vintage mime and sugar skulls

moon

2013-06-02T17:48:00.000-04:00

I had to work last night which meant me driving home around 11:00....there was a nice fullish moon reflecting on the river as I drove over the bridge.The reflection was so bright it was almost like the river was illuminated from underneath.I was so struck by this that I had to pull over to get a better view.It was breathtaking. In that moment,I felt the essence of God with me...in that glow, I felt peace.

24-7 Prayer Room Charlotte, NC

2012-10-16T16:22:00.001-04:00

24-7 Prayer Room Charlotte, NC

Nuns Rock

2012-06-19T11:55:00.000-04:00

We Are All Nuns By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF Published: April 28, 2012 CATHOLIC nuns are not the prissy traditionalists of caricature. No, nuns rock! They were the first feminists, earning Ph.D.’s or working as surgeons long before it was fashionable for women to hold jobs. As managers of hospitals, schools and complex bureaucracies, they were the first female C.E.O.’s. They are also among the bravest, toughest and most admirable people in the world. In my travels, I’ve seen heroic nuns defy warlords, pimps and bandits. Even as bishops have disgraced the church by covering up the rape of children, nuns have redeemed it with their humble work on behalf of the neediest. So, Pope Benedict, all I can say is: You are crazy to mess with nuns. The Vatican issued a stinging reprimand of American nuns this month and ordered a bishop to oversee a makeover of the organization that represents 80 percent of them. In effect, the Vatican accused the nuns of worrying too much about the poor and not enough about abortion and gay marriage. What Bible did that come from? Jesus in the Gospels repeatedly talks about poverty and social justice, yet never explicitly mentions either abortion or homosexuality. If you look at who has more closely emulated Jesus’s life, Pope Benedict or your average nun, it’s the nun hands down. Since the papal crackdown on nuns, they have received an outpouring of support. “Nuns were approached by Catholics at Sunday liturgies across the country with a simple question: ‘What can we do to help?’ ” The National Catholic Reporter recounted. It cited one parish where a declaration of support for nuns from the pulpit drew loud applause, and another that was filled with shouts like, “You go, girl!” At least four petition drives are under way to support the nuns. One on Change.org has gathered 15,000 signatures. The headline for this column comes from an essay by Mary E. Hunt, a Catholic theologian who is developing a proposal for Catholics to redirect some contributions from local parishes to nuns. “How dare they go after 57,000 dedicated women whose median age is well over 70 and who work tirelessly for a more just world?” Hunt wrote. “How dare the very men who preside over a church in utter disgrace due to sexual misconduct and cover-ups by bishops try to distract from their own problems by creating new ones for women religious?” Sister Joan Chittister, a prominent Benedictine nun, said she had worried at first that nuns spend so much time with the poor that they would have no allies. She added that the flood of support had left her breathless. “It’s stunningly wonderful,” she said. “You see generations of laypeople who know where the sisters are — in the streets, in the soup kitchens, anywhere where there’s pain. They’re with the dying, with the sick, and people know it.” Sister Joan spoke to me from a ghetto in Erie, Pa., where her order of 120 nuns runs a soup kitchen, a huge food pantry, an afterschool program, and one of the largest education programs for the unemployed in the state. I have a soft spot for nuns because I’ve seen firsthand that they sacrifice ego, safety and comfort to serve some of the neediest people on earth. Remember the “Kony 2012” video that was an Internet hit earlier this year, about an African warlord named Joseph Kony? One of the few heroes in the long Kony debacle was a Comboni nun, Sister Rachele Fassera. In 1996, Kony’s army attacked a Ugandan girls’ school and kidnapped 139 students. Sister Rachele hiked through the jungle in pursuit of the kidnappers — some of the most menacing men imaginable, notorious for raping and torturing their victims to death. Eventually, she caught up with the 200 gunmen and demanded that they release the girls. Somehow, she browbeat the warlord in charge into releasing the great majority of the girls. I’m betting on the nuns to win this one as well. After all, the sisters may be saintly, but they’re also crafty. Elias Chacour, a prominent Palestinian archbishop in the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, recounts in a memoir that he once asked a convent if it could supply two nuns for a community literacy project. The mother superior said she would have to check with her bishop. “The bishop was very clear in his refusal to allow two nuns,” the mother superior told him later. “I cannot disobey him in that.” She added: “I will send you three nuns!” Nuns have triumphed over an errant hierarchy before. In the 19th century, the Catholic Church excommunicated an Australian nun named Mary MacKillop after her order exposed a pedophile priest. Sister Mary was eventually invited back to the church and became renowned for her work with the poor. In 2010, Pope Benedict canonized her as Australia’s first saint. “Let us be guided” by Sister Mary’s teachings, the pope declared then. Amen to that.

Right in the middle of Lent

2012-03-25T20:05:00.000-04:00

Lent is such a wonderful time for me....very bittersweet.....I use to hate Lent because it seemed like a downer....focusing on sin is not one of the top fun things I like to do...and yet that seemed to be what I was asked to do....focus on my sin that caused Jesus to die on the cross.It would bum me out so much that I just quit observing Lent altogether until last year....Father Pat talked about how the word Lent comes from the Latin word for Spring....new life....bloom...grow.....Now that I can handle.

Lent has definitely been a time of growth for me through the years.I had a relationship end during Lent.The very person who broke up with me then helped me work through it...quite a gift of growth. I lost both my parents during Lent.Though he's been gone for 39 years, my father continues to be a wonderful inspiration and teacher in the area of loving kindness.

Today I am thinking of some amazing memories of my family while dealing with the final plans of laying my mother to rest.First we needed to find the safety deposit box key.My sister,nephew and I tore the house up looking for it....only to find it in her underwear drawer.It was lying underneath a loaded gun and on top of $300.Isn't that where everyone puts their safety deposit box key? After she was buried,my sister and I went home to change into comfortable clothes.We grabbed lounge chairs,paper cups,and a bottle of wine.We went back to the cemetery to toast our parents and watch the afternoon sun...only to find the funeral director (and family friend)sitting on the tombstone waiting for us.We drank wine out of paper cups,sharing stories of the day...the funeral director told us how he played "Stairway to Heaven" while driving my mother's hearse from the church to the cemetery. I love these memories.They fill me with love and despite the fact that they surround mom's death,they also bring forth hope...in death there is life!....in Lent there is Spring and growth....joy

51 things I learned in 51 years

2012-02-01T17:13:00.000-05:00

This guy Matt Madeiro is 24 years old and old enough to be my son.He writes a blog I read religiously (google 3 New Leaves)I love what he has to say.His birthday was Christmas day (2 days after mine) and he posted this on his blog....he follows the paleo diet(just like me!) which you will see him refer to.I have shortened some of his comments because I have followed suit and have added another 26 things to his blog to make it 51 things I have learned in 51 years.....enjoy...don't worry....it's not as long as it sounds.

24 Things I’ve Learned in 24 Years
published on: Dec 29,2011
In honor of the vaguely esteemed and unimaginably vain Matthew Cole Madeiro, now on the tail end of his twenty-fourth birthday celebrations. When pressed with the question “and what have you learned?” Madeiro was quick to offer the list that follows:

1. Make every day count. My life mantra. This is my Big Deal — the four words that keep me smiling, walking, and trying to make a difference.

2. Common sense is not common. If it were, I wouldn’t be writing this post.

3. Ask the question. Consider this: feeling dumb/stupid/silly, you can hold that question in. Alternatively, you can risk it all, raise your hand, and ask someone who knows the answer.

4. Don’t be afraid to change. If there’s any one facet of yourself that you don’t like, change it

5. Don’t be afraid to apologize. It hurts, sometimes. It can suck. But a simple “I’m sorry” goes tremendous lengths toward saving the situation, and being able to admit when you’re wrong — that you’re not perfect — might just be key to surviving this world with your sanity intact.

6. Look back with a smile. I’ve been a sappy poet, a middle-class emo kid, and a nose-to-book library fanatic at varying points in my life. The first two are (more than) a wee bit embarrassing, but I try and look back with a smile — knowing they’ve helped shape who I am today, and knowing that all these different phases make me so incredibly, delicately human above all else.

7. Eat everything (at least once). Even the fried grasshoppers. Even the head cheese. Even the ant egg guacamole. If you only get one shot at this big, blustering, beautiful thing called life, why wouldn’t you try and explore every part of it? Why not cultivate an adventurous spirit? (This might apply to more than just food).

8. Listen to bad music. You know that modern pop song that secretly makes you want to dance? You know that song that everyone publicly craps on, but you not-so publicly enjoy? Embrace it. Three to four minutes of happiness, I think, are always worth having — even if they come from something all the cool kids like to hate.

9. You don’t always have to eat. Whether you’re hip to fasting or not, the point stands: if you’re not hungry, you don’t have to eat. No one is forcing that fork into your mouth. And it’s better, I think, to risk upsetting a friend for all of five minutes than to let peer pressure put something unhealthy on your plate.

10. Go to bed. Proper sleep is one of the few things that we truly, absolutely need, so why in the world do we sit awake in bed and check our Facebook feeds instead?

11. You can’t do everything. But you can try.

12. It’s okay to cry. Don’t let any societal misconceptions about manliness, ruggedness, nor torrential levels of testosterone convince you otherwise. If you can watch the first 15 minutes of Up and not shed a single tear, please submit yourself to science.

13. “Being thin and eating bacon is a lot better than being fat and eating bread.” You knew Paleo would creep up somewhere, right?

14. Take pleasure in simplicity. The simple things, I promise, will last you a lot longer than everything else.

15. Nothing is black and white. Don’t let the media or modern American politics suggest otherwise.

16. Don’t forget to say thanks. For your friends, for your family, for every single part of your life that has helped you become who you are today.

17. Do the work. Success only rarely happens by accident. The formula to create it, in fact, tends to involve just two ingredients: lots and lots of work, and doing it well. This is a good thing.

18. Keep your phone in your pocket. We’ve come to rely on them as easy escapes — easy ways to distract ourselves whenever we’re bored, uncomfortable, etc. Rather than falling back to your iPhone, then, why not try and actively change the situation? Why not try and live life, then, instead of reading other people’s tweets about it?

19. The world is not out to get you. It’s easy to think otherwise, sure, when TV and the media paint life in a pretty harsh light: a murder on every corner, seething violence in the big city, and every dark alley a home to something that most definitely wants you dead. This might come as a surprise, but you’re not surrounded by villains. The people around you, in fact, are far more similar than you might think: a little nervous, a little hungry, and desperately wanting to be happy — and, y’know, alive — for as long as possible.

20. Slow down. We get wrapped up in this life of productivity, going as fast as possible from the minute we first sit up in bed. Here’s a different take: go slow. Realize that nothing happens overnight, and realize too that you have a long, full life to accomplish everything you’d like to do. (Coincidentally, I am terrible at this).

21. Don’t be afraid to take a break. Following from the point above, don’t be afraid to take some time off and recharge.

22. Never stop learning.

23. You get one shot. That’s debatable, sure, but the idea is a useful one. Realize that you might only get one shot at this and act accordingly. Work hard, play hard, and try and expose yourself to as many things — as many ideas, dishes, countries and personalities — as possible. I think I’d rather look back on a long, full life than one spent too afraid to live it.

24. Be kind to yourself. If there were one message I could imprint on every person, young and old, who populates this planet, this would be it.

25.Develop a spiritual life...you will be so glad you did.Stability comes from within.

26.Own a pet.They teach us compassion and unconditional love.

27.Read....It is never a waste of time.

28.Learn how to use a computer....I know,I know....I am showing my age here.

29.Get a massage...or two or three..it is so good for you...it no longer is a luxury...yes this is coming from a seasoned massage therapist.

30.Speak your truth...even if it is scary.

31.Take time to look at the moon...even if it is just a sliver in the sky.you will be amazed at how peaceful it is.

32.Listen to your gut.If it feels wrong,it probably is.

33.Sing in the shower.

34.Try not to worry about stuff.If you must worry,allow 10 minutes a day...that's it.

35.Fire your friends...if they take advantage of you,if they don't treat you well,get rid of them.You deserve better...and better will come.

36.Drink water....it's good for you.

37.Talk to someone...if you need help or feel down,grab a friend and have a chat...or get a good therapist...life is hard sometimes.We don't have to go at it alone.

38.Grow your own food.That way you will not be eating any pesticides unless you put them on the plants yourself.

39.Change your hairstyle.Right now I am thinking dreds....yes really.

40.Routines are nice....I like them...but every now and then we have to break out..that's nice too.

41.Work at a soup kitchen....at least once.Compassion for humanity lives there.

42.Practice lovingkindness.Send prayers and loving thoughts to others...even your enemies or people who bug you.You will be surprised at how it makes you feel.

43. Open your mind....there is a big fat world out there for you to know.

44.Buy a journal......and maybe even write in it.

45.Watch a foreign film.....I suggest Babbet's Feast.

46.Pay Attention...if you don't, you might miss something.

47.Play...if you don't remember how to,hang out with some kids for a while.

48.Know when enough is enough...

49.Dance in the moonlight! (Thanks Van Morrison)

50.Take care of your relationships...all of them.

51.Love...God is love....love is all there is....

What's Poppin' at planBreathe

2011-11-15T14:24:00.000-05:00

What's Poppin' at planBreathe

Occupy Within

2011-11-11T14:56:00.000-05:00

From the newsletter of a great teacher,Christian de la Huerta-

Too many of us walk around in a state of disembodied exile, stuck in our heads, ignoring the wisdom of our bodies, with closed hearts. We have allowed our hearts to shut down out of anger, self-righteousness and resentment, out of fear that we might get hurt again. Holding on to old injuries and betrayals, what a price we pay for getting to be right or feel victimized, for getting to punish others and cast them out of our hearts! The thing is we can’t close our hearts selectively. When we banish anyone from our hearts we in effect keep ourselves in exile.

Too many of us live in a constant state of distraction: infomaniacs jonesing for that next hit of breaking news, that next Facebook post, that next tweet. Our tweaked out, ADD culture fuels our overstimulated minds which remain in a heightened state of constant hyper awareness while we multitask, put out fires all day long, handle the next crisis. Exhausted, we then self-medicate with TV, shopping, food, sex or drugs, but that only provides momentary relief, not real rest, and certainly does not solve any problems. At some point adrenalin junkies gotta pay the piper!

We need to reconnect with our bodies, with our sense of knowing and intuition, with our sense of belonging to and being part of the cosmos. In a sense that is our return to Eden.

Within...that’s where all the answers to all our questions lie. There we will find the key to freedom. Within is where power lies, where peace can be found. It is where we discover our purpose.

A recent article in the Harvard Business review identified meditation and intuition as the main tools of the 21st century leader. Whether you employ formal meditation practice, breathwork, prayer, spending time alone in nature or any other means, turn within!

For those of us in northern regions, this is the time of the year to turn within anyway, as shorter days are made more dramatic by the artificial time change.

So by all means, let’s peacefully occupy Wall Street and Oakland and wherever else in what Al Gore called a “primal scream of democracy.”

But more importantly, let’s Occupy Within.

All Saints,Halloween and Day of the Dead

2011-11-02T10:37:00.003-04:00

November 1,2011
So today is All Saints Day..One of the trinity of days in the fall I love to walk through....a chance to remember.....a chance to respect and a chance to be thankful.....a chance to be grateful.
Yesterday was Halloween.I only had a few trick or treaters.....but one of them made quite an impression...I was about ready to turn all the lights off and I heard quite a thump at the front door. I answered the door and there was a really nice teenaged boy standing there with a big smile...I told him I had run out of bubble gum but that I had a few rubber fingers I could give him...He was delighted and so polite.I threw a handful of "fingers" into his pillow case....as he turned I noticed he was by himself (I had assumed he had a buddy with him)He jumped on his skateboard and was off to the next house....Maybe it was because he was by himself ....maybe it was because he seemed to not care that he was by himself...maybe it was because he was trick or treating on a skateboard....maybe it was because he had such a positive energy and passion for life (and candy) I wished I had...whatever it was,I thought about him alot...in one way it was kind of sad...in another way it was very inspiring.
So it is the skateboarding trick or treater who has become a modern day saint for me and in whom I am grateful on this day.

Glass Pumpkin Patch Ready For Harvest at RIT Fundraiser - RIT News

2011-10-29T21:27:00.000-04:00

Glass Pumpkin Patch Ready For Harvest at RIT Fundraiser - RIT News

Holy Saturday

2011-07-19T21:37:00.000-04:00

Holy Saturday
What happened on Saturday of that first Holy Week? After the numbing, tragic events of Friday, nothing seemed to go on at all. Perhaps it's a bit like the day after the funeral for the one you loved, and the mourners and family have drifted away, and you find yourself alone. Jesus' friends and followers certainly hung their heads, feeling acute grief, trying to stave off dark disillusionment. After all, for Jews, like Jesus, his mother, and the disciples, Saturday was the Sabbath, and they did what God's people do, even when they have lost everything: they worshipped, they prayed, mourned the human condition, rested and waited.
Alan Lewis called the day "a significant zero, a pregnant emptiness, a silent nothing which says everything." We live our lives - don't we? - in-between, like Holy Saturday. Talk to the widow whose husband died of cancer last year. She has seen Good Friday. She may believe the Easter Resurrection is coming - but for now she is in between. Talk to the husband reeling from his wife's exiting their marriage. We live in-between.
God could have raised Jesus immediately, or levitated him directly from the cross into heaven. Why wasn't God more urgent? God waited. God did nothing for a time. Perhaps God knew we would experience life, and loss, and love in just this way. We have hope - but the waiting can be a silent nothing. And we have to wait. We live in between.
For now, Saturday is a day to wait, to be still, to hope against hope...
( this is an excerpt from James Howell's blog.He is pastor of Myers Park Methodist in Charlotte,NC)

my new favorite quote

2011-07-11T20:39:00.002-04:00

Learn to live with less......Forgive more...Seek peace everywhere.....And show love for all humanity.....Laz Costillo

a wonderful story of hope

2011-07-10T21:20:00.002-04:00

A story shared with me at a very important time.

There was a wonderful wedding in uptown Charlotte at St. Peter's Episcopal.It took place at 11:00 am on a Sunday so it was the Sunday morning service.So anyone who came off the street was invited to the wedding.The priest did a beautiful job with the ceremony...there was one key advice given to the bride and groom I will always remember.The priest said to them the following:
When you betray each other,not if,but when,what happens next is the most important thing.

Cornelius goes paperless, buys iPads

2011-07-01T07:59:00.000-04:00

Cornelius goes paperless, buys iPads

Good News: Wild turkey lives on busy Charlotte street - WBTV 3 News, Weather, Sports, and Traffic for Charlotte, NC-

2011-05-29T17:48:00.000-04:00

Good News: Wild turkey lives on busy Charlotte street - WBTV 3 News, Weather, Sports, and Traffic for Charlotte, NC-

Mercy Moments

2011-05-29T08:26:00.004-04:00

I work for a ministry of the Sisters of Mercy.The sister's challenge to all their ministries is to see how we can live and experience Mercy in our day to day lives. We call them Mercy Moments.I love Mercy Moments....and here is why:

· Mercy Moments help me live more intentionally…in the present…they help me to wake up and pay attention.

· Mercy Moments with the people I work with are gentle reminders that what I am doing is indeed worth it.What I do makes a difference.

· When I am tired there are times I end up just going through the motions. I hate when I am in that space…I feel like life is passing me by and I am not participating. When I am like this I go and look for a Mercy Moment. I usually don’t have to look very far or very long. They always show up.

· I have made Mercy Moments a part of my spiritual practice. Not only do I look for them at work, I also look for them at home;in my community. They are always there.

Barack Obama's Mother's Batik Collection

2011-05-03T10:49:00.000-04:00

Barack Obama's Mother's Batik Collection

Out of the void

2011-04-08T14:50:00.004-04:00

My suspicion is that I am probably tired....maybe....first I crave chocolate and then I think how excellent it would be to have a nice cold beer.I have no motivation...I go to the gym to swim but then the hot tub looks better.I feel empty.My mind is tired and try as I may,I cannot muster up even one whisper of," dear God","blessed be","help"....
There is a void I feel....I always heard that the void was the place God must fill...yet we fill it with other things with no room for God...
but if God is everywhere,isn't God in the void too?
around the corner for coffee at the market.....
a ride through the hilly cemetery on my bicycle to see my folks.....
feeling the vibration of the plants in the greenhouse.....
home.....
in the icons on the wall of the auto repair shop where I sit while my car is being worked on.....
in the moonlight,in the sunlight....
in the music I listen to and the songs I sing.....
God is certainly there and........
God is within....
pulsing through my veins,breathing in my lungs...
looking through my eyes,speaking with my voice...
In the corners of my dreams...
God is here....
I feel alone....yet I am never too far from myself....and neither is God.

Favorite quotes!

2011-03-19T20:55:00.001-04:00

Looking for the Divine is like looking for the glasses that you forgot you were wearing
Jacquelin Stone

Out beyond ideas of wrong doing and right doing there is a field.I'll meet you there.When the soul lies down in that grass,the world is too full to talk about ideas,language,even the phrase "each other" doesn't make any sense.
Rumi (13Th century Sufi- Mystic)

portable shrine

2011-02-13T20:26:00.008-05:00

I visited my sister in January.I felt a need to have a spiritual connection somehow while I was on the road. Midway to the coast I thought that the thing I needed was a portable shrine or altar.So once I reached my destination and unpacked, I looked in my jewelry and pocketbook and came up with a cool answer to the altar....
First I had a small quartz crystal which symbolizes cleansing,positive energy and spiritual harmony and love....it also balances out chakras.I had a prayer card of St.Nicholas who is my patron saint. I had a perfume stick called Karma which smells like incense. I had a glass moonstone.I had several pieces of jewelry which worked wonderfully including the following: a necklace with a Hindu mandala, a hematite bracelet which symbolizes Buddhist prayer beads,a Miraculous Medal and a Celtic Cross and a necklace of a "Peace Goddess" which is a pendant inspired by John Lennon .Of course I also had my prayer book. All these things were perfect for my needs and my make shift altar.I was able to spend time in front of my altar every morning and night I was there.Glorious! All is well!

Gabby Opened Her Eyes: May We Also Open Ours

2011-01-15T14:30:00.000-05:00

Gabby Opened Her Eyes: May We Also Open Ours

2011-01-04T20:43:00.000-05:00

“The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul” ~ G. K. Chesterton

Spirits of Christmas

2010-12-12T19:42:00.004-05:00

So this picture might seem macabre or eerie....Ghosts decorating Christmas trees in a graveyard..Surprisingly I find it quite peaceful and full of family memories.Snow,walking in cemeteries,and Christmas trees are some of my favorite things to do and experience...even in the form of walking meditation or prayer.For some reason this picture has become like an icon drawing me into God...to the idea of the presence of angels and even my ancestors.
The holidays are busy for us all...so during these days I have retreated to my massage office/studio where I can light some Christmas lights and gaze on my Halloween-like,painting/icon/prayer card. I also wear a necklace with St.Nicholas inscribed on it,(my patron saint).I wear a very rich oil with some notes of Frankincense,Myrrh and a little patchouli....I also listen to some soothing music.....and I pray...
I remember the angel on top of the tree.....and I imagine hearing her sing.....PAX CHRISTI............

Jack Russell Christmas

2010-12-10T20:16:00.000-05:00

Christmas Food Court Flash Mob, Hallelujah Chorus - Must See!

2010-12-07T16:51:00.000-05:00

Service links Halloween to its roots - CharlotteObserver.com

2010-10-24T11:48:00.000-04:00

Service links Halloween to its roots - CharlotteObserver.com