Mountain Mama

Just got back from a glorious trip to Banff where I stayed at a friend's home on the corner of Elk and Squirrel. Seriously. You can't make this stuff up. (There's also Beaver and Cougar but they don't intersect.)

More on my life as a wild mountaineering woman later. For now, I simply bring you Elk and Squirrel.

Summer Vacation: Stop #3 continues . . .

Our week-long stay at Ocean Isle Beach, NC was so awesome. Church on the beach. Swimming in the waaaaaarm ocean. Swimming in the pool. Renting bicycles. Relaxing. Learning about sea turtles and their nesting patterns. No pressure. No laptop. Just the chance to hang with my NC brother and his adorable family for the first time in a couple of years.

My sister-in-law found a great little condo right on the beach. Here is our backyard.

Here are some men fishing on the sound (on the other side of our condo) taken from where Grannie and I were sitting on a bench and meditating (or chatting, you decide).

So peaceful. Actually, the entire island was fairly deserted. Probably because schools in the South start earlier than those of their northern kinfolk. Possibly because of the impending hurricane. Either way, it was great.

My kids got a chance to spend time with their youngest cousin. So blinkin' cute. They also got a chance to hear his sweet lil' Southern accent and learn some new phrases of their own. "Don't you backjaw me boy."

The best part for me, other than being all snugly with the family, is always the beach.

Goodbye Ocean Isle Beach. You were very good to us.

Namaste

At the end of yoga classes, the teacher typically puts his/her hands in prayer pose, bows to the class and says, "Namaste." It's a Sanskrit word that loosely translates to "The divine in me honors the divine in you." The students reciprocate the bow and sentiment.

It is a beautiful practice and reminder that God lies within each of us.

Last weekend, I was reading a book entitled Soul Prints written by Rabbi Marc Gafni that I grabbed from the free, discard shelves at our library. In this book, he states that "shalom" not only means "peace" but also in the Kabbalistic understanding of language conveys a wider intent--specifically, "The divine point within me greets the divine point within you." Wow. Really?

Early the same evening, after reading that point, and pondering its significance, I attended Catholic mass and couldn't help but notice the similarities. The priest says "The Lord be with you" and we respond "And also with you." Sometimes it's more elaborate (e.g., "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all") but the response is the same, "And also with you."

Later, the priest states, "The peace of the Lord be with you always" and again we say, "And also with you." We then offer each other a sign of peace by shaking hands with everyone around us and saying to one another, "Peace be with you." Every week, bar none, this simple gesture reminds me of my grandpa Jack who always turned to us and said, "Shalom."

What an honor, right? To acknowledge the divine peace and presence in the family, friends and strangers among us. Although I've been performing this act my entire life, until last weekend, I had never fully appreciated the beauty.

Namaste.

Or, as the great spiritual leader Obi-Wan Kenobi once said, "May the force be with you."

Sanity by Way of Serenity

"Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest." --Mark 6:31

I need to reconnect with God. I need a prayer retreat. Better yet, I need to spend a couple days immersed in complete and utter silence with just my Bible and a beach. No food. No friends. No worries.

I need to un-jumble my brain and listen.

"Be still and know that I am God." --Psalm 46:10

Ataraxis Out

My friend Peter just hooked me up with Visual Thesaurus which "creates word maps that blossom with meanings and branch to related words." If you glide your cursor over the synonym hub, a short definition will appear; if you click, the map will regenerate around your new selection.

More fun for nerds!



I chose "peace" for today because I need it -- as I attempt to find serenity amidst chaos. And I like the image because it looks like someone who is successfully balancing on one leg while her hands are full and ideas are springing from her head yet she has peace in her heart.

Clearly not a self-portrait at this point in time but perhaps an aspirational vision!

Peace Out

I always struggle a bit when posting about anything smacking of Christianity because so many people find it offensive and send me emails or make comments. But, I have to say, it's such a big part of who I am that I feel I would be negligent (at best) if I wasn't being true to myself. So for my non-believer friends, you might not want to read this post.

Anyway, I bring this up because I intended to get up at the crack of dawn and head back into work really early today because I have some serious deadlines and three important client meetings in the next two days. Last night, as I worked well past my bedtime, I was mentally exhausted and basically angst-riddled that my boss and I had committed to these unreasonable time frames with our clients. Note: Not one deadline is unreasonable -- just all of them lumped together is ridiculous. I kept thinking, "why didn't we just tell the last client, 'yes, we would love to help' but cannot begin for two weeks"? Is it that urgent that something that hasn't been addressed for years suddenly gets my immediate attention?

As I was waking up, I felt called, instead, to do my bible study. I countered with a quick "but I need to get to work before I have a nervous breakdown" thought but was immediately convinced that my bible study was more important. Fancy that.

So I went downstairs and opened to the next chapter Romans:15--which is all about how we serve God by serving others. Hello! And it even had this little gem from the Apostle Paul that I loved, "I have been bold enough to write about some of these points, knowing that all you need is this reminder."

Yes, on this excruciatingly painful deadline-driven day, God knew that I needed a gentle reminder. Again, again, again: it's not all about me. I am now able to begin my day with a joyful heart so that I may be a stronger encouragement to others.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Gore's Nobel Peace Prize

I was wondering, as I read the news, what peace and global warming have in common when I ran across the following quote from Damian Thompson, a UK correspondent from the Telegraph:

"Al Gore . . . has overtaken Michael Moore as the most sanctimonious lardbutt Yank on the planet."

As much as I'm in favor of "going green," as they say, this made me laugh. I love that you can get a Nobel Peace Prize for filming a movie. Mother Teresa could have relaxed after all!