Because it takes almost every calorie they take in while hovering to keep them alive that day...and sometimes they don't get quite enough. When they find a feeder that allows them to sit while they feed, it extends the length of their lives...And if it is in a shaded spot, even better.

I can sit in my apartment and watch the feeder all day if I so desire. They are beautiful, ferocious, and fun. My little guy is always waiting to see me in the morning and hovers nearby when I rehang the newly filled feeder. 

Life is good.

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As this journey of recovery from a seizure and learning to allow the time my brain needs to reboot is unfolding, I am discovering the joy of talking with those I love rather than texting. You read that correctly!

Talking is Better than Texting

Texting is extremely useful to exchange and arrange details of all kinds. I understand it's use  for more than that but ... there is nothing like a phone call or a video call with someone you love and don't see very often to bring unbounded joy to the mind and heart.

I could give you a number of examples from experiences I have had in the last few days but I would rather let you have your own experiences. So...I invite you to call someone you haven't seen or spoken with in a while and just start with "You've been on my mind and I thought I would call so that I could hear your voice. I love and miss you. What have you been up to?"

I Dare You to Accept my invitation!

We only have right now and even this isn't 100% guaranteed my friends.

...

Generally speaking I take life as it comes because what else can I do? Now and then life takes me beyond my ability to cope. About a month ago I woke up in a hospital with no idea why I was there or how I got there. I am still processing what I have learned from others about what happened and trying to understand what I am experiencing now. 

I just went back and read my last blog...published a few days before that experience. I quoted Don Miguel Ruiz. His words are profoundly true for me as I heal because he so beautifully describes the gift I have been given. It is the gift of re-membering who I am; it is a time of re-inventing the human manifestation of my True Self, my Soul. 

I often remind myself, and others, that I am a spiritual being who is currently having a human experience. I have never been more sure that this is true AND that I am learning to consciously choose and create what the very nature of this current human experience is. I am asking myself clearly:

...

“The main character of your story is you, but the role that you are playing is not you. You have practiced that role for so long that you have mastered the performance. You have become the best actor in the entire world, but I can assure you that you are not what you believe you are. Thank God, because you are much better than what you believe you are.”

“I don’t have to be the way everybody wants me to be. I don’t have to be what I believe I should be according to my own lies. Your story is your creation. You are the artist with the force of life flowing through you. If you don’t like your art, you have the power to change it.”

 Excerpt From
The Voice of Knowledge
Don Miguel Ruiz

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From the TAO TE CHING, translation by Stephen Mitchell:

33

Knowing others is intelligence;

Knowing yourself is true wisdom.

Mastering others is strength;

Master yourself is true power.

If you realize that you have enough,

you are truly rich

If you stay in the center

and embrace death with your whole heart,

you will endure forever.

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From THE WAY OF HARMONY  by Jim Dreaver, published in 1999.    

     "The mind thrives on duality, on naming objects, experiences, and events as "this" or "that." This is a necessary survival skill. It gives you the ability to discriminate between what supports your well-being and what threatens it.

     Duality and naming things become a problem when there's an emotional attachment to the concepts. Being able to affix a name or label to a feeling, event, or thing may give the mind the feeling of certainty it seeks, but it is a false security.

     As you get freer of your mind and live more from your heart, from your spiritual depths, you won't feel the same need to cling to beliefs and concepts for your identity. You'll use beliefs, but you won't rely on them to be at peace with yourself. Your sense of identity, of selfhood, will come from being itself---from being awake, alive, attuned to the vibrancy and fullness...

It is raining and cold in Burbank - again. The forecast is for this to pretty much be what it will be for at least the next week. 

We are also experiencing high numbers of people with respiratory viruses that last for 2 - 3 weeks. This weather keeps encourages lots of staying in bed and sleeping but ... it also results in mental and emotional depression.

It is a very challenging time for those of us living in most of the United States actually. I say this because I have dared to watch the national weather recently. 

So, how to be ok.

For me, the path to peace is acceptance because I certainly have no power whatsoever over the weather!!   My mantra for now is:

It Is What It Is

The path to peace, for me, is to recognize when I start to clench my jaws and to consciously choose to slow my breath down as I gently release them. Slow breaths allow me to expand my chest and abdomen on the inhale and allow me to softly whisper as I exhale:

It Is What It Is

 ...

The following quote is from page 83 of The Way of Harmony by Jim Dreaver:

     If you look into the heart of all authentic spiritual traditions, both of the East and the West, you'll find the same message being said over and over again:  the treasure you seek most is to be found within the depths of your own being.

     Jesus taught this when he said the kingdom if heaven is within you. First find the riches within, he stated, and then the spiritual way to a happy and balanced life.

     The Buddha taught that suffering is a result of ignorance, and that enlightenment -- wisdom and bliss -- is your natural state. The Hindu Upanishads say "You are That" -- you are a manifestation of the divine, the One power behind all reality. The Islamic Sufis teach that when you strip away the veils of ego, the personal "self," what is left is God in human form. The Tao Te Ching tells us that when your mind and heart open to the deeper flow of...

"Pure consciousness is pure potentiality; it is the field of all possibilities and infinite creativity. Pure consciousness is our spiritual essence. Being infinite and unbounded, it is also pure joy. Other attributes of consciousness are pure knowledge, infinite silence, perfect balance, invincibility, simplicity, ad bliss. This is our essential nature. Our essential nature is one of pure potentiality."   (The Seven Spiritual Laws 0f Success by Deepak Chopra, 1994)

I always have to read this portion of the First Spiritual Law more than once. Then I take a few breaths and ask myself, "What am I creating for myself right now?" One day recently I began to fall down in the dumps. When I asked this question and thought about that day unfolding, I saw clearly that I was reacting to choices someone else was making that would only affect me if I took those choices personally. The truth was that my feelings were a response to being disappointed about a choice that excluded me...

The Tao Te Ching has been widely translated into numerous languages and is revered for its simple, yet practical, guidance about creating a personal life path of harmony and balance. Below is a quote from the translation by Stephen Mitchell; his book was published in 1988 by Harper & Rowe.

47

Without opening your door,

you can open your heart to the world.

Without looking out your window, you can see the essence of The Tao.

The more you know,

the less you understand.

The Master arrives without leaving,

sees the light without looking,

achieves without doing a thing.

I suggest reading this softly out loud more than once or twice. When you are ready, sit quietly and close your eyes. Feel your breath and release the need to understand. Just be. Just breathe. And when you are ready, do whatever feels good to you in that moment. I also suggest you do this short practice relatively often. Who knows what might unfold?

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