Weblog 154

January 18, 2009~ 12:00am
The post-Christmas time of the year is perfect for meditation.



You don't need to sit in a yoga position, or in perfect surroundings ( lovely as they are here)-- but you do need to clear the mind of clutter.

After the decorations are put away and the vacuum cleaner picks up all the detritus left behind, the boxes marked and packed, the cards have come down from the walls, it's time to look at what you have left, and to make your peace with it by studying it intently. Look at every object and what it says about you... about your life. Hopefully, your heart will become glad as you find yourself again in everything you see. (Christmas tends to knock us off our pins a bit, and it's tough to re-center and reorient to the real world.) It you meditate on what you see around you- your past, your present, maybe even your dreams may become apparent as you study each wall and corner. You may even have an 'epiphany' of sorts-



That little gif is one I made when I allowed my mind to think about what enlightenment- however momentary- feels like: with the sleeping selves, the stumbling and slumbering attempts to make sense, are resting uncomfortably, and still there-- but a fully-awake manifestation of a moment of 'seeing' is still possible. I find it at times when I'm at home, and it comes from inside, but it's a blending of inside and outside-- and the ability to love all of it, however imperfect-- and to feel actual joy.

None of our lives are perfect. We all long for things we do not possess and question the routes we've taken to get to where we are. It's our nature to be restless in lives with so many possibilities, but every now and then, we need to allow a single moment's acceptance. To open up, to see the beauty of simply 'now' - of who and what we are. If we're lucky, we'll see something as beautiful as this- an appreciation of light and grace, and of objects around us as part of our signature set to a world with billions of signatures writing their names on motes of dust



--and that little bird will be a peeking into awe, and the honoring of what is truly vast even when we ourselves may feel trapped and small... and we will feed it. Love it...



just as this child is feeding the doves while surrounded by the remarkable and ageless. Such beautiful images, those last two. (If you want to take a look at the work of this remarkable Chinese artist)- visit Xiao Peng at the Galerie Dumonde site. He'll take your breathe away. He captures moments-- traps light and time. He makes us rejoice....and yes.....that's what I'm talking about here...the heart's deep need to rejoice. To love it all. Unconditionally, and with sincere appreciation. Ourselves included. Click on the 'slideshow' and treat yourself to a trip into photo-realism like no other. This man honors time and its passage, and how it show us how to stand- quietly in the ruins, and f




January 18, 2009~ 12:15am
I found a FASCINATING blog that's all about the Scandalous Women of history.



Mata Hari et al, read informative synopses of their notoriety there. It's a very interesting blog, so avail yourself....such a treat to learn more about the ladies who really stood out. For good or ill, these dames made a splash-- and are still being studied and talked about long after they've passed on, where I'm sure they're raising a ruckus and turning heads. You can't keep these gals down for long. LOL!! that's for sure.




January 19, 2009~ 8:15pm
Today is Edgar Allan Poe's birthday. He would have been 200......



That wonderful sculpture is the work of Mark Newman, a truly gifted artist. Browse his page to see the way he can make clay come to life. (I just love that Poe. Ever notice how big, bulbous, gargantuan heads seem to house brains to match? LOL!)

And here's a slide show here from the New York Times in honor of Poe's reaching the two century mark. Anyone who didn't fall in love with Poe's dark world during their adolescence must surely be from a different planet. Every kid I knew was deeply into Poe at that age- if only from the Vincent Price movies based on his short stories. I've always enjoyed his poetry as well- one of the few rhyming poets who does not bore me: he had a perfectly pitched ear for cadence, so the rhythm and rhyme call to one another so smoothly, one hardly notices anything singsong or forced. So it's Poe day! Two reasons to celebrate.

(The other is that the Baltimore Ravens-- (Poe again. Yes, he's buried there) fell to the Pittsburgh Steelers yesterday, and we go on to the Superbowl on February 1st) --so Polamalu, Roethleisberger, Poe-- today I salute each of you!




January 21, 2009~ 7:00am
Yesterday was a day of remarkable history. A day for the Ages. Yesterday my heart was uplifted. There are so many images that were burned into memory as President Obama became the 44th president of the United States, but I know that these two pictures are the ones I will remember: the Washington mall, alive and moving with three million who came to celebrate



And this one- oh god-



The caption from MSNBC:

A U.S. soldier in Iraq cries as he watches the live televised inauguration ceremony from Baghdad's fortified Green Zone on January 20th.

HOPE........the very possibility of hope, makes us cry.




January 21, 2009~ 7:40pm




It's begun. Just LOOK at what that man has already accomplished!

President Obama moved quickly on Wednesday to lay some touchstones for the "more responsible, more accountable government" he has promised, ordering a salary freeze for senior White House staff, tightening rules on lobbyists and establishing what he said was a new standard of greater government openness.

In announcing the steps aimed at greater government openness and accountability, he said the pay freeze was only fair at a time of economic pain. "Families are tightening their belts, and so should Washington," he said.

Mr. Obama said no one would be given a job in any area where he or she had lobbied within the two preceding years, and if they left the White House before he did, they would have to agree not to work on those issues "as long as I am president."

He said that "for a long time, there's been too much secrecy in this city."

I heard this soundbyte on the radio today. I wanted to cheer. Example, example, example is what it's all about. The future begins today. Finally. Halleluiah!





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