I love this...

From Yoko Ono in 2008:

http://100acorns.blogspot.com/2008/09/revelations.html

Bless you for your anger.
For it is a sign of rising energy.
Direct not to your family, waste not on your enemy.
Transform the energy to versatility
And it will bring you prosperity.

Bless you for your sorrow
For it is a sign of vulnerability.
Share not with your family, direct not to yourself.
Transform the energy to sympathy
And it will bring you love.

Bless you for your greed
For it is a sign of great capacity.
Direct not to your family. Direct not to the world.
Transform the energy to giving.
Give as much as you wish to take,
And you will receive satisfaction.

Bless you for your jealousy
For it is a sign of empathy
Direct not to your family, direct not to your friends.
Transform the energy to admiration
And what you admire
Will become part of your life

Bless you for your fear
For it is a sign of wisdom.
Do not hold yourself in fear.
Transform the energy to flexibility
And you will be free
From what you fear.

Bless you for your search of direction
For it is a sign of aspiration.
Transform the energy to receptivity
And the direction will come to you.

Bless you for the times you see evil.
Evil is energy mishandled and it feeds on your support.
Feed not and it will self-destruct.
Shed light and it will cease to be.

Bless you for the times you feel no love.
Open your heart to life anyway
and in time you will find
love in you.

Bless you, bless you, bless you.
Bless you for what you are.
You are a sea of goodness, a sea of love.
Count your blessings every day for they are your protection
Which stands between you and what you wish not.
Count your curses and they will be a wall
Which stands between you and what you wish.

The world has all that you need
And you have the power
to attract what you wish.
Wish for health, wish for joy.
Remember you are loved.

Sleeping in the Forest by Mary Oliver

I thought the earth remembered me,
she took me back so tenderly,
arranging her dark skirts, her pockets
full of lichens and seeds.
I slept as never before, a stone on the river bed,
nothing between me and the white fire of the stars
but my thoughts, and they floated light as moths
among the branches of the perfect trees.
All night I heard the small kingdoms
breathing around me, the insects,
and the birds who do their work in the darkness.
All night I rose and fell, as if in water,
grappling with a luminous doom. By morning
I had vanished at least a dozen times
into something better.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
I think I post poems & quotes from Mary Oliver more often than any other poet...I can't help it though, she seems to write in the same way my heart and head takes in and digests things and feelings but being a good poet, does it in a coherent, graceful way...

"I have not withdrawn into despair,
I did not go mad in gathering honey,
I did not go mad,
I did not go mad,
I did not go mad."
~Hoda al-Namai



"If you're after getting the honey
Then you don't go killing all the bees"
~Joe Strummer

The Office Garden

Dear Da asked how does my work garden grow? Et, voila ~ here are some photos:

Wee marigold flower - this is just blooming now for some odd reason - next to it is borage (which sadly never bloomed) & mint which I just cut down so it's regrowing
















Asparagus ferns

Basil - needs to be repotted so that it will flourish but I was lazy and never did it
















Nasturtium
















Big monstrous alien plant that will surely eat me alive one day!!! IT HAS ARMS!!!

(and yes Chuck & Joyce, that is a photo of you two on my desk - feel flattered -it's the one where a co-worker once asked "why do you have a picture of Anthony Quinn on your desk, do you know him? HA!)

“So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, & demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long & its purpose in the service of your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide. Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show respect to all people & grovel to none. When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food & for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself. Abuse no one & no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools & robs the spirit of its vision. When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep & pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song & die like a hero going home.” — Tecumseh

Ways to Endure a Weekend Flu Bug

1. Watching Airplane followed by the sequel & mustering the strength to giggle (and wishing Vron was here to giggle with me)

2. Pumpernickel toast - it's all I've had to eat but yum. Thank gawd I went to the market on Friday before I was struck down (my my, she gets a little dramatic when she falls ill with the vapours, doesn't she?)

3. My Famous Magical Ginger Honey Lemon Cinnamon Tea: made me sweat like crazy but it broke my fever and soothed my nausea

4. Smelling like a garden despite feeling & looking U-G-L-Y: violet lotion + tuberose & lemon verbena oil + green tea/ pomegranate oil in my hair

5. Reading "Are You There Vodka, It's Me, Chelsea" - you know I read it in her voice in my head!

6. Constant napping followed by 10 hours of sleeping like a log with weird very bizarre dreams

7. Project Runway marathons. If I had a fairy godfather, I think I would like it to be just like Tim Gunn

“Don’t despair too much if you see beautiful things destroyed, if you see them perish. Because the best things are always growing in secret.” — Ben Okri

(yes, it's my thumb, my Barbie pink nail polish, my kitchen counter, my chocolate foil wrapper sculpted into a heart, my fun with iPhone photo apps!)

The Boss: "from now on, I'm going to call you Snooki and I want to be referred to as The Situation"

Me (fake sad face and tears): "but I don't want to be a Snooki..."

Creepy Kiki Smith Exhibit Photos

I loved this exhibit SO much, I was about to leave when I went and walked through it a third time:

Free Will Astrology September 14, 2010

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): The Latin motto "Dulcius ex aspiris" means "Sweetness out of difficulty." It has a different meaning from "relief after difficulty" or "character-building from difficulty." It suggests a scenario in which a challenging experience leads not just to a successful outcome, but also to a delicious, soothing harmony that would not have been possible without the difficulty. This is what I foresee coming for you, Libra.

"Life does not accommodate you, it shatters you. It is meant to, and it couldn't do it better. Every seed destroys its container or else there would be no fruition."
 
- Florida Scott-Maxwell, playwright, author, psychologist and student of Carl Jung.

Photos from the Brooklyn Museum on Sunday

Does God ride the E train?

Perhaps Einstein's ghost? I found this on the seat next to me - notes on the Universe & it's creation & thoughts about dark matter & the Big Bang theory





Favorite line? "The Big Bang is still banging"

Un Bon Repas

Pretty, non?


(is my French correct?)

One should say grace before such a lovely salad I prepared for myself ... I'm calling it a fairy salad, since it contains edible flowers (orchids), to be eaten slowly and savored with chopsticks; a goblet of coconut water infused with pineapple and she feels smiley as the wings unfurl out of her back...

The Guest House ~ Rumi

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

From today's "The Daily Love"email

"Do not look with your eyes to find your treasure. Feel with your heart and at once you will know who you really are."

"This too, is God..."

Something to remember when things aren't going the way I think they should...perhaps I don't know what's best...

Upgraded!!

Yeah, that's right, I'm upwardly mobile & have been moved to business class for my 6 hour flight to LaLaLand (and straight on till morning) -I got to stretch out, sleep (which was desperately needed as I was already grumpy from only sleeping a bare hour), enjoy a real breakfast (with a glass of champagne) - ooh it was cushy! When I got called up to the podium when they were boarding, the United lady said in a whisper "looks like you won the lottery". Indeed. I consider it an goodness omen, an excellent sign of things to come!

Here I am swathed in my down alternative blanket ... merci beaucoup,oh ye travel gods!!

Karma Repair Kit by Richard Brautigan

1.Get enough food to eat, and eat it.

2. Find a place to sleep where it is quiet, and sleep there.

3. Reduce intellectual and emotional noise until you arrive at the silence of yourself, and listen to it.

4.

This was how I spent my looooooong Independence Day Weekend - I did #4. And you know what? I loved it. I didn't do a whole lot and yet, much was accomplished. Mostly that means I had a set of tasks set out and I ticked most of them off as "done", walked around DESPITE the overbearing heat, street fairs, sitting in the park, people-watching, street fairing, netbook purchasing, Sephora goodie stops - that sort of thing. Mostly it was me getting ready to head to California on Saturday and be by my beloved ocean ooooh she can't wait to dip her toes in the sand and sea. I just need to live through this week, I have FAR too much going on - this week is just a continuation of last week where I felt I was forgetting to breathe and man, do I hate that feeling. I'm gonna do my best - to breathe, yet, but also smile - sometimes I forget to do that too, in my grumpitude.

You too - yes YOU - don't forget:

1. Breathing
2. Smiling

Do it now - feel better?

Celebrate YOUR Independence..

listen to the mustnts, child,
listen to the donts
listen to the shouldnts,
the impossibles,
the wonts
listen to the never haves,
then listen close to me…
anything can happen, child,
anything can be.

— Shel Silverstein

(this was supposed to be my July 4th post but the pic got all screwy so now that I've corrected it, it's dated today - anyhoo...also, I totally forgot the source of the supercool pic so I apologize to whoever created it - it's lovely and makes me wish I had a head made from butterfly wings!!)

"The moment one gives close attention to any thing, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself." — Henry Miller

Mazes! Gnomes! Lavender!

If only Austraila were closer - I'd spend a LOT of time HERE:

http://ashcombemaze.com.au/

They have a hedge maze (with a hidden gnome!), a rose maze, a lavender maze, gardens...sigh...

Then, I'd have to go HERE as well - this sounds even MORE up my alley:

http://www.enchantedmaze.com.au/enchantedmazes

Enchanted mazes? The Amazing Lolly Shop? Fantasy Gardens? COME ON!!!!!!!

Life's a bowl of cherries-or sometimes just a handful

"Life is just a bowl of cherries
Don't take it serious
Life's too mysterious
Life is just a bowl of cherries,
So live and laugh at it all."

Creepy Philly Photos

I forgot to post these from the Philly trip - aren't they freaky?

She looks at her reflection in the mirror, glass dusty and tarnished with disuse. She notices a girl on the other side, forlorn, transparent.There are fingerprints all along the edges and she begins to wonder: am I trying to get in or is she trying to get out? Before she can ask, the girl on the other side catches her eye, gives a wink and a sly smile and is gone...

Let me keep my mind on what matters, which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished, which is gratitude.
~Mary Oliver

First on the gratitude list this morning? MY OH MY do I make good coffee. I honestly do. Buying Bustelo instead of the cheaper espresso helps (yes, I do lean towards thirfty, much to my dismay, but I'm learning to spend more when it's meaningful and appropriate, i.e. whenever I want) but wow! for some reason, this current cup stands out as scrumdidiliumptious... and here it is in all its glory

I find it odd that every time I look at the clock in the evening, the
time is 10:08 (my birthdate) ... does that mean something? Can I make
up a meaning for it? Or someone out there, if you care to - tell me
what to think about it

;-)

Also, on a side note: call me strange (hee - too late) but I love the
way the 42nd St stop on the 6 train smells - like a woodburning
fireplace or oven - from the market above?? It's quite yummy, even in
the swelter of summertime.

Caterpillar Days

"Whenever you go out of doors, draw the chin in, carry the crown of the head high, and fill the lungs to the utmost, drink in the sunshine; greet your friends with a smile, and put soul into every handclasp. Do not fear being misunderstood and do not waste a minute thinking about your enemies. Try to fix firmly in your mind what you would like to do; and then, without veering off direction, you will move straight to the goal. Keep your mind on the great and splendid things you would like to do, and then, as the days go gliding away, you will find yourself unconsciously seizing upon the opportunities that are required for the fulfillment of your desire, just as the coral insect takes from the running tide the element it needs. Picture in your mind the able, earnest and useful person you desire to be, and the thought you hold is hourly transforming you into that particular individual....Thought is supreme. Preserve a right mental attitude-the attitude of courage, frankness and good cheer. To think rightly is to create. All things come through desire and every sincere prayer is answered. We become like that on which our hearts are fixed. Whenever you go out of doors, carry your chin in and the crown of your head high.

We are gods in the chrysalis."

~Elbert Hubbard

"And then you break through
And dry before my eyes
Take me with you, where you hide tonight
Did you feel the beat in a fetal curl
Could you be original caterpillar girl
Crawling up the vine, splitting your spine
Flowing through the motion, leave a shell behind...
The birds, like me, want you now
We want you now
Caterpillar come out..."

~Lou Barlow

Touchstone Word for the Week? Simplify.

Sometimes I go about pitying myself, and all the time I am being carried on great winds across the sky.
~ Chippewa, translated by Robert Bly

My niece is THE COOLEST!!!

and she's so much like me...

Ugh, What a Week...

I'm beyond exhausted, drained, all those things - drama at work, sadness for Dear Veronica, some highs & now a good Saturday planned: Mermaid Parade time!! Then a Brooklyn Cyclones vs. Staten Island Yankees game, hot dogs, a beer, Coney Island, beachy breezes and hopefully, onto a better next week. Okay, last time I went to the Mermaid Parade, I took about 200 pics - let's see if I exercise some restraint tomorrow. Now that I do believe I've figured out the Bloggie to Facebook thingamajig, I'm going home, to rest, read, eat kale, meditation time, then to SLEEP!!!


I do believe - by the way - this to be a terribly written post, but I'm really very tired and annoyed so I'm just trying to determine if the Facebook thing is figured out and then I WANT TO LEAVE MY OFFICE!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!

Big hugs all week to my teacup friend...

Testing Testing

I'm just seeing if how to update Bloggie then share on Facebook... did I do it? Let's see...

Someone is having fun with the Red Giant Plastic Bullet app on her iPhone - it makes the mundane magical! This is just a plant in my office, the actual photo is quite dull - but shake a fairy wand at it and BRRNNGG!!! Ta da!

"Your imagination is your preview of life's coming attractions." ~Albert Einstein

The view from my bench ...

I'm quite ambitious for my office garden - at the Botanical Garden this weekend, I got a wee bit swept up in all the bountiful Mother Natureness around me so I stopped by their garden shop and bought lavender, rosemary, basil, and mint for my herbiness and most excitingly, borage, nasturtiums, and marigolds - for - ta da! - EDIBLE FLOWERS!!!

The first time I had flowers on a salad, I was probably 12 or 13 years old and visiting family in Carmel, California and Aunt Beth put petals on top of the salad and I thought that was THE most magical thing you could have ever done to greens except maybe some sort of edible glitter bacon bits. And every once in a blue moon, I see a package of them at a gourmet deli but I thought I'd grow some myself and have a fairy-elven-magical type salad this summer - I'll come up with a formal, more poetic name once I get these growing.

About a month ago, I had started two little pots with seedlings and I watered and I protected and I hoped, but nothing happened. So, I figured the seeds were no longer viable, the soil was dead - something. And I gave up. But so as not to waste the soil, I just plopped it in this other plant and packed it down. Well look what's going on!

They are growing! It's a green thumb miracle! For some reason, however small a thing this is, it made me feel happy to see it when I came in to work yesterday and made me think of one of my favorite quotes:

“Every blade of grass has its angel that bends over it and whispers, 'Grow, grow.'”

Moonstone Beach

I don't even remember how I came across this blog http://pixiecampbell.typepad.com/ (most likely from someone else's blog) but as I was scrolling through some of her posts, I see that the author went to Cambria in California for Mother's Day and posted this photo of Moonstone Beach which I know very well. It's right down the cliff from my family's favorite restaurant The Sea Chest and we've gone walking here so many times, gathering driftwood, stones, taking in a glass of wine while waiting to get in the restaurant, or watching the sunset. I love rocks and pebbles to the point that I'm greedy and want them all when they are beautiful & smooth & multicolored like these - so you can guess by the picture that I could spend hours sitting there, just looking and hunting and gathering and then squirrelling them away - indeed, here is a photo of me doing just that the last time I was there in 2008!!

It's only the escargot and the calamari steak from the Sea Chest above me that beckons me away from my spot...but anyway, I loved her photo because up close, that what you see - the stones are all tiny and jewel-like, polished perfectly smooth, bits of jade and jasper like she says but also you find agates and moonstones...and in just over a month's time, I'll be back there so this made me feel wistful because I wouldn't mind being there now but for now, it's an image of something good to look forward to.

Whenever, wherever, and with whoever you sense fear, close your eyes, breathe deeply into your heart, exhale some authentic prayers, and then imagine a million tiny drunk giddy angels dirty dancing with your cells.
~Sera Beak

Poetry.
Park.
Peaceful.

Eye Mask by Denise Levertov

In this dark I rest,
unready for the light which dawns
day after day,
eager to be shared.
Black silk, shelter me.
I need
more of the night before I open
eyes and heart
to illumination. I must still
grow in the dark like a root
not ready, not ready at all.

~~~~~~

Foundations by Leopold Staff

I built on the sand
And it tumbled down,
I built on a rock
And it tumbled down.
Now when I build, I shall begin
With the smoke from the chimney.

Totally geeking out at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden ... just saw the most amazing butterfly in these blooms but couldn't capture it on film - so many colors! My senses are kicking into overdrive - as they should in a place like this ... very perfect - nice work God! Gold star!

In the dew of little things, the heart finds it's morning and is refreshed.
~ Kahlil Gibran

Hmmm, little things such as my good coffee whilst reading, an open window with a slight cooling breeze, pretty little fun things bought yesterday as I wandered about after getting out of work early, feeling like my week was ever so hectic & yet I did a good job of keeping myself balanced (for once) and present in the moment which makes me feel capable, which makes me feel like a real adult, not some child playing dress up which is usually how I feel! I'm okay with that by the way, I have an idea that it will prevent aging oh if I can just stay young at heart! Wrinkles may come, but heart & soul, may you stay smooth as a baby...

SOOOOO tired lately - maybe I'm still run down from being sick last week, from running nonstop all around Philadelphia last weekend - my aching legs just stopped hurting today which shows you I've been hibernating all winter because usually, I can walk and walk and walk - fast too - and feel nothing but oooooo was I feeling like the Little Mermaid when she came on land. I need to find a way to balance things out more, less feeling like go go go during the week, wearing myself out to the point that the weekend rolls around and I feel like I could just curl up like a roly-poly bug and not move until it was required of me - you know, for food and bathing and such. Even that proves difficult. Bottom line is, I feel slothful. And that is despicable. A deadly sin.

Must repent. Must become virtuous. Move move MORE, eat BETTER, sleep LONGER, etc etc etc...you know the drill. Live,not just exist. That kind of thing.

Candlelit ghost tour in Philadelphia- why do I find it funny that it's always me and the nine year olds up at the front, hanging on the guide's every spooky word? Think I found my age group ...

She's made it to the City Of Brotherly Love and she is awake now, yes it's finally morning, 7:34, and I purposely left the drapes open last night so that the sun would greet me. Except there isnt much sun - mostly gray out there & I didn't know that I would have such a choppy night of sleep & maybe wouldn't want that light creeping in to bother me - weird dreams, kept feeling I was awake but the would wake up so I must have been sleeping,right? Disorienting.

I realized last night this is the first time I've been in a hotel room by myself (it seemed oh TOO quiet at first) since ten years ago when I had to come here for work a couple of times a year and it brought back memories - all good ones actually - of catching the train (Amtrak because we didn't have to pay for it), working all sorts of crazy hours because we'd have a deadline to meet & never being able to see much except the few blocks around the office which was right across
from City Hall so this is my second trip back to see more "stuff" and really enjoy it - even last time I came only for a day and it was rush rush - fun but too quick. So this mini trip, I hope we can stroll a bit more, not run place to place.

Onto the stuff then!! But first - COFFEE...

For all that has been, thanks; to all that will be, yes.
~ Dag Hammarskjold

Ah bliss bliss sip sip ... yes, still in pjs, still laying in bed (on top of it), still drinking my good coffee, reading & jotting things down - notes to self - breeze blowing my curtains gently, slightly cool still, sun shining and so yes bliss bliss sip sip ... just enjoying a peaceful morning home from work because soon it will be vroom vroom go go as I pack and train it to Philadelphia for the weekend so I am gathering my energy now so I can walk my socks off and have a mini historically inclined adventure - most needed by me at the moment. But for now, let me return to bliss bliss sip sip..

Oh, The Lovely Poem du Jour

The Secret of Life ~ Ellen Goldsmith

I grabbed the streetcar from Fisherman's Wharf
to the Ferry Building to save my feet for later.
My dollar bill, wrinkled and worn, resisted disappearing
into the slot. I stuffed the transfer
in my pocket without looking.

As the streetcar rounded the Embarcadero,
I called my mother-in-law with mother's day wishes,
imagined the conversation
I'd have with mine, were she alive.
On exiting, I asked the conductor
how long the transfer would last.
I gave you extra time, he said.
Just show it. Hardly anyone looks.
It's good until it's taken away.

Just finished reading Little Altars Everywhere - awesomely beautifully sad funny all at once - SO my sort of book. But favorite line?

"...we all get Cokes too, even though Daddy says that having a cold drink before twelve noon is 'a whore's breakfast.'"

Sip on that, all you people out there buying iced lattes from the coffee cart tomorrow morning ... I see you!!!

Now I'm dying to get/read the other 3 books by Rebecca Wells but for now, to sleep because, yes, she's down with a cold yet again - I swear, if this were the olden days, (the days of yore) they'd send me off to the sanitarium to recover my health. Or if I had been wealthy in ye olde tymes, take the waters at Baden-Baden. I do know that I'm quite tired of getting a bug or a cold every 6 weeks & it always seems to hit at a bad time - in this case going to Philly with some friends this weekend while dealing with extra special work stress.

So to bed to sleep then where I wish myself sweet dreams and an unstuffy nose and a head that doesn't feel like lead...

"Nobody can be exactly like me.

Sometimes even I have trouble doing it."
~Tallulah Bankhead (1903 – 1968)

(I know exactly what you mean Tallulah...)

And lookee here - if I had a garden, it would be filled with gnomes - real and otherwise!

Buddha-like meditating gnomes!! Luuuuve these! But I actually don't like it when they portray gnomes to look like this - these are more dwarvian. EVERYONE knows that gnomes look like this:

Aujoud'hui, I say "merci!"...

parce que the older gentleman on the who plays the accordion on the uptown platform of the 6 train at 51st street is back and he toujours makes me feel like I'm starring in a French film ... so bienvenue et merci - you were missed!

I always mean to go to that side of the platform and drop something in his chapeau but since I'm always et forever en retard, I never remember to...

Peut-etre a demain...peut-etre...


P.S - my hair makes me feel very Amelie-ish too - so VIVE LA FRANCE!!!!!!