Two Good Tools for Self Care

As I promised my yoga students in Florida, I am posting this little blog to provide a refresher on the Tibetan Rites...and the recipe for my Sunflower Cookies.
Incorporate the rites into your daily routine. Thurmond and I do them daily; they take about 12 minutes for all five. Who doesn't have that much time to devote to their longevity?

Then, to balance out our day, a few homemade cookies do the trip. We especially love a sunflower cookie, from I've Got a Cook in Kalamazoo, a cookbook put out as a fundraiser in Kalamazoo, Michigan in the late 1990s. Enjoy!

Sunflower Cookies
1 cup butter (or 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup applesauce)
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
2 slightly beaten eggs
1 1/3 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
2 tsps. vanilla or whiskey
1 tsp. baking soda
3 cups uncooked oats
3/4 sunflower seeds, raw
1/2 cup wheat germ

Cream together butter and sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Sift together flour, salt and soda; add to creamed mixture. Fold in oats, sunflowers seeds and wheat germ.
Drop by spoonful onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 375 for 10-12 minutes.

Words to Live Into

Have you been introduced to the life and work of Sister Joan Chittister, a Benedictine from Erie, PA? I can't adequately express how much I love her work. She has written, what, 40 or 50 books? What follows is an excerpt from her latest, Uncommon Gratitude. I had to share it, as it is lays out such an awesome destination for our pursuit. (I've had the opportunity to hear her speak twice; she is even more mighty in person than on the page!)

Peace Be With You
A commitment to peace, to being peaceful, to peacefulness draws from a very deep well. It is a source beyond the corruptions of either ambition or pride. It transcends addiction to either power or personality cults.

Once peace comes to a person, the need for power simply disappears and goes to dust inside ourselves. We are enough for us. There is no reason to suppress the other, no need to make sure that no head in the room is higher than our own.

All the need for wars, either public or personal, evaporates. There is nothing valuable enough to gain from them to risk either the loss of the peace or the death of the other.

So we say an alleluia for the coming of peace, for the death of ambition, for the passing of pride that enables us to be happy with who we are and what we have.

And how does peace come? Simple. By accepting who we are and what we have as enough for us. By recognizing and respecting who the other is and what they have as theirs. By finding within ourselves “the pearl of great price,” the richest thing there is in life, the sense of the presence of the God who loves and companions us through all the pressures of life. “In moderating, not in satisfying, desires,” Reginald Heber wrote, “lies peace.”

Then we find that we have changed. We have become peaceful. We have come to realize now that we have all we need. We begin to see that our own role in life is only to spread the peace we have.

Then we begin to dedicate ourselves to that highest possible level of humanity that not only does good but, most of all, does no harm. We come to understand that simply doing good can be such a political ploy. Election periods abound in promises to do good that are no more than some kind of social bribe. To do no harm, on the other hand, requires real care, genuine compassion, true realization that the glow of the other diminishes no glow of my own. Then my own life begins to shine even more.

–from Uncommon Gratitude: Alleluia for All That Is by Joan Chittister and Rowan Williams (Liturgical Press)

Being Present

In his Academy Award winning portrayal of alcoholic country western singer/song writer Bad Blake in the movie Crazy Heart, actor Jeff Bridges confesses he was not a good father. Blake left his son when the boy was 4 years old, and never communicated with or saw him again.
Asked how he parented his son before he abandoned him, Blake (Bridges) replies, "Even when I was there, I wasn't there."

We saw Crazy Heart today, and I have been dwelling on this honest yet painful confession.

Have you ever felt someone you are with is actually missing? Have you experienced a person sharing the same physical space with you, though they are not present? Not connecting? Not getting it?

Living in the present is perhaps Buddha's most famous teaching. In his book, What the Buddha Taught, (Grove Press, NY, NY, ISBN 9-780802-130310) Walpola Rahula reviews humanity's need to learn this lesson:
"People do not generally live in their actions, in the present moment. They live in the past or the future. Though they seem to be doing something now, here, they live somewhere else in their thoughts, in their imaginary problems and worries, usually in the memories of the past or in desires and speculations about the future. Therefore they do not live in, nor do they enjoy, what they do at the moment. So they are unhappy and discontented with the present moment, with the work at hand, and naturally they cannot give themselves fully to what they appear to be doing. "

Last week, my Mother related a beautiful vignette from her day, evidence she was absolutely positively living in the moment. Kay was outside, brushing out her dog Sur's undercoat. "I furminated Sur this A. M.. So much fur came off!" she wrote. "While I was sitting there on the front deck, a chickadee came and took some of the fur and flew off with it. I was so thrilled, just think Sur's fur is warming, or will be, some babies in the nest." (photo courtesy of Outside My Window bird blog.)

Interviewed about Crazy Heart before he won his Oscar, leading man Jeff Bridges was asked, "What do you want audiences to take away from the film?"

BRIDGES: "The words 'waking up' kind of comes to mind—that we can wake up from the bad dreams we put ourselves in."

Feeling alone is often the result of forgetting to live in the present. Is it time to wake up to this isolating practice, and manifest more joy in the present? Why not wake up and watch the chickadee make her nest? Now!

Beauty and Mystery

For several months, we've been waiting to put a hibiscus plant in the ground.

Part of Florida's allure is the fun of having a garden full of exotic, flowering plants, shrubs and trees. During a February warm spell, we bought a hibiscus; then the weather got colder and we just weren't sure it would survive 24 hours a day outdoors. Many nights we hauled her onto the screen porch, when the weatherman cautioned us about possible freezing temperatures.

Finally, on Saturday, Thurmond prepared the ground for her arrival. He used fertilizer and mulch and tucked her roots in deep...he even bought some fancy bricks to encircle her.

Then, as if she had been waiting to finally settle down, almost overnight, Miss Hibis adorned herself in giant blossoms. Saucer-sized, reddish orange blooms burst forth from every side. The blooms reminded me of TV dish antennas...wide and beaming upwards.

But, the truth about hibiscus is that their beauty is fleeting. Blooms last but one day. At sunset, they begin to close up, and by the next sunrise, they have fallen to the ground. Watching this display, I am struck by the beauty and the mystery.

Accepting the seasons of life, in all their manifestations, is not always easy. We may want something to last longer, for a friend not to move, for a visit to be extended. But everything has a beginning and an end. The secret, it seems, is to fully enjoy the time in between. And keep our eyes open, watching for the next buds.

I PASSED MY EXAM!

YES, YES, YES!

I PASSED THE NURSING HOME ADMINISTRATOR'S EXAM TODAY!!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS!

I AM SO GLAD, RELIEVED, EXCITED.

More news to follow; right now, I just wanna enjoy the after glow....my three hour exam bore fruit!

I PASSED.

YIPPEE!

Doing Good While Shopping for Dog Treats?

Do you buy dog treats, little chews or tasty snacks for your puppies? Besides making sure they are nutritious and affordable, have you ever wondered if your simple purchase does good beyond your dog's belly? (Oh, I don't mean at the end of the large intestines...don't go there!)

For more than 12 years, every time someone buys Milk-Bone® dog snacks, a donation is sent to Canine Assistants®.
Canine Assistants is a non-profit organization, founded in 1991, that trains and provides service dogs for children and adults with special needs, for FREE!

Canine Assistants dogs open doors, pick up items, pull wheelchairs, go for help, turn on lights and perform over 90 other commands. How awesome is that?

The program starts with an adorable puppy... click here to read the story of NOBLE, a noble pup who entered public service via the Canine Assistants.

So, with my dogs, Haskell and Cindygirl, and all the other dogs in my extended family, from the top:

BANDIT, FIERCE AMBASSADOR OF LOVE AT UNION HOUSE NURSING HOME
SIMBA, IN INDIA

(L TO R) THE LATE GIRL, HASKELL AND THE LATE BOY, GUARDING THURMOND'S VIOLIN SHOP
SUR(PRISE) MY PARENTS' DOGGIE

BOY WITH HASKELL AS A PUPPY (See puppy Girl in the mailbox?)

PLAYFUL SEB AND ZANNA, ELLIOT AND ALI'S KIDS

HASKELL AND CINDY GIRL, LOUNGING ON OUR VERMONT PORCH

I invite you to join us and buy Milk-bones treats. Nothing like finding easy ways to do good...AND multiple our power to help, huh?