An August Christmas

Sometimes the hardest solution is the one that sits on the edge of consciousness. It sits in plain view but just out of reach when one strives fervently to grasp it. It is like a single breath. Simple, yet elusive to those who pursue it with dogged persistance. Shall we not let life just be? To linger, evolve, create, metamorph to the solution that we so crave.

Perhaps a trip to Israel, a sidestep to Quebec, a parlay to Greece, will make that which we hold dear become a reality.

Emily Uplifted

After great pain, a formal feeling comes
The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs....

Ah Emily Dickinson, how well read you were in school. You lay fallow for so many years only to be revived to a shelf of favor.

I HAVE not told my garden yet,

Lest that should conquer me;

I have not quite the strength now

To break it to the bee...

I wonder how worthy was the bee?

Tolerance Unfurled

The more forgiving you were in your humane compassion, the more these rouge Kauravas pegged you as cowardly ashen. Forgiveness is becoming of the serpent that’s got venom. None cares for the toothless, poisonless, kind, gentle one. Tolerance, forgiveness and clemency are respected by the world only when the glow of strength from behind it is unfurled. Poet: Ramdhari Singh.

Tolerance is the moral courage to accept the differences of others within the framework of a civilized society. To be tolerant requires strength of character and greater responsibility. When unbalanced, tolerance is perceived as weakness and civil discourse is elusive. It is a balancing act that lately eludes me.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/tolerance-is-a-sign-of-strength-not-weakness-629263.html

Dross and other favorite words

New favorite word: dross. Replaces my other favorite word: lotus eaters.

I liked the Goodreads' book review for Shirley MacLaine's newest book. The review ends with "So read the book for the entertaining aspects. Consider she has some wisdom and much to offer. But be discerning: take the good, leave the dross, enjoy the ride with Shirley MacLaine."

Equally as nice was the review that said, "Shirley is that favorite aunt who's traveled the world and lived an incredible life, the one who has an opinion on everything, loves to be the center of attention, and who gets crotchety when she's tired."

Oh to travel the world, and then be forgiven for being crotchety when one is old and tired. This is agreeable to me.

Vitruvian man

Leonardo da Vinci believed the workings of the human body were an analogy for the workings of the universe. His 1490 drawing of the Vitruvian Man form one overlapping image depicting a cosmography of the microcosm.

Using this analogy of the symbiotic relationship of man and cosmos, could the rhythmic beating of a human heart be but the expansion and contraction of the universe?

26,000

Our solar system will be in direct alignment with the center of our galaxy in 2012. The first time in 26,000 years. The distance from our planet to the center of our galaxy will be approximately 26,000 light years. The average human life span is 26,000 days. Will we experience a magnetic reversal? A polar shift? Will we be the woolly mammoths left with half-chewed mouthfuls of grass, frozen in our denial of what our existence means, or will we expand our consciousness and embrace a new awakening? Either way we may see a shifting in our existence. To what degree depends on how we, as a species, embrace change.

Seasonal Age

Spring babies, summer youths, fall adults, winter oldies. As we age do we become more like the seasons we are compared to? I thought when I retired I would love to sit carefree on a beach, a dream I've had since sunbathing on a white sandy beach in Caesarea in my early twenties. Nothing could be closer to heaven than that moment. Now as old age peeks at me around the corner, I find that a cozy chair next to a warm fire while the snow falls outside seems more appealing. When did that change?