For those of you who may not yet know,
I've moved to a new Cyber Home!
Tales From The Labyrinth continues
~HERE~
www.lealabyrinth.com
Please come and join me!
I look forward
to sharing more adventures
and wondrous discoveries
with you along the path!
Inside and out...
this house has seen
one-hundred and two years...
of being US...
Happy Fourth
of July 2011!
I AM
not a poky driver...
I am actually a very good driver...
Getting a ticket for "rolling" through a stop sign
two years ago has deeply ingrained in me the desire
and necessity to stop,
really stop,
at ALL stop signs,
especially red lights...
So... as Orin, my step-son
who is here visiting from France,
and I were driving to dinner after watching
Tom Shadyac's thought provoking documentary I AM,
which is a whole other story of how Orin and I
each
come at something very near and dear
to our hearts from completely opposite vantage points…
I stopped at the red light
at Montgomery & Farmer's
before making a right on red...
Just a simple hesitation
brought on honking from the car behind me...
I immediately reacted,
forgetting that I just came from a movie
all about our interconnectedness...
and how we affect each other
without ever even saying a word,
how we are really one,
you, me, and everyone else on this planet...
and turned around in annoyance,
putting up my hand to say…
"Hey! Back off and give me some space!"
(I did NOT flip him off!!!)
I then saw the driver,
who fits my stereotype of
macho, beer drinking, over buffed,
long dyed crazy surfer streaked-blond hair
in a gianormous monster gas guzzling truck
roll his eyes and become enraged
at my "I wear" organic sustainably grown yoga pants
and recycled tread shoes,
driving a tree-hugging
save the environment
low to the ground
Prius...
Seeing that the way was clear
I made that turn,
expecting the monster truck
to rev up and roar to life next to me
before leaving me in the dust...
Instead
he became glued to my back bumper
and tailgated me through several lights
as I could not get away with the heavy traffic...
This was all I could see in my rear-view mirror...
I finally pulled into the restaurant parking lot...
and he followed me in.
Crap.
(edited version of what I really said)
Now,
my heart is pounding
and I realize that my actions
have put Orin and me in possible danger...
"What do I do?"
I ask Orin..
I didn't think in the moment to use my cell phone to call 911
so I headed out of the parking lot,
with the man and the truck
right on my tail...
I then made the decision
to drive to the police and fire station...
it was at that very moment
that he finally left me,
with my heart racing
and my already over stimulated adrenals
pushed into over drive,
that he roared off into the West
waving the whole way...
Who knows…
maybe if I had ignored him in the first place,
none of this would have happened…
or maybe it would have made him even madder…
For you see...
it is about those split second choices
that I make in the moment...
this isn't about him,
or you reading this and having your own reaction,
it about my learning to find the ability
to move in a different way
than how I am hard wired
in belief and body to react...
The fact that I wear sustainably grown clothing
or drive a hybrid
isn't what's going to make a difference
on this planet...
If I am rightous and dead set in my own beliefs...
then I AM actually the problem,
not them...
It is about how I treat others,
especially those who do not think like I do,
and how I can move from a place of interconnectedness
and respect
for myself
and those I find myself encountering in all of life
that will truly make a difference in this world,
on Earth Day
and every day...
Christmas Day was such a joy...
spent with such good friends and family...
Amanda and Sam arrived...
There was time for a Christmas Story reading
by Elizabeth called the Thingamajig Christmas...
even the puppies listened in...
Then Gerry and Gabe arrived
just in time for the ceremonial cutting
of the seventeen layer chocolate cake...
Malia's mystery Christmas gift
from Amanda was revealed...
Sam opened coffee after coffee after coffee
for her new machine...
Jewels were discovered...
While Christmas Elves watched...
And me... I was completely surprised...
by Elizabeth's gift of my favorite vintage hat,
complete with vintage hat box from our hat day...
What a day of joy was had by all...
Bow by Donna
at Designs in Fort Collins...
It has been such a delight
to stay with Elizabeth's two daughters,
Amanda and Malia...
And even more fun,
has been to watch the merriement of Christmas cheer and
surprises between these two sisters...
Here is Amanda with her gift for Malia...
Aren't you a wondering...
just what
could this be???
Well...
so is...
Malia!!!!
Here I am, with Elizabeth, Adalay, & Hoover in front of Malia's Christmas tree and lights in Fort Collins, Colorado wearing hologram glasses that took the whole light experience to unimagined heights for me!!! Mine were "supposed" to be "angels" but I declared them faeries, as soon as I put them on! Every where I looked faeries fluttered around every light I looked at, small and large, colored or white, it did not matter if they were Christmas, lamp post, or car lights!!!
So you can just imagine
how beautiful these lights looked to me,
and just how many faeries I saw!
Oh how I love...
these Christmas lights,
this darkest time of the year!!!!
On March 25th, I had the honor of assisting Rob Harrison and the Sebastopol, CA, TLC Children & Family Services' staff, board members, clients, and friends in the installation of their
35 by 40 foot Classical Stone Labyrinth.
This was the agency where I did my last internship... before embarking down a different path from the one I started when I entered graduate school. I loved the young adults that I worked with here... their struggles and tenacity forever marked my heart... and has laid a foundation for the work I now do... so it felt like coming full circle in assisting them from where I am now in building their labyrinth.
Part of the movement to make this labyrinth happen was with TLC loosing one of their graduates to the Iraq war. The staff wanted to create a space not only to honor the memory of students who have passed on, but to celebrate and honor the courage and tenacity of the students that attend Journey High School now. They also wanted to assist the students in having the experience of leaving a legacy for students to come.
Here is a poem that one of the kids wrote for the day...
Spring rain blessed our endeavors, the placing of river rocks representing milestones, while we were also being blessed by a Native American smudging, and the beat of the drums from the drumming circle... even some blue-bellied lizards came to watch... perhaps we will find them sunning themselves in the days to come atop the river stones that grace this lovely and heart-felt labyrinth...
Recent Comments