Letting Go…

This morning, a friend sent me this Zen Proverb. These behaviors are already values of mine but I know I will be working on all of them throughout my life. I think it is interesting that the one I do the least is the belly laugh.

Throughout the day, I reflected on how different our world would be if we all were able and willing to do these things.

1. Let go of comparing
2. Let go of competing
3. Let go of judgements
4. Let go of anger
5. Let go of regrets
6. Let go of worrying
7. Let go of blame
8. Let go of guilt
9. Let go of fear
10. Have a proper belly laugh at least once a day

Wordless Wednesday

Weekly Photo Challenge: Face

I will never forget how surprised and pleased I was when I first saw the photograph I took of this crow. I loved that the crow and the tree looked black against the background of the white clouds and blue sky. And I loved that I could see the photo as a picture of a crow or as a picture of a person, with a crow perched on one hand, reaching for the sky.

Crow

Written for Weekly Photo Challenge: Face

Working on My Attitude

Looks like I had a visitor during the night.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia

I’m working on my attitude.

Thank you mole for aerating my garden for free.

Thank you mole for aerating my garden for free.

But the flowers looked so beautiful yesterday.

Thank you mole for aerating my garden for free.

But now some of the seedlings have been destroyed

Thank you mole for aerating my garden for free.

That wasn’t supposed to happen.

Obviously it was, because it did.

Thank you mole for aerating my garden for free.

I will get there.

Eventually.

Anticipating the Future!

Last year I harvested a half-a-dozen strawberries from this patch. I was so surprised when I saw this the other day:

I can already taste what is to come!

The Rhododendrons are Blooming!

In 1892, the women of Washington State chose the Coast Rhododendron to be the state flower, but it wasn’t made official until 1959. They are in full bloom now and are so beautiful. Yesterday, I walked around my neighborhood and took photographs of as many colors as I could find.

(Click any photo to see them as a slide show.)

Reminiscing: Mid 50’s to Early 60’s

Video-film_svg — Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

My father was in the Army when I was born; therefore, I lived on Army bases most of my childhood. One of the things I remember about that life is that on Saturday mornings the base theater showed children’s movies. While I remember seeing cartoons, westerns and other types of films, the ones I remember the best were the science fiction thrillers.

I doubt that those movies were shown during the Saturday morning time slots. My friend Vince, who also grew up in the Army, said he thought Friday night at the base theater was known as “Fright Night” and that the scary movies were shown then.

I decided to look for the trailers of my favorite science fiction movies from that time. As I watched the trailers, I marveled at how times have changed. I wonder how many children would be allowed to see this type of movie today since I doubt any of them would receive a G rating! But in those days the theater was full of children and teenagers. And we loved being scared. (During this time frame I would have been 8-15 years of age.)

There were two movies I couldn’t find. One was about a person who grew bigger and bigger and bigger. As I recall the man (or was it a woman) was eventually housed in a gigantic circus tent but outgrew even that. The only snippet I remember from the other movie was that objects of some kind were found scattered on a beach. I think they were shaped like round rocks. Whenever someone picked up one of the objects and held it near their face, it marked them. I think it was a circular mark of some kind; could have even been a burn. Do any of you remember either of those films?

I have enjoyed this trip down memory lane. If you lived during that time, did you see these movies? Did you enjoy them? If you are from a different generation, did you ever watch them?

Wordless Wednesday

A Mystery… at least to me!

We have lots of gophers in my neighborhood so I’m used to finding gopher holes in my yard. This year, when I came back from India in mid-January, I discovered that the gophers had been very active. Soon thereafter, I noticed different kind of holes, ones that I wasn’t used to, scattered around the dirt portion of my driveway.

The ground is hard there but something was burrowing out from the earth. I couldn’t imagine what it would be. The holes were miniscule in comparison to a gopher hole but big enough to completely stump me.

Soon after I added top soil to one of my new garden beds, I noticed the holes begin to appear there as well. I’ve never seen anything go in or out of these holes so I stayed mystified.

One day a tree service employee came to do some work in my yard. I asked him if he knew what created the holes. His immediate response was “Worms.” I wondered if he was kidding but he seemed totally serious.

WORMS?????? How could that be? I knew that my gardens contained a lot of worms, and some of the earthworms I’ve seen are very big, but I had never seen one of them on top of the earth. If his statement was true, I have to assume that there are a lot of worms coming out of the ground during the night.

Does that mean there are giant earthworms roaming the land at night? That question conjured up images worthy of a 1950’s science fiction movie.

So to those of you who know about such things, are these truly worm holes?

On Living and Dying Day 8 by Alfred Poole

When I woke up this morning, I found an email notice in my inbox saying this post had gone up on The Seeker’s Dungeon. As I read through it, I received what was probably the biggest surprise in my life, and an incredible Mother’s Day present.

For those of you who don’t know, Al is my ex husband and father of Sreejit and Chaitanya. Our life has gone through so many phases. Sometimes our paths merged or were side by side, sometimes they were close together and for many years there was a lot of distance between us, even though we still worked together in raising our children.

I think this post is a great reminder to me, and others, that you never know where life’s road will take you and that healing of relationships can and does happen.

I feel very blessed.