Blessedness

Happy--nay, most blessed!--are they who are able to do in adulthood what they enjoyed in childhood.

The Osprey

Watchful, watchful, the osprey
On the islet in the river
Comely, goodly, the maiden,
A fit mate for our lord
--Shi jing

"The Osprey"

by Mary Oliver

This morning

an osprey

with its narrow

black-and-white face

and its cupidinous eyes

leaned down

from a leafy tree

to look into the lake - it looked

a long time, then its powerful

shoulders punched out a little

and it fell,

it rippled down

into the water -then it rose, carrying,

in the clips of its feet,

a slim and limber

silver fish, a scrim

of red rubies

on its flashing sides.

All of this

was wonderful

to look at,

so I simply stood there,

in the blue morning,

looking.

Then I walked away.

Beauty is my work,

but not my only work -

later,

when the fish was gone forever

and the bird was miles away,

I came back

and stood on the shore, thinking -

and if you think

thinking is a mild exercise,

beware!

I mean, I was swimming for my life -

and I was thundering this way and that way

in my shirt of feathers -

and I could not resolve anything long enough

to become one thing

except this: the imaginer.

It was inescapable

as over and over it flung me,

without pause or mercy it flung me

to both sides of the beautiful water -

to both sides

of the knife.

--from West Wind (Mariner Books, 1997)

What Is Goodness?

Here is a quote from the film Chocolat that I wanted to share, along with photos of some lovely enticements.

At the end of the film Père Henri delivers the following short comments as his sermon during the Easter Sunday mass, after a Lenten season that turned his village upside down:

I'm not sure what the theme of my homily today ought to be. Do I want to speak of the miracle of Our Lord's divine transformation? Not really, no. I don't want to talk about His divinity. I'd rather talk about His humanity. I mean, you know, how He lived His life, here on Earth. His kindness, His tolerance. Listen, here's what I think. I think that we can't go around measuring our goodness by what we don't do. By what we deny ourselves, what we resist, and who we exclude. I think we've got to measure goodness by what we embrace, what we create, and who we include.

Lovely words to live by.

The Begonia

Oh, the flowers of the begonia,

Gorgeous is their yellow!

The sorrows of my heart,

How they stab!

--Shi jing

What Isn't, and What Is

Our emotions might change ceaselessly. Our thought will speed by unfailingly. Everything I know will change. But this light of life will not.

--courtesy Dahn Yoga

The Fear of Freedom

When you want to be free, you have to be free with full confidence in your freedom.

--Courtesy Dahn Yoga

Peace On Earth!

Joy is energy,

love is energy,

and gratitude is energy.

These three come together to form peace.

--Courtesy Dahn Yoga

How You Can Help the Earth in 2010

Want to help stop global warming?
Here are a dozen simple things you can do, plus the amount of carbon dioxide you’ll save.

Change a light
Replacing one regular light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb will save 150 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.

Drive less
Walk, bike, carpool or take mass transit more often. You’ll save one pound of carbon dioxide for every mile you don’t drive!

Recycle more
You can save 2,400 pounds of carbon dioxide per year by recycling just half of your household waste.

Check your tires
Keeping your tires inflated properly can improve gas mileage by more than 3%. Every gallon of gasoline saved keeps 20 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere!

Use less hot water
It takes a lot of energy to heat water. Use less hot water by installing a low-flow showerhead (350 pounds of CO2 saved per year) and washing your clothes in cold or warm water (500 pounds saved per year).

Avoid products with a lot of packaging
You can save 1,200 pounds of carbon dioxide if you cut down your garbage by 10%.

Adjust your thermostat
The simple adjustment of moving your thermostat down just 2 degrees in winter and up 2 degrees in summer could save you about 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.

Plant a tree
A single tree will absorb one ton of carbon dioxide over its lifetime.

Turn off electronic devices
Simply turning off your television, DVD player, stereo and computer when you’re not using them will save you thousands of pounds of carbon dioxide a year.

Try Meatless Mondays
Skipping meat one day per week would help save over 35,000 gallons of water. Cutting meat out of your diet entirely would help save 5,000 lbs of carbon emissions per year.

Unplug
Unplugging hair dryers, phone charges, toaster ovens and power cords when not in use can save up to 20% on home energy use.

--http://www.climatecrisis.net/

Spread the word!

Happy New Year!

......Hope is rising
..........Joy is abounding
................Peace is prevailing
........................and Love rains and reigns!

--(The Rev.) Patrick Rogers