tulip haiku

It’s very grey in Sequim today, but yesterday was glorious.

I spent most of it in the garden, soaking up the sun, admiring the tulips.

 

 

So here’s a tulip haiku for you. 

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Tulip Haiku

 

“Planted, Dormant, Fall.

First Bloomers in Springtime Sun.

Cups above the Stems.”

- Marie M. Daniels

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Even Quan Yin was soaking up the sun:

 

 

While the biker gnome was imagining being on the road again:

 

 

 

looking for happiness

Today’s quote is from Inward/Outward. I love their daily quotes which you too can receive from their website. Enjoy!

Looking for Happiness

by

Thomas Keating

"Our spiritual journey does not start with a clean slate.

We carry with us a prepackaged set of values and preconceived ideas which,

unless confronted and redirected, will soon scuttle our journey,

or else turn it into pharisaism, the occupational hazard of religious and spiritual people.

 The developmental character of human life

has become much better known in the last hundred years,

and it has enormous implications for the spiritual journey.

Our personal histories are computerized, so to speak,

in the biocomputers of our brains and nervous systems.

Our memory banks have on file everything that occurred from the womb to the present,

especially memories with strong emotional charges....

 We may not remember the events of early childhood, but the emotions do.

When events occur later in life that resemble those once felt to be harmful,

dangerous, or rejecting, the same feelings surface....

The human heart is designed for unlimited happiness--for limitless truth

and for limitless love--and nothing less can satisfy.

We travel down various roads that promise happiness

 but can't provide it because they are only partial goods.

Since the emotional programs from early childhood are already in place,

our search for happiness in adult life tends to be programmed

by childish expectations that cannot possibly be realized....

 We come now to the heart of the problem of the human condition.

Jesus addressed this problem head-on in the gospel.

What was his first word when beginning his ministry?

"Repent."

To repent is not to take on afflictive penances like

fasting, vigils, flagellation or whatever else appeals.

It means to change the direction in which you are looking for happiness."

 Source: Invitation to Love

 Read more and add your thoughts at inward/outward

tail chasing

"Only our own search for happiness prevents us from seeing it.

It is like a vivid rainbow which you pursue without ever catching it,

or a dog chasing it's own tail.

Although peace and happiness do not exist as an actual thing or place,

they are always available, and accompany you every instant."

- Gendun Rinpoche

 

for more Eliot adventures click here

Be Fruitful!

"Preparing food is not just about

yourself and others.

It is about everything."

Shunryu Suzuki

At our recent church staff meeting I was completely undone

by a fruit salad. Really. I was overwhelmed by the beauty

of the fruit - the colors/shapes/textures/ and yet I could not separate all of that from

the inner beauty of the woman who had carefully and lovingly crafted this work of art

for our nourishment and delight. It was a Christ-filled Eucharistic moment.

And I was not the only one to take a photo of this offering.

We all felt the "everything" that the author of this quote speaks of.

For a moment we hesitated about digging into that pineapple,

but we did so with gusto and do you know what it tasted like?

PURE LOVE

Thank you Elizabeth Sepesy

for gifting us with your fruitfulness

Ode to Soup

"As the days grow short,

some faces grow long.
But not mine.
Every Autumn,
when the wind turns cold
and darkness comes early,
I am suddenly happy.
It's time to start making soup again."
- Leslie Newman

"Soup puts the heart at ease,
calms down the violence of hunger,

eliminates the tension of the day,

and awakens and refines the appetite."

-Auguste Escoffier

Welcome Fred

Congrats Faith and Chris!

After a very long day we are delighted to welcome

Fredrick Christopher to the world....the only child

I've ever known to be born on his due date.

Something tells me Fred is never going to be late for school!

happily-ever-after

But remember kids....

“It is only possible to live happily-ever-after

on a day-to-day basis.”

-Margaret Bonnano

(I'm such a sucker for cute & cuddly animal pictures. I looked up "cuddly" and I love that it means "to nestle" and "to snuggle" and "to hug tenderly". I suggest that we all reach out to cuddle today)

the need for new glasses

"The key to our deepest happiness
lies in changing our vision

of where to find it."
- Sharon Salzberg

to choose happiness...

"Ultimately, happiness comes down

to choosing between the discomfort

of becoming aware of your mental afflictions

and the discomfort of being ruled by them."

Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

this painting "The Road to Happiness'

is by Louise Bova.

See more of her work here.