God have that job?
(I want to include the words "I love you," but it's hard ... spoken by the right person in the right circumstances, they are healing ... and yet those very same words can make my heart plummet when entwined in snaky manipulation. Sigh.)


Everything is wonderful!
I could not have done it without you!
Together.
Tranquility.


Relax and dream.
Everything is possible.
Memories with my children.
Floating in the ocean.


Peace in my lifetime.
All you need is love.
Sunsets.
Blissful harmony.
No regrets

I try and frequently ask God to give me the right words to take a patient from their terminal diagnosis to living each day as it was intended in hopes of finding peace and beauty in their impending death.


love you

I want to spend some time with you

I can’t wait to see you

Welcome, we’re so glad to have you here

Thank you. You did such a great job.

Let’s try it!

(anything that makes me laugh)

(hearing my grandkids laugh)

(a hug)

(seeing people help other people – e.g. we saw some people in Tacoma get out of their car to help someone whose car had stalled and just that simple act of helping out was so great!)

My name. I like it when people say my name.

Too Tall Jesus

How would you like to walk past this every day?










Is it just me or does it look like Jesus is about to drop that Bible on someone's unsuspecting head?

Helen Keller...

So much has been given to me; I have no time to ponder over that which has been denied.

Helen Keller

What Makes Your Stomach Plummet?

I receive a daily poem by email from The Writer's ALmanac and this one intrigued me....
Poem: "Words That Make My Stomach Plummet" by Mira McEwan, from Ecstatic. © Allbook Books, 2007. Reprinted with permission.

Words That Make My Stomach Plummet

Committee Meeting. Burden of Proof.
The Simple Truth. Trying To Be Nice.
Honestly. I Could Have Died. I Almost Cried.
It's Only a Cold Sore.
It's My Night. Trust Me. Dead Serious.
I Have Everything All Under Control.
I'm Famous For My Honesty.
I'm Simply Beside Myself. We're On The Same Page.
Let's Not Reinvent The Wheel.
For The Time Being. There Is That.
I'm Not Just Saying That.
I Just Couldn't Help Myself. I Mean It.

So that is Mira McEwen's poem....I invite you to write your own....what words make your stomach plummet???

Happy May Day!

Was it a year ago today that we had the conversation about who remembered childhood May Day celebrations? My, how time flies!
May the ribbons of your life be as colorful as these...

Ascension Thursday

"The Feast of the Ascension, one of the great festivals of Christianity, is observed on Thursday, 40 days after Easter. I looked at several depictions of this event and many of them were similar to this one - just His feet showing...........they look rather dainty in this painting....I could not find the name of the artist....