2007-07-30

The beep-beep-beep of heavy equipment backing up accompanied my awakening. The utilities company which is putting sewers into our little hamlet starts at dawn. I wonder if they ever go forward! This noise lasted all day, and Hazelwood, the road we generally take to leave the village of Anchorage, was blocked. Have I noted that the citizens worked hard to reject the sewers? The government steam-rollered us into accepting them by threatening legal action.

Ah well. We are rendering unto Caesar big-time.

I cleared my desk in the office after Morning Offering. I wrote some thank-you notes to birthday givers, filed papers and inserted periodicals which our Library archives into their binders. Then I worked a bit on my “Inner Shift” speech for our L/L Research Gathering at Mackinac Island.

At lunchtime I went up to Middletown to have my blood drawn for Dr. June at LabCorp. The technician there, Vickie, does a great job of finding a vein the first time she sticks me and I am most grateful for that! I also went a couple of places looking for salt tablets for Mick, as in this oppressive heat, he loses so much body fluid sweating that all the water in the world will not replace the missing electrolytes. They do not make these simple tablets any more. I suppose there is danger of overdosing on them.

So I brought him home some “Fierce”, a Gatorade product intended to replace the salts needed to balance electrolytes. I asked Mick to try pouring one quart of the Fierce into his water jug before he finishes filling it – it holds a gallon – and see if that does the job. Here’s hoping! Mick drinks up to three gallons of water a day in this heat! And he still loses body weight by evening. Working outdoors is his choice, and he never wanted to work in an office, so he figures he is just paying dues. I hope the Fierce-water helps him feel much more comfortable.

I spent the afternoon working on Chapter 7 of 101. Working with the complicated and puzzling bit of information from the material on the “ninety-degree phase shift” that takes place within the heart chakra, I hit on the image from the Harry Potter films of going from space/time – the train station – to time/space – track number nine-and-three-quarters. I think that will render the concept accessible to anyone who has seen these movies, which includes most younger people.

Gary worked all afternoon on getting the Minutes of our Board meeting last Wednesday transcribed and put into a good form. It was a big job and needed to be done quickly, as we still have one item of business to include in the final Minutes. I neglected to put the ratification of the new By-Laws on the agenda. I feel most sheepish about that! So we’ll get the present Minutes to all the members and ask that they ratify the By-Laws by return e-mail.

Mick and I had a lovely bath and then a wonderfully energizing energy exchange, so in synch with each other that we could both visualize the current of energy that linked our energy bodies during sexual play and made them, literally, one system. We could feel our “batteries” receive their full charge, and still the energy kept coming, as we radiated the excess out into the world with total love and awareness of the sacredness of our union.

It was the night for a block of Star Trek Enterprise, so we enjoyed supper and the Gaia Meditation, with Mick praying at the end, while taking in the adventures of Captain Archer and his crew. We turned out the lights at 11 PM.

2007-07-29

Jim and I slept in, not officially arising until 8:30, although I was wakeful and cheated that late rising time by writing my Camelot Journal entry for yesterday and working on the Sunday crossword and double-crostic puzzles before waking up Mick.

We had our usual division of cleanliness and godliness for the morning’s activity. Jim got the house all shipshape while I sang the service at St. Luke’s. I wore one of my new dresses – new to me! – and felt so pretty! St. Luke’s is looking good too, after a solid two weeks of moving offices and cleaning and painting the old spaces for new uses in undercroft and Parish House. We sang a sweet anthem, “Remember Me” by Cesar Frank and a long version of “Dona Nobis Pacem”, sung as a round, lifted us up at Communion. The choir was thin this morning, at vacation time, with a tidy three on each part. It worked just fine.I like singing in smaller ensembles, where everyone can offer their special vocal gifts and make their unique contributions.

Mick popped in the film, “Miss Potter” with our luncheon and we were charmed and delighted by the sensitively done film. Renee Zellweiger was enchanting as Beatrix Potter. I grew up on Benjamin Bunny, Peter Rabbit and all the other beautifully drawn characters from her children’s books, so it was nostalgic for me. It was a wonderful movie. I was especially impressed with how Miss Potter actually used her earnings from book sales: she bought and donated to Britain’s Land Trust over 4,000 acres of unspoilt land, saving green space long before it occurred to most people what terrible blights occur when commerce is allowed to “develop” acreage for profit.

Mick took a break to fill out the application forms for the Kentucky Senior Games trials, which will be held this year in Ashland, Kentucky over the weekend of September 16th. He will again try for a place in pole vaulting. He held the Nebraska state school record for 12 years after he cleared 12 feet and some serious change during his high school career in Lexington, Nebraska and has always loved that sport.

Oddly enough, he shall have to vault without practice, as U of L will not allow him to practice there for insurance reasons, and all our high schools locally have forsaken the sport as it costs too much to build the needed practice pits. He says he is practicing in his mind. Jim had a powerful will and a strongly single-minded character and I would guess he is going to do very well with this unorthodox preparation!

Our second film of the afternoon was “Pride”, a film based on the true story of Jim Ellis, who turned things around for Philadelphia’s poorest young people in the 1970s when he created a swim team for his “Philadelphia Department of Parks” kids. Access to the park's pool made it possible, and the city, which had intended to tear down the community center, chose after his success with the kids there to maintain it, him and the swim team. Terrence Howard and Bernie Mac offered nuanced, finely drawn characterizations to head a marvelous ensemble. A great sound track backed impeccable production values, although I did think the costuming got a bit arty at times. That happens when a designer is so conscious of color values that the whole assemblage of a crowd scene is garbed in tones of one color. Two dozen kids just don’t show up all dressed in shades of orange, sorry! Except for that small defect the film was grand, heartwarming and powerful in its unassuming way. Jim Ellis could be the subject of one of my Difference Makers columns. I loved the film.

Again we paused. Mick wanted to go to the grocery for some needed supplies, and I gladly added some items to his list, so I can cook ahead during odd moments this week in readiness for next Saturday’s picnic on Avalon. I decided to make a yellow cake with vanilla icing and use blueberries and strawberries on top to make a festive, edible design, plus some baked beans with molasses (Yum!) and stuffed eggs. Carmen tends to bring watermelon to a cookout. We shall also take up burger patties to cook over the fire pit, and marshmallows to roast. Melissa will take everyone on a hike over the trails she has reconditioned along Avalon Farm’s sweet acres.

I whiled away the time while Mick was shopping by finishing a Georgette Heyer Regency romance, a delightful way to spend leisure time for me, as I love romances, especially those framed against the backdrop of Regency Britain. And Heyer is my favorite author in that specialized sub-genre. What a treat!

We started to watch Mel Gibson’s “Apocalypto” but after about 40 minutes I begged off on watching more. I can take an amazing amount of violence when viewing a film if there is some justification for it. But when there is nothing but vulgarity, scatology and violence to meet the eye over that long a time, my patience runs out. I became incurious as to whether Gibson had written anything later in the film worth the drudgery of watching the constant toxic testosterone binge of his screenplay! So we turned that off and found some enjoyable TV to watch, including a Link TV special on folk music. Link TV has so many fine programs! If you have access to a satellite dish, which is how we came to be able to watch Link, by all means check out their programming.

Other than doing a tad of e-mail, keeping up with responses from Michele M on our book cover for Book of Days, my brother Jim on finding Mom’s missing journal pages from back in the ‘80s and Barbara B on editing the “Aaron/Q’uo Dialogues”, today was a completely leisure-time day.

We had such a good rest and a good time! It was lovely to note Jim’s improvements to our plantings in front and back gardens, which he planted yesterday. We still need to do a great deal of weeding to spiff up the garden before Homecoming. Mick assured me that while Gary and I are away at Mackinac Island, he will tackle the majority of the clean-up.

I offered the closing prayer at the Gaia Meditation and we turned out the lights at 11 PM.

2007-07-28

The day dawned overcast. It had rained overnight and the earth looked much refreshed by the good, soaking rains. We are still some five inches below normal rainfall for this region, but the small rains do help keep things alive.

After Morning Offering, Jim got a turkey roasting and then headed out for a long round of Saturday morning errands while I caught up my e-mail, writing responses to letters that had piled up during the week.

My brother, Jim, was looking for some pages from a journal our mother kept while traveling some years ago – she passed into larger life in 1991 – and after a search of the family archives I had to report no joy. I hope our brother, Tommy, the third of the Anderson-Rueckert siblings, kept a copy. I know I archived that journal somewhere but I certainly could not fish it out!

Barbara B and I made a new protocol for editing the Aaron/Q’uo Dialogues. She wants to edit Aaron’s part, now that her eyes are better. So from now on when I finish editing Q’uo’s part of the sessions, I will ship them to her for her edit of Aaron’s words. She will then send the finished edit to our web guy, who is compiling the sessions into a manuscript.

John P wrote about money, politics and being a wanderer. I met him by telephone in 2005 in Britain. He wanted to have a channeling but we never did get together. Occasionally, he shares from the heart about the pain of living and its glory.

David T wrote with a wonderful story about how, when he and his family found The Law Of One, Book One, they sat down and read it aloud to each other – all the way through! He said they all marked it as a life-changing event. That’s very inspiring!

Rick C wrote with his Maine report: a dove flew into his French windows and, dazed, was unable to flee from a predator. It really upset him. And this is the second time it has happened to him. Two years ago, a junco bird crashed into the same windows and was nabbed by a predator too. I recommended to him that he do what Jim and I have done with our French windows that look out on the back garden. We have, through the years, found pretty pieces of stained-glass art work to hang in the middle of the space on each window, to give birds the hint that this is not air but glass.

And I answered two notes from MJA about Dana Redfield.

I joined Melissa and Mick for lunch and then Melissa reported on Avalon Farm doings. We are striking out on easy ways to bring electric power to the acreage, as it is two to three thousand feet from the nearest pole, depending on which way you bring it on to the property.

And the water people will probably not be able to supply us with water. We shall need to work with a cistern, or a well, in order to create a water supply.

Neither the electric nor the water company wants to supply utilities without there being a construction permit already given. and we may be five years from planning to build. So for the present, we’re stymied. We shall need to think on the need for water! A well? A cistern? Rain barrels? Hamm.

I spent my afternoon working on Chapter 7 and after satisfying myself with the first six pages, wrote six pages more. This sounds like fast progress, but there is a hitch. I write the content by inspiration and guidance. Then I need to take the writing apart, sentence by sentence, and make sure that it is easy to follow, on a single thought-track and written simply. In that second part of the writing, I go over and over the original text until I am satisfied. That’s what slows me down! However I do think it has to be this way in order for me to create the book I wish to offer the average Joe and Molly. That new six pages will morph into nine or ten before I am through, I imagine.

Carmen had come over in the early afternoon to volunteer some time weeding in the garden, and she joined us for pizza and Jackie Chan’s “Shanghai Knights”, a funny film that was showing on TV. Jim offered the ending prayer at the Gaia Meditation. He cleaned the kitchen while we ladies finished watching the movie and then we bade Carmen a good night and took ourselves upstairs for a final snuggle with the cats before lights out at midnight.a

2007-07-27

What a special day for me! I worked on my Mackinac Island speech on Inner Shift in the morning. I think this L/L Gathering will be unique! the speech is forming up in a very organic way.

And then Melissa and I went to Liu’s Garden for lunch and, thereafter, consignment clothes shopping at Sugarbaker’s. The shop was having a clearance sale and I found several pretty dresses, so now I can go in to dinner at the Grand Hotel dressed very nicely each night I am there. I also found a little black jacket for carrying with these summer dresses, in case of drafts.

Meanwhile Mick and Gary had a short mowing day due to the draught conditions here. Gary went on to complete his cooking for next week while Mick maintained his equipment for the week.

Jim had a pleasant afternoon clearing a yard for a customer and then clearing boxes from St. Luke’s where they are moving offices. Now the pre-school office will be where the parish offices were, the youth group will take over the undercroft where the choir was and the parish offices and choir will move to the Hoge House, a formerly private dwelling belonging to Mayor Hoge, now deceased. Jim also cleared construction materials from the play area for the pre-school, where volunteers had finished the erection of a new playground construction for the pre-school day care center there.

Melissa did town chores and most kindly shortened the straps of one of my new dresses, where they were too long for my torso and threw off the lines of the dress, while Mick and I bathed and then had a date. We three came together again for dinner, the Gaia Meditation and a viewing of Harrison Ford’s “Clear and Present Danger” on TV. It was good watching for a lazy Friday night, though both Mick and I snoozed through parts of it. Mick and I said good night to Melissa at 10 and patted the kitties until our own bedtime at 11:30.

2007-07-26

The Rose of Sharon hedge across the front of Camelot’s front garden is in full bloom now, the pink and white blossoms nodding in the slight summer breeze as I retrieved the newspaper this morning. It is the heart of summer and this year it is dusty and parched. Jim has the sprinkler going daily. Fortunately the Ohio River is near and assures we never have a shortge of water. We’re praying for rain later in the week. It is ironic to be so dry when parts of the country, usually dry, are drowning in too much rain.

After Morning Offering, Mick engaged with his day of gardening, clearing and mowing. In the morning I worked on my Inner Shift speech for Mackinac Island, selecting the songs to share while making various points.

Mick was able to have lunch at home with me and we enjoyed that. We would have done our stretches, but we received an impromptu visit from Hoppy R, a man who trained as a channel with me back in 1974. It was good to see our old friend. Mick left for his afternoon of mowing while Hoppy (his real name is James but his nickname rules) and I continued our conversation. It is good to see Hops looking so good. He is carpentering these days and has a healthy tan to prove that some of it is outdoor work.

He also is head of the Brotherhood of Eternal Truth, a non-sectarian, Spiritualist church, and still uses his channeling skills in a sacred setting as well as his honed psychic skills. He gives a very good psychic reading. However he says he does not do that too much these days, as people get so dependent on more and more readings. He imagines he will take that up again when he retires, for it is a good income stream and offers a service to others.

In the afternoon, I intended to work on Chapter 7 of 101 and did manage about an hour of work there, but wonderful news precipitated much other activity. The Book of Days cover was waiting for me when I got back to my computer. It is simply stunning! I can just see it making a handsome book and a good match for A Wanderer’s Handbook in looks. Ian and Michele were able to have the rays of light radiating out from the juncture of the cross extend across the back cover, a very stylish effect. That is the last detail! Now we are ready to publish.

So I gathered all the information about blitzprint.com which Gary needed to complete the paperwork – I have never been involved in said paperwork and so am quite at a loss as to how to proceed – and sent it to his computer. It is his day off today but I am hoping he will be able to send the order to print off tomorrow! Whee!!

I had let Morris H, one of our Board members and a Matching Funds sponsor for this printing project, know of the book’s being ready to go and he asked by return e-mail if we had the funds to cover the cost, which is $5366. I went to our financials computer and looked up our L/L balance and we had $5353, almost exactly what was needed. However if we pay the whole bill, we will be broke.

Our sin is robbing the printing funds to pay staff salaries. I let Morris know of our shortage of funds and also let the new Development Committee members know. This is way earlier than I had planned to use the fund-raising committee’s expertise, but then who could predict that after a year of delays, this project would suddenly come to a conclusion? I am sure Morris will send a donation to place us in the black. The Committee members will also respond with plns for fund-raising, I am sure. We shall need to do an operational funds campaign. Now that the Board has okayed the position of Avalon Caretaker, we will add the stipend for that job to our other two staff members’ fees.

I also wrote Teri and Bob Brown, who run the International UFO Convention each year. Generally they hold it in Laughlin, NV, and always in a casino. I would really like to speak there this next February and just hope that they have some speaking slots left open. I asked for two slots, one for talking about how channeling fits in to the UFO picture and one on the current messages about the shift, with an emphasis on the metaphysical side of that discussion. I imagine plenty of others will be talking about the physical and scientific side of 2012.

Dianne S sent me one of the most charming two minutes of video ever – two otters are floating on their backs in the water in blissful contentment, holding hands. At one point they separate, perform a complete circle of lazy turning and come back together, reaching for each others’ hands once again. That takes the cake as the cutest pet video of all time, I think! Thank you for lifting my heart even higher today, Sister! It was Utter Otter Love – and we could all learn so much from their relaxing and enjoying the moment.

Melissa wrote to ask if she could come up tonight instead of tomorrow morning and I responded to welcome her.

Eli E had written to ask about Dana Redfield’s book, “Jonah”, and why she wanted the original version to be republished. I explained to him that the editors at Hampton Roads had excised a good 1/3 of the text of her original manuscript, feeling that she had embedded too many triggers in the text. She thought it was a much stronger book with the triggering material replaced. I told Eli that it was on my list to edit for an e-book, if I should live so long! There are a few editing projects in front of it.

I have noticed about myself that I produce a lot more creative material than I can edit as I go, so I keep an editing backlog. For instance, when I channel a session, give a talk or offer an interview, the creation of the text takes only “real time”. I produce the material very quickly, as fast as I can speak. The editing, on the other hand, takes rather longer. When you add to that ongoing editing of new material the older projects I have created, but not edited, in the past, the stack piles up. So I keep working on it as I can. But the new writing comes first! Except when there is a day like today, when I need to respond to the moment.

Mick and I came upstairs after our bath, leaving the light on for Melissa, and relaxed with Democracy Now and then CSI before descending to the first floor for supper. Melissa had arrived and we enjoyed red snapper together while continuing to watch episodes of CSI, a show we all like. Jim offered the ending prayer at the Gaia Meditation.

Mick and I said good night to Melissa at 10 AM and said our own good nights at 11 PM after a kitty snuggle.

2007-07-25

After Morning Offering Mick went into the world of the Creator to dance with the lawn and garden devas while I spent the morning working on my Inner Shift speech for Mackinac Island. It is beginning to take shape.

After lunch, a delicious quiche and cole slaw which Gary had made for me last weekend, I spent the afternoon on Chapter 7 of 101. the first part of the chapter is firming up now and a final read-through of the first 6 pages went well, with no substantial changes. Progress is slower than I would like but in the end, the time I have taken to “maintain the baby step” in writing about these principles will be worth it. I feel sure of that.

Along the way I responded to a few e-mails. Eli E wrote to ask me about my Dana Redfield articles and the Tomorrow Tree and asked if I would publish that soon. I told him – eventually! And I listed all the editing work that comes before that. He responded by wishing me longevity, a sentiment with which I am entirely in agreement!

Renee C, my new UPI editor, had a couple of questions about my column this week, which I was able to field.

Gary sent me word that my counseling appointment with Doug G will be on August 1st. I let him know it was now on my calendar.

Rev. Ruth McG wrote to ask for prayers for several of her flock and I assured her we were praying for Georgia, Jano and Geo, all cancer patients. And Michele M, our cover art designer for A Book of Days, wrote to let me know our prayers about her recalcitrant insurance company were working! They will now review her case.

I wrote a recommendation for Pupak H-B, a woman who would do a fine job as an executive for an international charity if given a chance.

Lorena L, an active L/L volunteer, sent us photos of her brand new baby! The little family looked so happy – and Mom looked mighty tired! Congratulations, Lorena and family!

I wrote Bradly, who had suggested that I do a column on Ryan Hreljac, letting him know that I had done so and sending him a link.

And lastly, I sent along a video of two otters holding hands while floating on their backs in the water to Mick and Gary, who I thought would get a kick out of the sweet couple.

Mick called bath time and I closed up shop for the day. We relaxed with Link TV programs until time for a quick supper and getting ready for our Board meeting. We had a great turnout for the meeting, with all but two members calling in for the teleconference.

We installed the three new Board members, Tiffani M, Bill H and Steve M, and organized a Marketing Committee, a Development Committee with a sub-committee on Grants, a Financial Committee and an Executive Committee and worked out reporting protocols. Our L/L Research dream is in good hands with our excellent Board and I look forward to new developments by the end of this year.

We also created an L/L position for Melissa T, Avalon Caretaker, and OK’d a stipend for her so she can work full time on the farm development for the next year.

Mick took his supper late, while I read, and then we headed upstairs for our kitty snuggle and bedtime at about 11 PM.

2007-07-24

After Morning Offering, I worked on the UPI article for this week, on “firing the grid”. It was interesting to go to that site and see what the founder, Shelley Yates, had in mind for after July 17th. Her sources, the light beings that she receives messages from, are very like Confederation sources I channel.

After lunch I spent some time on e-mail before working further on Chapter 7 of 101. I continued to thank people who had sent me e-mail greetings for my birthday. I can only suppose they read in this very blog that it was my natal day! The greetings are most welcome and all of them were beautiful. These days one can get cards which whistle, sing and make you laugh as well as being animated and in some cases breathtakingly lovely. Ah, the benefits of technology!

I also invited our Avalon caretaker, Melissa, out for lunch when she next comes to town. Needless to say, living rough in the hottest part of summer is not altogether convenable! I thought she could use a break.

Chapter 7 got no further today in terms of writing, as I deleted as much as I wrote. I look forward to tomorrow and fresh thoughts! I want to do the subject of the open heart justice and explaining the two-part heart in a simple and lucid way is eluding me. But not for long!

Mick and I had a quiet, pleasant evening. Romi and Gary joined us to talk about details of the upcoming Homecoming. Romi will help erect the tent for the meeting, out in the back garden, and also will help Gary with airport pick-ups that Friday. We all enjoyed conversation, the Jon/Steven political comedy and an episode of House. Romi offered the closing prayer at the Gaia Meditation tonight.

Mick and I came upstairs at 10 PM and said good night at 11 after our kitty snuggle.

2007-07-23

I had a night broken by many awakenings to what seemed to be a head full of voices, thousands of them streaming through. I thought to myself, this is the result of the activation of the grid on the 17th. And this will probably continue for some days. I do not think they were actually speaking. There was no conscious, intelligible information sent. It felt more like streams of emotions. I pondered that as I rested between “naps” all night and decided that I would break my Difference Makers series again this week and write about this phenomenon for UPI. These are interesting times!

After Morning Offering Jim left for an overly full day of mowing, as a former customer called him with an emergency need for cutting their sizeable spread. Mick is never one to refuse a kindness if he can possibly accommodate someone, and so he skipped a sit-down lunch and ate while he drove over to Crestwood to help out Dixie and Rock.

Meanwhile I came upstairs to my bowered office to write our web guy concerning several points. I was happy to tell him that Jon G has sent us a finished audio dub from Wooded Glen 2005. I sent Gary a note asking him to discuss with Jon what happens next with the Hunziker footage, as Jon currently has those videotapes as well.

Ian reported that our cover artist for “Book of Days”, Michele M, has now sent him the final art work for the back and front covers! That’s the final necessity! He should now be able to ready the project for the printer and send it off! Good news there.

I reported to Ian that we have shipped him a copy of my unpublished manuscript, “Voices of the (nee Gods) Confederation”. This is a collection of channeling by subject which contains the sessions where Don, as senior channel, was teaching me to channel in the same way I, as senior channel, will be teaching our channeling circle next year. Don’s channeling was excellent and this is our only collection of it, as when he taught me, he stopped channeling permanently. I am so glad Ian is interested in putting this work, which I created in 1975, up on our site as an e-book.

I also assured him that I am glad to write an introduction for another ongoing project, the Brown Notebook, when that is ready.

I spent the morning slimming down my reference pages for the Mackinac Island talk I will give on behalf of L/L Research, on Inner Shift. The material remaining is most inspiring and I look forward to sharing this wonderful, hopeful and faith-filled material with the attendees there come August 10th.

I enjoyed the rest of my steak from my birthday dinner for lunch – I got four meals out of that delicious cut – and consulted with Pam, who had come over especially to create a financial report for the Board meeting this next Wednesday. We really do not have good categories which break down our contributions as to donations for material, donations without receiving anything, meetings fees, et cetera. We agreed that she would create those categories at the change of the fiscal year on January 1st, 2008. Meanwhile, during the meeting I’ll take notes on any questions asked about the financials, hoping to hone our ability to pull these reports out of the QuickBooks software.

I spent the afternoon working on Chapter 7. I worked through the first part of the chapter again, enlarging it to six pages and changing something in almost every sentence until it seemed to flow really well. One more read-through tomorrow afternoon to confirm today’s work and I should be able to press forward into new aspects of the heart chakra discussion.

At the end of the working day Gary, who was manning the L/L helm this afternoon, arranged with me for an appointment time next week for a counseling client.

We also settled on the idea of renting a tent – they call it something else since it is more a roof than a real tent, but it has roll-down sides in case of rain, and lights – for our Homecoming 2007, over Labor Day weekend. We have capped the attendance at 28, and that number should easily fit in the tent Gary found to rent. It is expensive! But we are charging a fee for the weekend, and the income from those fees should cover this cost and also the cost of our food, except for the two meals we eat out at Hometown Buffet. The logistics of preparing hot meals for 28 people out of our home kitchen and storing it were too daunting to consider, so our suppers will be eaten at a restaurant!

Mick called bath time and we had a lovely, quiet evening, enjoying a block of Star Trek Enterprise episodes, a late supper and the Gaia Meditation. We turned out the lights at 11 PM.

2007-07-22

Jim and I had a blessed Sabbath under perfect skies, cerulean, free of sogginess and with the glow of summer sun to kiss our faces. I do love the Kentucky summer! Jim cleaned house while I sang the service at St. Luke’s. We sat for a while before lunch while we finished reading the newspaper and doing the Sunday puzzles.

With our lunch we watched “Letters from Iwo Jima”, Clint Eastwood’s companion film to “Flags of Our Fathers”. It was tastefully done and appealing in its somehow gentle black and white rendering of the simple thoughts, prayers and fears of the “other side”, that supposed enemy whose concerns so perfectly mirrored “our” side. I think Jim saw more of this film than did I. I napped through a good deal of it, that shallow sleep where one still hears the sound track but does not attend.

We had ice cream and then watched our second feature, “Copying Beethoven”. Ed Harris was consummate in his rendition of the famously ill-tempered “Beast” as was Diane Kruger, an actress whose work is new to me, who played the unlikely role of a female music copyist – unlikely because women were expected not to work at any profession before the mid-twentieth century. Nevertheless both performances were luminous, intense and perfectly matched. Harris is a genius at portraying geniuses – his portrayal of Jackson Pollock several years ago was equally riveting.

The sound track to “Beethoven” was far too heavy for the piece, however. It could be argued that Beethoven’s music, which was used to the exclusion of other music, is indeed too heavy for the modern ear. However he wrote delightful, simple, charming music as well as the heavy stuff, and judicious choices could have lightened the oppressive intensity of the finished sound track and far better matched the subtleties of the performances. Instead our ears were bludgeoned by selections from the symphonies which sounded like a train gathering speed down a fast track, which Beethoven’s musical style can resemble if the music is taken out of its context.

The cinematography was particularly fine and the production was excellent, aspects of film making which often remain unnoticed, but which add so greatly to a film’s worth and character.

Jim and I enjoyed both films thoroughly!

Jim then napped some more while I enjoyed a round of computer solitaire – I enjoy the “Spider Solitaire” on Microsoft Office. After this sweet leisure time, Mick roused to run a bath and we enjoyed stretching exercises, our whirlpool and then a date. We arose from that delightful pursuit to dine, offer the Gaia Meditation and relax with National Geographic Channel presentations on Nefertiti and the construction of the Egyptian pyramids until our bedtime at about 11:30

2007-07-21

It was a lovely Saturday! After Morning Offering I came up to the office and Mick did chores in the house while I cleared my desk. After our fast-food lunch, always a Saturday treat, Mick snoozed while I read for about an hour.

Then he went over to St. Luke’s to finish a job he had started but could not finish yesterday, as he ran out of Dumpster space there, breaking down boxes during the church's office move to a different part of the campus. So he carried the remaining cardboard on his trailer over to the city recycling center on Whipps Mill Road. When he arrived back home, he worked in the yard until bath time, filling two huge garden garbage bags with weeds.

Meanwhile I got a call, as arranged, from Ian, our web guy. We talked about all manner of things having to do with the Brown Notebook, which is the document in which the Elk found information concerning founding a group which could receive channeled Confederation messages. he used that information to start the group which Jim and I carry on.

A volunteer, DC, has been scanning and OCR-ing the Brown Notebook – and in some cases typing it over, as the original typewritten pages are too faint with age for good OCR-ing – and is apparently at the ending stage where Ian can soon put this forerunner of our own work up on our site. I am glad we could do this. Until recently the Trepaniers, Clyde and his wife Helen, maintained a web site for this work. They must have had to retire from doing that. So now this material will be available again. I promised Ian to write an introduction for that upcoming e-book explaining the connection it has to our work.

Then we began talking about his being my literary executor. He was looking at just what projects I had of which he had no knowledge. I do have numerous old projects which do not need to see the light of day, ever, but one book which I compiled in 1974 is a selection of our early messages, received while I was being trained as a channel by Don. I did good work there and it definitely deserves a place on the site. I promised to find and send him a copy of the manuscript to scan and OCR. We have a wonderful web guy! And the web site of our archives is close to complete now. That’s amazing!

Gary needed my ear after that, as we had decisions to make concerning both upcoming gatherings, the Mackinac Island event over the weekend of the 10th of August and our own Homecoming over Labor Day weekend. We also had a good talk.

That done, I did a rare stint of cooking, of the simplest kind. I have been craving devilled eggs, so I made some – yum! This was followed by a long whirlpool and a time of more napping for us. We roused after a time and came downstairs to enjoy a film I deeply enjoyed; probably the single best movie I have seen all year. It was such a gem!

Nick Nolte was a main character and what an actor he is. Mick and I had just seen him in a tour de force, mumbling and scratching his way through a brilliantly curmudgeonly role last week. In this week's film his voice was measured, nuanced, clear and gentle, but he played another kind of curmudgeon. It was a role that reminded me of Pat Morita’s role in The Karate Kid in that he mentored an athlete and showed him how to be better at what he did. The film’s title was “The Peaceful Warrior".

Nolte told his protégé that most people do not live at all. They never come into the present moment and begin to pay attention. He had devoted his life to a higher purpose and service to others, he told his student. “But you work at a gas station-grocery,” the boy objected. Nolte said, “Yes – a *service* station!”

His best line came when the student was feeling unlovable. “The ones that are hardest to love are the ones that need it the most,” he said.

In the midst of watching the film, we had dinner and offered the Gaia Meditation, with Jim praying at the end. We turned out the lights a bit after 11 PM.

2007-07-20

Overnight storms cooled us off to a very pleasant day today. After Morning Offering, Jim and Gary set out to mow their bumper crop of Friday lawns – everyone seems to want their grass cut at the weekend – while I went to 21st Century Medicine for my last cranio-sacral treatment. The treatment went very well. I also received my last injections of the Anthroposophical homeopathic herbal sera. Dr. Johnson gave me three more injection treatments which Jim can give me monthly for the next three months.

I think it has been a very good effort on several levels. The treatments have helped balance my system. They have also signaled to my subconscious that my intent is to be healthier. And psychologically the dedication to keeping these appointments has made me experience the illusion of being in control, which has lessened tension in my mind.

I am also very glad the sessions are finished. No matter how attractive the drive to Indiana’s fair shore, the time lost to this effort blunts the beauty of the trips. I am glad to be able to get back to work an extra morning per week!

Jim was home by the time I rolled in from the doctor's. He spent the afternoon maintaining his equipment for the week while I worked again on Chapter 7. I did not write much new text but I tightened up and improved the start I had made in a way that pleased me.

Michele M wrote to say that she was now tackling the rest of the cover art for A Book of Days over this coming weekend! I am so glad she is following through. She also reported that our prayers seem to be working as far as her difficulties with her insurance company. They are now reviewing her case.

Jim and I spent our TGIF evening mostly napping! We came downstairs long enough to eat and offer the Gaia Meditation, with Gary praying at the end. Then we read for a while before coming upstairs for our bedtime kitty snuggle and said goodnight around 11:30.

2007-07-19

What a vivid day weather-wise! We started out in a steam bath and ended the day a full ten degrees cooler with storms, during which we did not lose power. That was odd, since we have lost power twice this week when there was no storm on which to pin the blame. After Morning Offering, Mick set out to get everything done before the rains came, and succeeded!

I spent the first part of my morning dickering around with my software. A glitch I do not understand was erasing my text in the middle of this week’s UPI article. The deletion showed up on the UPI site as well. I tried copy-pasting the missing text but it would not copy. So I began retyping it. About three paragraphs into the typing, all the attempts to copy worked. All of a sudden I had four full pages of the same six paragraphs over and over and … Argh! In the event, the missing text got where it needed to go.

The permission had come in from Sierra to exchange my blouse, and I printed out three separate documents for that return.

Pu wished for me to write her a recommendation, but she had not given me the information I needed so I went through the job description and targeted those facts I needed to make her look her best. The work is as an international coordinator for a peace charity organization and she would make a good thing of it as she learned the ropes, so I can honestly praise her skills. However she is not an experienced career woman at this point, having shunned working at lesser jobs. So I shall need to emphasize what she HAS done, and for that I need more data.

And our web guy and I wrote back and forth about the Book of Days project, which he now sees coming to a close as soon as Michele sends the remaining 2/3 of her art work for the cover, and also about personal things. He is a solid, good friend and I greatly appreciate our relationship, which began back in the late ‘80s and has resulted in the archive site we now have, as well as our lifelong friendship.

I pondered my first Mackinac Island speech in late morning, leafing through my trusty hymnal, as I wish to use that sweet “trick” of doing some a capella singing threaded through my words in order to engage both sides of my listeners’ brains. The first talk will be on the inner occurrences of this shift and the material is inspirational in the extreme, a perfect fit for the singing.

After a Big Honking Burrito lunch, which Gary most kindly made for me as well as himself - he makes very healthy food - I worked on Chapter 7. I achieved the first draft of the initial two sections but neither section satisfies me yet. The basic thrust of the flow of the chapter is right but I will tinker tomorrow with it in the afternoon to clean it up.

The storms came as the afternoon waned, but Mick had finished early and was under roof in the garage during the rain, doing maintenance on his machines, rather than getting soaked as he sometimes does – our land is in draught despite these small summer storms and often he can mow just fine while it is raining, as the ground is soaking up all the rain and not hindering the mowing by clumping the grass. So he often comes home wet on a storm day!

How beautiful was the smell of the rain! I am a city girl, and when the hot road surface begins to accept those first big drops, it creates an odor compounded of dust, hot tar and rain, which delights my senses and awakens nostalgia. The smell takes me back to childhood, where I so often rode my bike through the beginning of summer storms and inhaled that aroma with delight.

My darling husband is very romantic lately and we romped in the fields of the Lord after our bath, exchanging sexual energy as well as firing on all chakras, balancing our energy bodies and praising the Creator. I am constantly amazed at my good fortune. We are in our sixties. I have always heard one’s sex life is over by then. I praise the Creator that mine is not, for I honestly believe that my health is far better because of the energy Mick transfers to me during these times. He is equally sure that the inspiration he receives as I receive his physical energy keeps him on track spiritually. My contemporaries, the girlfriends I so dearly love, sometimes do not have this resource available, so I know how lucky I am.

Mick and I napped after our date until suppertime, and then offered the Gaia Meditation, with me offering the closing prayer. We ended the evening with our favorite pastime, snuggling with Pickwick, Chloe and Dan D. Lion while watching vedge TV. It sets us up for a good night’s sleep. We turned out the lights at 11 PM.

2007-07-18

I woke at 2:30 AM and thereafter spent a sleepless night nursing a very crabby tummy and a sore shoulder. So I arose early and was able to retrieve the UPI article which had not been sent to my editor due to the power outage yesterday and send it in.

When I went out for the newspaper, I saw that our Rose of Sharon hedge is in bloom – early for that, but everything has been early this year. I felt quite dazed with lack of rest and decided to work on my e-mail after Morning Offering rather than my talks for Mackinac Island, as I want to be at my best in creating these talks.

Jim had given me a beautiful blouse for my birthday which was quite tight across my chest, so I sent Sierra Trading Post an inquiry as to how to exchange it. Jim had not kept the paperwork. David T sent me a beautiful meditative piano piece which he said was just for me, although I believe that it exists along with many other such pieces on http://centerformusicmedicine.blogspot.com/. I responded to birthday cards sent by e-mail from Wendy Jane C, my brother Tommy, Vara L, Pupak H-B, Dianne S and Steve E.

Michele M sent word that she was finalizing the cover for A Book of Days! This is great news, as Ian tells me the book is ready to send to the printers once he receives the final artwork on the cover.

Steve E, who is working to launch a whole new www.bring4th.org site for L/L Research, sent us the finished audio version of the first of seven short Gaia Meditations which I had recorded for him while he was here a few months ago. The quality of the recorded voice seemed high to me and Gary concurred, so we gave him the go-ahead on that project. It is good to see the site beginning to take shape. I understand from Gary that Jeremy W, long a friend and helper of L/L Research, has been helping Steve get up to speed. It is wonderful to have so much heartfelt help and feel this labor of love chug along like the Love Train!

Pupak asked me for a recommendation for a job, and I wrote to ask her some questions about that, as I would like to write this amazing woman the best and most apt recommendation I can.

After a restful lunch and a nap, I kept an appointment to have my teeth cleaned and then spent the rest of the afternoon working on Chapter 7 of 101, choosing the opening quotation for the discussion of the green-ray chakra and writing a few pages of first-draft text.

Jim came home in a state of heat exhaustion, white and shaky, as he had been out in the 100 F, high-humidity weather tearing down old and unwanted bushes and trimming branches for his customers. However he assured me that he had taken care of himself all day and had drunk almost three gallons of water. His recuperative powers are amazing! After a good whirlpool, he was just fine.

We spent our evening very quietly, mostly snoozing as we were both weary. Jim offered the Gaia Meditation prayer after supper, and we ended the evening with our traditional kitty snuggle, going to bed around 11 PM.

2007-07-17

Happy “firethegrid” day! I will be interested to hear of people’s responses to this global meditation. I had to participate late, as I slept much later than usual, not awakening until time to descend and awaken Mick.

After Morning Offering, Mick went into the sauna of the Kentucky summer to mow his lawns while I worked on my UPI article for this week. I decided to do a column on another Difference Maker who is working to improve African people’s access to water. It is a good story, plus there were some corrections Ariane asked me to make on her water-for-Africa story, which I did two weeks ago. This was a good chance to set the record straight.

Where I had gone wrong was in accepting as fact the information provided by her proud Papa. He exaggerated and remembered incorrectly several times and I passed that on as fact. When Aubine, Ariane’s mother, called from Igny, France, to explain that I had got things wrong, I told her that all the facts she said were wrong came from her ex-husband. With a very French and completely un-spell-able sound indicating a fine scorn, Aube said, “Carrrla, you cannot believe Michael! Eet ees eempossible!

Repressing a desire to say, a la Steve Martin, “Well, excuuuuuuse meeeee!” I asked Aubine to have Ariane write me an e-mail so I could get the facts directly from her. There followed a hilarious ten minutes of spelling out my e-mail address. It sounds simple enough, but the French language sounds the letters of the alphabet differently than do we. That royally confused us both! However we persevered and Ariane did send me the corrections needed.

I was not able to finish the article by lunchtime, and after a quick lunch, went to the salon for a facial and haircut. Lee Ann, who works to keep my dry, dry facial skin comfortable, was able to cover what remains of my black eye with concealer and eye shadow on my right eyelid that matched the color of the remaining bruise on my left eyelid, so I looked pretty normal – except that I seldom wear any makeup.

Such delicate procedures take time. I got back to Anchorage, playing dodge-em with various roads blocked by piles of gravel and pipes, to find that Gary needed some consultation time. We now have 28 participants signed up for Homecoming and we needed either to close the meeting or move it to a hotel. After considering what it would take to re-plan the Gathering, we decided to close the attendance at this point, so we can hold the Gathering here at Camelot, where the “home” in Homecoming is a real one.

We had a great time at the 2005 Homecoming at Wooded Glen – but the arrangements for that were elaborate and made months beforehand. And still there were massive logistical problems due to the retreat’s location being some miles away from the airport. While 1/3 of my heart wanted to keep the attendance open and go with the flow to a hotel, given that we can find one at this late date, the 2/3 of my heart that had pity on Gary chose to close the attendance.

If we keep getting requests this year, that will tell us that we need to plan on a hotel venue for next year’s Homecoming so that this does not happen again. I really dislike turning anyone away.

That being decided, I went back to my UPI article and finished it. I was just reading through it to be sure all was well when a storm blew through and knocked out our power. I could not send my copy in. Fortunately, the power came on later in the evening.

Jim took me to the restaurant at the top of the Galt House for my special birthday dinner. The food was delicious but the service was off and the menu was very, very short on vegetables. There was no salad with the meal, although there were a couple of salad-like choices amongst the appetizers. And there were no side dishes with the entrée. Now that’s both tacky and unhealthful. We had a good meal, but won’t go back there. For special occasions, the reigning local place has the unlikely name of Ruth’s Chris Steak House. We had a glorious meal there for our anniversary.

We offered the Gaia Meditation, with Mick praying at the end, and came upstairs to relax and play with the kitties until bedtime around 11 PM.

2007-07-16

My 64th birthday dawned sunny and lovely. After Morning Offering I enjoyed a leisurely morning, having agreed to offer myself the gift of a day off. Mick set out to mow. He had arranged his work so that he finished today’s lot by about 1:30.

Gary gave me a White Castle lunch for my birthday treat and I greatly enjoyed that! Belly burners are my favorite fast food.

One chorus of Greg Allman’s “I’m No Angel”!

He has also promised to detail Stanley Subaru, my faithful Outback – a delightful present, as Stanley is a hard-working vehicle often used by both Gary and Jim as well as myself for heavy chores. We all keep Stanley neat, but it is time he had a good, thorough cleaning. And Gary is a master detailer! After he did Jim’s truck last year, for Jim’s birthday, one of his older customers asked Mick if he had gotten a new truck! It is actually a 1990 model!

Jim took me consignment shopping in the afternoon. It is the only way I buy clothes, unless someone drags me to a mall and buys something for me. I had a great run of good luck and found some good garments to buy with Mom McCarty’s generous cash gift, plus some of Jim’s hard-earned cash. I shall be fit to fly in my new black jersey dress and ready to dine in sartorial dressiness at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, which requires dresses or suits for dinner.

I had such a good time! I even bought a beautiful hat on spec, as it fit me. Usually all hats are too large for my pea-sized head but this beauty was perfect and 80% off as well. Yum! Now I can begin looking for a navy suit to wear with it, and plan on that for next Easter’s outfit.

While Jim dozed after our outing, I spent some time with Gary firming up details of the Mackinac travel plans. We shall need to vacate the island on Sunday after our channeling session, which ends the gathering, and to spend our last night in Michigan at a small town on the mainland, as the ferries do not begin working early enough to get us to our very early flight home that Monday morning.

I understand there are only three reserved Grand Hotel rooms left now in the gathering’s block, with a fully booked hotel otherwise, so if you’re interested in taking in the weekend gathering there, be sure and let Bob Riedel (riedel.robert@yahoo.com) know post haste so he can reserve your space. It should be a good gathering for getting into the “shift”.

Gary and I also tinkered with the plans for our Labor Day weekend Homecoming, as I wished to include ample time at the end of the gathering for a round-robin on “Who Am I”, the topic of the weekend gathering here. We switched things around and found a sweet spot for that discussion.

Mick awoke and ran our bath, after which we had an amazing energy exchange – talk about a birthday present. Himself still rings my chimes with power and grace – WHEE! Thank you, Lord!

Mick also sent me some lovely red roses with a note - “Paul lost; you won – Happy Birthday” I could not figure out the cryptic message and had to ask. It turned out that he was referring to Sir Paul McCartney’ song, “When I’m 64”, which asks the musical question, “Will you still need me; will you still feed me when I’m 64?” Poor Sir Paul was divorced by his second wife earlier this year – he is my age exactly – while I am needed and fed by the best husband in the universe. So Paul has indeed lost and I have won. Very cute card, Mick!

It was a superb birthday! And tomorrow, Mick tops it all off by taking me out for a sumptuous feast at the top of the Galt House downtown, where we can view the river and the town as the whole restaurant rotates slowly, making about one revolution of the surrounding scenery an hour. The restaurant is closed on Mondays, so we had to delay the celebratory dinner for a day.

Our special day finished with a block of Star Trek Enterprise, which we both love, a small dinner and the Gaia meditation, with Mick offering the ending prayer. We came to bed about 11 PM.

2007-07-15

What a great Sunday! Church (I) and cleaning house (Mick) took our morning. Mick was especially busy as he re-grouted the downstairs bathtub in addition to everything else. It was good to come home to Mick’s sweet-smelling and lovingly cleansed dwelling. Our offertory at church was an old (really old!) favorite, William Byrd’s “Teach Me, O Lord”. I was in my element with an interesting second-soprano part to sing.

Mick and I enjoyed a pleasant lunch while we watched “Off the Black”, an intriguing film starring Nick Nolte. His cunningly crafted performance, with his characterization of a 57-year-old baseball referee whose heart is full of love and pain, was transcendent.

I remember seeing him first on a long-forgotten TV mini-series, an adaptation of Grace Metalious’s “Peyton Place” for the small screen. I could be wrong on this but as I recall, Nolte played a young boxer. He was a gilded, perfect young man in looks, rather in the beautiful style of Michael Caine in “Alfie”. Both actors have aged without the aid of surgery or vanity and have offered many wonderful performances. Thanks for this one, Nick!

Melissa came in mid-movie and watched the ending with us, then went about her town chores while Jim and I watched “The Architect”. Anthony LaPaglia and Isabella Rossellini played a complex and troubled couple whose perfect life was as marked with hidden dysfunction and neglect as a low-income building project which LaPaglia’s character had created was, inside its attractive exterior. The film strikingly exposed the difference between who we think we are as we tell ourselves stories and who others think we are, as they live with us and grow to see us in ways we cannot imagine and do not understand.

The screenplay was muddied by its very integrity, as it half-revealed ensemble characters whose luminous portrayals solidified the piece while they surprised and confused the watcher of it. A phrase I have heard a lot lately is TMI – too much information. There was TMI about the minor characters, yet at the same time the mysteries compelled thought. I will remember this film. Its artistic merit is unquestionable. It is a little gem.

The afternoon had fled by during our double feature and we had just enough time to have our bath and do our mat exercises before it was time to leave for our night out at the ballpark. We brought Melissa and met Romi, Carmen and Gary downtown at Slugger Field.

I joined St. Luke’s choir in offering the National Anthem before the game and then Fr. Joe threw out the opening ball, clocked at 54 MPH – not bad for an Episcopal priest of a Certain Age. We choir members found our seats and enjoyed a good game in the breeze of the early evening. The Bats even won!

My one disappointment was the ballpark hot dogs. Since the last time we attended a game, their quality has plummeted from excellent to really, really bad. But hey, enough mustard and the old magic was still there! Gotta have a dog at the ball game!

This game is the first event of my birthday, which is tomorrow. It is a three-day celebration this year, as we dine out the day after my birthday. I do love having another birthday! Frail health has been my lot since birth. Many doctors have told first my parents, when I was a child, and then me as an adult, that I was not long for this world. Well, dear Docs, I will be 64 tomorrow. Nanner, Nanner, Nanner!!! Raspberries to you all!

Mick and I were wired from the good game and relaxed together until well after 11 PM before saying a most fond good night.

2007-07-14

After sleeping an extra hour and then making a late Morning Offering, Jim set out on his round of Saturday chores and errands while I came upstairs and worked with some e-mail.

Dianne S, my friend since the ‘70s, and I wrote, talking about getting together. We had intended to see the Tibetan Oracle, but we missed our chance. So we may have to meet simply to enjoy each others’ company, something we love to do. Dianne is a wonderful friend!

Don N of BBS Radio wrote to say that he would very much like to hook up with the Mackinac Island gathering, as they hope to webcast those proceedings. I sent him event producer Bob R’s e-mail and wished them good luck! Of course we plan to tape my talks and channeling, so eventually those will be transcribed and available in text form, but it is such fun to hear a live event.I hope they can work something out.

I was happy to receive some good news about the Book of Days, which has been held up many times through various problems. This last hold-up was the health of the creator of the cover art, who went through surgery. Michele M reports that she is on the mend and will have the finished cover art to our book’s producer, web guy Ian, by the end of next week!

Fikisha C sent an amazing series of drawings of our solar system’s planets and the sun, showing their sizes. They were stunning in their effect, as one saw the tiny size of our terrestrial ball compared to larger planets and especially the sun. I wish I could give you an e-address for those images, but she sent them to me as images rather than as a link to a web site.

Gary forwarded me this little story of two wolves:

"One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.

He said, "My son, the battle is between two "wolves" inside us all.

One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

Indeed!

Gary also sent me word that a personal channeling session for Terry H has been set up for July 31st. Romi has volunteered to sit with the circle, so we will have enough people for a good circle of seeking for Terry, who has been a most faithful helper of L/L Research for many years. He has translated The Law of One books into Chinese! And he holds an enquirer’s circle in Taipei. I think his questions come from various members of that group, not only from him.

Jim came home with our Saturday treat of fast food and we enjoyed lunch and stretching before Jim headed out to work on the yard. I spent the afternoon concluding my topic search on 2012. Now the initial work has been done for my two talks on Mackinac Island. I did not have time to get that printed out, as Mick called bath time, but at bedtime I nipped back into the office and got that printed. It’s a hefty document, 26 pages long. The Confederation has had a good bit to say about 2012 recently, thanks to many questions from our circles of seeking at public meetings.

After our whirlpool and some relaxing time, Mick and I came downstairs for dinner and the Gaia Meditation, as well as a very off-beat movie starring Robin Williams called “The Night Listener”. It was a strange and hard to follow story about a woman with an imaginary son who wrote a good book. Truly it was a walk on the dark side psychologically. However, Williams’ acting work was, as I have come to expect, outstanding.

Jim, I and the pussycats toddled up to bed around midnight.

2007-07-13

Friday the 13th was a lovely, mild and sunny day except for a generous storm which swept through around 10 AM, while I was on the road to Indiana for my next-to-last cranio-sacral treatment. I was glad to hear that the storm moved through Anchorage as well, giving all Jim’s customers’ lawns some needed nourishment. We had a good Morning Offering, although we are finding Paramhansa Yogananda’s dissertations on the second coming of Christ to be a bit pedantic. But there are good gems in there, so we are continuing to read through his little book.

Jim and Gary finished their mowing about the same time as I returned from the 21st Century Health Clinic, so we did our stretching routine together and then Mick was off to garden and mow three other customers. I was still feeling a bit dim from the fall, although the rapid improvement of my black eye cheers me, and my headache is almost gone. So I confined my efforts to catching up some e-mail and mulling over Chapter 7.

It occurred to me that I knew a couple of people who might like to attend the gathering at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island not only because I am speaking but because the hotel is so grand! So I wrote them of the details. As well, I wrote Don N of BBS Radio, letting him know of the event, and that the producer, Bob R, was trying to webcast the proceedings. It would be a happy event if we could hook Bob and Don up.

World Puja’s Maureen had written a very good response to all of the hysterics who have clouded the upcoming firethegrid world meditation taking place on July 17th. She said that any time light workers come together for the greater good, the negative polarity is bound to come together to resist it, but that this need not cause fear. She encouraged us all to come together fearlessly and ask for peace and shift. Amen. Go Maureen!

Our tax preparer needed some material, and I printed out her request for our bookkeeper, who came today. I wrote in the afternoon to be sure the tax preparer had what she needed, as I was gone while Pam the bookkeeper was here.

Scott H wrote to say that he has written the first 13 pages of a screenplay of “The Crucifixion of Esmerelda Sweetwater”, Don Elkins and my novel. That is the second gentleman to try to capture that story for film. I hope he succeeds. I wrote three screenplays of the story myself back in the seventies, but none was considered good enough to use by the people to whom we offered them. Good luck, Scott!

It was good to hear from Sandie S, whose move to Hollywood has been a happy one. She is doing well and asked about me, hoping we would not lose touch. I promised her, never! I am a loyal friend, as my burgeoning Christmas Card list confirms.

Melissa and I wrote back and forth about farm business. She now has an appointment for the electrical engineer for Shelby Power to look over the project of bringing power to Avalon Farm. That’s good news!

Jim was a happy man – TGIF - as we had our bath together and then shared a lovely date and a Friday night nap before coming downstairs for the Gaia Meditation. Gary had been cooking and the house smelled wonderful! Gary offered the ending prayer for our evening chapel time with Mother Earth and the cause of peace.

Then he shared a documentary with us, about the Dixie Chicks and all that they went through after their lead singer, Natalie Maines, mentioned at a concert in London that she was embarrassed to come from the same state as the Shrub. “Shut Up and Sing” chronicled events since then and came out in 2006.

Of course, Natalie’s is not everyone’s opinion! But I am so proud of her and her band for staying with the energy this rather innocent and entertainment-focused comment caused. Perhaps she never meant to go so deep or strike such a chord with country music fans. It cannot have been fun to watch newscasts of people burning their CDs. However, clearly, they all grew, and grew together, through this catalyst. And events since the fatal comment some three years ago have found Americans of all shades of conservatism much more in agreement with her now than then. By now even the reddest of redneck patriots sees that supporting the president’s policies and supporting America may be two different things.

This blog is not about my politics. I have no desire to change anyone’s mind. But our lives are bound up in politically tinged events, and to a discerning eye, almost all outer events can be seen politically. And for those to whom politics is meat and drink, they WILL be seen politically. Often people think they are being religious or moral, but are actually being political. I believe we are, as a species, political animals. We just need to learn to become statesmen instead of shills for special interests. We need that badly. Come on, Indigos! The youth among us are our hope, politically speaking.

What a good documentary. I really enjoyed seeing it.

Mick and I stayed up until midnight, relishing the weekend ahead. My birthday is coming up and what a great celebration this year. It so happens that St. Luke’s has a “Night at the Bats” on Sunday evening. Fr. Joe will toss out the opening ball and our choir will sing the National Anthem. Jim and I will take Gary, Melissa, Carmen and Romi. The next day is my actual birthday and Mick will take me consignment shopping for my present! Yum! And the NEXT day I will enjoy dinner at the restaurant atop the Galt House downtown as the end of the festivities. Extreme Yum!

I do love having birthdays! I feel like dancing a tribal dance of victory! I made it for another year! Yes! And many more! Thank you, Lord!

2007-07-12

Today I have nothing to report except our Morning Offering and our Gaia Meditation. Other than those two chapel times I did no L/L Research work. I fell heavily last night getting out of bed in the middle of the night, my feet tangled in the sheet. I gave myself a black eye and a bruised hand, not to mention a bruised ego for doing something so klutzy. I rested most of the day, reading and napping. By the time I went to bed I was feeling a good deal better, but still headachy and very dim.

Gary, too, took his regular day off today. Jim was the hard-working one amongst us, finishing all his regular jobs and then taking on an extra lawn for a neighbor of one of his customers who is ill and cannot cut his lawn right now. I thought it most kind of him.

I hope for a better working day tomorrow for myself!

2007-07-11

What a lucky date! 7-11 is a winning combination in dicing and hopefully in living as well. We did not receive the promised rain, so after Morning Offering Mick was up and at ‘em, although, thanks to his working ahead yesterday, he had the time to share lunch with me and we also did our mat exercises, a real luxury for us on weekdays during mowing season.

I checked the letter to the Board members containing the agenda and sent it out before lunch. As well, I caught up on some e-mail. My tax preparer, Linda, wrote to ask me for some details, and I sent the request downstairs for Gary to print out so when Pam comes Friday, she will have that request. And I responded to Melissa’s note assuring her that I had called Shelby Power and asked for electrical service to Avalon.

A note from Steve M deserves its own paragraph. He wrote to say that he was teaching a class next fall and donating his salary to L/L Research. What an incredible and generous thing to do! And in terms of our needs for money, it could not come at a better time. We are growing low in funds for paying our staff. His donation makes a perfect “Matching Funds” basis for a campaign to raise funds for staff salaries. We have the best people in the world for friends here at L/L! This home truth comes to me time and again and I just marvel at our enormous good fortune.

I had a bit of time left before lunch and so continued editing on the Aaron/Q’uo session – the fifth weekend gathering; the third of four sessions from that weekend. I believe this is the precise halfway point in this rather large work! It is a beautiful, magical series of channeled sessions spanning nearly a decade of Barbara Brodsky’s and my life and work and I will be thrilled to finish cleaning up the copy and get it ready to be presented to Hampton Roads for consideration.

I finished editing this session after lunch and sent it off to our web guy. I spent the remainder of the afternoon reading through the green-ray quotes I have collected and thinking about how to organize Chapter 7 of 101, which deals with that topic.

Nerve pain had nagged me all day, so I was tickled to have a good bath and then slide into sleep. Jim snoozed too! We wear ourselves out, these days. Getting older is not for wusses! We roused for a late supper and the Gaia Meditation and said good night after a good kitty-snuggle at 11:30.

2007-07-10

I just discovered that all the heavy equipment people in the neighborhood, digging holes for the sewers - which are being foisted upon us by the anal-retentive city planners of Louisville – are digging the trenches and then filling in the holes again. They are not, as I thought, installing the sewer pipes at the same time. It sounds like the fabled army thing – dig a hole, fill it up, dig it again. Brilliant.

After Morning Offering Mick set out for a massive work day, and came home at dusk most pleased to say that he has gotten all of tomorrow’s jobs mowed. Rain is predicted, so Mick can rest easy tomorrow.

I spent the morning working on the agenda for our upcoming Board meeting and then writing the letter to tell our Board members of the agenda and our thoughts about the agenda. I posted the finished letter back to Mick and Jim for approval. If all goes well, I can send that tomorrow and get set up for a Board meeting on July 25th.

In the afternoon I wrote the UPI article for this week. I decided to break my series on Difference Makers and just talk, so it was a voyage of discovery for me as I invited my deeper self to speak.

I also did some e-mail around the edges. I wrote to Gary about discussing the meeting with William Henry, whom Gary has had trouble reaching. As I was writing the letter, Henry called in, so all is well there: we are on the same page with Mackinac Island and he will put up the same publicity which Gare has created for our site and which, I assume, has been posted to David W’s discussion group, from which group this Gathering sprung.

I answered a note from Melissa, assuring her that I had called the Shelby electricity provider and asked for new service. I also asked her to put on her list of low-priority chores the re-doing of the filing in our Avalon drawer. It is a mess currently, as several people have organized it and then left. I have filed things as best I can, but the files are in somewhat of a mishmash.

Gary sent me the welcome news that we have two matching donors for the webcasting costs for next season – so we’re there! I OK’d Gary’s and Romi’s setting that service up as soon as we have the funds in hand.

I asked Gary to write Bill H and Tiffani M, both of whom are executives in large companies, asking them if they have teleconferencing functions already, and if so, if we can use them for the Board meeting. That would save us a few $$.

There is a firethegrid meditation scheduled for 7:11 AM EDT on July 17th and Gary and I corresponded about joining in with it. It certainly seems a good opportunity to join with our planetary tribe for a good cause. Their web address, if you’d like to check it out, is http://www.firethegrid.com/eng/home-fr-eng.htm.

I had heard something about a Tibetan Oracle coming to town and wrote to ask Dianne Stoess about it. She enjoys Buddhist events as do I, and I was looking for a girlfriend with whom to attend. But I cannot find the details and I thought she might know about this.

As a finish to the work day I organized a mass of material which had come in from Melissa’s research on various items connected to Avalon and filed it all away, glad I had asked Melissa for some help in reorganizing that drawer!

Jim and I were both weary and greatly enjoyed a very quiet evening of good company – Romi came over to visit, and Gary was home – dinner and the Gaia Meditation. Jim offered a beautiful prayer at the end. Then Romi and I sat and conversed about L/L matters until we noticed that Mick had gently, silently fallen asleep, and said our good-byes soon thereafter. Mick and I came upstairs for our evening kitty snuggle and said good night at 11:30.

2007-07-09

The heat was near 100 F in the afternoon today, and even at 7:15 it was dusty and hot on the ground while feeling damp in the air. We are spoiling for a storm tomorrow, so I hear. A deer has now eaten almost every day lily we had in bud or bloom, but the yard is left awash in Sweet William.

After Morning Offering, Mick vanished, coming back at sunset with seven mowing jobs done, including one at a distance. I worked on the quotes for 2012, garnering the information from TLOO books. Tomorrow I need to write my UPI article, so I look forward to finishing the 2012 search Wednesday.

In the afternoon I completed my search on green ray, getting about 26 pages of good quotation material. Chapter 7 is in the wings! Gary and I also talked about the upcoming Board meeting, which he now has scheduled. He also informed me that we have two matching donors for the webcast! This means that they will split the cost of the webcasting for the nine months of our next season, September through May 2007-8, between them. We’re all set! Steve E feels that ShoutCast is a better product for holding our chat room than PalTalk, so we will switch to them.

I felt substantially better today, recovering my previous level of manageable discomfort. Except for during sexual energy exchanges with my beautiful husband, I have not felt comfortable in years! However, I put that down to resistance from energies in this creation which would like to put out any light they see shining on earth. I carry that light and it comes through me when I write and channel, in outer manifestation, and hopefully radiates through my being all the time, or at least most of the time. I figure the discomfort is the price of serving as I do, and I gladly pay it.

Jim and I had a lovely date and a powerful energy exchange after our bath. A block of Star Trek Enterprise episodes was on and we have greatly enjoyed catching up with all the episodes we missed the first time around. Tonight was no exception. Then we came downstairs for dinner and the Gaia Meditation, with Gary offering a powerful prayer at the end.

Gary had seen an anchorman on MSN.com deliver a very scathing indictment of Bush and Cheney and he showed the video clip to us after meditation. Keith Olbermann offered an opinion which I share, which is that Bush and Cheney need to resign. His reasons were compelling and I was so happy that a mainstream source like his, and a station such as his, had allowed this editorial to be aired. He recapitulated the various lies and cover-ups now widely known – the lies about Hussein and AL Qaeda that put our armies in Iraq and all the rest. It is a splendid editorial which I will bet got a whole lot of hits on the internet yesterday.

Jim and I said good night to Gary at 10 and to each other at 11, after one last Star trek episode.

2007-07-07 and 08

The weekend weather was fair and bright, although my health concerns slowed me down considerably and blurred my inner landscape. After Morning Offering on Saturday I came up to do further work on my quote searches for “shift”, preparing for the Mackinac Island gathering talks. It was fiesta, as Melissa came down from Avalon and Carmen came to volunteer her time. The atmosphere was gay and everyone worked hard. Jim spent his day cooking a turkey, running a host of errands and working in the yard.

Melissa did town chores and helped Carmen with the volunteer project I gave her: a light project. It was Vara who came up with the bright idea, three years or so ago, of lighting the upstairs hall and the flight down to the first floor with theater lighting. It is an economical way to keep a bit of light on all night. I am sometimes wakeful and prefer not to turn on regular lighting if I want to go to the bathroom or hike downstairs to retrieve something. The previous ropes of lighting were damaged when the volunteers moved out, being banged and knocked by the effort of getting large pieces of furniture down the stairwell.

What a job Carmen did! It took her all afternoon and in the early evening she found that she had to replace one rope which was defective, so went to the store and did that, only to find, after putting that rope up, that she still needed one more rope. So she came back early Sunday and finished the job! After that, she visited Melissa on Avalon.

Melissa gave a report to Jim and me on various Avalon matters. She had looked into what needs doing to bring utilities to the farm, a major need for us. I shall need to call the electricity people Monday. The water people are already scheduled to take a look at Avalon and see what it will take to bring city water down the access road.

Melissa also reported that the insects are pernicious there in the meadow and even inside the Sugar Shack. The chiggers are extremely plentiful and there are a huge number of ticks. As well, she is battling an infestation of Japanese “lady bugs”. They look like those innocent, helpful creatures, but the “W” on their backs identifies them as a pestilent beetle. So Melissa is spraying with organic pest control solutions and dealing with 50 chigger bites on her person and the need to comb ticks out of her hair daily. Ah, the joys of rough living! Her hope is to change this situation for the better.

In the afternoon, Saturday, I completed my search for Confederation quotes on “shift” and began the search on “2012”, for my other speech at Mackinac Island. I also had an ongoing e-mail conversation with our web guy, who has been most helpful in giving Jim and me advice on our upcoming Board of Directors meeting.

In the evening, all of us had dinner and immersed ourselves in “Live Earth”, a wonderful concert that swept the world. I understand it is the largest single audience ever assembled for any event of this kind. Alicia Keyes and Keith Urban offered excellent sets, as did so many others. It was packed with good information as well as entertainment. After the show, Jim and I went around and unplugged our chargers for cell phones, our camera and Jim’s iPod. The other energy-saving item the show mentioned a lot was changing to fluorescent light bulbs, which we have already done. What a great effort that was! Al Gore is to be thanked for the effective attempt at bringing people more awareness of our planetary plight.

On Sunday, I was feeling very faint, but went to church and had a good service before coming home and laying my body down for the day. The combination of nerve pain in my right shoulder and arm and substantial abdominal distress was a killer, combined with faintness and dizziness. It could be that I have a passing virus. It is hard to tell, since interstitial cystitis mimics those symptoms. At any rate I was down for the count physically all day!

We actually had a most enjoyable day, resting and relaxing and watching no less than three excellent movies. We started with “Notes on a Scandal” with Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett in a stunningly literate, witty ensemble piece. Dench’s character was an amazingly evil little soul and Dench played the role with consummate perfection, packing real intensity of emotion into a seemingly minor drama. It was delicious! And Philip Glass’s musical score was a sweep of wonderful and supporting intensity, romantic and beautiful. It might be the single best sound track I have heard all year.

After that, we popped “Flags of our Fathers” into the video player. I can see why Clint Eastwood was awarded an Oscar for direction in this piece. It was restrained, thoughtful and gentle while dealing with the exigencies of battle. The music especially was outstanding. Eastwood also created the musical score for the piece. I slept through a good bit of it, so cannot really critique the film except to say that Eastwood’s use of color in the film was so subtle that at times it was indistinguishable from black and white. The cumulative effect was to mute the subject matter in a way that preserved dignity amidst the horror of war.

Mick and I took some time after that to bathe and stretch, after which we sat down with the correspondence between Ian and me and worked on the agenda for our Board meeting upcoming. We are most thankful for our webguy's experience and good advice. We came to a good conclusion with the project and settled in for yet a third film, “The Breach”. It was a cracking good film of its kind, stylish and beautifully played.

Both nights, after the Gaia Meditation Mick and I came upstairs for bedtime snuggles with the kitties and lights out was around midnight.

2007-07-05 and 06

These last few days have been somewhat difficult in terms of health for me and have slowed me down. I worked on the quotes for “shift” and “2012”, preparing for my Mackinac Island speeches, yesterday morning, after Morning Offering until lunchtime. Both afternoons, I worked on my quotes for Chapter 7 of 101, seeing what the Confederation has to say about that worthy chakra before I write the chapter.

This morning, I had a particularly powerful session of cranio-sacral work and the Rudolph Steiner homeopathic injections. I was increasingly faint as I drove home and rested for most of the afternoon before being able to function at all. I hope that this was a positive crisis in this balancing.

I did a bit of e-mail both days. Thursday I sent Chapters 4, 5 and 6 to Bill H, Melissa and Gary for their review. I let Karen K at MacDuffie know that we needed addresses for four of my classmates. I wrote a farewell to Larry M, my first editor at UPI – he is being kicked upstairs – and collected a recipe for mango salsa.

Today I responded to a very thoughtful letter from Board member Ian about our upcoming Board meeting. I found his points most helpful and will talk them over with Mick over the weekend. I thanked Pupie H-B for her several missives and wished her well in her upcoming move. She and Peter B shall need to move by the end of this month and they have not yet found a place to go. And I responded to a note from Roberta L, a long-time LOO fan who has fallen on hard times in both health and finances, encouraging her not to give up.

Jim and I enjoyed a slow, quiet and immensely restorative date after our bath today. I think these sexual energy exchanges are a tremendous help to me and Mick says they are the same for him, that he receives a lot of inspiration when we make love. He can feel his frontal lobes pulsing. As for me, I just feel physically well. Love-making offers me a small island of “peaceful-body”. It is wonderful to be free of discomfort for a while.

We dined after the Gaia Meditation and read, watched vedge TV and chatted together until about midnight.

2007-07-04

Happy Independence Day! We certainly had fireworks around here. The water company blasted all day. A large party nearby had a display of actual fireworks. And then Mother Nature did her part by offering us lots of thunder and lightning and some good, needed rain as the sunset turned to dark.

After Morning Offering, Mick set out to mow while I came upstairs to finish editing a 1989 channeling of ours that somehow had escaped transcription until now. It was a good one to read on this Fourth of July at a time when our country’s constitutional rights are imperiled and at least temporarily removed, for it was on the subject of joy. It was very healing to work on editing that.

Surprise! Mick came home for lunch. It is rare that he can do that during the mowing season, but he made a special effort today, as he had left for work worried about some mis-billings and felt the vibrations between us were off. Now that’s romantic! I happen to have the best husband in the known world.

After we dined and did our stretching routine together, Mick headed out to finish his work day. I found that Mr. Pickens had written to ask for a more visible attribution to him of the lyrics I quoted in my UPI article than I had given his work in the column. So I took the time to make the changes for which he had asked and sent the revised rough draft off to Renee and Larry, my editors at UPI. They kindly agreed to add the copyright line to the end of each lyric.

Romi and Steve T had written with their requests for a good time for the Board meeting and I forwarded them to Gary. And Mary Alice, a friend of Dana Redfield’s, wrote to tell me of a dream she had, and also of a new contact for Dana, Marlene, who has also dreamt of Dana since she died. If I can encourage these friends, all of whom are professionals in their own right and deeply involved in her interests, to write about their friendship with Dana, I think it will be a strong contribution to the on-line version of The Alphabet Mosaics.

I spent the remainder of the afternoon selecting quotations from our archives on green ray. Chapter 7 is on the heart chakra and I shall greatly enjoy talking about that.

Mick and I bathed and enjoyed relaxation time until the Gaia Meditation, with Mick offering the closing prayer, and a late supper. We snuggled with the kitties and said good night at 11 PM.

2007-07-03

Thanks to Gary’s work in getting the L/L Research By-Laws digitized, and Jim’s help in revising the By-Laws, after Morning Offering I was able to send a letter to all our Board members with that document attached. I asked them all to let us know what day in the week of July 23rd works for them for having a conference-call Board meeting. We need to accept the amended By-Laws and also to appoint Melissa officially as Caretaker at Avalon, which will make her eligible to receive a stipend from L/L Research.It felt great to have that letter go out!

I spent the rest of the morning writing my UPI column for this week, on Harry Pickens and his spiritually oriented activism. It was a blessing to work with his material.

I came downstairs for lunch and immediately regretted the move, as the noise from the road work is quite a bit louder on the first floor than it is up here in my office. I lunched to an accompaniment of bangs and booms and the scariest of all, a rat-a-tat sound so loud it rivets one’s attention. It sounds a bit like the noise a CT scan or MRA makes, a bam-bam-bam-bam noise. I suppose that is the blasting. The water company delivered a copy of their blasting permit this morning, which I tucked away. It is always good to know the exact identity of the people who are blowing things up in one’s neighborhood!

I worked on Chapter 7 of 101 in the afternoon, organizing the green-ray quotations I already had because of writing articles about each chakra for UPI last year and then beginning to expand my green-ray quotes database by doing a Google search on our archive site, www.llresearch.org, using the key word, green. I shall continue that happy task tomorrow afternoon

Around the edges I corresponded with some people by e-mail. As I sent the article in to UPI I also sent a copy to Harry.

Mary Alice wrote to ask for a link to my UPI articles, as she wants to see what I have written about Dana Redfield, and I sent her that link, which is http://www.religionandspirituality.com/columnists/columns.php?FixtureID=crueckert.

I checked in with my Trust officer, Doris S. we shall need to have a meeting soon because of the huge bill we will receive from the water company when they finish their sewers. Once Jim and I get all the details together, we’ll be ready. She grasps that we have some large expenses coming up which Jim’s fees for mowing and landscaping will not cover and agreed to sell some stock to raise funds. I hate to touch Don’s trust, but it is sometimes necessary.

I wrote Aubine, who finally was able to figure out how to send her e-mail address. She is such a delightfully non-computer person and loves to write snail-mail on artistic cards, often designed by herself, but she has realized that some things are best done by e-mail. Now she has my e-mail address and I have hers. We had a hilarious telephone conversation the other day where she was trying to write down my e-mail address. The letters are sounded differently in French than in English and it must have taken us five minutes to be sure she had it right.

Community Farming Association sent a notice of their next meeting, which I forwarded to Melissa in case she would like to attend. And I responded to a nice note from Karen K, the alumni person at MacDuffie, thanking me for the seven-page update on my class and noting that she will use as much of it as will fit in their newsletter. Of course I expect drastic editing from them! But my classmates have the full story, as I sent it to them by snail-mail.

Jim called bath time just as I finished writing Karen and Mick and I had a refreshing whirlpool and then a date. As I often do at such times, I drifted happily off to sleep in the afterglow and Mick had to awaken me for the Gaia Meditation and dinner. We ended our evening watching a quirky film, “Body Count”, on the Sleuth TV station. It starred Forest Whitaker, David Caruso and Ving Rhames and what a bloody film it was. Everyone shot everyone else by the end of the story! However the ensemble work was superb, the screenplay was excellent and the production was classy, tending towards film noir. We enjoyed the performances of this very good cast.

And so to bed, at 11 PM.

2007-07-02

Not much chance of sleeping late this morning! Our little village of Anchorage is on the outskirts of Louisville. It is an island of calm and repose, preserved by the small village’s stringent zoning laws from commercial development. There are no street lights or sidewalks and, until now, no sewers. Each household has had its own septic system.

We were unable to halt progress, and the city of Louisville’s water company found enough difficulty with individual septic systems here to ram through a sewer project. Our streets have been torn up for a couple of weeks. Blasting at various points has accented our days. And this morning, at 7 AM, huge machines worked right outside our windows to dig holes for the sewer pipes along our street. The incredible noise lasted all morning. By afternoon they were further away, but I gather that our days will not be quiet for a while now, while these big pipes are placed under our streets.

After Morning Offering I enjoyed working on the quotations I need for an article on Harry Pickens I will write tomorrow. He is a special person indeed whose music I have enjoyed for years. It is a blessing to be able to share a bit of his energy.

I came down for lunch, which Gary had kindly made for me as well as himself, and found Pam doing the statements for Jim’s Lawn Service, with Gary hard at work at the L/L Inbox. He has worked with the Mackinac Island duo, Nelson and Bob, who are producing the gathering, by telephone fairly extensively in order to nail down the itinerary for our travel and the shape of the gathering. Gary finished digitizing the L/L Research By-Laws during the afternoon and sent them to me upstairs, so now Mick and I can rewrite the By-Laws and send them to the Board members as we plan our mid-year meeting.

My afternoon was spent on writing just a bit more about yellow ray – the subjects of ghosts and of the investment of pets by their owners’ love was covered. Then I read through the whole chapter – which tops out at 22 pages – and declared myself satisfied. It’s a grand feeling to conclude a chapter! Onward now to Chapter 7, which discusses the heart chakra.

Jim called bath time as I was working to clear my desk, so I got little done there. However, I now know what I need to do! Progress of a kind! We had a relaxing whirlpool and then watched Democracy Now. It was a fascinating show tonight. Amy Goodman interviewed Daniel Ellsberg, who broke the “Pentagon Papers” story in 1971 by making the masses of material about the cover-up concerning the Gulf of Tonkin information, which was given falsely and deliberately, available to large newspapers all over the country. Needless to say, he drew many similarities between his war, Viet Nam, and the present situation, as far as the war’s being sold to the American people by bogus information – in Nam, the Gulf of Tonkin info and in Iraq, the info about WMD and Hussein being tied to Al Qaeda.

We found a block of Star Trek Enterprise and enjoyed that until time for the Gaia Meditation. I offered the closing prayer tonight. After our chapel time, Mick and I supped and then went over the L/L Research By-Laws. We altered them a good deal, removing a lot of material completely, since we do not have members, and simplifying the various paragraphs a good deal. We are now ready for me to set that meeting of the Board.

We went back to Star Trek and patting our kitties and said good night at about 11 PM.

2007-07-01

Happy July! We enter the last half of this year today! It’s amazing how quickly the time flees away.

The golden rain trees were in bloom as I headed to church, and the chicory along the lanes was in full bloom as well. We had a good service, singing “America the Beautiful” at the offertory. I was tickled to make it through the whole service without having to run to the bathroom. When in choir robes, in the chancel, on a Sunday morning, the last thing one wishes is to have to leave one’s seat and I was OK today! I really think the cranio-sacral treatments and homeopathic injections are balancing my system.

The remainder of Jim’s and my day was filled with film-watching. We have carved out Sundays as true Sabbath rests, even to moving our weekly meditation meetings to Saturday for next season in order to achieve that on a continuing basis. We had a triple feature!

First we saw “Catch a Fire”, a slow moving, dark film about apartheid. Tim Robbins played a Boer policeman involved in harassing the political activists trying to create a free South Africa. It was most intelligently written and had a lush production.

Second on our play list was Kirsten Dunst’s “Marie Antoinette”. Gorgeously costumed, Kirsten did well by her notorious heroine. Sofia Coppola’s script felt like a reality show – Marie becoming Paris Hilton.

We paused for a nap after this, and roused at eventide to take a bath, do our stretching exercises and view the third film, “The Secret Life of Words” with Tim Robbins and Sarah Polley. This was a gem of a film! Polley is a strong and credible actor, and her ensemble work with Robins was extraordinary. This was my pick of the day!

After supper and the Gaia Meditation, we headed for bed around 11 PM. It was a true day off! My only L/L work was a bit of correspondence with Romi and Mary R concerning Dana Redfield’s drawings.