Embracing Spring's Winds,
Sprouts & Wings

March is upon us, hopefully bringing the winds of spring, the return of birds, and days with enough sun to coax us out for gardening...

Jay has been bugging me to change the format of my ever-so-precious pages. As you know, I have been writing them for several years now and have added to each month's page as if I were writing the continuing page of a book- another of my favorite things. The reality is that this is not a book, and to get to the most recent addition to my current page one has to scroll down- a monumental, or at least cumbersome, task. So this month I am converting to a more common web page form- I will try adding my new entries at the top of the page, so that one need only read down until I seem to become redundant or you feel like you are, once again, experiencing deja vu- because then you will have made it back to where you last were.

"To avoid situations in which you might make mistakes may be the biggest mistake of all."- Peter McWilliams

Feedback is welcome. The new format starts... now:

3/27/06:
We are off to Michigan, the sermons are over for the month- you can breathe a sigh of relief.

See you in April!

Little girl, little girl, where have you been?- Mother Goose

3/27/06:

Long ago a man and a woman came down from heaven, while another man and woman came out of the ground. The Lord of Heaven also sent a python, the non-poisonous snake, which made its home in a river. In the beginning men and women had no children, they had no desire for one another and did not know the process of procreation and birth. It was the Python who taught them. He asked the men and women if they had any children, and on being told that they had none, the Python said he would make the women conceive. He told the couples to stand facing each other, then he went into the river and came out with his mouth full of water. This he sprayed on their bellies, saying "Kus, kus" (words that are still used in clan rituals). Then the Python told the couples to go home and lie together, and the women conceived and bore children. These children took the spirit of the river where the Python lived as their clan spirit. Members of that clan hold the python as taboo; they must never kill it, and if they find a python that has died or been killed by someone else, they put white clay on it and bury it human fashion.

It is interesting how many cultures share creation myths that include a snake leading man into this life. The three religions that today dominate the world's politics and stability share in a creation myth that uniquely defines the snake as bad because of this action, defines being in this world as an ordeal, defines procreation and therefore woman as dirty, and regards man as separate from nature, separate from God. There are many common threads to creation myths, describing the creation or start of human life on earth and the start of the dance of life- the experience of good and evil, pain and joy.

The individual's journey here eventually comes to an end, and even the most perfect connections we have with others cannot save us from having to make that final journey on our own. As wonderful and unique as I am, I’ve heard the whisper and know that all of this is not about me. "I" am only here now; the purpose of being here now is not to wait for life to end so as to live in eternity.

Eternity is not a time in the future. Eternity is everything. Eternity is all of time. Eternity is forever, and forever includes now.

Everyone who is reading this is, right now, living in eternity. We are part of the story, we are beings and we are in this part of eternity's story now. Maybe that is the only certainty, that we are here now, that we are alive and part of eternity now.

If we are lucky, the three major religions with common roots and different names for the same God will not destroy us all, here in the garden.

Whatever the theories may be of woman's dependence on man, in the supreme moments of her life he can not bear her burdens. - Elizabeth Cady Stanton

3/26/06:
Jay and I are leaving tomorrow evening for a trip to visit my family in Michigan for a week. Kira turns 21 on 4-5-06 so we headed down to Edmonds yesterday to have a birthday lunch celebration with her. We had a good visit. Kira is a smart, beautiful and kind young lady. For pictures click on the rose...

Ultimately, both parents and children are seen as individuals. For all their claims on one another, each is entitled to a life separate and distinct from the other.- Francine Klagsbrun

3/25/06:
It is good to remember the past and where we came from. It is good to remember the realities of the past and learn from where we have been. Good judgment comes from experience, and much of our learning is the result of poor judgments made. Life is a process of continual change, it has always been so.

Humanity has proliferated on this earth, and this proliferation has led to increased contact. Advances in travel and communication have shrunk and continue to shrink our world, creating exciting opportunities to learn about other cultures, bringing wonderful diversity into our clothing, food, art, music, architecture and everything else. This increased communication and contact between human groupings brings with it increased opportunity for both understanding and misunderstanding.

Humanity is not a uniform commodity, but we are all more alike than different. We have all been born from a nothingness, we have all made the journey into life. Those of us who are old enough have made the journey from childhood to quasi-adulthood to adulthood, and with varying degrees of success we have abandoned that childhood physical and psychological dependency on others to become our own individual selves. Are we separate selves? Do we exist on our own, or are we part of a whole that encompasses all of humanity, or part of a whole that encompasses all of life, all of creation? As the world shrinks and humanity bumps into humanity we all change. Those changes can be scary, threatening power bases and leading to feelings of anger, fear and distrust. We are in the often uncomfortable process of becoming one organic whole of all humanity, a process of change that can make us afraid.

Life is a process, a process of learning, of growing, of choosing our way. We experience emotions in response to many events and things and beings. We choose whether to have those emotions define us, or whether to observe them and decide how to proceed. Life is change and change can be scary. Sometimes it seems as if going backwards would be the safest way to go, but those ideas of safety are illusions- ideas of a past that never really existed. Afterall we cannot control everything, but maybe we can sometimes control our own selves, and nations, enough to adjust to changes without destroying each other in the process. We move inexorably forward, there is no other choice: until we die, we are alive.

I think there is choice possible to us at any moment, as long as we live. But there is no sacrifice. There is a choice, and the rest falls away. Second choice does not exist. Beware of those who talk about sacrifice.- Muriel Rukeyser

3/24/06:
Well, we ended up finishing up what I was there for in Olympia on Tuesday, so went back home- another long and exhausting day for this middling lady. It has been busy lately at work and I am so glad I am off for two weeks, time for a break.

So, the fun nun picture to the right links to a history site with some limited information about the first U.S. territory to grant women the vote. Women can be tough, they certainly had to go through a lot to gain voting equality.

For whatever reason, the last few days I have thought several times about a lady I met not too long ago. When I went to see her I was pleasantly surprised to find she was a fiesty, smart and active senior. I knew she'd had hemorrhoid surgery recently and discreetly asked her a question about her "surgery", leaving the type of surgery vague on purpose. She laughed and said quite simply "Oh, I'm a perfect asshole now!" I liked her, she was charming in her own way.

To have someone who brings out the colors of life and whose very presence offers tranquility and contentment enriches my being and makes me grateful for the opportunity to share.- Kathleen Tierney Crilly

3/20/06:
I am off to Olympia again for work, driving the three plus hours there in the morning, staying overnight, working, then driving back on Wednesday. Whew! I'm pooped thinking about it.

Boy, us hard working Americans... What about all of this outsourcing stuff? Can you get someone at an 800 number who speaks real American English? Luckily those crafty Native Americans have come up with something even more diabolical and clever than sucking us all into gambling our fortunes away- outsourcing to the Indians, yes! Excellent idea, outsource to Indians who speak American, and how!

Click on the picture of the Indian switchboard, at the speech accent archive site click on browse, then click on atlas/regions and then click on the map to hear the accent of a native speaker there.
Photo by Mor Pheus via fark.com (given to me by Jay)

"As long as people will accept crap, it will be financially profitable to dispense it."- Dick Cavett

3/19/06:
Interestingly, the United States was founded with virtually no rights for women- no right to vote and limited rights to property- woman, the mother of all human life, was almost a piece of property herself. Men who were not white were also denied the right to vote, and black human beings regardless of sex could be "owned" by white human beings and so lacked control over just about any aspect of their own lives. In fact, white men over 21 could only vote if they owned property. People, which still includes some women, talk about how it was really one household = one vote. This is a fallacy. A woman-only household had no vote, just as black households or households of the working poor or even the working middle class who rented the same house for 20 years had no vote. Voting was the sole province of propertied white males- a fascinating mind it indeed is that finds this preferable. Such is the true nature of the good old days.

The pace of change can be so overwhelming that we sometimes wish not only for it to slow down but to stop and go backwards, forgetting that time has wrought changes in our perceptions and ideas that clearly are advances, and those ideas have forever changed the context of life we are willing to accept.

Image above: "The Home or Street Corner for Woman? Vote No on Woman Suffrage."- Tom Fleming, 1915 (Rare Book Division, The New York Public Library)

Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.- Oliver Wendell Holmes

3/19/06:

Monday, 3/13/06, President Bush said: "Some of the most powerful IEDs [improvised explosive devices] we're seeing in Iraq today includes components that came from Iran."

Chairman of the military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, the top U.S. military officer, was asked at a Pentagon briefing 3/14/06 whether the United States has proof that Iran's government is responsible for Iranians smuggling weapons and military personnel into Iraq. He responded: "I do not, sir."

Others around the world find all of this fascinating.

Remember the stuff I had on deja vu last month? Duh! Is this a re-run, or is my head spinning...

There is a road to freedom. Its milestones are Obedience, Endeavor, Honesty, Order, Cleanliness, Sobriety, Truthfulness, Sacrifice, and love of [country].- Mystery Quote
Know Whose Words These Are? Check your answer: CLICK HERE.

3/18/06:
The United States was founded upon wonderful values and ideals that remain important today: no taxation without representation (in other words, a representative government or democracy), freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happines", to quote the Declaration of Independence. Yes, good things.

Freedom of religion figured prominently in our early history because many of the new world's original settlers were fleeing persecution in their homeland for their beliefs and practices. Those lessons were not completely absorbed. Just as many others who have been persecuted over the ages have done, some later went on themselves to persecute others for beliefs/thoughts different from their own, or their descendants dismissed the core lesson and ventured down that same, worn path.

Much of the time it is hard learn from experiences beyond making them about our own personal issues, hard to take those lessons and generalize them, forming ideas about simply how to be.

The moment we begin to fear the opinions of others and hesitate to tell the truth that is in us, and from motives of policy are silent when we should speak, the divine floods of light and life no longer flow into our souls.- Elizabeth Cady Stanton

3/17/06:
Happy St. Patrick's Day to You....
"The Force will be with you, always."- Alec Guinness


2.9 million- Number of females who participated in high school athletic programs in the 2003-04 school year. In the 1972-73 school year, only 817,073 females were members of a high school athletic team. For more fascinating statistics about women from the U.S. Census bureau click on Rosa Parks' picture. By-the-Way, March is Women's History Month, been saving that topic for some comments I have... to follow, to be sure.

I hear the singing of the lives of women. They clear mystery, the offering, and pride.- Muriel Rukeyser

3/15/06:

Yes, behold, the Ides of March...

Ides \YDZ\, plural noun: In the ancient Roman calendar the fifteenth day of March, May, July, and October, and the thirteenth day of the other months. Today I heard people echoing these words: "A soothsayer bids you beware of the Ides of March." from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Since none of us are characters in Julius Caesar, we can relax.

The interesting swamp picture above links to information about an unusual but promising new therapy that restores some lost function caused by strokes, even five years after the event. Cool man.

"Only don't , I beseech you, generalize too much in these sympathies and tendernesses- remember that every life is a special problem which is not yours but another's, and content yourself with the terrible algebra of your own."- Henry James, in a letter to a friend

3/13/06:
My current job gives me relatively little time to interact with elders, and I do miss that part from my old jobs. I did, however, have occasion to speak with two ladies recently who made interesting observations. The first lady I had noticed walking about with her head bent way down, as if she were always looking at her shoes, even while moving forward. When I asked her about it she told me she had begun to have pain in her neck just a couple of months before and had found holding her head down relieved some of it, although she found it disconcerting that her shoulders ached also. I told her yeah, I knew about neck pain that radiated down to your shoulders because I had that problem myself. She looked up at me and exclaimed, "Oh I know I shouldn't, but it makes me feel so much better to know you have pain too! And you're so young!" Hmmm, glad to be of service.

I talked with a lovely married couple another time. The wife dozed off while the husband explained about how they had moved into a large retirement apartment from their home a few years back and fared well enough, with him being the care giver for his wife. She would periodically rouse to an almost-awake state while he talked, smiling with her eyes closed. The kids had moved mom and their belongings to the little apartment they had now, where there were staff to help, while he was in the hospital- because he was not expected to live. Luckily he did, but no one wanted him straining himself with his wife's care and he grudgingly obeyed them. It was hard for him to get used to not being the one to help his wife of many decades, but the reality was that he was no longer in any shape to help her without killing himself. The wife roused from her nap, smiled at me and joined in the conversation, talking about how nice they were when helping her. We talked a bit about how odd it is to have help while you're naked in the shower, "you get used to it. You need help, your body is able to do less and less. But that's the way life is, it's hard, but it's good. It's funny that way." She had one of the biggest smiles...

The picture of the flower-smelling cat links to adult material, so I know you will go there.

Everything happens to everybody sooner or later if there is time enough.- George Bernard Shaw

3/12/06:
NPR periodically plays recordings from The Library of Congress' American Folklife Center's StoryCorps booths, a very interesting project, especially for someone with a sociology bent. On air this last week was Joyce Lee interviewing her mother, Hee-sook Lee, so that we could find out why her parents were so different from the Korean-born parents of her friends as she was growing up.

To hear the lovely and fascinating story, click on the picture of Anita Brown with her new grandchild Nicolas Stephen Brown, born 3/4/06- Congratulations Grandma!

Time is a dressmaker specializing in alterations.- Faith Baldwin

3/11/06:
I went to Olympia Tuesday morning (120 miles), it took me one hour to drive from Northgate to the I-90 exit in Seattle (about 3 miles), but I did finally make it to my destination 3 1/2 hours after leaving home. I went there for work, helping to run test scripts on a new computer program- I was quite pooped by mid-afternoon. Later, I vegged out in my hotel room after exercising in the pool and sitting in the hot tub. After more work, I drove home Wednesday afternoon, again 3 1/3 hours, and was tired the rest of the week. The body just doesn't tolerate some things so well these days and it is easy to bitch about minor aches and pains, but: "We have no right to ask, when sorrow comes, Why did this happen to me? unless we ask the same question for every joy that comes our way."- Philip S. Bernstein. It was interesting to note the attention given to Dana Reeve's passing by the media this week. At the left is a picture and then a piece of the picture that I cropped out- to better show the droplets of water on the flower stem containing reflections of surrounding daisies- feel free to click on them to see where they take you.

We humans like to think we have a monopoly on self-awareness and consciousness, something the rest of creation lacks. If that is so, and the flowers with their droplets are not aware of what they reflect, what is our culpability in being aware of that which we choose to reflect? To me this is a rhetorical question, the answer contained within itself. Yes, we all reflect in our presence and actions our own experiences of the others around us and events to which we have been exposed. Often what we reflect is chosen unconsciously, without conscious intention, like the flower. If we are the superior beings with consciousness, what is our culpability in being aware of that which we reflect? It is part of the work of being alive to learn to be conscious of that process, choosing what we reflect, that reflection being what others see and experience as us. This question is not universally perceived of as being rhetorical, and my answer is seen as wrong, because it is felt we are what we are and we do not control our personalities or, by implication, our actions. Compassion is hard to come by when we are already perfect, a finished piece, when thoughts and actions are seen as reflexive, spontaneous, natural- with no need to think about how our thoughts are affected by our experiences, or how the thoughts and actions of others are affected by theirs. Maybe we are already perfect, maybe their is no work of life and we are simply waiting here until we can move on to a place where everything, and not just ourselves, is perfect. Maybe that is so, maybe. Of course even if you do think life requires some internal work, it can seem easier much of the time to space out and act unconsciously, or pretend we are finished, we have made it to adulthood so further work is not necessary- we lapse into denial. Or sometimes we blame others and what we have experienced for who we are, for our actions, for how we are. But sometimes we act otherwise, do the work of life, the work of being responsible for being conscious of our thoughts, actions and selves. And sometimes we become aware of people who conduct their lives in ways that remind and inspire us to do the work of choosing.

There will be plenty of time to not think or grow when we are dead. So you woke up today, you are still alive. What do you want from life? Hmmm, that could be a song. Forever seeking that source code...

Of course fortune has its part in human affairs, but conduct is really much more important.- Jeanne Detourbey

3/6/06:
Well, Jay worked hard and was able to get that painting guy from TV (Bob Ross, October 29, 1942 - July 4, 1995) to work on the picture he took of me wiped out from performing manual labor in the yard. He took such pains to get this together I had to post it for viewing... everyone gets a chuckle on me.

Okay, well I am heading down to Lacey, near Olympia, bright and early tomorrow for work and will be staying overnight, not returning home until late Wednesday- see you later!

"Never be afraid to laugh at yourself, after all, you could be missing out on the joke of the century."- Dame Edna Everage

3/6/06:
It is mind boggling how many discoveries and scientific advances are being made these days. How will we ever keep up? I learned a lot about medical advances when I worked in hospitals because there one is constantly exposed to new diagnoses and new treatments to learn about and hospitals usually offer a wealth of lectures and presentations to take advantage of.

Working alongside doctors allows you to realize more fully how very human doctors are- seems silly doesn't it? When I worked at the inpatient geropsych unit one of my favorite doctors said that my patient had an "essential" tremor. I asked him what that was and he told me that they had ruled out this, that and the other thing as a cause or diagnosis, so it was deemed an "essential" tremor. Oh... Yes, oh, now I saw the clinical path taken to arrive at this diagnosis. Fittingly I blurted out, "it just means essentially you don't know shit!" My favorite doctor, who I think also felt more human the more I got to know him, shook his head and smiled, "yes". It is an oft unappreciated burden, one that can lead to irritability and aloofness, to be thought of as some sort of god, when one is only human. I often sought to relieve the doctors I worked with of the burden of themselves or others thinking they were gods of a sort.

I have also found it interesting that patient problems which doctors had no solution for are often deemed to be in the patients' heads. These invariably are problems or symptoms no cause has been found for, thus... Science seems to be making steady headway, figuring out some of these problems so that the symptoms can now be deemed "real" diseases and the people who suffer from them can at least be validated, that what they are experiencing is real, if not actually treated or cured. Clicking the cartoon above will take you to information about one of these diseases, the other cartoon takes you to interesting camera work.

All of us necessarily hold many casual opinions that are ludicrously wrong simply because life is far too short for us to think through even a small fraction of the topics that we come across.- Julian Simon, Professor of Business Administration (1932-1998)

3/4/06:
We had a nice sunny period a bit back, but the clear skies gave us freezing cold. Then it warmed up, with clouds and some rain. Today was lovely, with sun and 50+ degrees. Mrs. Becker stopped by to ask what I was up to, squatting on the grass putting mulch down in the rose bed I had just weeded, on her way back from the mailbox. I was warm, working hard, but for her it was too chilly to stay out and chat much. Earlier, maybe a month ago, I had chopped back our front butterfly bush, but with the freezing nights the once vigorous new growth has become a bit bedraggled looking- although still alive. I returned to the house pooped and Jay took a picture of me that I have decided against sharing here. Instead, to the left is a picture Jay took of our hellebores or lenten rose that is blooming on the east side of the house. I remember first running across them in the mid-1990s and ladies I worked with telling me they were native plants here, but from internet information they appear to be native to Europe. Guess that means, though, this perennial has been here in Washington a long time.

The wild geese do not intend to cast their reflection; the water has no mind to receive their image.- Zenrin poem

3/3/06:

3/2/06:
Remember how older people kept saying that time moves more quickly the older you get? Ah yes, but that was so long ago... Time is indeed a rascal, playing tricks on us, making it seem as if there is less of it even as it continues to go on, and on.

As we move about in this world it is not always easy to keep in touch with friends, no matter how dear they are. I seem to be able to manage meeting Carol about once a year nowadays. Jay and I trekked down to Seattle's Chinatown-International District last month during the Presidents' Day holiday weekend to meet Carol and her significant other, Jerry, for lunch at Shanghai Garden restaurant near the Uwajimaya store. It was great to see Carol again and to meet Jerry. They are soon heading to Carol's home state of Montana for a visit with her mom and family. Carol continues to work in the Seattle office and has moved up from being a program manager to now supervising one of the social work units. What a great worker and kind person.

The picture of Carol standing next to the restaurant's fish tank leaves something to be desired, but it is the only one I ended up getting of her and so have had to make do with it despite how the flash washed out the color in her face- hope she forgives me! Jerry is not keen on having his picture taken so his is only fleeting. It was nice to meet the man that makes Carol smile- see you again next Presidents' Day weekend!


The power of a man's virtue should not be measured by his special efforts, but by his ordinary doing.- Blaise Pascal

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