I just heard about this...

And oh man I want to go. This is exactly what I've been wanting: a retreat; to be with Sangha; to hear the Sakyong; to hear Pema; to be in the mountains (oh man I want to be in the Rockies surrounded by aspen yes! with afternoon thunderstorms yes yes!); to sit on my cushion; to simplify everything; to quiet my mind.

I love Shambhala Mountain Center so much. Some places just capture my heart immediately (the high desert has been featured prominently recently, but there are of course others) and SMC is definitely one of those places. I was lucky enough to be at the Consecration of the Great Stupa of Dharmakaya back in 01 and things really fell into place for me after that. I would like that very much again.

overheard

Ivaloo, originally uploaded by Orrin.

orrin: let us know if you would like to skype with our baby because our baby would probably love to skype with you.

oh Ivaloo you are born into a crazy, connected, wonderful age. :)

love to the andersons and thomases. my heart just pours over with happiness for you. xo.

buddha loves lomo

this comes as no surprise (brezsny version)

love is in the air, originally uploaded by emdot.

(my blog has become less of a blog and simply justs notes to myself). (this note comes from brezsny)

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): There's a better than even chance that you're about to embark on a Summer of Love. To improve your odds even more, meditate on the following questions.

1. What qualities do you look for in a lover that you would benefit from developing more fully in yourself?
2. What do you think are your two biggest delusions about the way love works?
3. Is there anything you can do to make yourself more lovable?
4. Is there anything you can do to be more loving?
5. Are you willing to deal with the fact that any intimate relationship worth pursuing will inevitably evoke the most negative aspects of both partners — and require both partners to heal their oldest wounds?

(note to self)

i'm not sure what this means, but i like it., originally uploaded by emdot.

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.
— Anais Nin

And two more things to ponder a la Martha Beck

• The struggle itself is enough to fill our hearts. — Camus
• Your path should be chosen by your heart's desires, not by what seems to be working (or not working). — M. Beck.

gentleness brings daring

the longest day of the year, originally uploaded by emdot.

When there is daring, you dare to do something: you put forth your vision fearlessly. People have doubts about big vision because they don't have a sense of gentleness in themselves first. So gentleness brings daring and a sense of fearlessness. Daring is appreciation of letting go in the fundamental sense. First you develop gentleness toward yourself; then you begin to develop daring, which is connected with how to express your gentleness to the world outside, how to proclaim your sanity. Your are not going crazy because you have seen the Great Eastern Sun, which is the symbol of expansive vision in the Shambhala world. Rather, because you have seen the Great Eastern Sun, you are very daring and at the same time very gentle and soft. The softer you become, the greater the message to the world becomes.

— Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

father's day

my dad is very political, originally uploaded by emdot.

My dad probably doesn't know this (but I will tell him today when I call him): my dad song is Blue Sky by the Allman Brothers. My dad loves the Allmans. Me too. And he loves that song. Me too. And it always makes me think of him.

My three favorite father/daughter songs:

• Daugher by Louden Wainwright III
  that's my daughter in the water / everything she owns i bought her
• Daughters by John Mayer
  fathers, be good to your daughters / daughters will love like you do
• Father and Daughter by Paul Simon
  as long as one and one is two / there could never be a father / who loved his daughter more than I love you

orrin and stacey had a baby

twenty-five of 52, originally uploaded by Orrin.

some things are very right in this world.

overheard

let your leaf light shine, originally uploaded by emdot.

So, Firefox keeps crashing on me when I try to print. Not every time, but often enough that it unnerves me. And infrequent enough that each time it crashes I'm surprised.

Tyson suggested that I move to Safari.

Me: I don't like it; it's too pared down.
Tyson: Pared down? What do you mean? Too fast? Too efficient?

rob brezsny, for the love of god can you just freaking spell it out for me?

liminal, originally uploaded by emdot.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): A talent scout who has the power to change
your course is drawing closer and closer. Find out why, and capitalize on
it. Meanwhile, a chameleon who has always had your number just lost it.
Find out the details, and take advantage. If that's not enough to keep you
busy, I'll clue you in to the fact that a cool fool only recently realized you
have something that he or she wants. Find out who and what, and exploit
the possibilities. (P.S.: I should also mention that there's a wild thing out
there who would love to lick your hand. Find out why, etc.)

true, true

equal truths, originally uploaded by emdot.

I read one of these in a Facebook comment, the other in a Sierra Club email. I love them both.

overheard

the string-bean making reflection of an old chevy truck, originally uploaded by emdot.

Me: Did you know that you can pay your Cal Poly parking tickets online?

Mike: You sound very excited about that. Did you know that you can refuse to pay your Cal Poly parking tickets offline?

wrapping up loose ends

remains of the day, originally uploaded by emdot.

I love loose ends. I'm way more comfortable to leave things hanging than to tie things up. Tying things up makes me nervous.

But that does not serve me.

A couple of weeks ago I read a little blog post by Christine Kane about loose ends and how these create energy leaks in our lives. She says to wrap things up to have more energy and focus on what your heart really wants to do.

So I made my list. My four-paged list of things left undone. And I began to tackle them. My four-paged list became a three-and-a-half paged list. And a week later and I'm at two-and-a-half pages. Progress.

I'm giving myself four months to wrap it all up. End of September and I'm going to be one wrapped up emdot. And I hoping that this will bring new focus and clarity, a huge sense of accomplishment, and new comfort with resolve and closure.

moonglow lamp low all i need is a rainbow

[Hear the song. I played this song over and over when I first heard it. Oh Eleni. So lovely.]

overheard

trying to get our head systems guy to help me out at noon....

marya: is lunch really that important to you?
mark: me ignore you. you go away.

later...

mark: now, don't be offended by this word, but i think it might be Sephardic.
marya: why would i be offended by that word?
mark: ah. well. i...
marya: you're 12.

blur moon rising

last week's amazing full moon, from Discovery Park in Safford, Arizona. it was a lovely one.











a docent was walking around with her flashlight, looking for rattlesnakes and the "resident gila monster." and she kept standing too close to the camera, hence the left-side light bursts.

Stella (aunt), Robert (uncle), Evan (brother) and I took a walk to Discovery park as the day turned into dusk. We ran into Rochelle (aunt) on the walk and we all turned around to call it day. But once we got to Robert and Rochelle's Rochelle said, hey let's go up to Discovery Park to see the stars. So we jumped in the car and headed up the easy way (no rattlesnakes or gila monsters). There we innocently crashed an observatory party and got to see Saturn in the telescope and became the life of the party (take my word). And I got a bunch of blurry night shots.

overheard

Marya: How hot is it outside?
Evan: Too.

overheard

Upon Evan's perplexed and shocked reaction when I announced that he was going to help me clean up after dinner...

Grandma: he's got a puzzle in his eyes.

getting to Reader0

Ever since drinking the Getting Things Done Kool-Aid, I revel in getting to Anything0. Work inbox0. Gmail0. Reader0. Especially Reader0.

I went on vacation and had no internet access for six or so days, which meant I was at Reader>1000 (it stops counting after 1000). Being a big fan of "Mark All As Read" I promptly did so with most of my often-updated subscriptions. Except these. I can't with these. I love these feeds and no matter how much I'm dying to declare Reader Bankruptcy (hit the Mother of all Mark As Read), I can't bear to not read these. :)

So five days home and I still haven't hit my Reader 0 mark. But at least I know I have good things to see and read. Special shout out to Craft and Design*Sponge, my fave of the faves.

I love this photo

Holga Lake, originally uploaded by Echo_29.

Pure magic. From the Echoes.