Looking Around

It has been a week, now.

Here it goes after a week. I am being very pestered by the daily reminder in my mail box here. Good think I don't check it so often. I did figure out how to re-set the preferences so I don't waste band width here. I probably won't write anything much more often than once a week, anyway. So, there you go. I am sitting out here on the "porch" (loosely defined area just outside the front door). I live on a Self-Storage property near an industrial park right off a very busy street. The "porch" is the concrete walk up to the office (located just to the right of the front door). The weather is beautiful. I have my choice of nearby Wi-Fi networks from the business park. I am liking life at the moment. Just for the record, I am using my own network connection- I figure it is the safest and most legal and mostly more moral choice.

Now, what? The week has been kind of a normal one for me except for here and there. I get up, I go to work, I come home, I walk the dogs, I go meet my partner, then go to sleep and start over the same tomorrow. It is a mundane sort of existence. And, I seem to like it, mostly. I did get to meet some of the news makers this week. Cindi Sheehan stopped in town for a speech. She is one remarkable person. The thing that struck me about her was her authenticity. Most folks a month or two into a media circus seem contrived and superficial. She was still warm, down to earth and authentic. Her pain is the universal pain of motherhood. The values she is expressing, in my opinion, are the universal values of motherhood. She wants the children running the country and the corporations to grow up. I kind of agree. Spend anytime on a pre-school playground and it will become apparent to any rational human being that we have a bunch of ego/children calling the shots.

I attended a memorial service at a local mosque on September 11th. Ministers from all different faith walks and churches came to pray for healing to move forward. The were all sincere and made a very good point to me- we have to individually work for peace in ourselves before we can expect peace to fill the world. I know I have some trouble with that at times (mostly in traffic when some knucklehead driving without a plexiglass stomach cuts me off). I have some paths to follow to heal some of the anger I dump in to the Universe at those times. My reaction to one driver kind of scared my partner, and so I have more incentive than religious platitudes to work with here. But, the concept and work is the same. I work on my anger and attitude then pray for the ripple effect to pick up momentum. And,it will. It might not feel like it because the news programs have an agenda to keep things stirred up and our culture likes to keep things stirred up- but I have to believe that I can have a personal positive effect. I can try.

One other effect I can have it to begin looking a little deeper into my consumer habits. My partner came back from a trip up north. She brought back some cookies baked in a neighborhood bakery by the owner of the bakery. We shared the cookies over moring coffee while lounging in bed (another level of decadence and kind of fun). I am not sure I am able to explain it well, but they had a depth of texture and feeling that I don't find in many cookies. They were not especially cheap. But, they had that homemade sense about them. In our American culture it seems like we are all too quick to throw away that depth of connection to things we eat or buy. If it is a nickle cheaper over there, we dash off without consulting our soul or spirit about which one has more depth or life. I am beginning to notice that what is best for me, what has the most life for my spirit, is not always the "cheapest" thing in the short term. A lot of time, the cheapest thing now turns into the most expensive thing for my spirit and ends up giving me the most grief later on.

I have kind of rambled on for awhile here tonight. I guess I better get out of here for now.