Judith Browning

So many factors demand our attention;
isn’t it awesome that we have
at least some influence
over what we choose to focus on?
And if there is power in acknowledging
and being thankful for even small blessings,
the power of finding meaning
in the face of suffering
can be transformative.

~Pamela Gayle White
(Tibetan-French-English translator
and Buddhist Teacher)

The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy,
and after all our most pleasing responsibility.
To cherish what remains of it and to foster its renewal is our only hope.

Wendell Berry

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.


— Jellaludin Rumi,
(translation by Coleman Barks)

This weekends coming attraction will be a family and friends gathering at our house celebrating a flurry of august/september birthdays💜

...and not to be outdone our wonderfully creamy raw milk source cow has milk available again after calving!

Quote words that affirm
all men and women are your
brothers and sisters.

Author-Poet Aberjhani,
The River of Winged Dreams

an unexpected benefit to my news fast is that it has cut my data use in half!
'The News' was not nearly half of what I read on line but now, by skipping it, has noticably, everyday, lowered my megabytes by at least half from what was normal before.

Tereza,
good things, yes. most definitely.

In the way distant past (late 60's/early 70's), I would have been out at protests, putting some effort into changing what can be changed through public protest and civil disobedience.....
I still think that's a sure way to resist and make good changes through non violent protests even though I fled to the woods in '73....everyone has to make they're own choices.

I've found out 'doom scrolling' (what an appropriate term!) is not the way for me and I fell into it so easily.
The best I can do now, I believe, at my age, is throw some positive energy out to the universe in whatever way I can.

day 5:  easier than I thought to just quit reading the 'news'.  I was mostly following some substack authors and NPR....reading always felt less involved and in my face than watching videos or the televised news programs but still unsettling.

Yesterday at the library I thought I'd check my facebook page as I had not in weeks.   The first thing in my news feed was a friends post with a political meme screaming at me so I logged back out🫤

and there it is ...the world chugs right along in spite of my 'not knowing' it's every move 🙃

To imagine that at the time of our dying,
we’re going to have the mental stability,
the emotional strength,
the mental clarity
to do the work of a lifetime,
is a ridiculous gamble.
The time for the conversation is now.

Frank Ostaseski
(Buddhist teacher founding director
of the Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco)

The primary cause of unhappiness
is never the situation
but the thought about it.
Be aware of the thoughts you are thinking.
Separate them from the situation,
which is always neutral.
It is as it is.

Eckhart Tolle
(1948 to pres., German Philosopher and Mystic)