Labyrinth Day Artwork

CREATE!

A couple weeks ago, the Spirituality and Activism club on campus brought a labyrinth into the Ballrooms for faculty, staff, and students to walk. The theme was Serenity and Walk, Listen, Embrace. We had a space for artwork, relaxation, information, and of course, the canvas labyrinth itself. I was tickled pink to find fellow labyrinth-lovers from many different religious or spiritual groups.

Getting me through the day....

Tonight. Hollywood. Yes.

And maybe that's all that we need is to meet in the middle of impossibility

Been listening to the Indigo Girls in preparation for their concert in May, and I discovered this beauty.

Why do you spend this time with me
May be an equal mystery



We're standing at opposite poles
Equal partners in a mystery

The beach at the beginning of the early rising summertime in Southern California

Laguna Beach

I adore the beach at the beginning of the early rising summertime -- particularly with a good friend.

April 19th, 2009

I read in some horoscope that yesterday was my golden day of the month of April, and I'd just like to say ...tis true...tis true.

Sunday was great.

The thought of Leonard Cohen:

Went to hear and see L. Cohen tonight in L.A. He sang for nearly four hours!

"Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack, a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in."

Leonard reminds of golden afternoons with my best-friend. We be bicycling around Biola with our dresses on, making home videos modeled after Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, hiking along the train track with our knap sacks, thrift store shopping, taking photographs in men's suits with dry ice in our corn cob pipes, listening to Vivaldi while sipping Rose Tea, writing songs with a chinese accent that go, "Yesterday I was here, but were you here? No," and all other kinds of silliness and craziness.

She introduced me to Hallelujah first, and it blew my mind -- Hallelujah and sadness? How could that be? Later, I appreciated lines like, "She held on me like I was a crucifix" and enjoyed dining on tea and oranges.

Enneagram: 7

The magical child

Essence: Absorption
Holy idea: Holy Work
Holy path: Sobriety
Chief Feature: Planning
Passion: Gluttony
Idealization: "I am okay."
Talking style: Stories
Trap: Idealist
Defense Mechanism: Rationalization
Avoidance: Pain, Frustrations, constraints, limits, getting enmeshed in suffering.
Dichotomy: Inferior/Superior
Strengths: Playful, optimistic, inventive, life-loving.
Paradox: Seeking the positives of life and avoiding the dark side is limiting. Trying to avoid pain creates pain.

Path of development:
Realize it is limiting to seek only the positive
Make and fulfill commitments
Simplify, live in the present moment
Learn to become more aware of others
Allow pain and uncomfortable emotions

Ultimate task: Recognizing the escapism in the pursuit of experience and idealized future plans. Reclaiming and accepting all of life in the present moment: pain, fear and limits as well as pleasure, joy and options.

The Busy, Variety-Seeking type:
Spontaneous, Versatile, Acquisitive, and Scattered

Sevens are extroverted, optimistic, versatile, and spontaneous. Playful, high-spirited, and practical, they can also misapply their many talents, becoming over- extended, scattered, and undisciplined. They constantly seek new and exciting experiences, but can become distracted and exhausted by staying on the go. They typically have problems with impatience and impulsiveness. At their Best: they focus their talents on worthwhile goals, becoming appreciative, joyous, and satisfied.

Basic Fear: Of being deprived and in pain
Basic Desire: To be satisfied and content—to have their needs
fulfilled
Enneagram Seven with a Six-Wing: "The Entertainer"
Enneagram Seven with an Eight-Wing: "The Realist"
Key Motivations: Want to maintain their freedom and happiness, to avoid missing out on worthwhile experiences, to keep themselves excited and occupied, to avoid and discharge pain.

When moving in their Direction of Disintegration (stress), scattered Sevens suddenly become perfectionistic and critical at One. However, when moving in their Direction of Integration (growth), gluttonous, scattered Sevens become more focused and fascinated by life, like healthy Fives.

Welcome, welcome, welcome

When you shine the light, darkness disappears. We may understand this as a kind of fight between light and darkness, but in reality, it is an embrace. Mind-fulness, if practiced continuously, will be strong enough to embrace your fear or anger and transform it. We need not chase away evil. We can embrace and transform it in a nonviolent, nondualistic way. - Thich Nhat Hanh

History of Love: continued

Photo Booth: "I went in. From then on, every time I had some spare money I'd go to the booth. In the beginning it was always the same. But, I kept on trying. Then one day I accidentally moved as the shutter clocked. A shadow appeared. The next time I saw the outline of my fave, and a few weeks later my face itself. It was the opposite of disappearing."

"If I had a camera," I said, "I'd take a picture of you every day. That way I'd remember how you looked every single day of your life." "I look exactly the same." "No, you don't. You're changing all the time. Every day a tiny bit. If I could, I'd keep a record of it all."

"You got a little happier and also a little sadder." "Meaning they cancel each other out, leaving me exactly the same." "Not at all. The fact that you got a little happier today doesn't change the fact that you also became a little sadder. Every day you become a little more of both, which means right now, at this exact moment, you're the happiest and the saddest you've ever been in your whole life." "How do you know?" "Think about it. Have you ever been happier than right now, lying here in the grass?" "I guess not. No." "And have you ever been sadder?" "No." "It isn't like that for everyone, you know. Some people, like your sister, just get happier and happier everyday. And some people, like Beyla Asch, just get sadder and sadder. And some people, like you, get both." "What about you? Are you the happiest and saddest right now that you've ever been?" "Of course I am." "Why?" "Because nothing makes me happier and nothing makes me sadder than you."

Remember: Angel in the flour.

Just around the riverbend...

Reading: Tortuga

The tension of the spring which had pierced the earth to thaw the land now coursed through our bodies and quivered in our limbs. We were no longer deformed, twisted bodies which on land limped and dragged the heavy weight of steel; we had become graceful golden mermen and mermaids, part fish and part men and women, swimming to the dance of spring...

"looking for baggage that goes with mine"

Commit To A Decision
Virgo Daily Horoscope
You could find it hard to commit more deeply to a partnership or relationship and may vacillate back and forth between your options today. It might be that this indecisiveness is due to your fear that by letting someone into your life, you may get hurt. While there is some comfort in sitting on the fence and not making a firm decision, setting the intention to act today could in fact strengthen your relationship in a positive way, since both of you will know where you stand with each other.


Breathing in, Breathing Out.
I am firm as the earth.
I am free.

"we are the breakers of our own hearts" : Reading Eudora Welty on a Saturday Morning.

"...IT'S ABOUT ACCURACY OF THE EYE, ABOUT OBSERVATION AND ABOUT SYMPATHY TOWARD WHAT IS IN FRONT OF YOU (INCLUDING MEMORIES). IT'S ABOUT TRYING TO SEE INTO THE ESSENCE OF REALITY. IT'S ABOUT HONESTY, OR TRUTH TELLING, AND A WAY TO FIND IT IN YOURSELF, HOW TO NEED IT AND LEARN FROM IT. "

Random Song of the Morning

This morning, this song came to mind:


It's been a long time since I've watched Pete's Dragon.


Really? You're just saying that! Is it true? I love you too!

Romping about Mt. Washington with two dogs

Oliver's Travels: Winter 09

In the car

In the nook

On the porch

Pretty things, good things: Artwalk and South Pasadena

Spring Break: day 3

Glorious Spring Break Days!

Monday: Oliver and I took a long walk through HP while I talked with a close friend on the phone. We spent the afternoon with the housematies, specifically, romping about the ravine -- three dogs, four humans, and our Buster's Coffee.

And, lastly, an evening of nummy homemade food, settlers, and KARAOKE at the Big Foot Lodge in AV.

Yesterday, coffee hour(s) at Brite Spot in EP, a good long sit in a hammock under the canopy of many trees -- the sun shining on my face and chest, the ice cream truck in the distance, the children within, etc.

And today, first breakfast with brother, second with Grammie and Papa, and snowboarding with fam. Reminds me of: