Little Shack is Getting Eccentric!

"Now if a 6 turned out to be a 9
I don't mind. I don't mind. (well alright)...
cause I got my whole world to live through and uh I ain't going to copy you!" Jimmy Hendricks

I had a friend  text me the other day, "Jack, being in quarantine and alone for three months, I feel like I am coming across as eccentric when I see other people!" I replied, "Hey, maybe that's a good thing!" "Maybe you are feeling how unique you are. When we are alone, we don't have anyone to mirror but ourselves."

Maybe this quarantine experience is forcing us to see ourselves, instead of projecting our hidden talents on the other. It's funny, I had another friend once tell me: "Jack, you sure know some weird people!" That friend apparently never had to go through quarantine!

I had to go "out there" (into town), the other day to run some errands.  As I moved about, I was considering all the various designs of the mask I was seeing--some had smiles, skulls, flags, or even landscapes. I saw each one as a sort of signature of that specific person. Of course, some were not wearing a mask. That was their signature also! I am not going to polarize; I accept the IS.   

I was laughing to myself, thinking that as soon as everyone gets home, away from the public, they're all going to take off their masks. It's kind of like what everyone did anyway, before the pandemic. We didn't have a cloth mask, just our public persona! Now we can be a little creative, authentic… yeah! Even, eccentric! 

I quote Susan Miller as an affirmation of becoming the unique person each of us can be through this time of Pandemic: "You will emerge as the authentic, independent individual that you are inside and meant to be, unencumbered by society's pressures or the expectations of your parents, romantic partner, professors, or friends. You will truly be your own person, unique in every way."

From the little Shack:

"Now if a 6 turned out to be a 9
    I don't mind. I don't mind. (well alright)...
  cause I got my whole world to live through and uh      I ain't going to copy you!" Jimmy Hendricks

Little Shack Shakes Off Anxiety

“Good humor is a tonic for mind and body. It is the best antidote for anxiety and depression. It is a business asset. It attracts and keeps friends. It lightens a human's burdens. It is the direct route to serenity and contentment.” - Grenville Kleiser

Merriam Webster dictionary defines Good Humor as "cheerful feelings or attitudes." You may ask: "how do I have a cheerful attitude when constantly assaulted by dispiriting news?" Cheerfulness can begin with the kindling of a spark. I have found one of the quickest ways for me to kindle is first: turn off the evening news, put down the newspaper, or shut down the cell phone or computer. Pause whatever is feeding the agitation, or as we say in the troubleshooting technician world, the "Easter Egg Hunting"! Instead of remaining calm, cool, and collected, technical troubleshooters can often often look like over-excited children frantically running around looking for eggs--it is a type of agitation. In tech school, it's a phrase for pressured or panicked troubleshooting; the longer a system is down, the more pressure you get. You can end up jumping from one possible problem to the next without analysis. So I have learned with my own discouragement to turn off the "agitations" of daily life. Once the agitation has stopped, I will either remember or play a song I associate with a happy time in my life, such as my wedding day or when I was a teenager and first fell in love. That spark can ignite and lift you out of a depressive state into a higher octave, then beyond, to a crescendo of celebration!  

I have also started a game with my wife that I learned many years ago as a struggling, discouraged salesman. Whenever we feel anxious about a situation, we will take a pause. I will ask her: "Name me one positive thing that has happened to you today?" She may answer: "I picked a beautiful large red tomato from the garden!" Then she will ask me: "Name me one positive thing that has happened to you today?" This question will go back and forth until we find ourselves filled with gratitude that we are having such a special productive day!
 
Meditation is another way to shake off anxiety. I call it "making a space". I keep it simple: I pause with whatever time is available at the moment and watch my thoughts, feelings, and the physical phenomenon surrounding me. Making a space takes practice; it takes time to kindle the spark. When I say space, I mean there will be a time when you experience an area that others have called emptiness or void, but I see it as a vacuum state of awareness, where you become the watcher. The watcher becomes aware of all that appears in her periphery as it flows to fill that space. It is much like what a driver in an automobile experiences as the passing scenery appears to move toward the car. The watcher perceives this scenery but otherwise is unaffected by it. Over time with accumulated practice, this "space" becomes a seat of serenity, a synergy of good humor. I like to look at these different practices as if I was on a boat with a sail. Author Sarah Cavanaugh says it much better than I :

"Like the master sailor who uses the powerful energy of the wind to sail her boat where she wants to go, appreciating the direction and force. Never trying to change what she cannot, but using her skill for what is possible on her journey with the tools and knowledge she has."

From the Little Shack-- Bursting with Good Cheer FOR YOU!

Kintsugi Time at the Little Shack

While amid the pandemic quarantine, I decided it was a good time to clean out my shed. This shed has not been cleaned in 6 years. It was chaos! I tend to keep everything I have had over the years that break. Sometimes it is motor parts, but mostly I keep broken pieces of plates, cups, pottery, or decorative tile, the more colorful the better. I am saving it for some kind of artwork, like a plant pot made from several coffee cups glued together then glazed. I even visit the neighbor's garbage cans for old worn out treasures. Once I found an old fireplace insert and made an outdoor fireplace, covered with Adobe and Mexican tile. I am now making an old electric oven firebox into a firebrick pizza oven! I have a great sense of well being from creating practical things from broken pieces.

While I was organizing my little chaotic universe of a shed, I thought of my good spiritual friend; we will call him Trai, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk. Trai lives in a small monastery (now, years later, permanently closed) not far from my shack. I went there (before the pandemic) sometimes early in the morning to meditate with the Buddhist monks and then have a wonderful communal breakfast with them. Trai and I though hit it off, probably because he is a sort of outlaw in the monastery and is always getting in trouble with the Abbot! For example, the Abbot caught 2 women in his room - a BIG no-no at a Buddhist monastery (all very innocent according to Trai!).   Another time, he was caught watching the romantic DVD Titanic starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.  This was a very serious offense with the Master! Trai told me his punishment was "30 day in Ho," which translates to 30 beats on the huge, unbelievably loud monastery gong every morning. When Trai drives his beat-up Ford Maverick, he thinks he is a race car driver! I mean I will go into survival mode while screaming “TRE-EEEEEEE! SLOW DOWN!” He just laughs! 

Trai has taught me a lot of spiritual lessons:  How to use the 108 japa mala beads to meditate and enter a very deep concentration, the wonderful art of tea ceremonial before meditation and silent communication between spiritual friends afterward, while listening to his choice of Vietnamese music and its mystic weave. Trai is also a tea connoisseur; once I took him to Chinatown in Houston for a special tea he prescribed, “trà mạn” with jasmine and lotus. The tea shop proprietor knew him well! I tried to give Trai a twenty-dollar bill to buy the tea and he looked at me and said,  "Why? I don't need money!"

Trai showed me his compassion one day (again breaking the rules of the monastery). It was 20 degrees outdoors and there was a dog outside his room moaning from the cold. He let him in to warm up. Dogs are not allowed in the monk's room!

"In Japan, broken objects are often repaired with gold. The cracks are seen as a unique part of the objects history.  Which adds to its beauty. Consider this when you feel broken"

- Motywacha, Cytaty

What made me think about Trai while I was cleaning was the boxes of broken items I had. He once commented on my habit of keeping broken pottery. He said the word “Kintsugi.”

I replied, "What?"  

He repeated, "Kintsugi--make something beautiful out of broken pieces."  I think this is part of Trai's charm:  Like a broken teacup, he has taken the different fragments of his character, both sharp and smooth, dark and light, putting them together into something unique and practical. A cup of wisdom anyone? 

This pandemic chaos will end someday, and in the aftermath there will be broken pieces of our lives everywhere. Perhaps we can make something beautiful out of it all!

"The miracle is in the breaking and the power is in the broken pieces."

- Christine Caine

Ok, this shed is a mess! I got to get back to work and make some Kintsugi!

From the Little Shack: Be Happy!

Morning Cheer at the Little Shack

There's a bright golden haze on the meadow

There's a bright golden haze on the meadow

The corn is as high as an elephant's eye

And it looks like it's climbing clear up to the sky

Oh, what a beautiful mornin'

Oh, what a beautiful day

I've got a beautiful feeling

Everything's going my way.....

...All the sounds of the earth are like music

All…

-from “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’” by Oscar Hammerstein II

Today I woke up full of promise at the little shack, on this day before Easter, on a New Day of Quarantine-- I remembered this song, "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’."

As my wife and I took a walk through the woods, we both knew how blessed we are to have a little acreage to breathe fresh air from all the giant pine trees that surround us. There is a little pond we have; I rigged it up with a water hose and sprayer and placed it into a fountain sending its spray into sparkling opal gems that drip on a crooked pole, then burst again into slow motion rainbows, splashing into pale blue aqua on top of red-eared turtle heads that poke up with ripples around their necks.

"An early morning walk is a blessing for the whole day"

-Henry David Thoreau

There are also several large black bass that swim to the shoreline looking for minnows in the Louisiana Purple Irises that creep throughout the shallows. They look at me unafraid, knowing I am not there to catch them (today!)

Oh, what a beautiful morning!  

There is a swinging bench I made out of an old children's swing (my wife painted it electric blue and the seat a bright yellow) that is placed right at the edge of the shore. We sat there after our walk together, with our toes in the water and laughed at the turtles and fish that came up to us looking for the feed I always sprinkle on the surface in the evening.

The fish and the turtles seem to say "Good morning friends! Oh, what beautiful morning it is!"

"Be of good cheer, fear not"

Genesis 43:23

From The Little Shack--Cheer Up and Enjoy a Beautiful Spring Day!

Little Shack Stands Tall!

“Listen, stay alert, stand tall in the faith, be courageous, and be strong.” - 1 Corinthians 16:1

I had a giant pine tree by my shack that was struck by lightning. The tree was estimated by the forest service to be 125 feet in height. I had to call a man I knew that owns a tree service because the tree was now a hazard; it was turning brown, dying and needed to be cut down. This man is in his mid 50's, white haired, muscular and wiry, his skin tanned and etched with work in the outdoors. He focused on the tree with an intensity and a "can do" determination. He stood tall. He put on his climbing spurs and latched a small chainsaw to his belt with a rope. Climbing like a cat, he slowly reached the top. I could see him look at the sky, then saw a smile, then laughter on his face. I thought to myself, "this man is an Eagle!" 

“I think laughter may be a form of courage. As humans, we sometimes stand tall and look into the sun and laugh, and I think we are never more brave than when we do that.”- Linda Ellerbee   

He tied the long rope he had with him to the top branches, started his saw and surgically began to slice each one, while carefully dropping them to the ground with the rope attached. His son systematically pulled them off and moved them away. All-day long he labored; sometimes he would pause on a large branch and rest. One hundred and twenty-five feet, then a hundred feet, then 50 feet, then 20, then 10, then 5! until the tree had been completely taken down. Once he was done I asked him "How many times do you this?" He answered, confidently "As many times as I am called." This man looked 10 feet tall to me and I know he felt like it too. This was his Day in the Sun.

“Waiting for no one, only the waiting For our day in the sun
Live to the rhythm, the rhythm of living
For our day in the sun- Peter Frampton”

I tell this story because I feel it illustrates how I believe we need to face this crisis that is confronting us. Let us stand tall, let us be confident, knowing that we can, branch by branch, cut this crisis down. I know that if we stand tall and face this crisis with courage and a positive confident determination, we will have our Day in the Sun!

I want to add a story that was meant for early March, before the Corona Virus crisis began to explode. I add this next story in the hope that as we take our "pause" at home, we can also relax, while we continue to Stand Tall. I call it "The Little Shack Plays":

Sometimes as we get older, after the divorces, the funerals, health problems, accumulated disappointments, we may begin to feel dead inside. Questions come up: Can we get out of bed?What's the point? Can we shake it off? This feeling happens to me from time to time. What do we do to start feeling alive again?

Let's get back in the ring, see what we got!

I have a relative that visited recently. She had just gone through a lot of life changes--let's just say all the above and also retired from her job of 40 years--yes, big changes! What amazed me about her was that she decided to buy a twenty-eight foot RV Motor home and tour the USA by herself. Now, this woman in her late 60's, has never even driven a pickup truck! I was inspired by her optimism and courage. One of the activities that stood out during her visit was her enthusiasm for card games.

“We don't stop playing because we turn old, but turn old because we stop playing." -Unknown

People that know me, understand I am not a game player. I was not interested in playing, but to humor her I made the "great sacrifice!" She began to teach my wife and I how to play the game. I really started to enjoy myself and we played for hours. I lost my "heaviness", dropping that "dead" feeling; I began to have fun! The next day it was my suggestion to break out the monopoly board!

“We are never more fully alive, more completely ourselves, or more deeply engrossed in anything, than when we are at play.” - Charles Schaefer

What I relearned from this positive driven woman was that sometimes the simplest antidote for the "age malaise" is to remember when you were a child and played those cards or board games with your sisters, brothers, cousins or friends. And you had fun! Other positive reasons to play these games are that we receive a mental workout and we are blessed with a cheerful heart-connection to the other.

On the eve of my relative's departure to parts unknown, I made a toast to the "Card-playing Road Warrior" and a promise to start having some simple fun.

From the Little Shack: Thank You, Road Warrior!
Stand Tall!

“When you feel like you’ve got nothing, remember that we’ve got each other, so just stand tall and keep pushing on, and we can make it to the other shore, I promise.”- Jake Miller

Little Shack of Shadows

““Even if one’s life were a mistake, there is always time to change.”- Henry Miller

The Old Man asked his Wife, " What time do you want to set the alarm tonight?" She replied, "5 A.M. as usual."

The Man remembers that 50 years ago he had told her, "Honey, I set the alarm for 5 A.M." He had laid in bed looking at the ceiling for a while that night and then said out loud, "Honey what are we going to do?"

The Wife replied asking, "What do you mean, what are we going to do?"

"We are 20 years old!" he answered.

"Well, we are going to go to sleep and then wake up tomorrow and go to work!"

"Yes, go to work."

The Old Man had set the alarm but laid awake. He watched the shadows projected on the wall by the propane heater, carefully set by the bed. The shadows would dance every time one of his two cats ran in front of it. He had thought a lot about shadows lately. Out of the corner of his eye, one shadow looked like a human figure with a hooded head, and one looked like a person running as if it were in danger. He asked himself, "Is this THE SHADOW; is this THE ONE?" The shadows frightened him. He stared at the ceiling like so many years ago. He said out loud, "Honey what are we going to do?"

The Wife replied asking, "What do you mean, what are we going to do?"

"We are 70 years old!" he answered.

The Wife replied, "Well, we are going to sleep and then wake up tomorrow!"

"Yes, wake up tomorrow."

But he couldn't sleep. He considered the shadows, his past mistakes, his regrets--unforgiven by himself. He thought of that old rhyme, "For of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these; it might have been." Am I too old? Is it too late to start something new? The old man glanced at the clock and it read almost midnight. He remembered a quote from the cowboy actor John Wayne:

"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. It comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday."

This inspired the Man and as he drifted off to sleep, he knew that when the sun came up, tomorrow would be a new beginning and a good day!

From the Little Shack, Enjoy a New Beginning!

Holidays at the Little Shack

This Christmas Eve I was holed up in the little shack with my wife. She was decorating cookies with those little silver balls and scattering red and green sugar bits. I looked out the window and I couldn't believe it, there was a Cadillac in my front yard, one of those 1959 jobs with high tail fins, looking like a spaceship. No wonder, it was my old friend Willie and someone with long hair and a beard looking like Jesus in the passenger seat! I went out and, lo and behold, it was Tumbleweed! Willie is 20 years older than me but we were always fast friends. I greeted him with, "How is my partner in crime?"

(Now you may ask, how did he get that kind of description? There is some property I know that belongs to a family friend where I had been going to a little fishing pond for about 40 years. I took Willie down there with me around 1995. We came back to the road with a load of fish and unexpectedly met the game warden who said, "I think a crime has been committed here!"

We looked at each other, uh-oh! The warden went on to explain, "The owner of the property called me and said someone was trespassing and now I see you with a stringer full of fish! Let me see your fishing license."

We stared at each other again, uh-oh!... Well, now you see how we became partners in crime!)

Seeing him this Christmas Eve, I had to ask him, "Willie, where did you get that spaceship?" He said, "It landed last night with this alien sitting next to me!"

Of course, this wasn't hard to believe considering Tumbleweed always said he came from the star system Sirius or sometimes the Moon (only when it was full, though!)

"Well, come on in by the fire and have some Christmas cookies and apricot brandy," I said.

The three of us sat down in the rocking chairs I have surrounding the fireplace.

"Jack, what did you do for Thanksgiving?" Tumbleweed asked.

"Wife and I went down to Laredo, visited the old San Agustin Catholic Cathedral that we got engaged in on Thanksgiving Day 15 years ago."

"I didn't know you were Catholic," Tumbleweed said.

"I'm not, but there's something magical about an old church like that. A spirit of faith and hope lives there, after centuries of the faithful's prayers I believe. On top of that, the priest had a guitar and sang some beautiful Spanish songs!"

"No Turkey?" Tumbleweed asked.

"Sure Turkey enchiladas!"

Tumbleweed explained he had Thanksgiving dinner with the Salvation Army in Austin this year while passing out blankets to the homeless. Willie, having a huge family of seven children and many grandchildren, always holds the holiday at his cozy cedar cabin. He brings in two huge old doors and puts them together with sawhorses for a table and has a feast! I have been to a couple of those dinners and with turkey drumstick in hand, he is the king of the day!

"Tumbleweed, what are you doing for Christmas Eve? " I asked him.

"I'm spending it on your couch!"

My wife, always cheerful, said, "Tumbleweed, so glad you invited us!"

We all laugh and my wife whispered to me, "We don't have a gift for him! He has all that bamboo that grows by that culvert cave of his. Get me that big machete and I'll wrap it up for him."

Right on cue, Tumbleweed went out to the spaceship and brought in a bamboo wind chime he made. Tumbleweed makes bamboo benches, wind chimes, fishing poles and other crafts from those stalks and sells them on the street. "Merry Christmas!" he shouted.

I look over to Willie who whined, "He gave me a bamboo birdcage with no door!"

Tumbleweed retorted, "Why do you need a door, old man? Haven't you ever heard the saying ‘Free as a Bird’?"

Willie quipped, "Yes, but I don't need to remember it. All I have to do is look at you!!!! I got to go. I'll take this alien encounter of the third kind with me!"

"Tumbleweed, I thought that Cadillac was yours?" I asked.

"Nah, Willie picked me up on the way back from Austin. I was thumbing; I slept in his car."

My wife asked, "Tumbleweed, we thought you were staying with us?"

"Nah, you left the door wide open. Time to fly away with this old coot!"

In unison, we all yelled out, “Merry Christmas!”

While our two dear friends fired up the spaceship, I thought of all the families and friends who celebrate the Gratefulness of Thanksgiving, the Joy of Christmas and the Anticipation of a Wonderful New Year ahead.

From the little shack with Love:
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Little Shack Gets Supernatural by Jack Correu

It has been a long hot summer here at the shack.The Season has finally turned and is kindling for all the traditional Holiday celebrations.

The end of October of course is the time of All Saints Eve, The Day of the Dead and Halloween. A time to reflect on the unexplained, the supernatural and the mystery of Darkness before the light of the next day. Although Halloween has been over commercialized, most of us still enjoy the traditional celebrations: trick-or-treating, attending  parties, carving pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns, lighting bonfires, telling scary stories.

So gather around the bonfire (imaginary or real) and I will tell a few true stories in honor of the unexplained and our last day of October.

It's the same kind of story That seems to come down from log ago Two friends having coffee together When something flies by their window It might be out on that lawn Which is wide, at least half of a playing field Because there's no explaining what your imagination Can make you see and feel

Seems like a dream (They) got me hypnotized--Fleetwood Mac song by Bob Welch

When I was about 10 years old there was a lot of stories about UFO's. I remember walking out of a store one night with my family. For some reason, I looked up and I saw a large triangular craft fly over very low. It was blacker than the night sky, so it showed up in contrast, but no lights and no sound were ever seen or heard. Later as I got older I thought it may have been an experimental spy plane – maybe......

Now it's not a meaningless question
 To ask if they've been and gone 
 I remember a talk about North
 Carolina and a strange, strange pond
 You see the sides were like glass
 In the thick of a forest without a road
 And if any man's ever made that land
 Then I think it would've showed



Seems like a dream
 (They) got me hypnotized -Fleetwood Mac song by Bob Welch

I once dated a girl in High School who's family had to move around the states a lot for various reasons. They rented a home in Mississippi. The home had been built not long after the civil war, you know the kind surrounded by large oaks and Spanish moss. My girlfriend said every night that you could hear a piano, talking and laughter coming from the attic. She would go into her parent's room scared to death. Her mother told her "Honey don't be frighten they are only having fun, it's not the dead you have to worry about it's the living!" The story still can give me the chills at night...

My brother in law has a home up North that is a historical site built in the 1840s. He and his wife were told that it was haunted but they did not believe it. One day when they first moved in, they awoke to a pot of coffee already made. The same week my sister in law was washing the clothes and came back later to find all the clothes folded on the back steps! My wife and I went to visit them some years ago and slept in an upstairs room. My wife woke me up in the middle of the night and told me that someone was rocking in the antique rocking chair placed near the bed! I saw it move and we got up--no, ran downstairs to the LIVING room! I always wonder what was rocking that chair!!!

I have always been fascinated by the Southwestern Curanderos. Sometimes they were called witches and persecuted as such, but it's interesting to know that the word witch means "wise one" in Saxon.

They say there's a place down in Mexico
 Where a man can fly over mountains and hills
 And he don't need an airplane or some kind of engine
 And he never will
 Now you know it's a meaningless question
 To ask if those stories are right
 ‘Cause what matters most is the feeling
 You get when you're hypnotized



Seems like a dream
 (They) got me hypnotized - Fleetwood Mac song by Bob Welch

I had a doctor friend of mine who had a liver problem. All the medical doctors he went to see about it gave him no hope and agreed the diagnosis was terminal. He told me frankly "they just washed their hands of it." “When I walked in front of a mirror one day,” he said, "I saw a dying man." He traveled to see an old woman who lived in New Mexico, who had a reputation as a healer (now this happened more than 40 years ago and the woman is no longer alive). She took a needle and pricked his finger for blood. He was not sure what she did with it, but she spent a long time in her small home while he rested outside. She came back and told him "you can go now." He flew back home and began to feel better over the weeks. His liver numbers started to stabilize and then became normal. He insistently says, "This woman healed me!"

As we move into November and the Holiday Celebrations begin, my greatest wish is that we are able to set aside our critical thinking and be comfortable with not knowing everything. Let's enjoy the holiday traditions and, through them, express the joy and energy we all have bottled up in us! Happy Halloween from the Little Shack.

Final Flight by S. Correu

Little Shack and Acts of Kindness

"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral; returning violence with violence only multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars." - Martin Luther King Jr.

I was watching a television channel’s "breaking news" the other day and what seems to have become the new normal of mass violence and environmental catastrophes. I couldn't help but remember the lines from the movie The Thin Red Line: "This great evil, where's it come from? How'd it steal into the world? What seed, what root did it grow from? Who's doing this? Who's killing us, robbing us of life and light, mocking us with the sight of what we might've known? Does our ruin benefit the earth, does it help the grass to grow, the sun to shine? Is this darkness in you, too? Have you passed through this night?"

What can we do about this new normal? How about random acts of kindness? The phrase "practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty" is a homophone written by Anne Herbert on a placemat in Sausalito, California in 1982. It is based on the chilling phrases of our new normal: “random acts of violence” and “senseless acts of cruelty.” Randomly, the "stage" is always set in the outside world for an "act" of kindness. From a spiritual perspective, as practice, our intent is to be kind but our action will be spontaneous. It is analogous to telling someone a good joke and then laughing out loud with the other--telling the joke is intentional, but the joy of laughter comes from deep within--spontaneously!

"Sure the world breeds monsters, but kindness grows just as wild." - Mary Karr

In spite of, or maybe as a result of, this new norm of violence, I have begun to notice that when I leave my little shack and go into the public, there seems to be a more congenial awareness of our human kinship ( kind, in fact, is related to an old root word cynn "family" or"kin"). I see more "good mornings!" more smiles, maybe more "you go ahead first." I hope this is so, I know I have been saying a lot more "thank yous!"

"Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not." - Samuel Johnson

There is a funny story that happened to me some time ago. I was driving with a friend when I was pulled over by a police officer for going over the speed limit. The officer wrote out a ticket and I said: "Thank you! Please be careful and have a nice day!" The officer looked startled and asked my friend: "What's wrong with him?" My friend answered, " I suppose he's touched!" Lately, when I am at the grocery store, post office or someplace of business and I am finished with a customer service person, I always say to them "have a nice day!" I feel like this is a way to change the current of the present negativity in the world. By changing the "current" I mean becoming more vulnerable, opening myself up to empathy to the other, instead of just keeping to my separate sense of self and just my own needs for the day. It's considering the other. It's "something I can do."

There are many websites now on the internet that give the reader some ideas on practicing random acts of kindness. I came across one that explains the Jewish concept of mitzvah; the word is used to mean a good deed or an act of kindness. Judaism teaches that "the world is built on kindness." I like that author Henry James sums this all up: "Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind."

"Make yourself like a lake with a calm surface and great depths of kindness." - Lao Tzu

P.S. From the little shack: HAVE A NICE DAY!

Little Shack Stops Having the Last Word

'The last word' is the most dangerous of infernal machines, and husband and wife should no more fight to get it than they would struggle for the possession of a lighted bomb-shell.

-Douglas Jerrold

Several weeks ago, I had a group of people over, and I noticed how everyone kept interrupting each other's conversation, including yours truly! We all want to tell our story, nothing wrong with that, but I was observing and asking myself: Am I listening to each person's narrative? Am I genuinely interested in what they are saying? Why do I have to have the last word?

I began a new spiritual practice of being aware of how I end a conversation. Not having the last word is a practice of humility. It can be a surrender of the unconscious reactionary self's demand to be dominant. During an argument, having the last word can be an endless loop with the other."

Silence is true wisdom's best reply.

-Euripides

I have heard from a mother that had this problem with her children. Her ingenious solution uses the phrase, "I've spoken. Would you like to have the last word?" She explains, "This shifts the power. Instead of them taking control, you have decided to give it to them!" Of course, at times, it is essential to be firm, for example with a teaching or disciplinary situation. The exercise of sacrificing the last word may open a spiritual gate for a higher octave of connection to the other. A transformation can occur that creates freedom and spiritual flow through this gate by moving pass the narrow framework of our separative personal self.

Successfully practicing Not Having To Have The Last Word, we become more substantial, not diminished, and still can tell our own story.

Silence is a source of great strength.

-Lao Tzu

Sleepless Nights at the Little Shack

"Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you'll start having positive results." 

-Willie Nelson

" A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events, and outcomes. It is a catalyst and it sparks extraordinary results."

-Wade Boggs

"A strong, positive mental attitude will create more miracles than any wonder drug." 

-Patricia Neal   

The last month or so I have only been getting an hour or two of sleep, likely caused by some of life's challenges. I go into the night outside and sit for a while, and the moon, the stars and the orchestra of bullfrogs, crickets and lightning bugs move me to thoughts of events from my past.

I was watching the full moon one night, and I remembered as a child being frightened after a relative's death, imagining that I saw a ghost in my closet. I would have so much trouble going to sleep! One night my mother came in and asked, "Why aren't you sleeping?"

I replied, "There is a ghost in my closet!" She went to the open door and showed me a white shirt that was glowing from the moonlight filtered in through the window blinds. She then told me a story. She was in a MASH unit during the World War II Battle of the Bulge. The front lines were not well defined, and the German and American armies were fighting above and behind her unit. She had finally gone to bed after a long day of surgery, and she woke up in the middle of the night in terror to a light shining through her tent! She was sure it was the Germans, and that they had broken through another line. After what to her seemed to be an eternity, she realized it was just the moonlight shining through the canvas wall.

After hearing her tale, I have never experienced fear in the same way again. Of course, I have gotten older, but my imagination of fearful possibilities has gone from a ghost in the closet or monsters under the bed to bills in the mailbox or urgent health matters. What has changed is me taking the reins on my negative imagination and replacing it with a clear affirmation that I can meet any possibilities with the determination that I will meet them with an acceptable solution. I substitute that negative imagining thought with a winning outcome.

A courageous example of this is Alex Trebek, host of the game show Jeopardy, who was recently diagnosed with 4th stage pancreatic cancer. He wrote to a fan who was seeking words of encouragement from him for her grandmother given the same challenging medical news: "XXXX, let’s you and I decide that we both are going to be cancer survivors. Stay positive. All the best! " Now that's what I call right thinking! Not surprisingly, In a new interview with People magazine, Mr. Trebek says that some of the tumors have now shrunk by more than 50 percent and that, according to doctors, he's "near remission." "It's kind of mind-boggling," he says. "The doctors said they hadn't seen this kind of positive result in their memory."

Practicing substitution of negative thinking also works with personal habits you may have. I found this practice helped me stop a three-pack-a-day cigarette habit 35 years ago! The key word here is"practice"— this does take time. No matter how old we are, substituting one line of thought that we want to change with another will work once it becomes ingrained in your way of living.                                                                                                  .                                                                             Goodwill and Positive thoughts to all!   

PEACHES

“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.

—— Chief Seattle

I met her 20 years ago, and we became fast friends, She was like seasonal clockwork, offering the fruit from her soul; my barter was just a little water and food.

We would sit together, I in the shade relishing all the cobblers and pies she'd make in the future! Her unique perfume worn in the spring would always be a calling of the sensual, not erotica per se, but of dancing butterflies, milk and honey seeping through the web of life.  As she grew old, her beauty was in the gnarl and wrinkle. No vanity or pretense for this one!  She never complained. Alas, this morning when I went out for my morning walk to say hello, I knew she had passed; her leaves had fallen as if it were December, her pulsing sap was gone. Goodbye, Peaches, old Friend. My sadness did not last long though. I am sure I heard a voice coming from my old Friend, "Forget the Apples; the Peach does not fall far from the tree!"  Behold a new Peach tree, inches tall, had grown from fallen seed. A new friendship, new memories await - Rebirth is the TRUTH!

““I give you this to take with you:
Nothing remains as it was. If you know this, you can begin again, with pure joy in the uprooting.”

— ― Judith Minty, Letters to My Daughters

No Way Out but by Transformation

In the book "Trumbo" by Bruce Cook, the writer Dalton Trumbo tells a story about getting a job as a screenwriter. During his interview, the producer Bryan Foy had asked him to imagine a man at the bottom of a pit, sixty feet deep, with smooth, vertical walls and absolutely no way to get out. I think we all have been in a position where we felt we were sixty feet deep in trouble and no way out. Many spiritual teachers try to create situations where there is no hope of escape; there is no talk of blissful or ecstatic experiences –(not that these do not exist.)

I have been told that being around one spiritual teacher, U.G. Krishnamurti has been described as "a house of pain", meaning there was no compromise, no way out-- only total surrender. One quote from a book titled "No Way Out", compiled from the many talks he gave, has the following encouraging words (gallows humor intended!): "You are not ready to accept the fact that you have to give up. A complete and total surrender. It is a state of hopelessness which says there is no way out, any movement in any direction, on any dimension, at any level is taking you away from yourself.” 

Jiddu Krishnamurti, another well-known spiritual teacher, has said, “The fact is there is nothing that you can trust; and that is a terrible fact, whether you like it or not. Psychologically there is nothing in the world that you can put your faith, your trust, or your belief in.”

Marie-Louise Von Franz, in her book “The Interpretation of Fairy Tales” quotes Jung: “Jung has said that to be in a situation where there is No Way Out, or to be in a conflict where there is no solution, is the classical beginning of the process of individuation. It is meant to be a situation without solution: the unconscious wants the hopeless conflict to put ego-consciousness up against the wall so that the man has to realize that whatever he does is wrong, whichever way he decides will be wrong. This is meant to knock out the superiority of the ego, which always acts from the illusion that it has the responsibility of decision. Naturally, if a man says, "Oh well, then I shall just let everything go and make no decision, but just protract and wriggle out of [it]," the whole thing is equally wrong, for then naturally nothing happens. But if he is ethical enough to suffer to the core of his personality, then generally because of the insolubility of the conscious situation, the Self manifests. In religious language, you could say that the situation without issue is meant to force the man to rely on an act of God. "

From birth to death we come to points in our life that we consider there is No Way Out but sometimes luck, fate, miracle (spiritual law) or maybe even like physics (for example at 100ºC., not one degree less, water turns to a gas as steam) "THE NO WAY OUT" TRANSFORMS into a new beginning!

I like how Ernest Hemingway in his book "The Old Man in the Sea" sums up this No Way Out, and gives us all a little hope, even after total surrender: “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” (Meaning the man has become transformed)

Returning to Bruce Cook’s Trumbo and the story of Trumbo’s job interview, Dalton Trumbo told his interviewer, Bryan Foy, that he could imagine how he could get the man into the 60-foot pit with no way out. "Well," said Foy, "if you can get him out, too, then we're in good shape."

Another teacher has told me “No way out leads to surrender and surrender leads to transformation, but love itself is transformative. So one possible solution to no way out is the transformative power of love.” Since Valentine's Day is in February and celebrates this transformative power of love, I wanted to share a few quotes about it:

 “Be with me now. … We. We together. One being. Flow together like water. Till I can’t tell you from me. I drink you. Now. Now. … Love. Where does it come from? Who lit this flame in us?” - James Jones

“LOVE is the ultimate meaning of everything around us. It is not a mere sentiment. It is truth; it is the joy that is at the root of all creation.” Rabindranath Tagore

Here is a poem I wrote when I was battling cancer almost 5 years ago scrawled on Valentine's Day to my wife.

The First Light of Spring

Did you think I live alone? That I do not share this tent and cot with a woman? Revelations! I have a Wife! Let us forget about this Old Man's Illness for awhile! Let us celebrate! Her name Eileen. It means First Light of Spring. Her hair is like the clouds kissed by Dawn's blessings [Chorus: Cheers!] Her voice is a caress, [Chorus: Cheers!] Her eyes are deep pools of mysterious Beauty and Peace, [Chorus: Cheers!] She smells good! [Chorus: You Fool!]

May this burning violence of love in my heart for her spill over to all! [Chorus: Cheers!] [Fool, you are pardoned.]

From the Little Shack of Musings: Happy Valentine’s Day! I have put up a white flag on my Little Shack!

Bird Watching at the Little Shack

“Man’s hope can paint a purple picture, can transform a soaring vulture into a noble eagle or moaning dove.” — Ralph Ellison

My wife and I take our dog Hobo for a walk around the property every morning…I love this dog. We named him Hobo—as a stray he snuck up and downed two pecan pies cooling on our outdoor table—can’t get much more Hobo than that! Needless to say, he stuck around, but that's another story…While taking our morning stroll  last week, we came upon seven vultures standing on fence posts with their wings spread out catching the wind. They seemed to be in ecstasy, instantly reminding me of the film, "The City of Angels”. In the movie, there are angels all over Los Angeles, doing the merciful as angels do, totally unseen by the "mortals". Every morning they get together on the beach and they too stand in ecstasy, worshiping the rising Sun. (Haven’t you ever just stopped and felt the breeze, the splendid warmth of the Sun, the peace and communion of one worship in your single space, while gathered together with your friends or family?) As I witnessed the vultures in their morning salute, I couldn’t help but feel their very feathers were worshiping the wind and that, it seems to me, is why all birds fly: They and their feathers worship the wind and the boundless freedom of the sky. As we respectfully passed the birds, I looked up and saw a very large bald eagle, flying above a pine. Made me wonder—which came first, the feathers or the bird? …The ecstasy or the freedom?

I looked down at Hobo's knowing, smiling face that said: "Neither one! Just a Wordless Being and a Soundless AWE.....

“17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God… “ — Revelation 19:17-21 KJV

A Romance at Christmas

Everyone has that special memory when the Christmas Spirit takes hold and ‘Joy runneth over’ with that fullness of delight. My most joyful Christmas holiday started out with some very harsh periods in my life: I was laid off from my job, lost both my parents that year, was in the middle of a turbulent divorce after 17 years of marriage... and my dog died! I spent a month severely depressed, gradually gathering myself to start living again, and eventually put my name out in an online singles dating site called Astral Hearts. The site catered to people with an interest in meditation, metaphysics, and those seeking spiritual companionship.

After meeting some interesting women locally, I received an inquiry from a woman in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Every evening we got together online and spent hours emailing one another—Eileen was her name. By the way, she did not know anything about instant messaging, just email.  One day I sent her an instant message, saying, "Hi, how did your day go?" Startled, she wrote me back, "How did you do that?????" (This was about 16 years ago so instant messaging was new, at least to us!) She was kind of frightened and thought I had somehow taken over her computer. We share a laugh about it now, especially when she tells me that she actually looked over her shoulder to make sure I wasn't somehow there!   

One day, after many months of this type of communication, she wanted to know if I was as lonely and miserable as she was. She wanted to see me and, of course, I said YES!  She invited me to visit the 4th of July and described it her favorite day because it meant Freedom! I liked this description and was anxious to meet her, so I began my 1,000 mile, 16 hour trip—one of many.  When I told my family and friends I was dating, I left out the part that I was driving a 2,000 mile round trip.  I checked into a hotel off I-40, agreeing to meet her at her home in the morning to have breakfast, and what a wonderful one it was! We had her special New Mexico omelets with coffee while we looked out her window, watching the Sandia Mountains.  She planned our day: a stroll down the Rio Grande, then a rock shop call Mama's Minerals. I bought her a jade carved Buddha and she bought me an amethyst one. We climbed Sandia Peak to watch the fireworks and this mystic mountain blew a cool breath of air that smelled of piñon pine, making us cuddle (I do not kiss and tell!). I stayed in my motel that evening and met her the next day to drive to Sky City—what a day that was!

After driving back and forth for my dates, we decided to spend Christmas together. This time I took a plane and I was there in 2 hours!  Our excitement was magnetic. We went to Home Depot and bought a pile of piñon pine for her fireplace. Then we went to Old Town Plaza. There was a tree, all lit up, and Christmas Carols flowing through the air. The temperature kept dropping and it began to snow.  Even though I was in my fifties, that night brought this Texan his first White Christmas.  I had never before felt the Joy that that Christmas gave to me.  I thought of a child wrapped in rags in a manger and knew then what the tradition of wrapped-gift giving is about during this season of Love and communion. As we walked through the different shops, talking about our future, I also knew then that no matter how old you are, Love and Romance are waiting for you, and in Eileen's words, "Our childlike spirit comes out to play again on that night of Light.”

Merry Christmas from the Little Shack, shining with love from a woman, now my wife, that I met online in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

These Bones Ache at the Little Shack

Oh those bones, oh those bones, 
oh, those skeleton bones…
Oh, mercy how they scare! (old spiritual by James Weldon Johnston)

Now in the 21st century, the boundaries separating chemistry, physics, and medicine have become blurred, and as happened during the Renaissance, scientists are following their curiosities even when they run beyond the formal limits of their training. (Peter Agre)

Several weeks ago, I woke up around 2 a.m., which has been usual lately due to nightly pain in my shoulders and knees. The pain occurs, I think, due to the physical stimulation I do get during the day. When I woke up, I had the frighting sensation of waking up in a decaying body and in fact, I had a mental image not unlike the Tarot card Death. I worried about this for the rest of the night and day till it dawned on me that I was observing a physical body. Science tells us our bodies are decaying every day, but also being renewed; as we age, this process of renewal slows down. I had forgotten that what I saw was not the ME decaying, but a physical body—one I happen to occupy! You and I are not the physical bodies we happen to be born with; we are much, much more. 


Because of my increasing concern for the escalating pain in my shoulders, hands and knees, I went to an osteoporosis specialist who ordered 5 X-rays, then a MRI. The doctor's verdict was more arthritis, and I was told that I would have to have both shoulders and a knee replacement. With those replacements, along with a cochlear implant for both ears that I have wanted to have done, I would become bionic, maybe part android or a cyborg!

Fortunately, I own a vintage brain, and I am alive and well in the 21st century, still making records, still working at an intense pace and most of all, still having fun doing it. (Tony Visconti) 

I often joke about one day waking up in the 21st Century— I am the type of guy that still looks around for a phone booth! I think this was my 21st century moment. A doctor friend told me, " I guess you will have to decide which body parts to replace when. The miracle is that they can be replaced. Welcome to the 21st century!" By the way, she also told me to "plug in your heating pad for those bones in this winter weather." Sound advice— HAPPY THANKSGIVING!


I think there's every reason this 21st century will be much happier. (Dalai Lama)

Halloween and Day of the Dead at the Little Shack of Insight

"What happens after death is so unspeakably glorious that our imagination and our feelings do not suffice to form even an approximate conception of it. The dissolution of our time-bound form in eternity brings no loss of meaning."               

—Carl Jung

In Memories, Dreams, and Reflections, Carl Jung wrote that "Six weeks after his death my father appeared to me in a dream... It was an unforgettable experience, and it forced me for the first time to think about life after death."

I had a similar experience with my mother after her passing. She appeared to me in her dream and said the word "Ambien." This I could not understand: why would she say the name of a sleeping pill, "Ambien"? The dream bothered me for several weeks, then one evening, I was relaxing in my hot tub without a care in the world, and like a strike of lightning, I knew what the dream meant; “Ambien” meant "AM BEING." Although she was no longer in the physical body, she was saying, "I AM BEING!"

I had an even more tangible communication experience with her several weeks after she had passed. Before I had built anything on my property, I would bring my mother out to the 8-acre tract. She had progressive dementia at the time. She would walk around and pick up different colors of pebbles, petrified wood and other unique stones, and hand them to me. After her passing—I like to use the word "The Great Transition"—I built a fence at the entrance of the property using corral board. This place was going to be a real ranch! One day after completion of the fence, I came out to paint the boards, and there was a row of stones, about 10, of all different shapes and colors, each placed about 1/2 inch apart. A little chill went up my spine!

I picked them up, thinking to myself maybe it was from a squirrel or bird, but spaces measuring 1/2 inch apart seemed to be beyond that possibility. A couple of days later I went back to check the painted wood, and there was a new row of stones in the same place as before! This went on for two more weeks then stopped. I feel this was her way of telling me "I AM BEING!"; "I LIVE!"

I have been reading about the symbolism of stones today, and I am floored. According to Jung in his book Man and His Symbols:

"Many people cannot refrain from picking up stones of slightly unusual color or shape and keeping them... without knowing why they do. It is as if the stone held a mystery in it that fascinates them. Men have collected stones since the beginning of time and have apparently assumed that certain ones were the containers of the spirit of the life-force with all its mystery. The stone symbolized something permanent that can never be lost or dissolved, something eternal that some have compared to the mystical experience of God within one's own soul. It symbolizes what is perhaps the simplest and deepest experience, the experience of something eternal that man can have in those moments when he feels immortal and unalterable."

Halloween during my childhood, as nowadays, was about dressing up in costume and going door to door hustling the candy—being scary or slightly scared was entertainment. "Spooky" was fun, but a real ghost story was enough to keep us up all night! 

One of my real ghost stories happened when I was in my early 20's; I had taken a trip to India for spiritual purposes but also for adventure! I probably saw myself as Lawrence of Arabia or Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim—some romantic adventurer. As the plane crossed the Atlantic, there was non-stop turbulence, and two experienced seatmates told me to drink a few martinis and I'd be fine! The plane landed in Bombay (now called Mumbai) right in the middle of a monsoon downpour. I had a hotel room for one night and after the 16-hour flight, I passed out, waking up to sitar music playing through the room—I was in India! 

I hired a taxi to Poona (now Pune), but did not know that all the rooms were taken due to the city’s very popular horse races. I reached Poona after a hair-raising taxi cab drive on wet roads with the driver racing at 80 MPH in the rain! I was serenaded by two enthusiastic Indians singing beautiful Hindi songs which made my ride a lot more enjoyable, despite the numerous auto accidents we saw on the way. On arrival, I went looking for a room, but yes, everything was booked. Horse racing was a holiday.  I finally found a “for rent” sign and inquired about it at a nearby restaurant.

For 3 dollars a night it seemed like a deal! I opened a sliding barn door in a 10’ by 20’ room to find a slab with burlap, a dirt floor, and a very musky smell. I finally got settled and locked the latch. I knew I probably would find a room the next day since the races would be ending. I was very tired and laid down on the burlap. All night long I would see lights, hear noises like laughter and movement in the room but no was one there. I then felt a hand move over my mouth, then two hands on my throat, choking me!

Again, there was no one there—at least not physically. Frighten was not the word, terror is a good one! Since this was not my first encounter with the supernatural, I contained myself till morning. I left as soon as I could see, but I was traveling with cash and a credit card on me, so I had to be very careful. Those thoughts had kept me from running out screaming when the haunted house started rocking! Later I found out that the "room" for rent was a type of morgue! People would place their loved ones there to prepare for ritual cremation. I was also told that the criminal element in Poona used it as well for the same purpose, hence my meeting with one rough ghost! 

I leave this Day of the Dead and Halloween Celebration with a little advice from our friend Jung. I call the quote: "Day of the Living!"

 "I urge one and all to live even to the last of his days as if the now were a Great Forever!” 

Happy Halloween and Day of the Dead, with much Living Now!

The Trickster Visits The Little Shack of Insight”

“Many native traditions held clowns and tricksters as essential to any contact with the sacred. People could not pray until they had laughed, because laughter opens and frees from rigid preconception. Humans had to have tricksters within the most sacred ceremonies for fear that they forget the sacred comes through upset, reversal, surprise. The trickster in most native traditions is essential to creation, to birth.”

             —epigraph in "Napalm and Silly Putty" by George Carlin, 2001 

Everyone has heard the statement "You Can't Make This Up!"

My wife has a small business and after a successful service call, her client, who runs a hair salon, generously told her, “Ask your husband to come by and get a free haircut!” Since I am always ready to fill my "beggar’s bowl,” I took her up on it. Now, my hair is not long, maybe a bit over the collar, but not over my ears. In fact, I have a very pronounced receding hairline. I entered her salon and gave her my name, not wanting to greet her with the words "I am here for my free haircut!" (Especially not in front of clients that are paying!)

I sat down on the barber chair and the circus began, or maybe a Saturday Night Live skit at the Trickster Salon!  As she coughed all over me,  she asked me what I would like, and I replied "Just short." Taking her scissors out and snipping away, she began to clear her throat, then coughed again, explaining that she had a bad cold! I was thinking, "Now I am a goner—a free cold included in this deal!” Remember, I am almost deaf, and I explained this to her at the beginning. She kept asking me questions that I could not hear clearly, but I would guess and say, “Yes… haha… no… of course…” She could have been asking me if I lived on the Moon, or maybe even speaking to the lady sweeping the floor. I could not be sure.

A few minutes later, I felt a blowing on my ears and neck. Instead of a barber hose, she was blowing all the cut hair off of me and my shoulders! At the same time, she kept coughing! I was thinking: ”This is not happening." I grew very nervous as she pulled out her buzz blade and started to shave my hair at about an inch. I knew that one day this ordeal would be done, but my mind was as confused as a Zen Master’s Koan.

When I was shown a mirror to check my “do,”  my happy response was not really about the “perfect haircut,” but the relief that I was getting out of there!!! There I was at the counter, thinking she knew who I was, because of my name on the card I had given her, when she said, "That will be $35.” I have never had a $35 haircut and told her so, pointing to the pricing of “Men $12.” She explained that my hair was longer than most men that came in! 

I paid her the $35, because she was a good client for my wife, and I did not want to make a scene that would offend her. As I was leaving, she held out her hand and asked me, “Don’t you want to tip me?” With all the patience I could muster, I turned the other cheek, giving her a $3 tip. (I hope it was enough—she could have pulled out her scissors!!) I finally got out of the salon and was shell-shocked! I was either experiencing Don Juan’s non-ordinary reality, or I had met the Archetype Trickster.

I now think it was the best $35 haircut I ever received, and I have a good story to tell my wife and friends that laugh until tears pour out! To give the lady credit, after she later found out who I was, she asked my wife to tell me to come back and give her another chance. But I told my wife, “Just let her know it was the best $35 haircut I ever had!”

“We need the impish reflection of the Trickster, turning all our experiences and perceptions into their opposite, playfully inverting and reversing life's energies and directions, to free us from the tyranny of bias and dogma. For one-sidedness is the bringer of stagnancy and rigidity, the enemy of the free flow of life toward its goal of fullness.”                   

—Maureen B. Roberts Ph.D.

Native American Trickster Kokopelli by S.Correu

Heaven Takes Root at the Little Shack of Insight

I am planting Gardenia's everywhere around the Shack so the fragrance will hover over the Property.  Perhaps the Incense of Heaven on Earth will take root.

The idea was brought to mind in early summer when the Gardenias bloomed. The scent still lingers from the flowers I picked for my wife one early June morning. Smiling, she pressed them in her favorite books as she whispered, "The perfume is always sweeter with age!" I laughed and said, "The Wine in the Bottle!" Inspired, I have begun to make cuttings from that special Gardenia bush. The Gardenia symbolizes Grace; it has been associated with the visiting scent of Saints. I find pleasure in growing plants, something I've learned through trial and error. To me, it is one form of co-creating in harmony with that mysterious purpose of Nature. For the aging and disabled, it definitely can become a synergistic exercise: Spiritual (co-creating, cultivating in harmony), Physical (hands-on shovel and pail, caressing the soil over a stem) and Mental (visualizing, mapping the completed growth) --a practice that can't be accomplished at the Gym! I have had good results with all kinds of plants, from cactus to fruit trees, making cuttings--an ancient form of cloning! While there are many sites on the internet with pictures and techniques, my simple way is: I find a fresh green stem about 6 inches long, cut it with a sharp knife--oval with a point not straight across, leave 2 or 3 green leaves at the top, moisten the stem, then poke it in powdered root stimulator. Poke a hole in any pot filled with potting soil, insert the stem, keeping it moist, not wet, for several weeks, out of direct sun. In a month's time, the Gardener becomes the Midwife for Nature, handing over the sprouts to a proud new day. A new birth, a resurrection, occurs in the plant!  In this harmony with Nature, we too are renewed.  Here is a wonderful description of this miracle:

Cuttings (Later) by Theodore Roethke

“This urge, wrestle, resurrection of dry sticks,
Cut stems struggling to put down feet,
What saint strained so much,
Rose on such lopped limbs to a new life?
I can hear, underground, that sucking and sobbing,
In my veins, in my bones I feel it --
The small waters seeping upward,
The tight grains parting at last.
When sprouts break out,
Slippery as fish,
I quail, lean to beginnings, sheath-wet. “

Perhaps in a few years, we can get can get together, you and I down by the Shack, have tea or coffee and inhale deeply the scented breeze of Heaven on Earth, Rooted in the form of Gardenias!  (With a little help of co-creation!)

The Mimosa Tree

I usually read a page or two of some book before I go to bed. Recently, I was reading about Jung's decision to try to discover the myth by which he personally was living. He asked himself, "What was the game I enjoyed when I was a child?" Joseph Campbell asked a similar question: "What did you do as a child that created timelessness, that made you forget time?" That night, I began to drift in my memories, as aging people do. I drifted to a day when I was a preschool child with my mother, who was visiting her friend for coffee. In the back yard was a large Mimosa tree, cultivated in that rustic, branching, natural way by Sun, Wind and Rain - an image of Eastern Asia, with its fine pink flowers and mystic perfume. As I climbed high up a branch,  hanging on, hugging it, the sun entered my bones like an X-ray with a warmth and brightness boring deep in my essence, leaving a moment of "All is Right with my World" framed in memory -- a glowing happiness. This feeling has returned to me my whole life, whenever I see a Mimosa tree.  

My memory floated again to my old home where I grew up in Houston. There was a large elm tree in the back; the seeds always reminded me of bunches of bananas! I would climb high up the tree, perhaps looking for that timelessness of the Mimosa. One day, the first day of Spring, a Finch with green and yellow feathers landed right next to me. We looked at each other in a natural innocence and she sang a song to me.  I said, "Hello, little bird." There was magic in that moment as she turned her head inquisitively! Everyday I would climb the tree to see if my new friend was there, but she never was. Then the next year's first day of Spring came and I climbed the tree again, hoping, hoping I would see her once more. To my complete surprise she landed next to me. There was no mistake--it was her!  She sang her Song and gave me her eyes. I was hers.

Oh, of timeless days                                                                                                               when we are but a child.                                                                                                     Simple breezes of                                                                                                                   eternal moments,                                                                                                                  framed in our hearts,                                                                                                       magically change into                                                                                                                  our essence.

Thank you,                                                                                                                                  O Lord,                                                                                                                                       for blessed memories                                                                                                                      clinging to us,                                                                                                                               lightening our burdens,                                                                                                                and sweetening our rest.