corner view~january

Hey everyone, look it's heaven! - Shawn, age 8

January brought some cooling clouds and refreshing rains, and with them some happy plants, some incredible sunsets, a couple of day trips, some gatherings that inspired me to try a new French desert with three different types of berries, a good old fashioned bingo game, and a gift from a friend of a flower ready to bloom.

And best of all, we saw heaven.  How was your January?

retreat

This was a whole week ago but I am taking a dip back into the feeling of peace and traquility I felt while on retreat.  The fun time I had touring the botanical garden, sampling the chocolates, watching Raji cook, and Lucinda make tea, sitting in that big still room, all to myself, the biggest room I have ever slept in, listening to the koa trees rustling in the gentle breezes.

So here is the clincher everyone...once we get a glimpse of serenity we need to figure out how to keep that feeling even though life speeds up and stresses us out and requires so much more out of us than vacations and retreats with all of our meals taken care of do.  I know it has something to do with the value of silence, and remembering to really breathe.

Here is a quote from a wise elder that Gary and I had the privilege of talking with last month.  We were discussing the experience of meditation and the part of us that seeks the Truth and inner peace.  He said:

Sit and listen to this voice.  How often do we sit and listen to this voice?  Know that within yourself you are at peace, so what throws you off?

I am not saying you are doing anything wrong, he reassured us, so we knew he wasn't talking down to us.  This is something to contemplate.

sometimes you just have to go to the woods

And hike for two and one half hours and fight some monsters and find several sticks perfect for walking and swords to take home and breathe the air and marvel at the beauty and listen to the silence, the utter silence of it all.

Because your girl wanted to and you had the time to spend and you were closeby.

Please Mom, can we go to the woods?

What a great idea.

retreat

I got to unplug from my life and duties for three nights and three days and hop on a plane for a trip and have some chai at Starbucks in the airport and stay with friends at their gorgeous botanical garden and home and get spoiled and treated for all of my meals cooked by loving hands from foods picked from the land and rest and meditate and think and wander and take photos and pray and laugh and help out a little and make new friends and think positive thoughts...

...all the while knowing that my children were in good hands back home with their daddy.

It was just what I needed.

corner view~black and white

Very few things in life are black and white.

Except this photo, and the man on it, and the life that was to come, which seeing twenty years ago, slowly changed my life. 

It was on the cover of a tape that a friend gave me those twenty years ago.  (remember tapes?)
The rest is history.

corner view~ring out the old, ring in the new

This photo of my friend's Buddha made me think of a song from long ago...
Hello world here's a song that we're singin', come on get happy. 
A whole lotta lovin' is what we'll be bringin', we'll make you happy.
Anyone recognize these lyrics?

A new year is always a good time to say goodbye to things we need to let go of and make space for  new experiences.  And what better way to do this than with a smile on our faces? 

We can travel a long way and do many things, but our deepest happiness is not born from accumulating new experiences. It is born from letting go of what is unnecessary, and knowing ourselves to be always at home. - Sharon Salzberg

college

One of the happiest times in my life were my college days.  Saint Mary's College.  Funny, recently my mom and I were talking and she reminded me how homesick I was at first.  I had forgotten.  But I was homesick that first year, even with my brother a college junior at a university across the street.  This was before the days of email and Skype, cell phones and free long distance, when contact meant a hand written letter, or an expensive long distance phone call.

 

However I quickly became acclimated to college life, making new friends, going to dances, football games, and getting into art.  I joined the gymnastics club.  I found a favorite road to take long bike rides.  I took interesting classes.  By my sophomore year I had decided to major in art.

I had always loved art as a kid and teen.  I had taken classes in those days but nothing was like the total immersion into the life of an artist that happened in college.  My professors were real artists, all of them.  There was a gallery on campus that I worked in, learing to hang paintings and display sculptures.  I studied drawing, ceramics, fibers, photography, sculpture, and printmaking.  A couple of hours away was the big city of Chicago with the Art Institute, galleries, and funky cool people...all very new to my small town girl eyes.  

I met one of my very best friends in college.  I just talked to her today, over twenty years later.   What a blessing Janel is in my life.  We have been through boyfriends, break ups, living together in college and afterwards, first jobs, weddings, pregnancies, births, and now raising children...

Last summer Gary, my father and I left Miller Beach one day and drove the kids to South Bend, Indiana, where we visited my college campus.  I had not been back since graduation.  We walked around and went inside three of the four dorms I lived in.  We toured the athletic center and the art building.  Although there are some new buildings, it is pretty much the same.  It was wonderful being there after so many years.   

Then we drove across the street to the University of Notre Dame and my father toured us around.  I have many fond memories there.  When my brother was a student we would visit, have meals together, talk on the phone (with a cord, remember them?)  My brother had nice friends who were fun, he lived with a large group of guys, including a football player, Steve Beuerlein, who eventually went pro.  My senior year of college the Notre Dame football team won the national championship, which was very exciting.  The games were magical, the school spirit there unparalleled anything I had experienced before or since.  

It was a really fantastic day.  Thanks Dad!