2007-12-30

What a grand Sunday! After I offered my prayers, wrote my Holly Journal and my Camelot Journal entries and awakened Mick, we settled down to a day of housecleaning and movies. While I lazily worked my puzzles and wrote a letter of encouragement and support to Gary B’s Dad, who is having a tough time right now, Mick cleaned Camelot from top to bottom, leaving the house smelling sweet and looking pretty.

Then, over lunch, we started to watch “When Nietzsche Wept”, about which I can say little except that the costumes and production were simply lovely. The film put both of us to sleep in short order. I can note, however, that Ben Cross looks like the silhouette on the front of the Smith Brothers cough drop boxes of my youth with the beard he affected for his role, and that Armand Assante’s moustache was truly magnificent!

Something was wrong with the DVD we had rented of the new “Pirates of the Caribbean” film, and all it would show us was the trailers. We had to put off watching Johnny Depp and the crew disport themselves until next week, because when Mick went to replace our damaged copy, they were out of copies at the video store. So we watched “Why We Fight” instead. It was a good, mainstream look at the military-industrial-congressional-think-tank complex which has landed us so handily in the suds for so many years, supporting war-based programs with our money and war-based thinking with our sons and daughters’ dead bodies.

I think it will do well in informing and awakening America to the situation, as it avoids using the radical and liberal speakers which most such documentaries include. And yet it stated clearly that our nation has chosen to become the new Rome. Imperial America is not going to do any better than imperial Rome, suggested the narrator.

We ended our triple-feature movie day by taking in “Black Book”. It is a Dutch 2006 thriller World War II film by director Paul Verhoeven, starring Carice van Houten, Sebastian Koch, Thom Hoffman, and Halina Reijn, none of whom I had heard of before. They did a good job of creating a suspenseful story with excellent ensemble and good production values. The sound track was also delightfully authentic, taking me back to the music of my early childhood – I was born in 1943, and my parents played all these old songs on their record player, which back then took 78-rpm discs only.

Mick offered the closing prayer at the Gaia Meditation tonight. And we both gave thanks for a most restful and restorative Sabbath day, and for each other's good company.

2007-12-29

We had such a lovely, lazy Saturday! Instead of writing in my Holly Journal and Camelot Journal when I awoke, I went downstairs and bunked in with Mick, and we slept gloriously late! After Morning Offering, Mick went on a marathon round of errands while I came upstairs and wrote the journals which I had put off so we could snuggle, barely getting them done before Mick came home with our treat of fast food – Mexican today.

In the afternoon, while Mick set out to begin the yearly maintenance routine on his three Skag mowers – counting in Steve F’s wonderful donation of the 72”-cut riding mower bound for Avalon in the spring – I worked on Chapter 9 of 101, reading through the section on journaling and finalizing it and then doing a search for quotes on faith for the next and final section of this chapter. I thoroughly enjoyed immersing myself in these thoughts of the nature of faith and look forward to the writing ahead, and to finishing Chapter 9.

After a bath and a light supper, Mick and I welcomed Romi, Susanna Angela and Morris and his son, Wayne, for a channeling meditation. This was our last live broadcast. From now on, the sessions will be available for hearing only on BBS Radio (www.bbsradio.com). They air at 10:00 at night, Pacific Time, on Saturdays and again at 6:00 Sunday mornings, the week after the channeling occurs, and when we do not have a new channeling, an older one is aired.

The question for this session was about slowing down to now and appreciating the present moment. It will be interesting to edit the transcript when it is ready. I can certainly use all the advice which they have to offer on staying in the present moment!

It was such a rare treat to visit with Morris twice in two days, and to meet Wayne for the first time since he was a whippersnapper. He is now grown and full of accomplishments, a doctor with his choice of residencies. They are both beings of beauty and light, and the group at meditation was so powerful that I was wakeful – happily so – until about two in the morning! We enjoyed Romi’s Love Tea and Susanna’s delicious homemade and distinctly different tiramisu along with our conversation afterwards. Truly, it was a day of bountiful blessings!

2007-12-28

It was a rainy, gray day with temperatures hovering around 40 F. Nevertheless, out into it went Mick after Morning Offering. He spent all day cleaning leaves out of customers’ gutters and yards and making everything look pretty for holiday parties at their houses. He announced after his day’s work was finished that he had made a record income for 2007, which is a miracle, given the amount of draught and killing heat we had this season, both of which stopped grass growing for most of the summer. He attributes his success to the many extra chores he took on as handyman all year. Kudos, Mick! He is the hardest-working man in Christendom, I sometimes feel. Pete Rose, move over. it's Mickey Hustle all the way!

I was still feeling snowed under and worked to make a complete list of that which I need to do. That always makes me feel better, even if I am still behind. Hopefully in the next few days I can bat away at that list, and also spend part of each day writing on 101, which I have not done since before Christmas. It is an inconvenient failing of mine that I cannot work creatively when my office is in a mess.

Melissa came for the day and she and I went out to do errands, getting a nice frame for a print Dianne S. gave me, resupplying Camelot's kitchen with juice glasses, of which we have broken about a half dozen lately, picking up my cleaning and finding a replacement lap pillow for my Mama chair downstairs.

Melissa did a grand job of putting the print in the frame for me and rearranging the pictures, clock, framed poem and other items on our back living room wall to include it. She and I also ganged up and recovered the shoebox which Mick uses to collect his Jim's Lawn Service receipts with new, very resilient paper. It had begun to fall apart after six years of constant use.

With what was left of the afternoon, I made some needed doctor-appointment calls and then settled in to write the detailed description of my talk at the UFO Congress. Having done that and sent it off, I duplicated our L/L Research Annual Meeting agenda and the supporting financial reports and got things all ready for our meeting.

Morris H, our beloved vice-president and long-time friend, came for a visit, bringing pizza and lots of wonderful energy. We four had a good conversation over dinner and then we all got on the telephones for our conference-call meeting. All the reports were offered and our business was accomplished in record time and with lots of good feelings and affection on the line as well as the business of satisfying IRS requirements for non-profit organizations.

Mick offered the closing prayer after the Gaia Meditation tonight.

2007-12-27

A day of dramatic skies and sometime sunshine greeted Mick and me at Morning Offering. I spent my morning accessing reports on L/L Research from QuickBooks and figuring out how to e-mail them to my computer upstairs, and then coming up to work on the agenda. I got it organized and typed out, and sent it to Gary to send on to everyone on the Board, in preparation for the Annual Board Meeting tomorrow evening. Gary is being most helpful, continuing to work on the Annual Meeting with me even though he is on vacation visiting his folks in Ohio.

Mick lost his specs, probably having them swiped off yesterday by a vagrant branch while he was taking down a customer’s wild honeysuckle hedge. So we went to the ophthalmologist to get his eyes checked and order new glasses. I drove him, as the drops they give you there to see your eyes better render everything hazy and glare-y afterwards, and it is no fun driving like that! We had a nice lunch at Frisch’s, home of a very good burger rather salaciously titled a “Big Boy”, which is situated close by there. Frisch's also has excellent cole slaw, the only raw food I can eat. Yum!

My afternoon was spent batting away at details which have overwhelmed my office. By bath time, I had chewed my way through the worst of it. I got Paul M’s latest set of questions for tonight’s session typed up and placed by Mick’s chair, as he will be asking the questions. I got a new version of my prescriptions list made – Nurse Ecklund had made several changes in my IC medication when I visited the Hibbard Clinic and I need to keep current with that. I collected a low-calorie, fairly easy recipe for chicken lo mein. I worked on the packet for the UFO Congress, getting materials for them together. I compiled my list of people whom I owe thank-you notes for Christmas gifts.

And I wrote Ian J and Romi V to thank them for a magnificent surprise. Ian, our web guy, had produced a compilation of the first 25 years of issues of Light/Lines, L/L Research’s newsletter. The 104 issues cover 1982 to 2007! They propose our publishing it in very limited quantities, waiting for orders to come in to order them from lulu.com. It makes a handsome book, quite large and heavy, actually, but quite easy to read.

It presented me with a dilemma, for after I finish editing this last A/Q session, I had promised Ro to work on Dana Redfield’s beautiful little book, The Alphabet Mosaics. So I asked him to choose whether I should write the introduction to the compilation and get that ready to go first, or whether I should get Dana’s book edited out first. Delicious options!

After our bath, Mick and I ate dinner and then welcomed Romi and Susanna Angela, who had come over to join us for Paul’s personal channeling session. It was a good group and good questions from Paul and we had a lovely session.

Romi made up a batch of Love Tea and shared shortbread and chocolates as well after the session, and we enjoyed conversation until the Gaia Meditation, at which we offered each other the Peace.

After they left, Mick and I celebrated our twinned lives with a marvelously inspiriting energy exchange that left me tingling all night! What a joy to be able to romp in the fields of the Lord at my advanced age! I marvel at my luck!

2007-12-26

‘Twas the day after Christmas, and all in the house slept late and arose glad to see the continuing sunshine! After Morning Offering, Mick went to work at one of his customers'. A tree had fallen and the power company had only taken the tree down to the ground and off the wires. So Mick cut the entire tree up and disposed of it before his lunch! Then he went back to the yard and continued cutting, as the customer had already asked him to hew down a hedge of wild honeysuckle which borders her land to the north. It was a full day for the Mick!

I called Steve T to remind him of the upcoming Annual Meeting of L/L Research on Friday. I shall need to call back tomorrow if he does not return my call, as I need, still, to give him the telephone number for the meeting, which is by telephone. Gary was able to send e-mail to all the other Board Members.

I also called Susanna Angela to set up a date for lunch. She is at home today while Romi works and I thought it would be nice to offer her hospitality. She was delighted to accept, and we had lunch at KT’s, a favorite spot of mine, very nostalgic to me because my parents used to love that place, back when it was a somewhat raffish joint. These days it has been rebuilt and is now far more respectable, but still with good food and good vibes.

I dropped her off at the mall, as she wanted to experience the American Mall, and we certainly have some pips here. I do not frequent them, considering it too expensive. Give me consignment shopping any day! However it did look like fun! The many, many stores were all offering huge after-Christmas sales.

I came home feeling very poorly, but was able to edit two more Aaron/Q’uo Dialogues before bath time. I now have only one session left to edit!!!! What a jolt that is! It is time to compose the Introduction to this book!

I worked on Paul M’s questions for his Q’uo channeling session tomorrow night, tweaking them, and sent them on to Gary to send to Paul. They should make up a good session.

Mick offered the closing prayer at the Gaia Meditation tonight.

2007-12-25

Christmas Day! What a marvelous thing to experience! This year's celebration was spent at home and felt so very good. Mick and I made our Morning Offering and greeted Melissa, had stayed with us overnight. We opened our presents amongst the three of us and then finished the cooking for our feast, Mick and I putting together the Hot Brown stacks and getting them all ready to bake while Mel made onion dip to have with chips, and cut up crudités to go with the ranch dressing dip she made.

Just as we finished our preparations, Eric S and his mother, Phyllis, arrived, followed soon by Carmen, Romi and his guest from Italy, Susanna Angela. We had wine and most enjoyable conversation before turning again to opening the presents amongst us all.

Our feast soon followed! Yum! We ate until we could eat no more, stretched a bit and then turned to playing a game of “Farm-opoly” which Mel had given Mick and me. It is the board game, Monopoly, with everything renamed to sound down-homey. It was silly but fun.

The whole day had a lovely glow to it, and we were sorry to see the event end, but a day can only last so long! So we bade farewell to our guests and offered the Gaia Meditation all by ourselves, with me praying at the end.

2007-12-24

Christmas Eve was a lovely, fair, sunny, chilly day with lots of cold, gusty winds to make the air smell like wine. After Morning Offering Mick took on the work of cleaning the last of the leaves from our yard! Just as the cobbler’s kids go without shoes, our yard was the last to be cleaned, waiting until all his customers' yards were all neatened. Camelot looked very spiffy when he finished.

Meanwhile I ordered some work socks for Mick, looking in vain for cheap ones on www.sierratradingpost.com and finally settling for some socks on another site that looked sturdy and warm. I had to do this on Jim’s computer as my own laptop, Jenny Traveller, had Taken a Notion and was dead as a doornail. I also wrote my journals downstairs, and wore my back out sitting up. I am blissfully pampered, usually, by being able to tilt back a bit in my office mama chair and work on my laptop very comfortably despite my various aches and pains.

Fortunately Melissa came down from Avalon, having left plenty of food for the chickens, the bull calf and our newest animal, the cat. Melissa was softhearted and took a stray from the feed store, a tortoise-shell American domestic shorthair. By the end of the day we had settled on calling her Raffles. Raffles may well be pregnant, Mel says. Uh oh!! Nothing like being in the kitten business! As the Elk would say, “Beautiful!” But they will be good mousers, and heaven knows, field mice are abundant at Avalon!

Mel fixed my computer after we had a very restorative and delicious lunch together at Cheddars. Yum! This has been a banner week for good food. And tomorrow will top the bill, for sure!

It took the computer's battery about three hours to charge, and then was good as new. The problem was a loose connection from the surge protector into the wall socket. She suggests we upgrade that socket to make it three-prong and more secure.

Then Mel and Mick together performed the miracle of Christmas lights, putting icicle strips up along the front roof and porch top and stringing a line of colored lights all across our front and side hedges. From the street it looks wonderful, and it makes your heart lift to see all the lights and gaiety! Mick even found some blinking lights and decorated a cedar tree in the front yard with them to finish off the ensemble. It is great! Now we are ready for our guests tomorrow.

We three had a lovely evening, after Mick and I had our bath and a date, my amorous husband once again transporting us both to sacred beauty, pleasure and worship as we shared sexual energy. We came downstairs to rejoin Mel and watched a good episode – Christmas based of course – of CSI and then put on some jazzy Christmas music and played Scrabble. It was mellow and much fun.

Mick offered the closing prayer at the Gaia Meditation.

2007-12-23

Our Sabbath was simply delightful! We slept late and arose to do puzzles and read the paper in a very leisurely way before Mick cleaned house and I came upstairs to write my journals, which I did not do earlier this morning as I overslept after experiencing a very active early night with IC symptoms.

We had lunch as we began our first film of three for the day, called “Once”. Glen Hansard of The Frames and Marketa Irglova starred in this quite charming musical. It all takes place in a week, where the two musicians create music together for an audition CD. I loved the performances, the music and the talents of both stars.

We started our second film right away, eager to enjoy the antics of Jackie Chan in
"Rush Hour 3”, and Chris Tucker's as well. We were not at all disappointed. They did homage to several old films, including a new take on Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s On First” routine, making us laugh and wax nostalgic. The action was very good, the stunts were typically improbable and the bad guys were foiled in good style.

After a break, we watched our third film as the evening came on. This was the pick of the day from a critic’s perspective. It was an extremely good movie by any standards, telling a story very well, with superb action direction, the kind where even when a lot happens you know what is occurring. That is a real accomplishment, and one which action directors often muff. You know people got clobbered, but the details are hazy in the rush of short clips and loud special effects.

The acting, both from the stars – Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper and Jennifer Garner – and from the ensemble players was Oscar-quality and I would not be surprised to see both leading and supporting players garner (pun intended) nominations. Especially, exquisitely excellent was the work done by Ashraf Barhoum, who played a Saudi Colonel responsible for the security of the investigating team played by the stars plus Jason Bateman and Kyle Chandler, both of whom were also excellent.

And from a topical point of view, the film had a clean accuracy concerning very distressing events and issues. The events of the film were fictional, but inspired by the bombings of American personnel at Riyadh and Khobar. The attitudes of both sides were not at all sensationalized, but offered clearly and with compassion. And the deep issue of motivation and its place in ethical considerations was beautifully addressed at the end of the film, when two whispered messages are revealed. Both sides, looking at the same situation from opposite points of view, express the desire for revenge on those who have murdered their loved ones, for “killing them all”. How human is that emotion, and how very deadly to the cause of peace. I cannot say enough good about this film!

I offered the closing prayer at the Gaia Meditation tonight.

2007-12-22

Happy Winter Solstice! And almost, happy full moon! It was a banner day today, the warmth of a 70-degree day fueling the good cheer of the season. After Morning Offering, Mick and I cooked some side dishes for Romi’s sausages – stuffed eggs, baked beans, slaw and potato salad, the eternal picnic favorites. Then Mick cleaned the kitchen.

I had a Christmas manicure scheduled right after lunch, and had the best fun getting my nails all gussied up for the holidays with a pretty green nail color overlaid with little heart and flower decals in red.

When I returned, Mick was working on the Christmas tree and soon had it up, while I hung all of our Christmas cards on jambs and overheads in all our doorways inside. We paused for a bath and then welcomed Romi and Carmen for our winter solstice party.

The wood was so wet from all the recent rain that we could not light a bonfire, so we lit a kerosene lantern after we had eaten all our wonderful food, and did our winter solstice ritual, “This is the night, the longest night, the longest night of the year. What shall we give to the night?” We gave the night all manner of woes like hunger, anger, war, judgment, jealousy, politicians and bad hair days!

Then we had our regular meditation meeting, talking around the circle and enjoying a lovely silent meditation together. What a treat! We ended by saying “Peace” to each other in a mutual Gaia Meditation prayer, as it was just 9 PM when we finished.

Romi made some love tea and we enjoyed conversation until we began nodding off!

2007-12-21

Although the days before Christmas are dwindling down, we had a spring day today, the temperature rising almost to 60 F. and tomorrow; it rises up almost to 70 F! It’s lovely to have the respite from the cold at just the right time for Mick to finish up the most intense of his JLS work and have a day tomorrow to focus on Camelot's Christmas decorations.

After Morning Offering Mick sailed off to bag the last of his customer’s leaves, for a total of 217 bags. And she wants him to come back and get the leaves out of the ground covers next week! In fact, Mick reports that he has 6 jobs stacked up for next week. All of them are lawn maintenance chores unconnected with mowing, of course. He has been most fortunate all year in being able to pay our bills with non-mowing jobs, in a year where excessive draught and heat has slowed the mowing drastically.

I had a counseling session with Paul M, a blessed time of energy exchange between two seeking souls. I believe I was able to share some good resources with Paul. Next week we will have a personal channeling session to follow up on the counseling.

Then I took Gary to lunch at P. J. Chang’s Chinese Bistro – Gary’s choice of places to eat. Mick and I wanted to give him a real treat in thanks for his stellar work all year and he loves to eat out at nice places, so this was his Christmas treat. We also wrote him a little note giving him a much deserved raise. I was fortunate enough to be tagging along and got to enjoy Chang's wonderful food along with Gary! Their garlic noodles were the best! Mick could not be with us as he was bagging leaves and cleaning gutters! So we brought him home a wicked dessert called the Great Wall of Chocolate. Oh my! He will be feasting on that cake for a couple of days!

In the afternoon I vetted the 101, Chapter 9 section on prayer and did a first draft of the section on journaling. This is the penultimate section in this chapter. Then, I have two chapters to go in this project, as I split the present chapter into two, since it was running so long. It feels good to progress on this project!

I heard from the ear specialist who is giving me a break and will arrange an “intervention”, by which he means he will put tubes in my ears in January if on examining me on January 5th, he still finds me stopped up. So far, that is my condition and I am thrilled that he won’t make me wait until February as he originally planned to relieve this uncomfortable condition.

I sent Gary some thoughts for Lorena L, who has done such a wonderful job with the prisoner ministry for L/L Research, on the newsletter she would like to create for the prisoners, so they can talk with each other about spiritual matters. It is difficult to find people to talk to about the Law of One in any environment, including prison. So she is offering a real service.

I encouraged her to go ahead and apply for an ISSN Bowker periodical number that will identify this periodical. We have such a number for Light/Lines and it helps to document our work in this area, for history’s sake. In fact, come to think of it, I really need to get an ISSN number for our Gatherings Newsletter.

I also wrote Steve E an e-letter encouraging him to launch B4 before I give my talk at Laughlin in February, so people at the convention can use our secure-site store if they want to buy our stuff.

Mick has been very amorous lately, a delightful thing for me and a blessing indeed! Praise the Lord! We had a lovely date and then a sweet nap in the afterglow until time for supper and the Gaia Meditation Mick offered the ending prayer tonight.

2007-12-20

This was a chopped-up sort of day! After Morning Offering I took Mick to the dealer’s to retrieve his truck and then we missed connections. Instead of taking the working tools and so forth out of my car at the dealer’s Mick went on home while I waited at the dealer’s for a half hour. Finally I went in and checked, and they said Mick was long gone. So I drove home. About halfway there, I saw Mick driving back the other way, fearing that I had been in an accident. It was a time -consuming snafu, but all ended well!

For the remainder of the morning I created recipes for our Christmas feast. We will have my version of Hot Browns, green beans in mushroom-Madeira sauce, acorn squash a la Carla, corn pudding with basil, pineapple relish and cranberry-pecan stuffing. Yum! Melissa is coming down to town to help with the cooking on Christmas Eve, bless her!

After lunch I worked a bit with Gary, signing tax receipts for the donations which are coming in – and thank you, thank you for them! Then I went to a doctor’s appointment to check on the progress of my interstitial cystitis. When I got home, I had just enough time to edit another Aaron/Q’uo session before bath time.

Mick offered the closing prayer at the Gaia Meditation tonight.

2007-12-19

We had a pretty, sunny day, a blessing once the weather breaks for winter in Kentucky. I finished editing the November 10th channeling, which was good enough that I printed out a copy for Mick to consider as our next Light/Lines material. Meanwhile Mick continued to bag leaves for his customer with the large, forested yard. I shall have to ask him the total number of bags filled for these people! It has to be huge.

He rounded me up for a trip in to the Dodge repair shop at noon, so that they could re-fix his truck. I came with him because I had the feeling that they would not be able to fix this glitch while Mick waited, and sure enough, they could not. So we had a nice ride home through the incredibly heavy and rather festive holiday traffic around the malls and then Mick used Stanley to go down to Steve F’s once again to help him box things up for moving to Colorado. Mick says that they are close to finished with packing the rented trailer, a 26-foot-long space nearly filled now with crystals! And a few books, Mick said.

Mick will return to Steve’s for the final bit of loading and then they are off and Mick is finally free to do some Christmas decorating for Camelot. I think Steve’s needs have eaten up the time Mick has available for putting lights on the house outside, but hopefully he can still manage getting a tree up inside!

I spent my afternoon working on Chapter 9 of 101, vetting the section on prayer and then focusing on the fact that I need to change the shape of my outline to match my plans to make two chapters out of one. It’s just a long, long chapter if I don’t! It stands now at 24 pages in manuscript, and I still have two sections to go before I can break the chapter.

I got my outline changed and began looking for a good quote to open the section on journaling, a very good technique for working in consciousness. I interrupted myself to write a fax to Dr. Brown letting him know that the prescriptions he had given me for my earache were not working, and I was stopping them.

Then I realized that if we wanted to get the winter issue of Light/Lines out in 2007, I needed to get the re-massaged final edit of the November 10th channeling to Ian, along with my notes for that issue. So I ended the afternoon’s work with that blessed chore.

After our bath, Mick’s interests became delightfully amorous, and he and I romped in the fields of the Lord, sharing much good energy and then resting together until dinnertime.

Mick offered the closing prayer at the Gaia Meditation tonight.

2007-12-18

Mick and I made our Morning Offering and then he set out to devote most of his day to bagging leaves for a customer with a huge yard and a veritable forest in it. I began the editing on our November tenth channeling session and worked until I ran out of time and had to stop working in order to go to the hairdressers for a haircut.

After the hair appointment, Mick and I stopped by the Dodge dealers to pick up Mick’s truck, Sibyl Dakota, which was finally repaired – supposedly! However, on the way home, the truck's parking brake light came on, although the parking brake was not engaged. Then another trouble light came on. He called the dealer and they said, “Bring it back!” He made an appointment to do so tomorrow.

Hmpf! Some clever repairmen, eh? Creating their own work!

With the remainder of the afternoon, I reviewed the last section on meditation and approved it. Then I worked to finish the first draft of a section on prayer. I finished just as Mick called bath time.

Romi visited this evening and he and Gary joined us for the Gaia Meditation. Gary prayed the closing prayer.

2007-12-17

The day dawned sunny and bright, a lovely change from this past week of pearly-gray skies and threatening weather. After Morning Offering, I worked to write my journals, as I had completely overslept and did not get to them before breakfast. I got them done and then addressed a continuing subject with Steve E concerning B4 by e-mail.

Steve has hoped to continue the live webcasts which Romi will wrap up this Christmas. I feel, on the other hand, that with BBS sending our channelings out each weekend on a permanent basis, that we are in good shape there. I hope that I responded to Steve without raining on his wonderful enthusiasm!

I had a date with Connie M. for lunch. She lives and works on the Indiana side of the Ohio River, so over the bridge I went and had just a wonderful girlfriend time with her, catching up. It is grand to see her thriving again after a very difficult few years working with her mother and her right livelihood. It became a toxic tangle, where she not only was superintending her mother’s vast apartment complex - a huge job - but also catching tons of flak from her Mom for perceived errors.

Now, that tangle has been unsnarled. The apartments have been sold. Connie no longer lives in proximity to her Mom, who continues in a harshly negative downward spiral in her own life. Connie has a new job and is beginning to see her life take good shape again. Praise the Lord!

I returned to Camelot and handed the Outback over to Mick, who hooked his trailer up to it and took the big crates for crystals down to Steve F’s in Shelbyville. He will be returning there on Wednesday and Thursday to help Steve get all loaded up for the drive to Colorado. Unfortunately, Mick’s truck, Sibyl, is still in the repair shop at the dealer’s, so we are still sharing Stanley.

For the rest of the day I worked on the book, reading over and changing a good bit of the section on meditation and really feeling good about that. It is a strong section. I believe I shall need to divide this chapter into two chapters, as I have much left to discuss and have over 20 pages already written. But that’s OK. I like having 11 chapters instead of 10. Eleven is a master number, after all. I did get a start on the section on prayer, but ran out of time and will need to take it up tomorrow afternoon.

For some reason, the cottage cheese I had for dinner tonight gave me a tummy ache extraordinaire, and I spent the remainder of the evening curled up in a ball of woe! Mick was very kind and I cannot say enough good things about how he strengthens and comforts me on a day-to-day basis.

I offered the closing prayer at the Gaia Meditation tonight.

2007-12-16

I was feeling marginally better today, but still felt quite rocky and let my Sabbath be largely a day of rest. I enjoyed the Sunday puzzles while Mick cleaned house, and we had lunch together. Then we watched “Ocean’s 13”, the latest romp from the in-crowd. What a cast they had! George Clooney, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, Al Pacino, Elliott Gould, Don Cheadle, Carl Reiner, Ellen Barkin and Andy Garcia collaborated to have fun in this silly caper flick which was, nevertheless, greatly enjoyable.

Mick spent the remainder of the afternoon making those two boxes for Steve F’s two biggest crystals, both of them topping seven feet. Those are some Big Crates!! I collected a couple of interesting looking recipes, for Korean Chicken and for Apple Cake with Brown Sugar Icing. Then I wrote a thoughtful letter to Talitha L, who had sent me a reading of my physical condition.

After our bath, Mick and I enjoyed a sweet tryst and lingered for a while in the afterglow before coming downstairs for supper and the Gaia Meditation. Mick offered the prayer at the end tonight.

2007-12-15

This was one of those days that was utterly alternative! I awoke in such dim shape that after Morning Offering I went back to bed. I rested and napped for most of the morning and then got dressed and straightened up in my upstairs office, making a list of the things not associated with creative work which I needed to do.

I had quite a few forms to fill out,for Medicare, for the eye doctor who will look at my droopy eyelids, which are occluding my vision, in January and for the UFO Congress. I tucked those papers in my purse and asked Mick if I could hitch a ride with him when he went down to Steve’s in Shelbyville to deliver the two crates he had spent the morning making for two of Steve’s larger crystals. It was rotten weather out, but a ride sounded good, since I was not feeling well enough to create or edit.

Jim and Gary loaded up his trailer with the boxes and we had an eerily beautiful drive down. Some trees were icing, and it was raining hard the whole way. The temperature was right at 35 F all afternoon. We were receiving that big storm that nearly stranded us in Missouri. It finally got over being stalled there and came gusting and blasting, sleeting, snowing and raining through Kentucky on its way to bedevil New England.

Steve was busily packing up his hundreds of crystals for the move to Colorado. He's already taken one load out there! He is joining his ex-wife and her new mate there, as well as Ruth, whom I met at Steve’s today. She was wrapping and boxing smaller crystals in the kitchen and we had a very enjoyable talk while the Mick and Steve, plus Steve’s brother and another friend, carted the larger crystals from various parts of the mansion out to the garage for loading. While Ruth and I talked, I got my paperwork done.

There are still two crystals which do not have crates, and Mick agreed to build them as well, which is noble of him, considering that he is not a skilled carpenter. On the way back we picked up the wood he will need for that.

We had a channeling meditation tonight. Mick was unable to be with us, as he was working away at the remaining crates and has a deadline to meet. Romi and Carmen joined me for a very nice meeting, a good talk around the circle and then a channeling session answering a question about the Christmas season and the enforced and ritualistic giving if it. I look forward to reading the transcript when I edit it.

Romi and Carmen stayed for a while, drinking Romi’s Love Tea and conversing, until we were all overcome with yawns and said good night.

2007-12-14

This is a banner day! It is Friday on the very last week of Jim’s Lawn Service’s mowing season! Mick says that after today, all his customers’ lawns are put to bed, with the exception of those leaves that have waited until late to fall, a specialty of oak and sycamore trees around here. He will be dealing with them for some time to come, but only on a part-time basis. It is now officially his off-season!!!! Yay Mick!! My hero!

After Morning Offering he and Gary were off to crunch the leaves, bag the leaves and clean the gutters of Mick’s people. I spent the morning and the first part of the afternoon working on Chapter 9 of 101 and wrote through the first draft of the section on meditation. It is not just as I would like it yet, but it is a good beginning! This will be a very long chapter! I am already at 20 pages and not halfway through my outline.

In the late afternoon I edited yet another Aaron/Q’uo Dialogue, leaving only four to do! This is so great! It’s exciting to be steaming towards the end of two projects at once. I am trying to turn Judy’s pre-edited sessions around the same day, so that I do not create a bottleneck there. Barbara is also being speedy about finishing them when I send my edit to her – she edits the Aaron part of each session.

I wrote Ian about the matter of preparing a short written policy on links and on people using our material on their web sites. A good many people have started to do so, as one can see by googling. They don’t create anything of their own but just collect their favorite writings. We need to ask these people to offer copyright notices and links back to our archive site.

Mick offered the prayer at the close of the Gaia Meditation tonight.

2007-12-13

What a good day this was! I can do nothing about what Holly calls my “present infirmity” but by golly I can work around it!. It was raining when we arose, so after Morning Offering Mick decided to retrieve Steve F’s big Skag mower from Steve’s estate in Shelbyville. There was a big question as to whether the mower, which has a six-foot cut, would fit on Mick’s trailer, which is 6’ 2” across! But it did fit, with an inch to spare on each side! Mick used my car to pull the trailer. It feels so good to help him out. Usually it is the other way around!

Meanwhile I worked to catch up with various details in the morning, knowing my time was too short to get into creative mode. I got a good bit done in the downstairs office to restore it to order after being gone for over a week. The Christmas cards are starting to pile up and I am stacking them until I have a chance to tape them up to the door jambs in the living room and office. I love the festive look of them on display. It is like being surrounded with love. As the Beach Boys sing it so well, it's "good vibrations"!

Dianne came to pick me up at about 11:30 and we had a fine lunch together and got all caught up on girlfriend stuff over burgers at Ruby Tuesday’s. She has now consulted a doctor about her husband’s condition and gotten his medications changed, and the violence he was showing as his mind, overcome by a lifetime of epilepsy, deteriorates, is now under control. Thank God. She is alone with him, and he is larger than she, and stronger. I believe all is well there now, and that eases my mind greatly. She offers a beautiful service to him day after day and year after year, taking care of him like a toddler. Her love for him is wonderful to see and an inspiration to me.

When I got home, I tackled the part of Chapter 9 of 101 where I define the terms ‘discipline of the personality’ and ‘work in consciousness’. it's a delicate matter to do so, and i was blessed that Holly was with me. When Jim called bath time, I had just finished my first read-through after composing and was ready to quit for the day.

My only regret is that there is so much desk work that needs to be done, and so much e-mail that needs to be answered, and I am not getting to it. However my little voice is telling me to progress on this book as fast as possible.

After our bath, Mick and I played in the fields of the Lord, exchanging sexual energy and unconditional love and basking in our afterglow until suppertime. Mick offered the ending prayer at the Gaia Meditation tonight.

2007-12-12

Another alternate day developed, as rain swept through the region and Mick needed to get his truck to the dealers’ repair shop. We did that before Morning Offering, almost before first light, dropping the truck off at 7:30 and then coming home in Stanley Outback to make our Morning Offering.

I came upstairs to work, but only had time to do my two journals, the Holly Journal and the Camelot Journal, before it was time to go with Melissa, who had come down from Avalon to do town chores, to do some of those chores. I was able to tell her about Steve F’s donating that great big mower to L/L Research! She will have a relatively easy time of it now during mowing season and be able to care for that all by herself, which is a real boon for us all. We had a good planning session over lunch.

I had an appointment to get my toes cut right after that, something I cannot do for myself any more with my half-numb and arthritic fingers, and Jim dropped me off there and then got a ball to put on my hitch so he could use Stanley for lawn work until his truck is fixed. It turned out to be an expensive repair this time. Something called a field wire had gone bad, and the truck could not hold a charge. It will be close to $1,000.00 to fix this time. That’s high! But I believe it is still cheaper than buying a new truck, and so does Mick. Thank heavens Stanley is such a good little car/truck - it is rated as a truck - as Jim does not have to miss any mowing at all and can go right on working.

I spent the early evening opening a lot of mail that had accumulated during our trip to Nebraska and dealing with that. So I did not get to work on the 101 book today, my only regret about an otherwise very useful day.

Donations are coming in at a gratifying rate for our matching funds campaign! Now that I know for sure when I will be speaking in Laughlin, I will create a letter to our mailing lists informing them of that, inviting them to attend, and also asking for donations to keep us going in 2008. I signed a bunch of tax receipt letters for donors before Mick’s and my bath.

I offered the prayer after the Gaia Meditation tonight.

2007-12-11

Today was much calmer! After Morning Offering I cleared some papers in the downstairs office before coming up to work on another short section of Chapter 9, which I finished. I also vetted the last, rather long section which i had written. Now I am ready to tackle the large subject of work in consciousness. 101’s writing is coming along again! That feels so good!

After lunch I fielded an e-mail from Ian concerning our work on finishing up the Aaron/Q’uo Dialogues project. He thinks we shall need to read the whole manuscript through again after we finish. I sent a note around to him, Ian, Judy and Ba concerning this. I asked Judy if she can do this read-through, given that after reading a couple of the sessions, she thinks it is needed.

Then I did some more editing on the interview Bill Tush did with Don Elkins and me in January of 1978 on the TBS show, Open Up. I got stymied on trying to find a reference for John Taylor’s “Superminds”. Gary eventually found it for me! I will be very happy to have this text up on our archive site, as Don says some really good things.

Romi came over for a visit this evening and offered the ending prayer at the Gaia Meditation.

2007-12-10

What a gloriously mixed-up day! It was not raining much yet after Morning Offering, so Jim tried to go do some leaf-crunching. However his truck died. He rode his mower home to get me, and together we went over to jump-start his truck. He was headed up to the store to buy a new battery when the truck died again.

He walked home and took my car up to the store to buy the battery, but discussion with the people there made him feel he needed to have the truck looked at. So we jumped the truck again and this time he made it to the store, where they checked him out, replaced his battery and recommended that we take the truck in to the dealer’s, ASAP. Mick made that appointment for day after tomorrow, when it will almost certainly be pouring rain. It is the same weather that still has Missouri, Kansas and Illinois stymied, stuck and out of power. However here the temperature is well above freezing. Praise the Lord!

Mick’s truck is a ’90 model, which he bought new. He has treated it well. However it is running up on 200,000 miles, and is now 17 years old, so we can expect to have to patch things up from time to time!

Speaking of vehicles, we got a call from Steve F today at lunchtime. He will donate his big Skag mower to L/L Research! It is a $10,000.00 machine with a 6-foot cut, perfect for Avalon and to Avalon it shall go! Melissa will enjoy having a good mower there, with all of our pasturage to cut. It is a wonderfully handy donation! Thank you, Steve!

I did manage to work today in the cracks of all the excitement and running around! In the morning I finished another section of Chapter 9 of 101. In the afternoon I edited the first ten pages of Don’s and my interview in 1978 with Bill Tush on “Open Up”.

Mick and I had a lovely energy exchange after our bath and Mick offered the closing prayer at the Gaia Meditation tonight.

2007-12-09

One of the chief joys of today was following the weather news for areas through which we just traveled. Jim’s predictions were accurate, and only by leaving as we did in the middle of the night were we able to outrun that ice storm. It descended within a couple of hours of our leaving Boonville, Missouri and that whole area of Kansas, Missouri and Illinois is still receiving freezing rain. Traffic is at a standstill. Thank heavens for Mick’s good judgment! If not for that midnight run, we would still be in Boonville!

Our first act of the day was to roll over and sleep an extra hour! It was wonderful! When we finally arose and made our ablutions it was after ten in the morning! It may be the latest we ever arose! But after the challenges of the road in getting here, we were both exhausted.

As has been our happy habit lately, we watched three films today. We started with the remake of “Griffin and Phoenix”. The ’76 version, arguably the better of the two, starred Jill Clayburgh and Peter Falk. The 2006 version stars Amanda Peete and Dermot Mulrony. The sob story of two cancer patients falling in love has all the appeal of the ending of “Love Story” and was sweet to see.

Next came “Off the Map”, an engaging, slight story in which Sam Elliott played a victim of profound depression. His daughter, played as a child by Valentina de Angelis and as an adult by Amy Brenneman, loves and supports her Dad. Elliott does a fine job of portraying a man in misery.

And finally we enjoyed “Rescue Dawn”, a fairly grisly tale of being a POW in the Viet Nam war. After the requisite amount of violence and gore, the hero comes home to a grand welcome. The film had many moments of antic humor packed amidst the harsh realities of life in a prison camp.

In between, we both did some putting away of travel things and generally straightening up in order to be ready to return to our normal routine tomorrow.

My one piece of L/L Research business was to forward to Gary a request from Ian for more information on L/L’s PayPal account. Our B4 store is up and running, but we don’t have the site ready to launch yet, so PayPal is still needed.

I offered the prayer at the Gaia Meditation tonight.

2007-12-07 and 08

Our last day before coming home to Louisville was quite an adventure and indeed, it lasted two days. After Morning Offering on Friday, we packed up the car and took off amid swirling snow flakes, just barely starting to come down. That was the first bullet we dodged, as it snowed all day after that in Lexington, Nebraska.

Our strategy was to drive south at York, Nebraska, and pick up I-70 using a good state road with two lanes in either direction and divided. It worked well. We were in rain most of the way, but the temperature stayed above 32 F and there were no icy patches anywhere. We arrived at the Isle of Capri Hotel in good time, checked into our room and had baths. We offered the Gaia Meditation, with Mick praying at the end. After that, Mick started checking the weather reports for Missouri. Believe it or not, icy rain and freezing roads were predicted, starting perhaps as early as midnight.

I had just collapsed into bed in my nightgown when Mick suggested we pack up and keep driving east. It looked to him as though, if we cleared the Missouri/Illinois border and made it as far as the turn-off to Carbondale, we would be out of the freezing rain zone. So we piled back into Stanley Outback and drove another three and a half hours or so before finding a friendly Holiday Inn and finally making love, a great blessing as always, and then going to sleep at about 4 AM Saturday.

We rose around noon, had a light breakfast and were again on our way after a Morning Offering. The last leg was much easier, of course, since we had driven fully half the way through the night hours. I was totally dazed and was no help at all when we got back. I sat in my mama chair and received the pussy cats Mick and I had missed so much. Mick put our baggage away and we had a Gaia Meditation, with me praying at the end.

We had a good time together with our unusual expotition despite the adventurous aspects of batting down the road fleeing an ice storm at 2 AM! There was a real feeling of regret that the time together was ending. What a blessing that we have a day off tomorrow to re-acclimate to the workaday world!

2007-12-06

Snow had fallen when we awoke this morning, but Mick reported, when he came back with his donut and newspaper, that it was not more than a dusting and that the roads had remained good. We are thrilled to hear that, as we will take to those roads tomorrow morning and fly away towards home, the good Lord willing!

After Morning Offering, Mick finished up the very last of our Christmas cards. We had to buy more, as we had 25 more address labels than we did cards! It is hard to believe we know 325 people with whom we wish to exchange Christmas greetings, but so it is. I suppose it is the accumulation of so many years, now, with L/L Research especially, but also with more customers for Jim’s Lawn Service and with the addition of my classmates, to whom I sent cards with a request for them to sand me back an update. I hope to write a class update for all of my ’61 classmates around the New Year.

I wrote letters to Lynne R, Aubine K and Al N, which felt great as that means that I have for the moment caught up with my snail mail! Then I got on line and answered a couple of letters from Gary.

We took Mom to the Vet’s Steak House, a modest restaurant located at the Veterans Post, for dinner tonight. It is our last meal together for this trip! It has surely flown by. I offered the prayer after the Gaia Meditation tonight, and then Mick and I packed up what we could. Much will need to be packed tomorrow morning, including my computer and our bath things. With prayers for good weather tomorrow, we went to bed as late as we could, waiting until all of us were drowsing off before saying good night, to stretch our time together to its maximum.

2007-12-05

This was our day to travel north and east to Arthur, Nebraska, for a visit with Mom’s sister, Margaret and her husband, Gordon and their son, Kevin. Babe and Shirley, Mom’s niece and her husband, came by a separate car. Before Morning Offering, the three of us set out to drive the 150 miles into the sand hills under leaden skies. I read the Morning Offering selections on the way. Then I read the paper to Jim and Mom. I know quite a bit more about the Nebraska football team than I did yesterday!

Arthur, Nebraska, is a throwback to frontier days, barely civilized with telephone wires and electricity. There are about 60 inhabitants in the town. There are no street addresses. You just put the person’s name on the envelope and “Arthur, Nebraska” and it gets there! We all had a lunch at a place called the Hitching Post, which is the one store I saw in the little town besides a bank. The electricity was off for the moment when we came, because someone in town had added on to his house and needed more electrical power than the transformer could handle, so they were switching out the old transformer and wiring for a beefier rig.

This little atmospheric and picturesque gathering place had a bit of everything. A bear skin – from a cub, it looked like – hung on the wall along with a round blade from a sawmill and an ancient and well-worn pair of chaps and many other implements and souvenirs of the old west. There was a pool table and a very old arcade game. And there were a half dozen tables. A sign read, “If you are over 21, we have beer, beer and beer. We hope you like beer.”

This particular day was senior citizen day at the Hitching Post, and since we all qualified, we took the gathering there and had roast beef together. Then we went back to Margaret and Gordon’s home – very nice, too, but quite a bit smaller than their barn – and had birthday cake. Then we played a game of Pitch before setting out for the drive back home.

It was well after dark when we arrived and I was exhausted! I did a bit of e-mail, writing Rick a Kentucky Report in response to his Maine Report and thanking him for passing on a delicious looking recipe for sausage and kale soup. I also ordered Jim a “Bo Big Red” T-shirt from the Husker Zone web site to help him celebrate the new Nebraska football coach’s being chosen.

Jim and I shared the prayer at our Gaia Meditation, chanting “Peace” a few times while Mom was otherwise occupied. She accepts our meditations but never knows quite what to do with them, so we spared her this evening!

2007-12-04

Mick and I awoke in Nebraska at last and spent our first day here, after Morning Offering, mostly doing shopping for and with Jim’s Mom. We drove to Kearney, about 40 miles away, where there is a good variety of department stores, and found her a new winter coat, a pair of brown pants to go with a blouse she already has and a pair of replacement bedroom slippers.

Then we stopped at Skeeter’s BBQ for a good lunch – despite the somewhat pestilent name, the place offered very good food – and came home through the beautiful harvest-blue, aqua and purple skies of the afternoon. The weather is supposed to get very cold again overnight, but today was balmy.

Mom was unable to find parts for her humidifier or a bedspread for her bed, so after we we came home I got on line and found her the parts she needed and a very nice “hobnail” chenille bedspread. Ah, the internet!! It is such a marvelous resource and makes life so much easier.

Mick worked on our Christmas cards most of the day and found that we are shy about 25 cards – and I ordered 300! In between Jim’s lawn service customers, my classmates, our L/L Research contacts and our 60 years’ worth of personal friends and family, the number has mounted up over the years. I still do believe in the custom of sending greetings at Christmas, though. That is the whole spirit of the season – to re-root us in our connections and ties. Jesus, in his cradle, binds us all together in holy love.

Mick offered the prayer at the close of the Gaia Meditation this evening.

2007-12-03

Finally the weather broke west of us and we were able to get back on the road after Morning Offering. We had a delightful journey with clement weather, harvest-blue skies and radiant, golden sunlight. As the last of a sweet pink and violet sunset died to the midnight blue-black of full night, we arrived at Lexington, Nebraska at last.

Mom greeted us with open arms and a feast, and we sat and conversed for hours. It was god to be settled in and ready for a good visit together.

I offered the prayer at the Gaia Meditation tonight, with Mom attending. She had fixed us a lovely meal despite the fact that we want to celebrate HER birthday. Tomorrow we shall take her to Grandma’s Steak House in Kearney and make it up to her!

2007-12-01 and 02

Mick and I got to our destination, The Isle of Capri Casino and Hotel, last night and tucked ourselves in for the night only to find, when we awoke, that the roads between here and Lexington, Nebraska had iced over. We made our Morning Offering and called Mom to let her know we would be delayed. Then we enjoyed a leisure day of naps and reading, movies and naps. It was wonderful! We offered the Gaia Meditation, watched some TV and thankfully sought our beds.

Another night, another dawn, and the situation had only changed for the worse. Light snow was falling over the ice. Even the rest stops had been closed. After Morning Offering we got on the telephone again and shared the bad news, but Mom already knew, as she had also been watching the weather.

So we had another mostly goof-off day, although I did some e-mail, working with Steve E on concepts for the B4 web site and editing another Aaron/Q'uo Dialogue session. I heard from Judy R, the pre-editor for the A/Q Dialogues that we have only five sessions to go in order to finish the manuscript!

I offered the prayer at tonight’s Gaia Meditation and we prayed for a good day for driving west tomorrow!

2007-11-30

What a gorgeous day we chose on which to travel! After Morning Offering I packed up Jenny Traveller while Mick loaded the car with the rest of our traps and then added the computer bag and the printer to our baggage. We patted the kitties one last time and we were off!

We always have a grand time traveling together on this twice-yearly jaunt out to see Mom McCarty. Today was no exception. We dwelled within an enchanted bubble of joy and peace and good conversation as we made our way west on I-64 to St. Louis and then on I-70 to Booneville, Missouri, where the Isle of Capri Casino and Hotel resides. There we stopped for the night.

We had a marvelous dinner at their steak house before coming back to our room for a perfectly delicious date. What is there about traveling that sparks red ray? As my brother Tommy said once, you can’t keep the little guy down on vacation! We had such a marvelous time!

The hotel has Wi-Fi, so I got Jenny T hooked up and checked the weather and lo, it is icing up all the way from here to Nebraska. We shall probably need to stay an extra day here and winter over while the weather ahead clears.

We both offered the prayer at the VERY short but sincere Gaia meditation tonight, sharing the word, “Peace”, during our dinner.