2006-08-30

It was another moody day, not very hot but humid enough to mist the meadow along Hazelwood Road in the early morning, and overcast all day. After Morning Offering Jim started his mowing day. I took the five different samples I had collected in the dawning of the day back to the doctor so she can run all the tests she wished to do. She is looking for a virus or a bacterium to target and I hope she finds it!!

It is fascinating to me to look at the testing apparatus used for these tests. The collection bottles for the poop look like prescription bottles. Each one is half-filled with a different liquid. One uses a small spoon which is built in to the lid to scoop one’s material into the little vial until the mixture comes up to the fill line. Somewhere there is a factory turning out plastic lids with built-in scoops. This boggles my mind. There is a medicine bottle lid pooper scooper industry out there. As Romi would say, “I love America.”

Melissa and Lynn were both at their desks when I returned. Melissa is leaving for parts northwest next weekend, and this is her next to last day here. I will greatly miss her. Lynn seems to be training very well. They both promised to come back tomorrow, when Lynn will learn how to run Jim’s monthly statements for his lawn business and to create the monthly reports for the household, Jim’s Lawn Service and L/L Research.

Gary was all over the map today getting the house and grounds ready for the Homecoming. He scoured the basement rooms clean, freshened all the bed linens and got towels and washcloths together for all the guests. Then he chipped the last of Jim’s current supply of storm debris and mulched all around the cross-patio with the resulting harvest of wood chips.

Jim finished early with his customers and spent some time in the back yard too in late afternoon, trimming all the hedges we have so carefully tended over the years, creating a living privacy fence which blooms each spring. It is unfortunate that this spell of illness has kept me out of the yard, for I see places that need my attention everywhere. However I am focusing just on being well enough to enjoy the weekend, so have curtailed outside work until I feel a bit better AND the weekend is over.

My working day was unspectacular, but I did at least attempt to work all day. I wrote the second part of my article on Indigo Children for UPI and sent that in before taking a late lunch. In the afternoon I continued collecting recipes and went through sale catalogs, looking for thoughtful Christmas gifts. The dog days of summer are rife with excellent catalog sales and I found several really nice things to wrap for beloved friends and family members at 70 to 80% off retail cost. The spirit of my Mom is pumping her fist in heaven and going, “YES!” She was the best shopper ever and I learned all I know at her beautiful and capable knee.

I still carry a low-grade fever and was unwilling to go to choir practice in case I am infectious. So I stayed home from that. However I used the time to get a manicure and pedicure with my long-time nail tech, Tracy M. I had her paint the nails with the colors of the chakras again this year, since we are again going to be dealing with that topic during the Gathering. It makes a pretty look, with the right hand carrying the bold colors of white, golden and red through yellow, while the left hand carries the far more quiet colors of green, blue, indigo, violet and black. The arrangement signifies love (white), light, the seven chakras and the return to the Creator (black).

Jim and I had intended to have a jazz night but I was simply not well enough. We stopped by Appleby’s instead for a late supper, offering the Gaia Meditation at our table. We bade each other an early good night.

2006-08-29

The day was dominated for me by an appointment with my doctor. After Morning Offering I worked at e-mail and clearing my desk until time for the appointment. Gary took me, as I have been feeling faint at unpredictable times – not good for driving. The doctor arranged for a lot of testing to be done and what I did not leave there today in the form of samples of blood and urine I will bring back on the morrow, after I have had a chance to collect five different test samples of the rest! She suspects either a viral or bacterial infection of the colon. I was very glad to get that testing process started. If the problem is as simple to fix as targeting a virus or bacterium, we’re halfway there.

On the way home, Gary and I stopped at Red Lobster and lunched while we chewed over the plans for the Homecoming this coming weekend. We seem to have details well in hand now. Of course, the weekend will find us having forgotten something! We’ll do our best to make sure that the “something” is a small detail and not a large one.

I went back to my desk for more small tasks after arriving back home, creating several new recipes for the recipe database out of which Jim chooses what to prepare each week. There is good eating ahead! I collected recipes for Hobo Chicken, Chicken Tetrazzini, Minted Green Beans, Carrots in Honey Mustard Sauce and Blueberry Pie, to name a few.

Gary has arranged for drawings of the chakras to be done for the weekend, as we are studying them. He reports they are coming along well. He also rented some chairs for the weekend, to be placed outside in case the weather, as predicted, is fine. He cut the yard today and Jim will trim it up.

After Jim’s and my bath, we went downstairs and enjoyed an evening with Romi and Gary. Since I continue to feel puny, we said good night a bit early, not long after offering the Gaia Meditation together, with Romi offering the ending prayer.

2006-08-28

What a moody day this has been! It was raining steadily when I got the paper, a soaking rain we need badly and so we rejoice! However when you’re in the mowing business, such weather can put a crimp in your schedule. Jim was forced to find several other occupations this morning while the weather blew through. Finally, after lunch he was able to get back to his mowing schedule and got everything accomplished, arriving home around 7 PM, two hours late but exceedingly relieved.

I had to giggle at myself, because after Morning Offering, feeling quite poorly still, I nevertheless could not stand to rest any more. So I came up to the office and batted away at the accumulated e-mail all day, clearing it to the present day. I
- Encouraged Dana, who is recovering from yet another operation in Utah
- Wrote Beth, Helen and Ann P. about Jim’s and my MacDuffie Reunion travel plans by e-mail and wrote my roommate, Ann B, by snail mail as apparently my e-mail address for her has gone bad
- Sent Barbara L at the Noyes School of Rhythm, where I danced throughout my childhood every summer, as did my mother and grandmother, to let them know my younger brother’s new address
- Wrote classmate, Lee R, to thank her for her alumna news – I am class captain for the grand old year of 1961, the year I graduated high school
- Made another stab at finding girlfriend time for Dianne S, who is in the midst of moving house, and asked her if she had some extra bedside tables or a desk and chair for one of our guest rooms which was depleted by the former occupants’ leaving with said items
- Wrote Terry H on a translation question – he is translating The Law of One into Chinese - and also to explain to him that asking the Q’uo about where Genghis Khan is now is not a good idea! I suggested he consult a psychic who has an inner planes guide. Inner planes guides have no problem interfering with free will, as they are planetary natives and have the right to mix it up on Earth. The Confederation does not. So we stick with spiritual principles when questioning, at least on my watch.
- Wrote Michele M, who is drawing images of the chakra system for the Choice books, encouraging her efforts and explaining more of what I was hoping to see
- Thanked Paul, Linda, Dave and Jean-Claude, all of whom had written to say they liked my Indigo Child article
- Wrote to encourage Lindy T as she completes her move to North Carolina, which is heavenly country to see. She sent many photos. Jim and I always enjoyed traveling through the Carolinas back when our budget could afford vacations at the sea. We always went to Pawleys Island, South Carolina, and oh, how I’d love to be there again! I am in bliss when I can see and hear the ocean. My Cancerian nature just blooms on sand and surf. Lindy’s kids are grown and gone, and this move is for her! I am so proud of her to have managed, alone, to raise two children and send them well on their way. When I first met Lindy at Puharich’s Mind Link in 1977, she was a teenager, very psychic and service-oriented, but basically unformed. She has made a wonderful life for herself and her family.

Several times I felt poorly enough to stop working on the laptop and lie back in the chair, and just went to sleep in my recliner, but still I enjoyed the day more for getting something done!

With Jim still not home, I worked at the desk for a while, writing a thank you note to Wendy Jane, who had sent me some delectable apricots from California, and processing all the paperwork which Gary had put in my Inbox up here, not knowing how to proceed without instruction. By bath time I was almost clear at the desk.

Estimating my energy and situation, I am guessing that I will count myself fortunate to finish the desk work, complete all computer chores not having to do with writing or editing and in general get completely caught up with trivia before the Gathering this coming weekend. I’ll need to write the second part of the Indigo Child article for UPI, but the research for that is done and the Q’uo has had good things to say about this subject, so I have only to write the article out, an enjoyable and do-able job.

My hope is to finish the Homecoming weekend and have better health by then, and a good shot at getting back to work on the writing, plus the older editing I wish to include in my workday. I look forward to a visit with the doctor tomorrow which may shed light on what’s got me flattened physically. It would be great if the doc could find something to fix! Here’s hoping.

Jim was half past exhausted after his long day and after our bath we subsided into an evening of being with Sedgie, who continues to purr and want to be with us but not to eat or drink, and each other. We shared supper, conversation and the Gaia Meditation with Gary and came up to bed early.

2006-08-27

This was our last summer Sunday! I was still green around the gills and took the day off completely, including church. Jim did his house cleaning and some errands and then we enjoyed Hustle and Flow, finally discovering the movie which DOES have the song, “It’s Hard Out Here For A Pimp”, in it. The ensemble acting in that film was just great. The script was also very interesting. The context of the whole film, however, was very gritty and grimy. The temptation of a viewer of that movie is to walk away from the whole scene, finding it – to use a southern phrase, - tacky. The one lack in the screenplay was that link between the genre and universality. The emotions and the transactions of that screenplay were indeed universal. However, those links were buried in the presentation which was almost perversely pleased with remaining deep in genre slang. Oh well, I liked it anyway!

We also saw a film which impressed me with Denzel Washington’s ability to realize a character, Inside Man, a perfect-crime-genre film worthy of the name. Washington’s acting was good enough that about halfway through the film I said to Mick, “He reminds me of Denzel Washington – the voice especially.” Mick grinned at me and said, “He IS Denzel Washington!” No makeup or masks were involved by the actor, just his posture, haircut, facial hair, mannerisms and attitude. My hat is off to him for that work.

Romi came over to repair our router during the afternoon. He installed new parts and succeeded once again in keeping our machines going!

Mick and I spent a considerable part of the afternoon upstairs when we could not find Sedge anywhere. After we spent about an hour in my room, making normal sounds of relaxation and TV, he came out from a secret hiding place under my bed we cannot see, where the machinery for the articulated-bed aspect of its undercarriage lives. We were most glad to see him and fussed over him all the rest of the day. He refuses water as well as food now, although he does not express discomfort in any other way and purrs when we pat him and talk to him.

I have decided to go through a juice and water fast as soon as I do a body cleanse. I will still go the doctor’s in two days but there are some things which doctors are notoriously poor at, and one of these areas is the transverse colon, where I suspect my woes reside. The doctor may be able to diagnose these flu-like bacteria which have been giving me a merry dance. However in addition to that typical antibiotic treatment, cleansing the body of toxins and going through a fast to re-set intention within the energy body is one of those non-prescription tactics which nevertheless make a lot of sense to me. It will probably take a couple of weeks to do the cleansing.

After Jim and I had our weekly telephone talk with Mom McCarty in Nebraska, we brought Sedgie upstairs and ended our evening with conversation and an episode of House on TV.

2006-08-26

This was a Saturday for lots of good work for L/L Research from Jim and Gary as well as a full day of volunteer work for Melissa. After Morning Offering Jim cooked the remainder of this next week’s menu. Then he took off on a round of errands. In the afternoon he weeded the entire yard, cut the grapevines along Little Locust Creek and then weed-ate the entire yard in anticipation of Gary’s mowing on next Tuesday. We are now as ready as we will be for the Homecoming, there in the yard! It is not as spiffy as I would have preferred it, had I been able to garden this last week, but alas, that was not to be.

Melissa had decided to come over and work on the tee shirts, all of which had come in. There was a huge amount for her to do to process them. She logged them into QuickBooks and spent the rest of the day folding them and placing them in plastic bags so that they will remain as nice as they are now. Melissa then found boxes that will keep the shirts organized by size and installed them in the cabinets designated for storing the tee shirts. It got late and she had to leave with various ends still untied there, but she did the lion’s share of it all in one day!

We now have extreme tee sizes – on the large end – and new colors and styles. The two new styles are unisex and ladies, with two pretty new colors for the women’s’ tees. It will be good to have these nice tees for people who want to do a bit of spiritual activism by wearing them around and advertising the concept that all is one. For the smaller, trimmer women’s’ tees, we reduced the size of the print on the back logo so that it would look more in proportion to the shirt. Three cheers with clusters for Mel!

Meanwhile Gary was working all day on putting the Homecoming packets together. He cropped the UPI articles I wrote to remove all the gingerbread at the beginning and end, then printed everything out on the colored paper designated to represent each chakra. He made a title page for the packet and three-hole-punched it to fit in our Homecoming booklets. Then he assembled everything. The finished products seem to me to be perhaps the nicest information resources we ever have had to offer at a Gathering. Yay Gary! Although Tobey’s packets for the Archetypes Gathering last winter were doggoned good.

I was still hors de combat. My job was to stay cheerful, to rest and to think healing thoughts, all of which I was glad to do! Clearly I have gotten a virus and it is working its way through me. I’ll be glad to wish it well on its way!

Romi called to check on whether a part he had ordered for repairs on our computer system had arrived, which it had, so he arranged to come by tomorrow to install and test it. We are so fortunate to have his aid!

After our bath, Jim and I stayed downstairs to be with Sedge, whose health has failed so much in the last few days that he is no longer jumping down to seek food and water. He does not even like to sit in our laps any more, perhaps because they are not as stable as hard, flat surfaces. He has found two “patting places”, on the tables at either side of Jim’s and my loveseat. There he stays. So there I stayed too, all day. During the day I would occasionally bring Sedgie water and food, of which he took just a bit each time. Through the evening we both pampered Sedgie.

He does not seem to have much discomfort at all. He just cannot eat. He still purrs a lot whenever we pat him, so we are keeping him with us instead of “putting him down” as the vet says. We cherish our time with him. He has been such a good and devoted kitty! His gentle ways and deep fondness for his humans are so sweetly appealing and appreciated. Here’s to you, little Sedgewick the Tum Tum Kitty. (Sedgie used to love his food and attained quite the broadness of beam in his prime.)

After the Gaia Meditation and Jim’s kitchen cleaning were finished, we came upstairs, bringing Sedgewick, to relax until an early bedtime, saying good night at 11 PM.

2006-08-25

After Morning Offering I again went off the clock as I still feel quite poorly. Having a fever and feeling faint and achy, I am beginning to think this is a virus or bacterial infection rather than food poisoning. I’ve made an appointment with a “regular” doctor for next Tuesday.

Jim and Gary tore up their work schedule, getting finished with the day so early that Gary had the afternoon to do his cooking, clearing the way for other activities later! Meanwhile Jim did all his maintenance for the week on his equipment, then took on those grape vines along Little Locust Creek and made the banks look a whole lot better.

I rested the whole day, still too distracted by discomfort to focus on Papa’s letters. However, I was able to tune for a channeling session and we did have a private session with Jo D in the evening. She had brought her sister with her for the session and it was a most enjoyable meeting.

Jim and I enjoyed a very gentle evening after that, having a bite to eat after the Gaia Meditation, with Jim offering the ending prayer. We sought our beds early.

2006-08-24

This was a very subdued day for work at L/L Research. Gary was on his day off and I had an involuntary day off because of feeling poorly all day, faint and flu-ish. Jim was the hard worker. After Morning Offering, he mowed his full schedule in the Edenic late-summer sunshine. His work is very much a part of the L/L Research effort, as his work pays the bills so I can stay home and write, channel and otherwise serve L/L’s needs.

I had a lovely day, snoozing through much of it and charmed by the old, old series on daytime TV like Magnum P. I. and The Rockford Files. I have not seen those series in years. It was pleasant to trip down memory lane a bit. I attempted to read Papa’s letters but my brain was not working yet. Hopefully I shall feel better on the morrow.

Amy Goodman’s news report had a good deal of material on the border patrol across our Mexican – U.S. border. I did not know that we had unofficial posses out taking the law into their own hands along that border. However I am not surprised at it, given our penchant here in America for rebelling, resisting and otherwise being the punks that originally rose up against a king and claimed a country for their own. What was it the Ra said – something like “Your people do not have a tendency towards bloodless surrender.” When we criticize the Hezbollah for defending Lebanon’s borders, we need to look more carefully at our own back yard, or more accurately, our own “south forty”.

The lack of perspective in this whole immigration policy is troublesome to me. We are all immigrants except the Native Americans. Nothing says America should be Caucasian in racial make-up. It would dearly love to see people get over racial distinctions.

There is that within me which would like to take the guns away and tell people: NOW! Sit down and TALK! We can work every tangle out, given that we continue to communicate and remain civil. However, our national psyche is such that we go for our guns right away. We are immature bullies. How we need to grow up!

Gary joined us after Jim’s and my bath for a very pleasant conversation, supper, the Gaia Meditation and an early bedtime.

2006-08-23

After Morning Offering, I spent the sunlit hours before lunch in my bower office, writing the article on Indigo Children for the UPI site. I found that the material divided neatly into two parts, so I wrote this week about what an Indigo Child is. Next week I’ll take up suggestions for dealing with their special needs. The Q’uo group has answered several questions about them lately so I had tons of material to use.

On the site, the text had some extra characters, so I shall have to write Larry with a request to remove them.

Lunch turned into a fairly lengthy planning meeting with Lynn and Melissa. Melissa is training Lynn on the keeping of our financial books, as Melissa is leaving around the first of September. They both feel Lynn is coming along just fine. It is good that Melissa will be here for the monthly statements which Jim’s Lawn Service sends out to be produced and mailed. That’s the last procedure which Lynn has not yet done.

Gary spent his admin time today copying out most of the material for our packet for participants for the Homecoming. We’re putting the information about each chakra on the corresponding tint of paper, so we’ll have a rainbow packet for the people who come. We also got a post-late plea from a veteran L/L Gatherings participant to come to the Gathering, saying he’d sit in a corner, anywhere, just let him attend! And that’s just what he’ll have to do; sit in a nook somewhere on the floor! But I said yes. He’ll bring some good energy to that corner and that spot on the floor.

We are totally full up, now. The energy feels so good! I do look forward to this gathering. Each of our Homecomings has been special in its own way. It is because of the material, which the participants like in common and which draws “birds of a feather” together. It is very relaxing and invigorating to be among one’s own people. It feels like the clan is gathering; the extended family we did not know we had.

I had been worsening in physical health all day and was most thankful that Karen K had just sent me back her naturopathic report. She suggested belladonna in homeopathic doses for a bacterial infection of the colon she diagnosed by psychic pendling. Her description of my symptoms was spot on. She is so much more competent in diagnosis than the allopathic medical community. So I scooted up the Rainbow Blossom grocery and found the remedy. It seems to be the same bug that laid me low last summer after the trip to Britain. Hopefully I will recover quickly now. But the crisis was tough enough to send me to bed for the rest of the afternoon and early evening.

Jim went up to Avalon after he finished his mowing and mowed the whole creekside meadow to our property line, as well as using our feeder creek to place some honeysuckle vines he’d pulled for a customer. The vines won’t chip down well as they are too twined up. They tend to break the chipper! Nature has better uses for such material. Jim uses them along the weather side of the creek feeder stream running along our access road on the Cliffside to keep erosion down.

I did just a bit of e-mail after the Gaia Offering but found I was still too faint to make much sense. So Jim and I found our beds early, saying good night around 10:30.

2006-08-22

After Morning Offering, I worked on collecting material for my UPI article, which I will write tomorrow, on Indigo Children, so-called. We have gotten quite a few questions about them in various channeling sessions so I collected Q’uotes from our own archives as well as browsing some internet sources. I regretted having to take time away from the book’s writing, but Larry, my editor at UPI, asked me to write on this specific topic and I had never informed myself of the consensus-reality opinion on the subject. It should be fun to create the article.

After lunch I headed out once again to the Social Security Administration’s local office – this time well within their office hours – and gave them my name-change form. I am finally finished with that little project. It’s only taken a year or so to accomplish what seemed at the outset to be a very simple thing. It is a sign of the times that it would take so very much paperwork, patience and perseverance to alter the statistical information in government and corporate databases on my name. I think this is a time when one’s personal security and freedom are very fragile things.

I remember back in the late seventies and early eighties, when Don Elkins and I were sharing time and projects with Andrija Puharich, who was under government surveillance at the time, that we were investigated by some portion of the government. Our mail was opened. Our neighbors were questioned. We had both an inside and an outside tap on our telephones according to someone who knew how to check for those things. I realize most taps are undetectable, but ours was ludicrously obvious. You could not even get a line at first try. I used to pick up the receiver and apologize! I’d say into the empty phone, “I am so sorry you have to sit through my call to my Mom. It will be very boring.”

Then I would get a dial tone and could proceed with the call. This went on for some years until I think someone finally realized that we were very normal and uninterested in doing anything clandestine or politically provocative. We’ve been left in peace these twenty years and more. I am grateful!

However I have no doubt that these same governmental agencies are, even now, doing the same thing to other, equally innocent folks who know the wrong people and got on some government list. It’s a crying shame that the times are such that we not only tolerate but support such invasion of privacy.

When I returned from Social Security I got back into the Inbox, which yielded my work for the afternoon.

I had finally gotten Ann P’s e-address and sent her the same information on the MacDuffie reunion as Beth and Helen had. I am still trying to find the other Ann, Ann B’s, e-address. I suppose I shall need to call her sister-in-law, who lives in Louisville, and get reconnected with Ann. She was my roommate at MacDuffie and I’d love her to be part of our little group. These women are so dear to me! I can’t wait to see them.

I wrote to Dave G, Bill G, Julian D and Linda P, who had written in about the UPI article I did last week on “Think Love”. They loved the article, which was very heart-opening.

Throughout the afternoon I worked with Scott H, who had written a Wiki article on Don Elkins for that encyclopedia. He had gotten some details really wrong and we got them smoothed out.

Dianne S and I traded another round of notes trying to find a clear date to meet for lunch and general wisecracks and giggles – well, actually she is one of my most serious minded of friends! But we do giggle too – only to come up short, because her schedule is full of moving details as she takes her household from small-town ways to rural ones, moving out Avalon way, northeast of Louisville. When Jim and I get moved up there ourselves in the misty future it will be so great to have Dianne living close by.

My last work before closing the office for the day was to work on some questions for an upcoming session for Marcelo G. His letter was full of good energy but he had not achieved a good enough focus for me to be able to edit his questions. After all, I want the session to be his, not mine! Editing a person’s questions for Q’uo is a very delicate process which I do, if I get the chance, for channeling clients. I have come to know the Q’uo group’s attitude pretty well and I can predict whether a given question will get a satisfactory answer. Rewording already-existing questions to focus on spiritual principles rather than direct information or advice is my editing goal. Marcelo’s thoughts were not well enough focused for me to reword anything without putting in my own distortions.

So I wrote him suggesting that certain phrases out of his long letter seemed to me to be key. I asked him to set his priority for the main question and formulate both that question and any others. When he gets that far, then I can help spiff up the questions for maximum effectiveness.

The problem most people have with questions is that they treat the Q’uo group as though it were an inner guide. Inner guides have incarnated here on earth. They have no problem with free will. They can give advice all day with no loss of polarity.

The Confederation entities are not from around here. They have no right to interfere with Earth matters. They are here to disseminate thoughts which have a certain vibration. Their area of work is fairly well laid out by the Council of Saturn. It is to discuss spiritual principles when asked. So the idea of the editing is to change a question like “Is my child an indigo Child,” which will get no answer at all, to “I feel that my child is an Indigo Child. Please confirm this and discuss any spiritual principles which you feel might be helpful to me as I think about this.” That will get a fair answer.

I was a good ten minutes late getting to gardening because of my sweet little Chloe, our ever-growing kitten. She has a habit of stopping by and giving me all kinds of purrs and kneading paws and putting her silky body against mine so that she can lick my neck or ear. It’s the most devoted action I have ever seen in a cat. She persisted with this cunning sweet-talk for a long time and I was not about to miss it!

Eventually she simply fell asleep in mid-purr, so I went out into the glorious Kentucky sunshine and weeded more lily canes, plus some wild flowers which had taken over in a corner of the rose garden. They had a beautiful indigo bloom with little yellow tongues. However when the bloom was over, the tall, tall stems started to turn brown, so they needed to be removed.

Jim called me in for a restorative bath and whirlpool and after some relaxation time we went into the downstairs office to get some books mailed out. I did the QuickBooks forms for the bookkeeper and Jim wrapped and stamped.

Then Romi showed up. He wanted to get the glitch fixed which he had found in our network, and spent some time on the computer ordering parts. We enjoyed the Gaia Meditation and watched part of an old James Bond movie while we chatted with Gary. We all said good night around 11 PM.

2006-08-21

After our Morning Offering, Jim headed out to mow early as his Monday schedule is packed. I came upstairs to behold Chapter One of The Choice. I am beginning to get a bead on how I feel this chapter wants to go, which is a relief, as I have been waiting for that familiar feeling of resonance. I am starting to get that now. The story is starting to tell itself to me. I love that feeling. I worked my way through the entire chapter again, section by section, sprucing things up.

I feel ready now to go on to the remaining topics of this first chapter, the nature of illusion and the function of catalyst. This is all meaty stuff and the challenge is to write it so any person who wishes to do so can understand what wisdom the Confederation and Law of One information contains which can be useful to a seeker. Finding a really straightforward way to talk about these weighty issues is an interesting challenge.

I came down for a late lunch and consulted with Gary on some personal channeling appointments and also Homecoming matters.

Back in the office I squared off with the ever-present e-mail. I:
Worked with material from Day 93 of the Book of Days where the editor wanted a different wording that read more smoothly
Wrote Helen and Beth concerning my travel plans for the MacDuffie reunion
Verified my address for Sierra, who is having a woeful time sending me Jim’s needed new work shoes.
Called my credit card company to discover what the hold-up was. It turned out they were concerned because we had used the card too much, Jim is gearing up to pole vault in the 2007 senior games and we have bought him a pole and track shoes as well as a mattress for me. They stopped the card until I called in to verify the purchases. The irritating thing here is that the card agents never called me. They just refused to process charges on my card. I had to call them to find out what was happening. I would think they could have called if they were going to stop the card from being used. That card is our workhorse for the house expenses.
Wrote Glenys, who has a tough diagnosis to deal with and at the same time is awakening
Sent my friend, Lindy, my telephone number with the accompanying request not to use it! I dislike using the telephone a lot! And wished her good luck on her move to the Black Mountain area of the Carolinas
Let Rick know that the last L/L Research tape he has volunteered to remaster as a CD is now in the mail to him
Worked with a question for Q’uo which the British Study Group had sent in and let the group know that I would ask it at our first meeting on September third.
Thanked Carol B for some stunning photos of the “parrot flower”, a rare species I have never seen before
Congratulated Dianne S on getting all moved in to her new country cottage with her husband, who is an invalid, and worked on finding some girlfriend time for us in September
Thanked Romi for finding a problem about which I had no idea whatsoever, which has occurred with our network system. I gave Romi permission to buy the parts he will need to fix the glitch.

I started gardening by pulling some late-blooming lily canes. Most of those “sticks” are collected now but some still remain. It takes a while to recover from the onslaught of beauty which the day-lilies offer. After the blooms fade, you have these little flagpoles sticking up wherever the blooms were. Hopefully, by Homecoming we’ll have all the canes collected! Then I started on the corner of the garage and weeded until Jim called bath time. I had thought we were very crowded with lilies in that patch but most of those blooms have died.

Jim has agreed to dig up all the lilies along the garage next winter, since the lilies are naturalizing and need to be dug up and replanted to make room for all the new bulb-babies. I must have pulled two dozen starting lily plants out completely because they were pushing through the rock border of their bed. This is winter work and hopefully Jim will have some time to do it during his off-season.

After our bath and some relaxation, Jim decided that he wants to accompany me to the reunion. Was I surprised! The man seldom leaves the house, much less traveling to New England! So I got on the telephone and changed my airline ticket to match the time he needs to leave, which is several hours later than my previous ticket. I will enjoy his company and so will the other ladies, I am sure. And it will be so much easier for me with Jim manning the bags and so forth. When I travel I need to use a wheel chair, as my right foot sustains stress fractures any time I walk too much and travel arrangements are challenging to accomplish alone sometimes.

We enjoyed the Gaia Meditation, with me praying the ending prayer, and then had a late supper and eventually sought our beds around 11 PM.

2006-08-20

I awoke early and enjoyed some solitaire before dressing for church and doing the Sunday puzzles. I sang an extremely sultry service, fanning myself up in the choir. The unfortunate thing about the architectural style of churches with their raised chancels is that the heat rises and those pews are probably ten degrees warmer than the congregation’s! And the choir and clergy, acolytes and chalice bearers are all in robes. We sang a Celtic communion service and I so enjoyed the new music.

I brought back fast food and Jim and I had a classic, peaceful afternoon off, a summer Sunday with three movies and some serious dozing. Of the three I enjoyed The Weatherman, with Nicholas Cage, the most, as it had an edgy, probing screenplay and excellent ensemble work as well as a star turn by Cage, who realized his rather difficult and ungrateful character well. The difficulty with many movies I see these days, in my jaundiced view, is that they are so determinedly stuck on the flat gameboard of consensus reality, where it’s always a lose-lose situation; where life is meaningless at best and a cruel joke at worst. Hope lies elsewhere!

Jim and I wandered around the yard between films and discussed what we could accomplish before the Homecoming in terms of making the yard look its best. We decided that after I trim up the wisteria and elderberry at the garage’s rear, and get the last of the lily debris and canes cleaned up from that corner, I shall weed around the back of the lavender patch and take on the lily beds around the big fishpond in the side yard. Jim will take on the grapevine along Little Locust Creek’s banks. There is an old and spent grape arbor along a section of that wet weather stream’s bed planted before our time and the vines have gone wild and twined themselves around neighboring bushes and trees. I am rather glad Mick’s taking that project on, as I was game to tackle it, but the job looks large!

I do not expect to “finish” weeding the yard. Ever! There are too many plantings and it’s just Jim and me out there, he on the weekends and I at the end of the day for a bit of time. There is not enough time for us to catch up. The weeds grow merrily!

However, the gradual effect of the yard work is to make the place feel inviting and peaceful, and if there are new weeds we have not gotten to when guests come, for the most part they do not see them! Indeed Gary often says that the yard looks perfect to him. His birth family did not have plantings in their yard and so to him the whole place is a wonder. He’s not a weeder but he’s a terrific mower. He and Jim split up the yard work here. Gary does the mowing and Jim does the trimming – an extensive job in our crowded yard with its many plantings, beds, patios and paths. Jim also waters when that is needed – only twice so far this whole year. We are usually in deep draught in July and August, but not this year.

In the evening while we had a late supper, we three talked a bit about the upcoming Homecoming, smoothing out some small details. Jim and I also talked about our part of the program, the half-hour talks we will give together on each chakra before the hour of discussion begins. I believe Jim has decided to lead off the opening remarks and then I will take it from wherever he leaves off. Jim’s comments are always most apposite and in a brief and clear form. I am more chatty, so it’s best that Jim go first. Jim is also a whiz at Q & A, so hopefully I shall remember to leave a few minutes at the end of each talk for people to ask questions.

We shared the Gaia Meditation with Jim offering the ending prayer, and so to snuggling and bed.

2006-08-19

Saturdays are such a blessing in our little community of three! After Morning Offering, Jim cooked a salmon loaf for the week while I came upstairs to do some ordering of goods. Jim needed a pair of work shoes and some work pants. Now you would think this would be easy to accomplish as he had chosen what he wanted out of catalogs.

The shoes were in stock, but the software on the Sierra site balled up. After 40 minutes of trying to make the system function, to no avail, I called Sierra’s customer service and the representative complimented me on having created a snarl no one there had seen before. In fact, they could not solve it. Finally I got that order together another way and moved on to ordering the pants.

This time the venerable L. L. Bean Company had run out of Jim’s size pants in the style he preferred. I tried every combination for six style colors, but in his size, they were sold out. Consultation with Mick created an alternate plan and I got those pants ordered as well so much for colors! He shall have to be satisfied with denim indigo and a good fit. Creative patching on his old jeans is attractive in its retro hippie way but the patches are wearing patches these days and it is time for anew generation of jeans!

About the time I straightened out that order Jim called lunch time and we enjoyed a leisurely, Saturday kind of midday meal, with stretching afterwards. Then Jim was off to an afternoon of planting the remainder of the arbor vitae trees, trimming up our lawn, er, meadow, and generally spiffing up the old homestead. Meanwhile I came up again and worked on Christmas shopping, as some very good sale catalogs have come in. By gardening time I had found some thoughtful gifts for loved ones.

Let me say again, Saturdays are wonderful! This sort of “work” is strictly personal and on Monday through Friday I stay clear of it. It is great to have one day a week to get this kind of thing done.

I also consulted at some length with Gary, who was on admin hours, and Melissa, who had come over for some volunteer time. Melissa wanted to get the tee shirt order finished. It has been hanging fire for almost a year now and Jamie finally sent us the news that the shirts are on their way. The cost of the order has gone up a lot just since we made the order, as their wholesale prices underwent a change. The pressure to raise the amount of our suggested donations is absolutely inevitable and I am glad we are doing so across the board, as our own costs for products are skyrocketing.

We also discussed how to list the new tees in the new order form, as there are five new models, three for unisex and two just for women. We got the logo on the back, “All Is One”, made 30% smaller on the women’s tees, since the styles are more body conscious and much more trim.

The old models of tees will be kept at the lower cost and sold as sale items until they are gone, we decided.

PayPal is some time off yet on the new order form, but Gary assured me he was targeting getting that option going as he looks ahead at his L/L admin work. It is quite a lot of work to set that up but it will be very handy for our customers. Today he was getting the material for the packets for our Homecoming together, for the most part.

I joined Jim in the yard for weeding at afternoon’s end and finished the lily patch along the south side of the garage. Next I will cross that doorway into the potting shed part of the garage and tackle the garage corner. There are lilies there and the burgeoning wisteria vines. Clearing the clots of leaves and other debris from that corner patch and trimming the wisteria around the corner and on to the back of the garage are my next gardening goals.

While Jim cleaned the kitchen after supper I made plans to attend the MacDuffie reunion this October. One of my buddies from school, Beth, will receive the Distinguished Alumna award and I want to cheer her on. I think my other school friends – Ann B., my roomie, Ann P, the woman who introduced me to the headmaster and got me a scholarship chance and Helen, my best friend at school, are also coming to support Beth so it should be a total blast for us old gals.

We are the class of 1961, so it’s our 45th reunion! I have never been to a MacDuffie reunion. When I was there it was a girls’ school and had nine campus buildings. Now it is co-ed and has enlarged dramatically. It’ll be great fun to see what’s happened there and to catch up with my friends, all of whom have done excellent things with their lives and who remain vital and fascinating women. And we are all still alive, which is a signal blessing at our age!

I remember so many good times with them. One memory that surfaces with great clarity is from the early May days before graduation in ‘61. Helen, Beth and I had a book which had just come in the mail, given to me by my very first love. It was The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran. We went with it to a nearby cemetery where the landscaping was superb. We sat under a tree and read that sweet and powerful book to each other, taking turns, that whole afternoon, while the young New England sun filtered through the pale green of the new leaves and dappled across our skirts. We touched deep places together that day. I celebrate my old friends!

Gary joined Jim and me for a late supper and the Gaia Meditation and we said good night around 11:30.

2006-08-18

After Morning Offering, Jim and Gary went to attend to their many lawns while I spent the morning poring over Chapter One of The Choice 101. I rewrote until I was satisfied, working on the Love section especially. I shall read that over one more time to be sure that’s where I want it, and then it’s on to writing about Light.

The guys got back in time for a late lunch, triumphant at having mown everybody’s lawns before the onset of predicted rains. In the event, it did not rain until the night, although the skies certainly were lowering and moody. Jim and I had time to stretch, always a signal blessing for our aging bodies.

Then he was off to do his weekly maintenance routine and errands while I once again tackled old e-mail up in my bower office. By gardening time I had just managed to respond to the last old e-mail! I would have done a victory dance except that several people have already responded to those letters I just sent out, so my Inbox is still not empty! But the whole older generation of e-mails is now answered. It has taken me the week! Once in a while I really like to get caught up.

It was incredibly humid today! Just walking out into the yard to weed at the end of the working day started water pouring off my body. Fortunately my old gardening tees make excellent hankies! I mopped the glow out of my eyes and weeded away. What a treasure trove of sticks and other debris I found in the corner by the potting shed door! I suppose that spot is where the wind drives any loose bits of yard waste. I sat in one spot the whole time and pulled out buckets of debris. Soon that corner shall be all cleaned, which will be very satisfying to me.

Jim, meanwhile, had brought back the last of the arbor vitae trees we will use to shield us from our neighbor’s shenanigans. The gentleman who owns the property got our special permission to build on to their house in our direction about three years ago, so that only twelve feet separated the two houses. At the time we had a good hedge and wanted to be accommodating to him. His property has been a construction site ever since, messy and untrimmed. We have no idea when they will actually finish the remodeling. As I understand it from talking with neighbors who have known this family all their lives, it is a boon that they are not moved in yet! Having them living here is worse. The family seems to be somewhat unfortunately choice.

These charmers cut down our mature, dense, lovely, ten-foot living hedge of forsythia all along their boundary line, perhaps forty feet of bushes, claiming that the hedge was at least two inches over their property line. And when that hedge was cut down, they installed a rough gravel driveway all along where it had been. So we now have the lovely, near view of their walls and windows, their driveway and their cars, all without any privacy hedge.

Jim has, through the summer, at some expense, started planting arbor vitae trees along our property line – being sure we are on our side of it - in order to rebuild the privacy hedge we very much need, thanks to our neighbor’s thoughtlessness concerning our needs. It will be good to get those trees planted, which Jim will do tomorrow.

This whole episode is good catalyst for me, as we came here to planet Earth, or as the Elk used to call it, P-sub-3, to work on finding the springs of unconditional love within our hearts. I find it quite challenging to love our neighbor unconditionally! I am, however, working on it and attempting to remember to give thanks for the good catalyst.

Jim and I had a quiet and most enjoyable evening after our whirlpool bath, welcoming Romi and including Gary in the mix when he got back from his girlfriend’s. We enjoyed Amy Goodman’s news, some good conversation, supper and the Gaia Meditation, with Romi offering the ending prayer. We watched the new episodes of Stargate from then until bed time.

Gary’s girlfriend is moving to North Carolina. Tomorrow she leaves with her Mom to spend time finding and renting an apartment there, where she has gotten a job as an art teacher in the public schools. She will come back only to pack and leave by September 11th. I sympathize with Gary’s mixed feelings as he says good-bye to her. He is, of course, delighted that she got her job exactly where she hoped to do so. On the other hand, he feels his life is here, so he will be saying farewell. It’s a sad moment for them both.

2006-08-17

This very scenic day was a quiet one for me. After Morning Offering I tackled a rewrite of the Free Will section of Chapter One of The Choice 101. By lunchtime I had it in better shape and felt that I had gotten back on track. I changed the opening quote to the section and that helped a lot.

Jim was home for lunch and we had a good stretch afterwards. Then he went to mow St. Luke’s and do some gardening there while I tried to make an appointment with naturopath Karen K, whom I would like to consult about my tummy. We are playing telephone tag.

I also called Gary Falk at Falk Audio to arrange for them to send our audiocassette masters to Rick C, who will re-master them as CDs. Our tapes are all highly imperfect, being recordings of speeches and music which were done only once and not rehearsed, but I know Rick will make them as good as they can be. And it will be good to have CDs to offer our people, as that is the current medium of choice for most, as opposed to tapes.

Scott H wrote to let me know that he had made a Wikipedia entry on Don Elkins. I read it and found that he had gotten details of Don’s last illness wrong, so I wrote him to let him know the actual facts and to ask him to change his entry. His entries for both Don and me are a riot in that if you read them, you get the impression that we are filmmakers who happen to do a bit of other things as well. Scott is a fan of our goofy 1972 movie, The Girl Snatchers. I think he may be the only fan, but he is a loyal one!

I wrote Dianne S a catch-up letter to thank her for all her interesting forwards. She is a dedicated activist in terms of keeping up with what’s happening and she sends me many an interesting article on everything from religion and politics to metaphysics and cute pet pics. I also touched in with Diana D in California.

The rest of the afternoon was spent writing a new edition of our Gatherings Newsletter. Not only do we have the Homecoming soon but we also start our weekly Sunday meetings the first Sunday in September, so it is time to send the word out, although the Homecoming is closed because we are full up. I used some of the report Pupie sent from the British Law of One Study Group to fill out the newsletter and got it ready to send to Gary for his final edit and the actual send.

The house was very quiet today as Gary was on his day off and gone for almost the whole day. As I went downstairs to put on my gardening clothes I had one of those timeless moments where you are aware of all the energies of the house that have nothing to do with humans – not just the cats but all the angels that keep us company here; the devas of all the plant life around us, especially the trees; the house itself, which has a distinct personality. There is such power lambent in every line of this place! I suppose that is true in general, but when you now a place, you begin to feel into it. It was an eerie moment, lost in the energy; delicious of its type.

That lily bed is just about cleaned now, after my gardening efforts today. Another day should see me on the other side of the potting shed door and around to the southwest corner of the back of the garage. A mass of wisteria is awaiting me there. Fortunately I got some loppers not too long ago that should work well as I cut those vining limbs back to what is actually holding on to the garage wall. A vagrant, single wisteria bloom waved at me from the corner as Jim called bath time. I told it, “You’re going to get a haircut!”

After Jim and I had our bath and took in the news with Amy Goodman, we went downtown to the Jazz Factory to hear a set of Walker and Kays, our favorite group. It was a lovely evening, still 90 degrees outside when we came home around 9:30. We offered the Gaia Meditation at our table at the club.

On the way home, we picked up our L/L Research box mail – twenty items from scientology and half that many actual orders and other letters. I tried writing Scientology, years ago, to explain that someone had put us on their mailing list but that we wanted off it. This resulted in their sending us even more mail, so I stopped trying to control the situation and we just throw out a lot of mail from them.

We had a lovely snuggle with the kitties at day’s end and said good night around 11:30.

2006-08-16

The highlight of the day was meeting Lynn, the woman Melissa has chosen to train for our new bookkeeper. Lynn seems a good fit. I took her around the house and yard and Melissa trained with her all day. At the end of it she reported that she felt she could do the job and would enjoy it. I think she can do it too. Lynn is in early middle age and has a background in horticulture, in which she took a degree, and business. She has read a lot of metaphysics and is interested to know more about us.

That meeting and the discussion and tour we had took up some of the day here and there for me, both morning and afternoon, as they came soon after Jim and I finished Morning Offering and stayed until gardening time around 5 PM. I spent the rest of the morning writing my UPI article for the week.

After a late lunch I got busy with e-mail. I took some time with my Maine friend, Rick, whom I have known since school, answering over a dozen letters from him. And I wrote Sandie, the Planet Light Worker editor, from whom I have not heard this month. I had understood from her that she would like me to offer an article a month for her e-zine, but have received no assignment or any communication from her since July.

Gardening for the day consisted of my continuing to weed the lily bed by the garage. I am close to finished with this long bed, which gets very clotted with debris from the big sycamore next to it, which rains bark, leaves and sticks down into it from June onwards each year.

Jim and I managed to fit a stretching routine in mid-afternoon, and after our bath we relaxed for the evening with Link TV’s Democracy Now news with Amy Goodman, World Music and the Gaia Meditation, with Jim offering the ending prayer. We said good night at 11 PM.

2006-08-15

This was Kentucky’s day to shine for this month – low humidity, about 80 degrees and lit by the most cordial and beneficent sunshine! Being alive never felt more beautiful! After Morning Offering, Jim took off to mow his two largest lawns and do some gardening while I tackled Chapter One of 101 again.

I worked through the science section until I was really through with it and then worked with the Free Will section. I thought I was satisfied with it until I read it. I am not, so tomorrow, I will be tackling that first again. I worked for the rest of the morning on the Love and Logos section.

Jim came home for lunch and we got to stretch together; a most enjoyable enterprise. For the afternoon I took on the Inbox. My priority was to answer all mail from Gary, having finished with our web guy’s needs yesterday, and I did a whole lot of e-mail generated by the needs of our L/L concerns as dealt with by Gary. It is great to be able to congratulate him on beginning the transfer of the original Ra session tapes to CD format. I thanked him for sending out the UPI articles I generate each week. I responded to his concerns about photos on my blog – I will save all the photo space, which is limited, for pictures of the Homecoming. And I sent him some text for the site, where he wanted a description of each of our newsletters and also the UPI articles.

Working with e-mail Gary had sent me from the downstairs L/L Inbox I:
Caught up with our web guy on personal news. An interesting coincidence occurred as he teased me about “lay on MacDuff”, to which I had replied, “But I am already a McCarty,” and then he pointed out today that I had just done some work for my old school, MacDuffie. Kabong!
Caught up with Lindy T, with whom I did the Mind Link in 1974. She was then a very young woman. Now her children are grown and she is moving to the east coast from Florida. She has never sounded so well, relaxed, contented and energized. It’s wonderful to touch into her very psychic and loving energy.
Congratulated Wynn F on a particularly positive review of his book on Wilcock and Cayce which he had sent me
Responded to several articles from Jean-Claude K, who also writes for UPI weekly and includes me on his article send list. He is very tuned in to the “Think Love” campaign being run by Catharina Rodrigues, whose web site address is http://www.catherinarodrigues.com/ThinkLove.html. I am very resonant with her work also. It is pure inspiration and very catching.
Thanked Margie B. for her very witty article on how to download love. The basic idea is that when you have other programs running on your biocomputer, you can’t run love! How true.
Thanked Scott H and Otto H – not the same last name; one is a New York guy and the other is living with gypsies in India – for their birthday wishes. Can you tell I am very behind on e-mail? My birthday was a month ago now!
Responded to Dan Petric’s (Dan Petric [mailto:tantranews@yahoo.com]) e-mail inviting all positively oriented seekers to work together for the planetary good. His energy is excellent! If you would like to climb on board with his offensive, here is his e-mail address. He is working out of a public library with no funds, but he has terrific energy!
Caught up with John P, a brilliant and hard-seeking Britisher whose intellect often gets in his way but whose humor and wit are superb.
Responded to Glenys, a Wanderer with a complex story to tell
Responded to a friend whose sister is terribly upset because she has a Buddha sculpture and her sister is afraid she is worshiping idols. I advised her to leave off trying to be rational with her sister and put away the little Buddha until such time as she is not living with her fundamentalist, fear-driven sister!

And that was my work day. I eagerly changed into my gardening duds and streamed out into the sunshine to continue working on the lilies, getting most of the way down that long row against the south side of the garage. It is so delicious to be in the yard, listening to the birdsong and the plashing of the fish pond waterfalls, feeling the sun and breeze on your skin and working with the earth. The smell of the soil is so wholesome and the earth energy is so grounding! It makes a wonderful ending to a very sedentary work day.

We enjoyed Amy Goodman’s news show and World Music before coming downstairs to have supper and offer the Gaia Meditation. It was a relaxing and enjoyable evening of leisure and conversation with Gary and we said good night around 11 PM.

2006-08-14

The atmosphere was magically moody as I got the paper this morning. The Rose of Sharon blooms are at last beginning to fall, spent, to the ground across our front hedge, while a clump of Korean day lilies, with their eerie, leafless stems, rose suddenly in the side yard and our rope plant sent forth its peculiarly plastic-looking blossoms in celebration of late summer.

After Morning Offering Jim was most eager to get cutting, as the forecast was for rain and possible storms all day. This is a very rainy summer compared to our norm. By now, Kentucky is usually in full draught and Jim is mowing his customers’ lawns every other week. This year, however, the heavens have been generously pluvious and Jim is still mowing weekly, for the most part. In the event Jim did get all his lawns manicured. It was a close call but he did it by giving up his lunch hour.

Meanwhile I reworked the science section one last time in Chapter One of The Choice 101. Then I re-did the Free Will section throughout. It is a lot closer to what I would like, but it still does not “pop” so I will tackle it anew tomorrow morning.

After lunch I consulted with Gary briefly on the new text for the order form we have on line for our books and other items and then came back to the office to tackle e-mail. During the afternoon I wrote back and forth to some classmates of mine from MacDuffie, the school from which I graduated with a high school degree in 1961. It’s an unusual situation, where I was asked to be class captain this year and write everyone in my class to get some new news from my classmates and stir up a possible show of force at the reunion itself.

It is so tempting to go to the reunion this year I have decided to attend it. The kicker is that one of my oldest friends, Beth K-H, has won the Distinguished Alumna award this year. She’s a professor of languages and literature at the University of Chicago and has written a good many books and articles through the years. Her most recent book is Rural Scenes and National Representation: Britain, 1815-1850, published by the University of Chicago. She is currently taking a sabbatical from teaching to write another book about the British.

Beth, Ann, Helen and I were already sending desultory e-mails back and forth suggesting ways to have our own private reunion. When Beth won the award, it galvanized us four ladies into making some plans. So the e-mails were buzzing between us today! It should be a great time together next October when the reunion takes place, in Springfield, Massachusetts. It will be wonderful there at that time of year, with the trees all turning amidst the Yankee scene of well-preserved charm and beauty. We won’t talk about the unfortunate soot and dirt of the northeast industrial corridor!

I also caught up with every single remaining e-mail from both Gary and Ian – there were about a half-dozen from each as they worked together to create a really complete new order form. We have needed to change suggested donation amounts for each item for some time as our costs rise and finally we are doing that. I think the new form is a lot easier to use than previous versions. We have it up now on our “not-so-secret” page on the archive site, which is found by clicking on the Don Quixote image at the top left of the Home Page.

We still do not have the PayPal option on our order form. That shall need to wait until such time as we get the B4 site up under new management. But people can always order from us by fax or telephone message, using information on our site, as well as by snail mail.

Writing some letters to friends ended my work day and I went out to garden as Jim got home and began his maintenance routine on his mowing and gardening tools. We enjoyed the sweet, humid, lowering, dramatic weather and got sprinkled upon as we dashed back inside for our bath.

After a most riveting Amy Goodman news hour, where she talked most notably with Seymour Hirsch about the Lebanon-Israeli dispute, and World Music, we went downstairs to eat and offer the Gaia Meditation, after which Jim and I went into the downstairs office and processed book orders until bedtime.

I wish people would be extra-careful when writing down their charge card numbers. We had to write a seeker in New Zealand to get his correct number and that will delay his order, with the mail so slow between here and there. This kind of error occurs all too often and I feel badly for the people awaiting their books.

The kittens were a delight as we filled out the QuickBooks forms and wrapped packages. Those little characters get absolutely everywhere. Chloe ended up the evening with the prize for the most unusual sitting position: she draped herself over a couple of wildly uneven stacks of books and looked uncomfortable but adorable.

We watched some junk TV with all four cats and ended our evening at 11 PM. Sedgie has virtually stopped taking food, so I suppose the end of his sweet and devoted kitty-cat life is near. He was sitting on my chest purring fervently for a good half hour this evening and not showing signs of discomfort, so we will enjoy him for a brief little while yet, I hope. However, clearly he is nearing his passage away from this life and through the gates into kitty heaven – or as is more likely, since Sedge is indeed a devoted and loving cat, he will return as a third-density human for his next lifetime.

2006-08-13

What a happy Sabbath Jim and I and L/L Research had today! I went off to church to sing the service while Jim cleaned, as usual, and Jim was surprised by Melissa’s visit with our new bookkeeper in tow! Spirit was working overtime for us; that is, spirit plus Melissa, who had made many phone calls and visits around town looking for a likely candidate. Lynn was a contact given Melissa by a temporary agency lady who said she could not place a temp here because we are a home office. Then, mysteriously, she just gave Melissa this telephone number, which was Lynn’s, and said, “I think this lady may suit you.” No fee, no nothing – just a kindness because she knew the solution.

Thank you, Lord, thank you, temp lady and thank you, Holly. Most of all, thank you, Melissa!

Then Gary gave us the surprising news that he will not be attending college classes this fall after all. He has developed a resonant interest in the work of a couple who teach a kind of breath therapy. I do not know anything about them yet but I will learn! Gary will be spending his hard-earned dollars this fall on the week-long workshop in New York at the Omega Center which the couple offers rather than on college classes.

The trail to Gary’s decision makes sense in the odd way that spiritual coincidence and resonance do. It is not entirely rational, but I clearly see why Gary wants to proceed this way, and I suspect it is entirely right for him. So it was a big day for changes at our little community.

Jim and I did absolutely nothing for the rest of the day except take off and kick back. We watched two and a half unmemorable movies, dozed, walked, planned work in the yard and just relaxed and enjoyed the Sabbath rest.

It will not last much longer! I think we have two more of these summer Sundays and then it is back to Sunday meetings each week except fifth Sundays for the school year, September through May.

A part of me would like to retire from the meetings. I am introverted and fairly reclusive by habit, and having who knows who stream into one’s home on a Sunday is a bit out of character, according to my personality. However, I am not much interested in my personality! I am interested in service to others. As long as I feel the channeling and the gatherings in general, with their study and meditation, are of service to those around us, we will continue to hold meetings. I’ll retire from channeling when people stop coming to join us. Whenever that may be!

2006-08-12

Saturday morning dawned sweet and clear, the air washed from all the rain. I baked caramel brownies for church after Jim and I offered our Morning Prayers while Jim baked a turkey and made some caramelized potatoes to go with. Gary cooked the vegetable dishes later in the day.

After lunch, I tackled the wrapping project again while Jim got two large-sized garbage bags full of weeds from the plantings in the yard. By the end of the afternoon, Jim was weed-eating the yard. I came out for an hour of weeding in the lily patch by the garage, getting two ten-gallon buckets’ worth of dead leaves and sycamore debris out of the lily leaves plus a big load of branches and twigs. The sycamore has to be one of the “dirtiest” trees in existence, dropping leaves, long rolls of bark and branches from June onwards each year until autumn’s deciduous routine cleans the tree for the winter.

I was absolutely exhausted and spent a goodly part of the evening dozing in my chair. Jim and I came upstairs to snuggle after the Gaia Meditation and said good night about midnight.

2006-08-11

The day dawned moody and lowering, so after Morning Offering, Jim and Gary got going at top speed to see if they could beat the rain, which was slated by forecasters to roll in at any time. In the event, they gloriously succeeded and came back for a late lunch, damp and delighted, all their mowing done.

Meanwhile I re-read and adjusted a good bit of the text in the science section and gotten on to starting the discussion of free will in Chapter One of The Choice 101.

Jim and I stretched and enjoyed the luxury of lunching together about 1:30. Then Gary, Jim and I all headed out on errands. Gary went off to get groceries; Jim had special diet cat food and pond maintenance on his mind and I had to go to the Driver’s License Bureau and the Social Security Administration office to drop off the finished name change documents from the court before going to Dr. June’s office for labs.

What a debacle of a run I had! The License Bureau said they did not need this document since my license is already under my right name. They suggested I take it to the county clerk, which I did. They did not need it either, since my car is titled under my right name. They suggested I take the document and have it appended to my deed for Camelot. I believe I shall encourage my lawyer to do that!

Then I went to the Social Security office, getting there just in time to see the lady inside, locking the door. “I just need to drop this off,” I said to her. “Come back when we are open,” she replied.

I proceeded to Dr. June’s office, where they drilled for blood, getting lucky on the third stick.

There had been accidents everywhere with the pounding rain, which had begun to fall in earnest at last during my trip. Again I fell into an ecstasy as I drove slowly homeward.

I had also done so earlier, during Jim’s and my stretching exercise. Since it was happening at that time, I linked hands with Jim to see if he could feel any of the energy that was pouring through me. He said he only felt great peace, not the surging perfection I was experiencing, but that it was still a remarkable experience. It has often troubled me that I cannot transfer this experience of certainty that all is well and perfect to anyone else. It is such a powerful experience! I want to share it with the world but I cannot.

My errands done, sort of, I changed clothes and gardened, weeding along the lilies on the south side of the garage and removing enough debris to uncover the opening corner of the beautiful stone work Jim did that defines the lily bed.

Our evening was spent in the most delicious relaxation. Eschewing TV and other entertainment, Jim and I were in a talking mood, so we just enjoyed ideas and each other, had a late supper and offered the Gaia Meditation, with Jim offering the prayer.

I have been half-fasting, keeping food very light and lightening up also on the alcohol intake, going from three times per week to one or two until I feel better. I am beginning to see a good difference but I have not corralled the flare-up yet.

This is the kind of health disturbance which doctors are pitifully bad at diagnosing or treating, as the transverse colon, which is where my woes are, is impossible to view without surgery, being too far down to explore from the top of the pipeline and too far up to explore from its nether end at the anus. So doctors tend to tell me, and people like me, that it is all in their minds. Piffle!

Whatever food particles have been caught there need to be removed, but regular laxatives do not work. What has worked in the past is the fasting, plus colonics, plus removing known allergens from the diet until the body is back in balance.

I wonder about how to write concerning this need to get to know your own body well enough to take responsibility for your wellness yourself. Doctors can do so little for so many common maladies! It is so important to get a grip and do things for yourself.

Sedgie, our nine-year-old cat who now has a diagnosis of cancer, also is having trouble eating today. He has had a good run with the alternative medications we have been giving him, but I believe the cancer may have begun to eliminate his eating ability. However he is still purring hugely and making a beeline for our laps whenever we light somewhere, so we know he still wants to be with us. What a blessing he is! Loose-limbed, a Siamese look-alike with big blue eyes, his devotion and affection swaddle us in love.

We all basked and enjoyed the Friday night glow and sought sleep around midnight.

2006-08-10

After Jim’s and my Morning Offering was made, Jim put on his Jim’s Lawn service cap and went to dance with the nature devas as he groomed various large lawns. I spent the morning working through the part of Chapter One in The Choice 101 where I talk about the unity of all of creation as seen through the lens of science. Since I am not a scientist, writing about the flow of history in science is a challenge.

To make sure that all my facts are in order and also to encourage Bear to finish a written discussion of his refinements upon Dewey Larson’s Reciprocal System of Physics, which I had hoped to include in that section, I sent that part of the chapter’s text to Bear out west. It is great to have good advisors, and Bear is a scientist who will set me straight if I have said anything amiss. In the process of the rewrite I got into string theory web sites and declare them an adventure to visit!

It has always struck and thrilled me to see that no matter into which discipline of knowledge you explore, you learn enough quite quickly to see that not only are the core elements of the study wonderful but also the discipline opens like a flower and each petal is more seductively interesting than the one before it. In a way I still miss the exploration of new things at school with a good teacher to talk with. Self-education does not have the same punch as that reading and discussion routine.

After lunch I cleared my desk all the rest of the way, having found yet another pile placed in an unexpected area of the upstairs office. I am very glad we recently got an official Inbox for snail mail up here, because now I imagine the mail will always come to one place. Unless some mail has been delivered to my supply closet, I think I finally got it all!

Then I did some e-mail, just skimming the surface of a bad backlog. Firstly, Ian had asked for some text which goes with the order form. We have a Free Book Policy. People can write in, explain why they have no money, and ask for any of our books. We will send that book to them, free.

Of course the contents of the books are also free on the internet but the elderly and prisoners often do not have access, either because they are prohibited from using computers or because they do not know how. We do not send out more than one book at a time because prisoners have, in the past, gotten the free material only to trade for items they wanted. Sending out expensive printed material so an inmate can have cigarettes does not come within our non-profit purposes! I fished out the actual written policy from Gary’s computer, which used to be mine and upon which I had written that policy years ago, and sent it to him so it can be clicked-upon, on the finished, newly revised, on-line order form, if a surfer wants to see it.

I wrote Aaron, who will be talking with me over Labor Day Weekend about web site work. She finally explained to me why I never heard “It’s Hard Out There For A Pimp” when I saw the movie, Crash. It turns out that song is from Hustle and Flow, which I just got confused with Crash because the themes of the two films are similar and they were released the same year and up for the same Oscar year.

I wrote Carmen, who was a participant in the Rangers Gathering at Avalon last year, letting her know that we have new rules for those who wish to volunteer for L/L Research, in that we are no longer offering volunteer slots in our home, having not found that a good way to support volunteers or have them support L/L Research. From now on we will require people who volunteer to support themselves financially.

At 3:30 I left a sunny Anchorage to drive over to Crescent Hill, about twenty miles towards Louisville, and by the time I arrived the heavens were sobbing furiously and with much windy vigor. I got so soaked! Fortunately I was there for a mini-facial as well as a haircut and was able to dry my sopping garments while I enjoyed getting my face restored to non-itchy-ness, a marvelous luxury.

Louisville is not a town used to severe weather and it took me an hour to get home. And if you think a little heavy rain discombobulates southerners, you should see us with snow! Oh my! I believe it can safely be said that southerners are bad foul-weather drivers. What to do? Panic! But it was a beautiful world out there, letting my idling engine pull me along in the vast parking lot of the interstate. The rain was coming down and bouncing back up about three feet while the wind was driving the sparkling, glinting curtain of bounce-back drops almost horizontally. Every few seconds lightning would flash across the viewscreen. It was eerie and sensually riveting. I was so glad to be alive and fell into a state of ecstasy, there in my little silver car, as I watched the Creator express Itself. I felt I was part of a poem.

Melissa reported, after I got back from the salon, that all her efforts to get us logged in properly to Amazon Advantage’s vendor software had failed. As she is leaving us at the end of the month, she very much wanted to help Mick get this snag worked through. Bless her for her extraordinary efforts on our behalf! I cannot even know the hours she has put in on this and other L/L Research projects because she often works on them at her home. Kudos to Melissa!

Jim had managed to get all his lawns cut and even do extra work for one of his customers spreading more mulch before the rains hit. Apparently the huge storm did not arrive this far east. So he and I were both happy in the bath and enjoyed a pleasant and leisurely evening, saying good night around 11 PM.

2006-08-09

Melissa and Gary were both working hard for L/L Research this morning. Gary was working his way through the generously endowed Inbox while Melissa was keeping the books and working on her special projects to leave the household with protocol sheets for her replacement.

It was raining on and off today but Jim was able to get his mowing done before things got too wet. Meanwhile I spent the morning, after we shared Morning Offering, writing the column for UPI which finishes the ten-part series on the chakras. It had a good feel to it. I really feel it will be a good introduction to the Homecoming topics this fall. That Gathering is not very far off, actually, just three weeks!

Gary started organizing the supporting quotes for the Homecoming curriculum packet as well and came home from his errands with colored printer paper, so that each chakra’s material will be printed on the corresponding tint of paper. Now that is one easy way to find your place during the discussions! We will have a lot of colored paper left over after the Homecoming, but that’s OK! We’ll consider that computer stationery!

In the afternoon I had a planning meeting with Melissa, who is actively engaged now in finding a replacement for herself as she is leaving over Labor Day to go back out west for a while. Then I tackled my upstairs Inbox, hoping to cut a swathe through that. However I was only able to take the single highest priority e-mail and deal with that.

Ian had requested that I rewrite the copy associated with our on-line order form, which I did, re-doing both the order form text and the projects descriptions, where we describe L/L Research creative projects which are as yet unfinished. I got that copy off to Ian as Melissa came up for another discussion, which took me to bath time. This was good timing, since she needed the discussion and I could not garden in the wet anyway, so it was a good use of time.

Jim reported that he had stayed fairly dry, doing his afternoon’s work of placing mulch in a large, very shady front yard. He must have placed a lot of it. He told me it was three yards, whatever that means! The customer was thrilled and has ordered four more yards’ worth of mulch to finish out her back yard, Jim said.

Jim had another go at Amazon Advantage after our bath, but whatever glitch has fouled their vendor order process is still in place. However they have a patch for those who are unable to get their orders and Jim used that to get a big new order printed out and filled for Amazon instead of watching our usual TV and relaxing.

He was also waiting on a call from a lawn man who may buy Jim’s snow blade and leaf collector, two units for Jim’s big mower which he has found his customers do not request enough for it to make sense for him to keep the equipment. So we stayed downstairs to catch that call, which never came in and I worked on Papa’s letters and finished the New York Times puzzles Romi had brought over for me yesterday from their Sunday Magazine, knowing how I love those puzzles, especially the crostics.

A late supper and the Gaia Meditation brought our evening to a close and we said good night after a romantic snuggle around 11:30 PM.

2006-08-08

Jim headed out after Morning Offering into a much cooler environment, probably twenty degrees cooler than yesterday, though still quite humid. I worked for the morning on The Choice 101, chapter one, portion concerning science and mystical unity. I was working on string theories by lunch! Jim actually was able to come home for that, so we were able to stretch together too. Both the company and the mat exercises are a real treat.

After lunch I took on the material again and worked it through to its end for the first time. I am still not entirely pleased with it and feel I can profitably do an improved version day after tomorrow– I have the UPI article to write tomorrow.

Before gardening I had time to clear my desk almost down to all the wood – a couple of thank you notes are all that remain for me to complete before the desk is totally clear. Now for the backed-up e-mail, some of which has been waiting for weeks!

For my outdoor work today I focused on the lilies at the south side of our garage. In de-caning them I had noticed wild grapevine surging up through the lilies’ generous leaves. At one time, 30 years ago, the residents here had a grape arbor. It was neglected before they left and it had rambled all over the place in the back yard. We have been trimming it back out ever since. I got about half-done with that project and shall hope to return soon to clean the bed up the rest of the way.

We also had a visit from the local power company, which wishes to cut down a black walnut tree on our border to the north. We gave them permission for our half of the trunk! They shall need to ask our neighbors for permission also, as half the trunk is on their property.

In the evening we relaxed and enjoyed a visit from Romi. Gary was back from Cracker Barrel’s training and admin time at the L/L desk also, and we four had a most pleasant evening. Gary offered the ending prayer at the Gaia Meditation.

Romi most kindly offered to help cook ahead for the Homecoming and was glad to hear that we will not cook, but rather visit local restaurants once a day for a full meal, then enjoy cereal and other normal non-cooked breakfast supplies and luncheon sandwiches here at Camelot during the days. He thought that sounded good. It worked well last winter at the Archetypes Gathering and I suspect it will do the trick again over Labor Day weekend’s gathering.

Jim and I had a late snuggle with the cats before seeking our beds around 11:30 PM.

2006-08-07

After Morning Offering, Jim dove into the summer sauna of the day to mow and garden and I had the pleasure of spending the morning surrounded with clouds of papers, choosing the quotes I will use for Chapter One of The Choice 101. I am a strange figure, sitting in my office murmuring to myself the story I am telling in this section, then that section, coming to a sense of how I will write this; how the material needs to flow. It works for me, I think!

Jim surprised us both by stopping by for lunch! What a treat, as we stretch together when he is home at midday, which is good for us both. And it was good to see his dear face.

In the afternoon I worked on writing the first of the six sections I have chosen to divide the first chapter into. It came out on target as far as length. The mystical unity of all things as seen by religion has now been discussed!

I had just enough time before gardening to go after my suddenly crowded desk. Gary had put a batch of my mail in an alternate place not designed by me to be my Inbox up here in the bower office, so it was lost for, oh, about a month! There was a sweet packet from Pu and Peter in Britain containing a chakra scarf in the seven rainbow colors and a collection of wonderful birthday cards from friends.

I wrote thank you notes and otherwise cleared the desk, then sorted out cards and letters to go downstairs to mail or to archive – we keep all L/L Research mail for several years just in case someone writes with a problem, and also in case we are audited by the IRS, as has happened three times in our history since 1980. It is always good to be able to pull out great big cartons of mail from all over the world when they ask us if we do much business.

I must confess I have previously enjoyed watching the auditor’s face when we get out the big boxes of recent orders and letters. The expression goes from frankly suspicious to quietly resigned, but much more friendly. We obviously do have a non-profit company which is active.

Out into the yard I plunged, after hanging my pretty new cards on the office doorway for eye candy, for a brief weeding spate before our bath. I found one last stand of lily canes in the Wuthering Heights stone garden and got those pulled. Now I believe the yard is free of canes, except the little dogies that were not ready to come up yet. We’ll get those in a couple of weeks, when this hot, dry, August sun has loosened the earth’s hold on them.

Jim spent his usual relaxation time dealing with health insurance matters and then with packing up the rest of the Amazon Advantage orders which had come in while their many glitches kept Mick from accessing their site. Apparently so many vendors were unable to access their orders from Amazon that Amazon set up a special path for them to use while they repair the glitch. Was Jim grateful for that! He has now sent out all ten of those back orders. I hope Amazon gets their software bug-free soon, as this has been a trial for the technically challenged Mick.

On the other hand, Mick likes to retain this job of sending out the book orders, as it makes him feel that he is still working directly for L/L Research. He has to content himself with mowing lawns and paying the bills so I can work full-time for L/L Research, which is altruistic but personally challenging.

He was used to working full-time for L/L himself for over twenty years, so it has been a real process for him to release feelings of being left out of the fun, out there mowing away. It is a huge sacrifice, but it was needed, as we were unable to meet our bills with the trust which Don left us after about 2000. I imagine a good many older people, depending on the income from saved funds to pay the bills, have found it necessary, as we have, to go to work late in life to pay the bills. As Jim says from time to time, welcome to 3-D!

I was not well today and, sadly, neither was our gentleman pussycat, Sedgwick. He was not able to eat all day. Three months ago or so, our vet wanted to put Sedge down because he had been diagnosed with a mortal cancer. He said Sedgie would not last more than 2 to 4 weeks. So we feel very lucky that we have had three months more of Sedge’s devotion, purrs, antics and company. He has not seemed to be in pain or even to be uncomfortable until today. He and I do seem to be moving along the same lines of tummy woes, a striking coincidence. I have the perhaps foolish fancy that Sedgie is helping me get through whatever is wrong with my tummy by his illness. I am probably quite wrong there. It is, however, a peculiar coincidence.

We spent the late evening, after supper and the Gaia Meditation, patting kitties and talking about the arrangements in the house for the upcoming Homecoming. We said a most fond good night about 11 PM.

2006-08-06

It was a lovely, though blistering, Sabbath. I sang the service and then did choir duty at the al fresco reception, offering my home-baked cookies and lemonade to the congregation for the second week. The congregation appreciates the home-made treats and the choir is getting good publicity, which is a nice thing I can do for the home team. Doug M. has been doing this duty with me for three weeks now and we talked about keeping it going until the end of summer.

After that was accomplished, Jim and I had a most restful afternoon of movies, watching a trio of them here at home. Then Gary, Jim and I gathered for a planning meeting on the new order form list and also on the Homecoming. We offer suggested donations on our order form for the books and tapes, plus shipping and handling, and we have intended to change all of those prices for some time, as our costs of production have substantially increased. We got that ironed out: we will suggest a $3.00 handling charge, plus $1.00 per book. At some combinations, we lose a little and at some, we gain a little, but that formula stays very close to our actual cost, all told. So we decided to go with that.

Gary presented to Jim the proposal he and I had put together yesterday for having the Homecoming here. At first Jim still preferred having the meeting somewhere that wasn’t our home, but in the end he saw the many advantages of doing the weekend right here at Camelot. So we shall move ahead with that plan. The Homecomings always turn out to be most delightful times, with just the right people inspired to join together. I look forward to it.

We ended the day watching another movie! Gary offered the ending prayer at the Gaia Meditation and then we sought our beds, saying good night around 11 PM.

I continued feeling peaked. I am considering a juice fast and cleansing routine to help my system tune itself up.

2006-08-05

Saturdays are special to me because I give myself permission to work on things I do not do during the work week. After Morning Offering I went downstairs to the basement to organize presents that had come in from two wonderful catalog sales at the Smithsonian and Levenger and to wrap them. This took me all day, with a delightful break at lunch where Jim and I went out and did our various errands together, the usual mix of groceries, pharmacy, health food store and Hallmark store, with a maintenance run to Louisville tractor for Jim, as one of his mowers was ready to pick up after some repairs.

Jim had cooked before lunch. Afterwards he went to the nursery to find more arbor vitae trees to block the ongoing shenanigans of our neighbors to the south. They created for themselves a two-car garage on the opposite side of their house to us, but they use the gravel path they have dumped over the grass right next to our yard instead for their parking. It is unconscionable of them to abuse our kindness like this, but we shall try the privacy hedge and see if that will reduce the noise and disturbance sufficiently so that we do not have to take legal action.

Meanwhile I went back to wrapping and by gardening time had gotten a good bit done. However I am not finished, which is not surprising, given that most of the Christmas list is filled with really nice gifts which have been ordered, thanks to these excellent sales. It’s OK not to finish yet – Christmas is still a bit of a ways off! But I promise you, I love to get that last gift wrapped, no matter how early that is. Then I know I can relax and enjoy the season without hassle when Christmas rolls around!

Out in the garden, I played tag with the sprinkler, collecting day-lily canes all over the back yard. Jim waters the whole yard a couple of times a week when it starts getting dry in August, which it normally does. Fortunately for that plan, we have unlimited water from the Ohio at an inexpensive cost. I can now say that all the lily canes that are ready to come up are harvested! I shall need to go back over the yard in a couple of weeks and pull the ones that are still holding on.

I was amazed to note just how extensive are the wild rambling rose’s and the wild grapevine’s incursions into the plantings along Little Locust and the garage lilies. Weeding those out will be my next target, since the vines are so large.

Gary and I had a planning meeting today to re-envision the placement of the Homecoming for 2006 over Labor Day. We have a dozen or so people signed up as of now, and The Executive Inn plans were for 30 to 50 people. So we made a whole new plan and moved the venue to Camelot, where we have had all previous Homecomings – Wooded Glen, last year, was our first foray out into the world.

We will be doing a lot of discussing, and so Gary and I went around the yard identifying places to meet, for we will be breaking into two groups to discuss each chakra, then getting back together to wind up the discussion of each chakra as a group. We found three nice places outside: the gazebo, the arbor and the back yard itself with chairs set out, as well as two places inside: the kitchen area and the living room.

The change of venue saves the participants the cost of the hotel and I think food will be cheaper for the group also than if we were to eat three meals a day at the hotel restaurant. And I think there is a lot of good energy here at Camelot which the participants will enjoy.

Gary said he would send out a letter to all participants on this matter by tomorrow. I think it is a good change. There’s something special about meeting in a home as opposed to a hotel. I am glad we have a small enough group to do this.

Jim finished catching up on the backlog of Amazon orders and cleaned the kitchen while I wrapped some more presents and then we had supper and the Gaia Meditation before heading upstairs for a late night snuggle, saying good night around midnight.

2006-08-04

It was a relief to discover that the “cold front” which had petered out and given us no rain yesterday nevertheless offered us lower heat and humidity today. Indeed, for the first part of the day, it was absolutely perfect, in the seventies and full of sweet sunshine. Jim and Gary went a-mowing after our Morning Offering and I worked with the recipes Jim had chosen from my data base which were not yet in the proper format and got them looking good.

Then I came upstairs to address the 101 Introduction. By lunchtime I had finished the first rough draft of it! I am pleased that the writing is going so smoothly.

I was able to share lunch with Mick and Gary and stretch with Mick before they left again, Jim, to do maintenance on his mowers and Gary, to head out for shopping for our food for next week. I devoted the largest part of the afternoon to editing the speech I gave at Wooded Glen last year on the higher chakras. I am glad to get that done, as the Homecoming topic this year again has to do with the use of the chakras in working with the seeking process. It is good that people can refer to everything we have done previously on the chakras up on site.

It is my vague recollection that I did give one more talk on the blue and indigo rays at Wooded Glen last year, but that it was not recorded, so I believe all the material we have on the chakras from Wooded Glen is up on site, now.

I got an e-mail request from UPI for a photo to head my column. I tried to make an appointment with Craig P. for that but his e-mail address must have changed in the five years since he took my picture, so I shall go by his place tomorrow. It is only a block away, here in Anchorage. UPI wants a color shot. I imagine I will want a black and white head shot for the upcoming books, A Book of Days and the 2005 Annual of our channelings. So I shall arrange to have both versions done. Perhaps he can make one image into both color and black and white versions.

I sent the Preface and the Introduction off to Bill H, just to be sure I was on track with our plans – Bill is the fellow who encouraged me to write this series of Choice books, 101 through 103. I also sent the material off to Gary, who is my second pair of eyes on this material, watching out that my writing is very clear.

I sent the Wooded Glen speech on the higher chakras off to our web guy and headed out into the garden for some weeding. For some reason I was very dizzy and kept trying to fall over! I will bet, if I did the research I would find that I am having a “double critical” day on my bio-rhythms. However I persevered and removed canes from all of the side yard to the north by the large fishpond. I still have the back yard to go in collecting those stalks of the day-lilies whose glory has been spent for this year.

Jim came home after doing a bunch of errands, including buying more arbor vitae trees to protect us from our neighbors to the south, who have built a driveway directly by our living room windows, and a half-dozen day-lily plants to fill in around the base of our sycamore tree. He also watered the whole yard, for the first time this year. Draughty conditions seem to be prevailing.

After our bath I read in Papa’s teaching letters while Jim dealt on-line with Amazon’s “Advantage” vendor program which has balled up completely since they “improved” it. Apparently so many of their customers were unable to process their orders from Amazon that the Amazon crew had to create a whole new way for the unfortunate vendors to get their orders. Jim got all of the half-dozen orders, some of them quite large, printed out, finally, and filled before Romi came over.

Normally Romi stays at our house most of each Sunday. From September through May, he is used to visiting with us all afternoon and into the evening. This summer, Jim and I have been hiving in on Sundays and catching up on movies, none of which we see during the rest of the year. Romi has not been able to visit. So Mick and I invited Romi for a social evening of pizza and the Friday block of Stargate, which he enjoys, as do we. We enjoyed each others’ company until 11 PM and then bade Ro a good night. After a snuggle with the kitty cats, Jim and I sought our sleep around midnight.