February 16th - Make Progress - Myrrhmade Love Where You Are Challenge Day 16!

 

February 16th - Welcome to day 16 of the Myrrhmade Love Where You Are Challenge! 

Come on in and join us!

WIP Wednesday, July 5th, 2017

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Creating is my passion, my sanity, my sense of being "up to something", my way of contributing a little bit. I always have a few projects going, many left to the side for months or even years before I pick up the best and carry on. Here's some of what I'm working on this week:

We had a marvelous family meal yesterday, and started helping cut out a path through their massive raspberry patch.

Odds and Ends - WIP Wednesday, January 11th, 2017

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Creating is my passion, my sanity, my sense of being "up to something", my way of contributing a little bit. I always have a few projects going, many left to the side for months or even years before I pick up the best and carry on. Here's some of what I'm working on this week:

Making tasty snacks from ingredients at the back of the cupboards - Apricot Coconut Macaroons - dried coconut, eggs, honey, chopped apricots.

More Love - thoughts on current events and enduring goodness

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One of my great-grandmothers was helping long time family friend William Meredith to sort through a pile of mail following his stroke. She came across an invitation to The White House.

Sitting in an unassuming house in a little town in New Hampshire, she asked "William, you've been invited to The White House... Why do you come here?" 

Struggling with the loss of speech, (even more of a struggle for a poet), he stumbled over his words and responded ".... more love." 

While my faith in our country has been shaken, my conviction that love will move us forward has never been stronger. Love will keep. 

Love, our inclusivity, our connection, our gestures of kindness and compassion must be stronger than the hate coursing through our country. 

So my dear friends, neighbors, fellow humans of every color, gender, creed, faith/non-faith, and orientation, in the face of vitriolic current events, I see you. 

You belong here just as much as I do. 

Two steps forward, One step back.

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In the past couple of weeks we've lost another loved one, the motor burned out on our most used power saw, our washer died (this time a more spectacular, less workable death), yet another replacement muffler for Joe's car didn't work, and this morning the battery in my car didn't want to work. Thankfully a reset got Joe on the road just as the delivery truck with our new washer arrived. 

We will have very clean clothes to face the onslaught. 

Thankfully we also have a very handy cousin that can repair the busted muffler, and have some very attentive butterfly-fairies that can help out with anything. 

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Broken Things - Buddhism and things already being broken

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Toddlers break things, grownups break things, the dog breaks things. 

At our house it sometimes appears as though we're all working together to lower the number of our belongings. Not by donating, giving away, or selling them, but by accidentally breaking them.

A girl grabs a broom to get beads out from under the couch (from a necklace she broke while fighting with her sister) and with the other end accidentally hits a pitcher on the counter sundering it in thrain. 

The dog pulls the butter dish off the counter and it smashes on the floor.

Jars, glasses, pitchers, plates, bowls, you name it. Just about every week something drops and shatters.

There's a buddhist concept I came across many years ago that rises up in the regular disasters of being people - the cup is already broken.

The most succinct version I could find is from Mark Epstein's Freud and Buddha: 

...Before saying a word, [Ajahn Chah] motioned to a glass at his side. “Do you see this glass?” he asked us. “I love this glass. It holds the water admirably. When the sun shines on it, it reflects the light beautifully. When I tap it, it has a lovely ring. Yet for me, this glass is already broken. When the wind knocks it over or my elbow knocks it off the shelf and it falls to the ground and shatters, I say, ‘Of course.’ But when I understand that this glass is already broken, every minute with it is precious.” (emphasis mine)

Some things we can mend, many mended items we can repurpose. 

Many things we just have to take a breath and let them go.

If we think of things as already broken, we can acknowledge and let go before things break.

Parenting seems to be an exercise in letting go. We are constantly told to enjoy every moment (which is baloney) but perhaps, if we practice letting go, that the cup is already broken, we can be more present, and be the grownups we need to be.

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