Enjoying the warmth of friends and family, and the coldness of snow, where seeing it every day is “the norm”, up north. 
up north in snow country
December 30, 2009a year of good deeds, HW no.30
December 23, 200930. O SON OF MAN!
Deny not My servant should he ask anything from thee, for his face is My face; be then abashed before Me. (Baha’u’llah, The Arabic Hidden Words)
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Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. (King James Bible, Matthew)
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE.
Let us make this a year of good deeds in His Name, amen.
leaving the sunny south
December 23, 2009We are preparing to leave tomorrow at 5am, leaving our home in the south where highs are in the mid-50s all this week, for northwest Indiana, where snow is predicted, wind, and highs in the 30s. I would not make the trip except for Al’s parents being older, and of course being w/Raven, Caspian & Jasmine. If not for Al’s parents, I would talk them into traveling south.
Yesterday we signed papers to become owners of our house. We are officially listed as “owners” but do not yet have bank financing. We have a 3-yr window to get the financing. Meanwhile, we pay a mortgage payment rather than rent, to the “former owner”, pay taxes which drop from 2400. to 800., & take care of all repair and upkeep. It’s nice to be owners of our house. I will feel better when we get the financing, & I’m just going on faith with that. I feel we have to pay on our school loans for a year, keep our small credit card in good shape, & just pay our bills for a year, then seek financing.
the flu
December 22, 2009I’ve had a flu bug for 2 days solid. I am a person who never gets sick. When I recently talked my colleague into going to get an H1N1 shot with me, it turned out I couldn’t get one, because I was too old and healthy. I hadn’t had cancer, diabetes, or any other condition they listed, and I had no child under 18 living in my home. I told them no, I just see 100+ college students every single day, but that didn’t budge them. So my colleague got the shot and I didn’t. She was 54, I am 56 (over 55).
So it is unusual for me to have this bug. It started with sneezing, then developed into a general all-over achiness, headache, stomach tension & remnants of a cold. In the past couple days, I’ve had plain noodles, plain rice, a bowl of soup & a chicken salad sandwich. It is just weird to be sick. Complication is, we are due to leave for Indiana and Al’s older parents in 2 days. If he gets this, we may be delayed.
I miss being young.
December 19, 2009When I say I miss the 70s, I don’t really miss the 70s. I just miss being young. I would never want to go back to the immaturity of being in my 20s, but I miss the feeling of being young.
I miss having long hair and looking attractive.
I miss my husband and I taking long walks anywhere we wanted to go, at night, sometimes with friends.
I miss taking walks along the White River. I miss going to African parties and dancing for hours.
I miss having our whole lives ahead of us, listening to Seals & Crofts, Mimi and Richard Farina, Pete Seeger, Motown, Richie Havens, and all the feelings of hope and change, in that music.
When I remember those days, I still “feel like” that person. I can still imagine my husband and I getting ready to go out at night with friends, and we don’t have gray hair and aging bodies. This aging process is really odd. In some ways, we just don’t care if we don’t look perfect or even GOOD, anymore!! We are not out to please the world. In other ways, I do not know the person in the mirror these days.
Gotta go now, my husband and I are going out for the evening — gray hair and all.
“I’m dreaming of a . . .” no, I’m not!
December 18, 2009Dec. 18th in South Carolina. It’s been raining all day long. We are expected to get an inch of rain. The water has been moving across the pond in ripplets, fastly moving most of the day. The machine– whatever it is– Al says it’s not a pump — at the edge of the pond lets a little of the water out, and it trickles down underneath the road and remains “Bear Creek”. But the water is dammed up to create our pond in back of the house.
It is chilly here today, with highs only in the 40s. This is “cold weather”. Of course, people here have no idea what cold weather really is. They cannot imagine wearing gloves, yet feeling like you have no gloves on because they’re the little, cheap $1.00 pair you get at every discount store, and you feel your fingers going numb underneath them. No, it’s not cold here.
Just now I went to close the blinds, since it is growing dark, and saw a gorgeous, huge crane rise up from the grass and glide out over the pond. It must’ve had a wing span of 5 feet. A wonderful sight. (Memories of geese landing on our frozen pond in Indianapolis, and watching them slowly take steps on the solid ice!) It is quite different here, and I am quite content to be here. Not looking forward to the drive north next week.
Hidden Words of Baha’u’llah, no.29
December 17, 200929. O SON OF BEING!
Ascribe not to any soul that which thou wouldst not have ascribed to thee, and say not that which thou doest not. This is My command unto thee, do thou observe it.
(Baha’u’llah, The Arabic Hidden Words)
The Golden Rule exists in every truly spiritual path. It is restated again and again by the Prophets of God, the Blessed Ones Who teach us how to live, how to love, how to interact with one another.
“Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you,” Christ’s words.
ascribe = to tribute to a source or cause; or, to make undue claims to having.
In other words, do not claim that something, some action, some words, come from some other person, if you would not want that being said about yourself. Leave them to God. Leave them to themselves to contemplate their own actions. ESPECIALLY do not do this, if they are undue claims, in other words, when they are not even true.
I especially like the second part of Baha’u’llah’s “Golden Rule”. Say not that which thou doest not. In other words, WALK THE WALK, do what you say you will do, don’t just talk about it. Everyone has words. What the world needs is sincerity in action. He commands us to do this, then tells us to observe it. Very powerful.
end-of-the-year newsletters
December 15, 2009What if we were to make an end-of-the-year newsletter, and list all the lessons we had learned that year, through trial by fire. What tests and trials have you been through in the past year? In what ways have you grown in spirit? What have you endured? What are you thankful for?
What has brought you sorrow? What has brought you joy?
In what ways do you feel older? Is your body changing? What have you accomplished? When did you play and laugh with a child? What was that experience like? Did you get a gift from someone? Did you give to someone? What made you angry? In what ways were you kind?
How is your heart and spirit? How did God enrich your life?
Who have you become, in the past year. What is within you, that was not there one year ago.
Breathe not the sins of others, HW 27-28
December 13, 2009I have been slowly posting entries from Baha’u’llah’s book, “The Hidden Words.” They are little meditative gems, which He says are the “essence” of the spiritual truths in all religions. There are a total of nearly 125. Here are numbers 27 & 28:
27. O SON OF MAN!
Breathe not the sins of others so long as thou art thyself a sinner. Shouldst thou transgress this command, accursed wouldst thou be, and to this I bear witness.
28. O SON OF SPIRIT!
Know thou of a truth: He that biddeth men be just and himself committeth iniquity is not of Me, even though he bear My name.
(Baha’u’llah, The Arabic Hidden Words)
* These 2 brief entries are amazing in many ways. First, we are admonished to not talk about others’ “sins” – things they are doing wrong – while we ourselves are the same. In other words, we are all sinners, we all commit things we shouldn’t. (Story of Christ telling all those ready to stone the prostitute to death, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone,” and they all walked away.)
Second part to that one is rather strong – who would want to be accursed? especially, by He Whom you adore?
Second reading: Don’t be a hypocrit. And a name don’t mean nothin’ if you don’t DO as you SAY. “You are not of Me.”
Live your life pure. Sincere. Honest. No regrets. Very hard to do. But worth the pain. I sound dramatic but it’s actually just true.
weekend and grades due tomorrow
December 13, 2009Our weekend was spent with one of our 3 super-favorite people in all the world, our grandson. Age 3. He came to Grandma and Grandpa’s for the weekend. We had a busy time. This little boy jumps more than he just walks. Jumping boy, he’s like a Mexican “jumping bean”. Friday night we took him with us to the faculty Xmas dinner. Of course, last year there were a few other small children there, but THIS year, our boy was the only one! We got a few looks, but all in all things went okay. We left when he was on the verge of doing something outrageous, like flipping cheese cake on someone, or letting the air out of the 6-ft-high snow globe . . .
Saturday, Tuba Christmas at 3:00 in a coffeeshop downtown. He was entertained for about a half hour & then I took a walk w/ him outside. The college music dept. played tubas & other horns in a local coffeeshop & the whole local town crowd sang Christmas carols together. Sounds totally like something that would make me bonkers, but there was actually such a warm feeling in the room, it was quite cozy and comfortable.
Sat. night went to feast. It is hard to be here over a year and still be “outsiders”. However, all communities have their oddness about them. We can focus on being of service, let the rest go.
Drove jumpy boy halfway home today, met his parents for lunch, & drove back home in the rain and fog. (Our highs are running up into the 40s this mid-Dec.)
My weekend other than that has been consumed with finding 9 pp. of a 13-page paper plagiarized. I have been distraught over this discovery. Grades due tomorrow. My colleague and I have to deal with this fiasco tomorrow.
So this is my boring, diary-like entry for my blog tonight.
Doctor Grandma 