Border Collies, Diversity and Me

Posted on April 28, 2010 by a moment with god — 1 Comment

Hugh, a sheep farmer in County Kerry, Ireland and his dogs

Good Day, God

What a TREAT it was today to hear this sheep farmer talk about his dogs. First, it was clear how much he loved and valued his two dogs — second, it was magical to see them working together — and third, we had Mother Dog behaviors to watch.

The Mother Dog, Sally, is the one chained up by the fence. The farmer, Hugh, chained her up because she kept “cleaning up” the mistakes her daughter, Rose, made. Rose is still being trained and if she missed a command, Sally would be right there fixing it. As Hugh said, it was like a mother teaching her daughter how to do the dishes by keeping on doing them.

These are Border Collies, God, so I bet Sally would have been “cleaning up after” Rose even if she hadn’t been the Mother. Boy! Are these dogs obsessive, or WHAT! But then, perhaps, “hard workers” would be a better descriptive phrase — or maybe these dogs just have VERY HIGH ENERGY? Hugh said that after a month on the mountain they are so tired from running all day long that when he gives a command he can see the dogs eying each other as if to say, “Isn’t it your turn?” So, maybe their eagerness is related to their energy level.

I felt for Rose. She slunk close to the ground when Hugh yelled a repeat of a command she hadn’t understood. She felt awful. Here she is with her paws on Hugh’s leg, asking for reassurance. He made it clear that you praised the dogs for what you wanted more of. I could have stood there all day listening to him tell dog stories.

Now, God, it comes to me. You could have made all of us people to be like Border Collies — hard working with high energy. That’s what I would have done. But You didn’t do that. And, after thinking about it, I’m glad You didn’t make us all alike.

THANK YOU GOD that we are so very varied. But we need help in dealing with this immense diversity! Ah, God. We need minds to match Your Reality!

Or is it that we need to OPEN our minds to Your Reality?

Posted in A God given diversity, appreciation, interspecies contact, small meaningful moments

The Dingle Peninsula and Possibilities

Posted on April 27, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

it looks like a door to me -- at the end of the Dingle Peninsula

Thanks be to Thee O God!

Really, I am thankful! Thankful to finally be on a trip without being sick — thankful that Kit did well in the Boston Marathon — thankful to be here in Ireland.

And, with just a bit of a smile on my face, I am thankful for my imagination — thankful I was raised on Science Fiction and alternative worlds. Because, God, it is so much fun to look at this perfect rectangle — a door shaped rectangle — in this cliff and imagine what and who could have caused it.

Now, God, it’s not that I am thinking it was Giants that did it — we haven’t been that long in Ireland! Still, WHAT FUN to let my mind ponder what other than plain old geology might have caused it.

Options! How important it is, God, to have options! To be aware of having been given the ability to generate options. . . create new possibilities. I remember in the movie Dumbo the mouse giving Dumbo the “Magic Feather” and sure enough, Dumbo could fly with it. Magic? Or is it the Power of the Placebo?

Or it is just Opening the Door to a new Possibility? Ah God. I look at History and I think THERE IS SO MUCH EITHER / OR THINKING! It seems as if the world divides up into the equivalent of Left Hemisphere Thinking OR Right Hemisphere Thinking. Both are useful and important — but one or the other gets us sadly out of balance.

Cross section of the brain from http://adhd-treatment-options.blogspot.com

We need (but may not want) more Corpus Callosum people in our world — or maybe we just need to identify them and get them positioned properly! By that I mean people who can access BOTH hemispheres — people who respect and can work with a wide variety of types.

Understanding? Are the key attributes to solving many problems simply Understanding and Respect?

Ah yes, and the ability to forgive — to forgive the past — to forgive ourselves — to forgive others — acknowledging we have made dreadful mistakes — confessing them and asking for forgiveness — making amends. Hmmm. Sounds like we need to run everyone through AA.

More smiles. Thank You God for a Grand Day!

Posted in Balancing and adjustments, Corpus Callosum People, Focus on what unites us, gratitude, Making Amends, Options, Possibilities, respect, thankfulness, the difficulty of doing Both And, Uncategorized, Understanding

Bright Blossoms, Dark History

Posted on April 26, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

a flowering tree in Sneem, County Kerry, Ireland

Good Day, God!

I really can’t bring myself to say Hi — which is strange, God, as I am sure most people would be appalled at my informality with You — Creator of EVERYTHING!

Today was a day of Grand Vistas — oceans and lakes and green green fields and brilliant yellow gorse — as we drove around the Ring of Kerry. But this is the image I wanted to share with You. Thank You, God, for the small and fleeting beauties of this earth — especially when they are seen against the ancient and enduring granite. Tis a comfort, as they say.

We passed by the place where Daniel O’Connell was born and I learned about him and his place in history. How could I not know about a man who inspired Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King? The Catholic Emancipator!

In 1828 Donald O’Connell couldn’t take his elected postion in the House of Commons unless he swore the Oath of Supremacy — saying that the “Queen’s Highness is the only supreme governor of this realm, and of all other of her Highness’s dominions and countries, as well in all spiritual or ecclesiastical things or causes . . .” He refused and because of his popularity (and the fear of revolution) the English actually changed the rule and he was able to serve in Parliment. Later, in 1846 he persuaded Parliment to repeal a law requiring special dress for Jews.

Sigh. How is it, God, that we do these things to one another?

Hmmm. How is it I can “feel” this wrong so strongly — while the starvation of over one million Irish just twenty years after this incident — seems by its very size to be denied entry into my psyche. One quarter of the country dead by starvation? How can that be? Good men doing nothing? Did people say it was an Act of God — and acquit themselves of any responsibility? So many “holocausts”, God.

Could we have a Make Over, God?

You say, of course! YOU are willing — now help me to be willing!

Posted in a matter of scale, appreciation, asking for and accepting forgiveness, becoming the change I wish to see, The difficulty of changing

An espaliered fruit tree and assorted thoughts

Posted on April 25, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

Espaliered fruit tree at Kylemoor Abbey gardens

Hello, God!

I’m giving up on the Time Based Greeting. Evening here — morning there and neither one (or both?) for You.

I have been pondering this photo ever since I took it. As I was taking it I thought — that wouldn’t be a bad life — espaliered against a south facing or east facing wall — protected from the wind and predators.

But, on the heels of that thought came — BUT FREE IS BETTER — then again, if one is cold, hungry, and in danger, free looks less attractive.

I don’t suppose, God, that fruit trees care much about free — I would think they are more concerned with being fruitful. Fruitful appeals to me, too. It appeals A LOT! Fruitful is right up there with USEFUL and HELPFUL as words I LIKE!

Our tour director was describing the Irish Economic Catastrophe — rather similar to ours where people assumed that house prices would continue going up and up and up. No Down! Forgetting about down — or denying DOWN can get you into a lot of trouble. The Irish government has gone so far as to offer a prize to the best plan for getting them OUT of the mess they are in.

Do You think, God, that we could ALL use a good strong wall to be espaliered against? At first I was thinking about the Benedictines (an order of Benedictine Nuns now owns the Abbey) with their rules and their balance of WORK and PRAYER. But, it is MORE than that, isn’t it God. We need YOU. We need to be helped and pruned to be more fruitful — as individuals and as nations.

I hope that the photo is a photo of a real fruit tree, not a flowering one. Ornamental is nice — but maybe we have put a little too much emphasis on ornamental — and not enough on fruitful? Help me, please, God, continue to ponder this.

Tagged with: pruned for growth
Posted in being planted, cyclical nature of the universe, pruned for fruitfulness

Victorian Gardens, Famines and White Flour Lives

Posted on April 24, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

flowers in profusion at Kylemoor Abbey's Victorian Garden

Thank You, God, for our being on this trip!

Thank You that the volcano’s cloud is no longer stopping planes — and, yes, it would be wonderful if we don’t see a repeat of that Power of Nature Exhibit.

I suppose that I like Nature best in this profusion of flowers! And I rather like the jumble effect as opposed to the trimmed and tidy ovals of the Victorian Garden. Perhaps that comes from having loved the Secret Garden as a child.

Cover of the Secret Garden illustrated by Tasha Tudor

The garden was surely part of the charm of that book — a Victorian Book — but so was the wisdom of Dicken and his mother — and so was the transformation of Mary and Colin. Hmmm. Colin was healed by fresh air, exercise, and nature. I can’t remember if real food was involved, too. I know real food was part of the healing power of being outdoors in the fresh air in the book Heidi. Odd, God, how we don’t notice how these stories from childhood shape our lives.

I am right now feeling as if I need a “fresh air, real food and exercise” cure! Not that I am “sick” but I am feeling the effects of flying and riding and eating too much — in short — Modern Life — or should I say the “White Flour” life?

Mind You, God, after driving through Connemara (above Galway in Ireland) — and seeing the small plots of land and wee stone cottages that had to feed and house 10 to 15 people — I don’t want to go back to that sort of life. Hmmm. The famine of the 1840s was about the blight that destroyed the potatoes — a 4-5 year blight that came shortly after the herring stopped coming. The hungry people couldn’t hunt or fish for fresh water fish as they were only renting that land and had no “right” to the game. And with so many mouths to feed on very little land the potato was the only plant that could produce enough calories. To have it fail, was disaster.

Nature play her part — but so did a grievously unfair economic structure with absentee landlords who had contempt for their tenants. Sigh. While people starved and died on the side of the road, Ireland was exporting food.

It was greed back then, too. How easy it is to see “wrongs” looking back in time — how hard it is to see what is under our noses. Ah, God. Help me look. Help me begin by the simple step of watching myself — watching what I eat — watching what I feed my mind — watching what I think. With Your Help –That will be a beginning.

Posted in a prayer for healing, accepting my need for help, asking for help for myself, Balancing and adjustments, becoming the change I wish to see, Rethinking, The difficulty of changing

Solar Power — and the Power of Hearing Ourselves

Posted on April 23, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

a color enhanced image of our Sun from the solar satellite

Ah, God!

It’s EARTH DAY and somehow it seems right to feature an image of our Sun — massively switching to solar power would certainly be a gift to our Earth.

Kit and I were flying from Dublin to Shannon today and talking about how it had just been a bit over 100 years since the FIRST air flight. Amazing all that has happened in air transportation and then we thought about iPhones and iPads — Kindles and Nooks and audiobooks and far far more. It feels like accelerating acceleration. It that a j curve or a hockey stick curve?

Of course, we feel that more than our grandsons! Goodness, God. All this twittering and texting and connecting.

What then of that lovely Anne Lamott essay this morning sent by Mary M. from the April Sunset Magazine? In the article she talks on the need to make time for creating or just meandering in nature. She says: . . . the good news is that creative expression, whether that means writing, dancing, bird-watching, or cooking, can give a person almost everything that he or she has been searching for: enlivenment, peace, meaning, and the incalculable wealth of time spent quietly in beauty. Then she says that the BAD NEWS is that we have to MAKE TIME to do that.

Yes, God, I hear You! That means to MAKE CHOICES and not just drift into surface activities and connections. It means to truly HEAR others. AND YES!!! It means to HEAR MYSELF! It means to hold open a sacred space for You — or maybe for hidden and forbidden Portions of Ourselves.

Our Culture has shut off a goodly portion of ourselves. It has pruned and trimmed us — especially we females — into bonsai plants — managing to eek out a life with roots bound in the toxic copper wires of expectations. My MY! Do I really believe that? And, if I do? What then, God? What then?

Ah, we will HOLD OPEN times of silence — we will listen lovingly — we will sit in Your Compassionate Presence! Yes! WITH YOUR HELP!

Posted in a surfeit of sound and stuff, afraid of quiet?, an invitation to abundant life, becoming the change I wish to see, being heard into speaking, being together in a compassionate presence, hearing myself

Moon jellies and me

Posted on April 22, 2010 by a moment with god — 1 Comment

Moon jellies in a small tank at the Cape Cod Natural History Museum

Good Morning God!

I must say, I feel rather like these creatures — gently moving up and down and over — no real sense of direction. It is quite lovely, actually. These creatures are not rushing,

Now, this morning we are off soon to the bus stop and then the airport and then to Dublin and then Shannon and then the tour . . . or so they tell us.

You know, God, I am intending to float like these jellies — please help me relax and do that.

Actually, my BIG prayer request is please help Kit relax — right now he is on hold with Aerlingus to confirm their call last night confirming our flight today instead of tomorrow. Thanks, God! It was my turn to call and after one wrong number we figured out the right one and got to the person who had been calling US! A MIRACLE! Indeed, the fact that we are going at all, seems to me a miracle!

So, God, bless this dear woman who is now / HAS now gotten us a connecting flight from Dublin to Shannon. And bless us as we FLOAT ON!

Posted in accepting my need for help, asking for help for myself, embedded in God's Time, gratitude, thankfulness

Going? Staying? In Your Hands!

Posted on April 21, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

Eyjafjallajökull volcano

Good Morning God!

Go? Or No Go? I feel like I am in some sort of Game Show. At the moment we are No Go for today, Wednesday — and Go for Friday. At that point we would have to get ourselves to Killarney from Dublin to meet the Grand Circle tour. Kit is ADVENTUROUS — more so than I am. But, this is His Marathon and His Trip! I am happy to go along.

Ah, but God, I am TRUSTING You in all of this. You say, no, I seem to be trusting Kit? Hmmm. Well, not so much “trusting” as going with Kit. It is true that left to my own devices I would be spending a bit of time here in Cape Cod visiting Lucy and then go home — or off to see our family. But then, I am not the one with the Traveling Gene.

One small volcano in Iceland — imagine that, God — and all of Europe is held hostage. We are amazingly interconnected — and it appears, dependent on AIR TRAVEL! Gosh, what would happen to the economy of Hawaii if we were covered by a high cloud of glass particles? It makes me think. Actually, it scares me into NOT THINKING. I suspect that most people find thinking far too scary to do it as we should. It makes me think of Walter. Walter is on the board of Lucy’s condo association and he obtained permits to resand their shore BEFORE the storms came and tore away the sand. BEFORE the problem came, he had thought about it and prepared for it — even to obtaining permit which can take a year to get.

Ah, now God, where are the Walters in Congress? Where are the Walters in our state governments. In fact, it comes to me — WHERE IS THE WALTER IN ME???? Now there is a question for me to ponder, because, OF COURSE, there IS a Walter inside of me — longing to get OUT!!!! And, God, the Aer Lingus people just called and we can now fly into Shannon — putting us much closer to Killarney. THANK YOU!

And, please God, could you help me find and release and cherish that Walter part deep inside me?

Posted in asking for help for myself, authority over my life, thankfulness

GRATITUDE!

Posted on April 20, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

a flowering tree on the marathon course

THANK YOU! Thank YOU, God!

I am so GRATEFUL! Gratitude overflows! First that Kit is alive and well after the extraordinary endurance event of a marathon! Yes, God, I am always aware that sometimes very fit and able runners DIE during a marathon. Although, ever since I learned that Phidippides — the first one to run that distance — had been fighting all day in heavy armor before running and dropping dead — I have felt less nervous.

I’m also grateful that Kit was third in his age group! He is competitive! And I know he would have felt down if he had been fourth. Smile!

But far more that that — I am grateful for all the wonderful people we have met. People like Joan who made the trip up to root for Kit as her way of saying Thank You to him for fund raising in honor of her. People like their friends, the Nathans, who drove us around and felt like OUR friends. People like the young (40’s) runner — eating next to us –who had his picture taken with Kit

And, God, thank You for the blossoms of Spring! Thank YOU for the cycle of seasons — for the fact that Spring does follow Winter — not like the Perpetual Winter of the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. That makes me think of how Very Thankful I am for the Resurrection Promise — a very personalized story of hope and love. I guess, God, that I am NOT a philosopher. For me MEANING is best captured and conveyed by STORY! THANK YOU!!! Thank You for EVERYTHING.

Posted in appreciation, blooming, connections, gratitude, Spring and Resurrection, thankfulness, Thanksgiving!

Kit and the Boston Marathon

Posted on April 19, 2010 by a moment with god — 1 Comment

Kit leaving for the buses to take him to the start

Good Morning God!

Please take especially good care of my marvelous husband! Here he is bundled up and about to leave our room in the hotel to walk to the bus pickup place. He left at 7:00 a.m. EDT and I guess it takes the buses a bit less than an hour to get to Hopkinton. There he will wait at the “Hawaii House” with other runners from Hawaii. Bless that man, God, who opens his home each year! At 10:30 Kit will start the race with the second wave.

BLESS KIT! Give him a GOOD RUN! Please, God! And please give him good people to sit next to on the bus and to smooze with on the run. Lighten his heart — lighten his steps — may the wind be at his back!

Ever since Suz and I saw Kit at mile 26 in the LA Marathon — in which he won his age group — I have had FAR MORE APPRECIATION OF HIS GRIT! Grit doesn’t get much glory, God. But it SHOULD! When I saw Kit running — well, putting one foot in front of the other — I wanted to yell WALK!

Ah, but Suz swelled with pride and said LOOK AT DAD! HE’S GIVING IT ALL HE’S GOT! That was when I knew that the two of them had GRIT! Sandy has it too! She finished her marathon 2 years ago with both knees wrapped in ice.

And me? As I like to say — my relatives waited for the train before they came West — no covered wagons for them. Still and all, even if I’m a wimp, I ADMIRE KIT! BLESS HIM, God! Keep him SAFE, Please! And bless and keep all the runners safe.

Kit is running for Joan — his honored teammate — wife of his classmate and band friend, Peter. Bless Joan, too! God, a special gift of healing for Joan today, please. She and Peter are coming with friends to watch the run. May I find them easily — and may we see Kit as he runs by!

The sky is blue and the temperature in the 40’s with the high maybe 59 today. No rain, thank YOU, God. Now, please one last thing — ease my nervousness — take good care of my beloved husband!

Posted in a prayer for healing, grit, Running the Boston Marathon, Trusting God