Judith Browning

“In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter and sharing of pleasures.
For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.”

Khalil Gibran
The Prophet, 1923.

One of the qualities that you can develop, particularly in your older years, is a sense of great compassion for yourself.
When you visit the wounds within the temple of memory, you should not blame yourself for making bad mistakes that you greatly regret.
Sometimes you have grown unexpectedly through these mistakes.
Frequently, in a journey of the soul, the most precious moments are the mistakes.
They have brought you to a place that you would otherwise have always avoided.
You should bring a compassionate mindfulness to your mistakes and wounds.

John O'Donohue

Some Questions You Might Ask

Is the soul solid, like iron?
Or is it tender and breakable, like
the wings of a moth
in the beak of the owl?
Who has it, and who doesn't?
I keep looking around me.
The face of the moose is as sad
as the face of Jesus.
The swan opens her white wings slowly.
In the fall, the black bear carries leaves into the darkness.
One question leads to another.
Does it have a shape? Like an iceberg?
Like the eye of a hummingbird?
Does it have one lung, like the snake and the scallop?
Why should I have it, and not the anteater who loves her children?
Why should I have it, and not the camel?
Come to think of it, what about the maple trees?
What about the blue iris?
What about all the little stones, sitting alone in the moonlight?
What about roses, and lemons, and their shining leaves?
What about the grass?

Mary Oliver

"Revolution doesn't have to do with smashing something;
it has to do with bringing something forth.
If you spend all your time thinking about that which you are attacking,
then you are negatively bound to it.
You have to find the zeal in yourself and bring that out."

Joseph Campbell
"Pathways to Bliss"

"You mustn’t wish for another life.
You mustn’t want to be somebody else.
What you must do is this:

“Rejoice evermore.
Pray without ceasing.
In everything give thanks.”

I am not all the way capable of so much,
but those are the right instructions.”

Wendell Berry

gooseberries?

Question Authority

attributed more recently to...
Timothy Francis Leary
(October 22, 1920 – May 31, 1996)
American psychologist and author

Faith is intuitive,
it’s primordial,
it’s something that we’re born with.
It’s not something
that we can go and learn about.
We cultivate it
and we continue to fine-tune it
as we deepen in our spiritual practice.

Leslie Booker
(Buddhist meditation teacher, writer, engaged spiritual leader)

The no plastic touching food is a great thought exersize whether we can accomplish it or not.
(and whether we are going for badge bits or not)

It's good to be that mindful of materials.
One's more practical choices might be otherwise but I think it's important to make the choice conscious and aware.

I'm interested to see the entries following these guidelines and hoping for some more innovative ways around any plastic use.


I just finished jarring up a large Azure order and for some reason, lately, a few of their 5# bulk items come in plastic lined paper?  I've always appreciated their plain paper packaging and now don't know what to do with these bags.
...and of course, all of my glass gallon jars down to the one pint peanutbutter have lids with plastic 'rubber' seals.

We are moving into a period of bewilderment, a curious moment in which people find light in the midst of despair, and vertigo at the summit of their hopes.
It is a religious moment also, and here is the danger.
People will want to obey the voice of Authority,
and many strange constructs of just what Authority is will arise in every mind…
The public yearning for Order will invite many stubborn uncompromising persons
to impose it.
The sadness of the zoo will fall upon society.

leonard cohen
from the book of longing
1995