Epiphany

 

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It is our birthright as human beings. The exquisite, brilliant light beckons us all to the journey. It can be long, frightening and difficult. There will be many trials, sufferings and opportunities for vulnerability on the path. We are diligent in our search. Calling us to be brave, experiences will open us to wonder and potential to share our gifts and talents and receive the same from others. Always kneeling to lessons learned and the presence of a creator. Nothing happens in isolation, for all action reverberates throughout the universe. Learning this, we cannot go home the same way for we are forever changed.

“If only there were a longer time between epiphany and epitaph.”

….David Glaser

Relax and Go Lightly It Is Just #oneword

“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language
And next year’s words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.”

…..T.S. Eliot “Little Gidding”

Paul Dimitoff

On my daughter’s Twitter feed she had #oneword for last year, and so did her circle of work friends. I thought it was kind a cool and wondered if I had a word that would sum up my plans, wishes, intentions for a new year.  Her word for this coming 2016 year is “light”.  I immediately thought of  a blogger I really enjoy and envy for his dedication and insight. He regularly blogs on themes and one is:

“It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.”

…….Aldous Huxley   

I will pass it on to my daughter. I  tried to think of a word that might inspire my intentions for the coming year and after two nights of restless sleeping it occurred to me that I have been violating the “11 commandment” of Rev. Paul Dimitoff for a significant time. RELAX

paulIt is hard for me to do. I can’t think the action ‘relax”. In just writing this  post my mind sent me careening all over the universe. Starting out looking for the quote from Elliot on “light”, to realizing how much I love reading  the Little Gidding which took  to me to

“Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
Quick now, here, now, always–
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well”

and Julian of Norwich my favourite mystic and then to

“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

making me remember Love after Love from Derek Walcott

I have always feared relaxing, to me the word spoke of no action. So for the actions of #relax I will work on balance and equanimity; using #relax to gain back my balance and core strengths, and most of all my time.

I have put my painting of Paul above my desk to remind me!

 

Snowmen….Cheap

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Snow Report

Sunday December 27th
New Snow 35+ cm
Conditions Excellent
Temperature a balmy -9 C to a high of  -5 C
Elevation 1500m

Everything is a snowman today, and I can shovel again tomorrow!

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And Unto Us

A Child Is Born. Merry Christmas!

Unto Us A Child Is Born

 

We Are Christmas Eve People

IMG_8901Mary and I are. It’s our favourite night of the year. The darkness of solstice just past, anticipation of the light to come. The quiet, the waiting. Just like Mary. Waiting…. before all the shepherds and angels and people with gifts. Time to have her baby boy, put him in the manger, let the animals sing him to sleep and just relax before all hell breaks loose.

Enjoy Christmas Eve my friends.

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Blue Christmas 1959

Comfort and Joy

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‘What we have to do is find the places of hope’

…..Jean Vanier

And sometimes we have to wait for them. In our fast paced world, in anguish,  we try to control everything. We want it to be right for us now. Through many trials and tribulations of being knocked on my can or having the “cosmic baseball bat” whack me on the side of the head. I know that God (creator) has three answers when asked, yes, no, and not yet. And what we have to do is wait.

My heart broke open this week to learn that my daughter’s dear friend will be fighting for her life. How I hate that phrase; fighting! It always denotes a winner and a loser. Her cancer has returned. This is not a battle of win or lose. It is about acceptance, waiting and finding the spaces in between of hope. The Christmas carol, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, talks about the comfort and joy that our Christmas season brings. We need both.

Now to the Lord sing praises,
All you within this place,
And with true love and brotherhood
Each other now embrace;
This holy tide of Christmas
All other doth deface.
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy

faithWith all these words, reflecting the seasons wishes, for my daughter, friends and family; they all sit firmly on the bottom word. FAITH.

We can do this, and wait in the spaces of hope….

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Snow

“With luck, it might even snow for us.”

                                 Haruki Murakami,

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Yes, luck prevailed. Dull, dirty, grey  autumn’s finale has come. No more naked branches, dried moldy leaves and melancholy  grass, we are  now covered in a fresh soft, winter sheet that feels like flannelette. Nature has covered the decay in sparkle and ice, lulling us with beauty before our winter sleep. Winter is exciting, everything has changed.

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The dogs loved the snow. Grommet played so much that his legs were covered in snowballs. He looked like some had sewn ruffles on his legs. He also knows what to do when you have played hard in the snow. You find a nice warm bed to dry off in.

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The barn was not impressed. No one wanted to come out. This is Lacey and Tilly’s first winter and snow fall. Lacey didn’t leave her nesting box all day.

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Aflac always game for anything wandered down the path I shovelled to eat the last tomato of the season. It was what was left from our 200 pounds of home-grown bounty.

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As is our nature, we relish in the new season only to grow tired of it and wish for what comes after. So for today we will enjoy the snow and sparkle. Not sure how we will feel when its -30 and not -3.

White-Eyes

 Mary Oliver

In winter
    all the singing is in
         the tops of the trees
             where the wind-bird
with its white eyes
    shoves and pushes
         among the branches.
             Like any of us
he wants to go to sleep,
    but he’s restless—
         he has an idea,
             and slowly it unfolds
from under his beating wings
    as long as he stays awake.
         But his big, round music, after all,
             is too breathy to last.
So, it’s over.
    In the pine-crown
         he makes his nest,
             he’s done all he can.
I don’t know the name of this bird,
    I only imagine his glittering beak
         tucked in a white wing
             while the clouds—
which he has summoned
    from the north—
         which he has taught
             to be mild, and silent—
thicken, and begin to fall
    into the world below
         like stars, or the feathers
               of some unimaginable bird
that loves us,
    that is asleep now, and silent—
         that has turned itself
             into snow.

A troubled world

Source: A troubled world

The Artist ~ Nature

“So far as seeing things is an art, it is the art of keeping your eyes and ears open. The art of nature is all in the direction of concealment. The birds, the animals, all the wild creatures, for the most part try to elude your observation. The art of the bird is to hide her nest; the art of the game you are in quest of is to make itself invisible,”

John Burroughs

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Not An Ordinary Love

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An e-mail from a puppy owner. She bought him from me 10 years ago. The last litter I bred. He was just euthanized after two years of illness. His brother died in December 2013 from prostate cancer. His owners, my niece and her family felt exactly the same way.

“I’m glad you finally have my words about Alfie, it was important to me to tell you. He was so special and his years of illness were a journey of patience and fortitude and unconditional love going both ways which I will never forget. I believe I was visited by an angel in some form and I have to believe I will meet him again one day.”

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I sometimes wonder if I am just a kook; anthropomorphizing my animals.  I feel the same way about the mother and grandmother of these dogs. I am sure the owner of the now deceased dad of these dogs feels the same way too.

According to the current issue of Oprah

“Few attachments are as heartfelt as the ones we have with our animals – and sometimes those relationships alter the course of our lives.”

People whose lives have been changed forever

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Love is love, ordinary or not.