Autumn Garden 2011

Thanks to our dear friend Beth of Dogwould Landscaping for this beautiful garden!





White Squirrel

The first time I saw this critter in my back yard, I thought it was a white lab rat.  I could not believe my eyes.  On Friday, December 16th, Ray saw it as he was going out the door, and I was able to photograph it.  He thought there might be 2 of them.  Hope it works out that we might have more white squirrels on Eastwood Ave. next spring.



First snowfall!

This was the first snowfall of the 2011-2012 winter season: Friday, December 09, 2011, 8:17:12 AM

My Christmsas Spirit is beginning to stir!



Advent, 3rd Sunday: Fire

 This week we lit the 3rd candle, for the element of Fire.  



Fire is about going on a Quest.  Fire is about doing what you need to do.  Fire is not letting thoughts or feelings or anything else interfere with wht your heart tells you to do.


We brought out the figure of the Wise Man. 

He represents Fire because he followed the Star, which is a hot bright fireball; and it was not logical or sensible, but he followed his heart and found a way to accomplish this quest through passion and courage.

Here is a prayer honoring Fire:

"Ancient sun, eternally young, 

 giver of life and source of energy, 

 In coal and oil, in plant and wind and tide,

 in spiritual light and human embrace

You kindle the heavens, you shine within us
(for we are suns with hearts afire—
we light the world as you light the sky

 and find clouds within whose shadows are dark);

We give thanks for your rays. . . ."

Yokuts Indian prayer 

Congregation of Abraxas

The Third Sunday of Advent is called "Gaudete Sunday."  Gaudete means Rejoice! because Christmas is almost here.

Wedding! Alex and Jennifer

See all our wonderful pictures!

September 2, 2011...Wedding Day in North Carolina! so beautiful...so amazing...so very special.

September 3, 2011...we spent most of the day traveling to western North Carolina for a day in Asheville to see the Biltmore Mansion 


September 4, 2011...a day at the Biltmore Mansion

September 5, 2011...on our way home from North Carolina

Maris's Birthday 2011

We were grateful to receive visits from Maris's friends in honor of his birthday.


Every year, there was a sleepover for Maris's friends.  They did wild and crazy things all night, and it was always a lot of fun.

Friends from Gordon Tech visited on Saturday, November 12--Lukasz, Brian, and Jeff:

 and Peter and Elizabeth, friends from Newberry visited on his actual birthday, November 16

  Thank you so much for being the most special friends in the world.

Advent 2011, Second Sunday

On Sunday December 4 we lit the second candle on our Advent Wreath.  It represents the element of Water.  

The flowing world of psyche, soul, and emotions is where we are now.  Raising our vibratory level a bit has made us aware of our own feelings, and those of other people.  Sometimes we receive sensations and impressions from the astral sea.

Sometimes our psyches feel as if we are caught in the undertow.  We feel at the mercy of a storm at sea.  We feel pain and bliss of every conceivable kind.

Yet we are aware of another side to Water....its ebb and flow, its ability to refresh and renew, its ability to cleanse and heal.

 Its positive expressions are dreams, visions, and intuitions.  We learn to go with the flow, to rejoice in the gentle rain that brings new life.  The purpose of emotions is to move us.

The psyche is a source of light as well as darkness, of wisdom and empathy. It takes us on a journey through the Underworld, and back again.  We may drink deeply of the cup of life.

To the creche, we added the figure of Mother Mary, who represents Water:

Mary is like the goddess Isis, who represents the River Nile, which retrieves the scattered dark earth of Egypt, and carries it to the land so that life may continue for another year. In this way she brings fertility to the earth.  She represents the waters of life.

Mary received a special message from Gabriel, the Angel of Water.  He told he she would give birth to someone very special.  Fertility is the gift of Water.


May we receive awakening.  May we ascend. May we receive that which has been scattered, feelings of light and the dark in balance.  May we receive the waters of life.

Here is a Hindu prayer, which is a Water contemplation:

"Waters, you are the ones who brinng us the life force.

Help us to find nourishment so that we may look upon great joy.

Let us share in the most delicious sap that you have, as if you were loving mothers.

 Let us go straight to the house of the one for whom your waters give us life and give us birth.

For our well-being let the goddesses be an aid to us, the waters be for us to drink.  Let them cause well-being and health to flow over us.

Mistresses of all the things that are chosen, rulers over all peoples, the waters are the ones I beg for a cure.

Soma has told me that within the waters are all cures and Agni who is salutary to all.

Waters, yield your cure as an armour for my body, so that I may see the sun for a long time.

Waters, carry far away all of this that has gone bad in me, either what I have dome in malicious deceit or whatever lie I have sworn to.

I have sought the waters today, we have joined with their sap.  O Agni full of moisture, come and flood me with splendour."

Halloween 2011

Thanks to our friends who helped us carve pumpkins for our halloween celebration!  Our back yard was beautiful.

November 1 With Olivia

Millennium Park excursion with Lady Olivia Rpobertson, November 1, 2011.

Fast Company Magazine

We enjoy seeing Philip's articles at Fast Company Magazine.


Here is an article titled We Are All T-Pain.

Scroll all the way down.  Can you figure out which T-Pain lookalike is Philip?  Hint:

Sliding Rock

After visiting the Biltmore Mansion in Asheville NC after the wedding we all went to Sliding Rock in Pisgah National Forest  for some R&R.

It was hilarious watching everyone slip and slide into the water.


Here are some entertaining  videos.

Marshfield

 Maris's good friend, Peter Carparelli, is a drummer for the band Marshfield.  They had a CD release show at the Old Town School of Folk Music on November 26.

The CD is titled Coping With the Present.  Be sure to listen to Sleepless, it was inspired by Maris.

What a special gift for Maris and all of us!

Advent 2011, First Sunday

On Sunday November 27 we lit the first candle on our Advent Wreath.  It represents the element of Earth.  

The physical, material world is where we start from.  Sometimes our bodies feel so inert and immovable. We feel so heavy, so constrained, so trapped by cause and effect.  Sometimes it feels so cold and dark.  We are aware of restrictions, necessity, work, limitations.  

But there is another side to Earth.  Its positive expressions are foundations and boundaries...things we can work with to improve our lives and give them substance...form...security...strength.  

Material things can be dense and burdensome until we give them an inner meaning.  That is our purpose in starting with Earth...to awaken it, for Spirit to descend into Matter...like the divine being born as human.


The manger is just a manger until we give it meaning, until we awaken it and it awakens us.

To the creche, we added figures representing Earth: Joseph, Ox, and Manger:

St. Joseph is a hard-working carpenter.  He has many hopes for the future. Maybe he built the manger himself? it is ready...for  something ordinary?  or something special?   He is the counterpart of the god Osiris, who represents the fertile black earth of Egypt.

The ox is also hard working.  He is just an animal...until we become aware of his soul and his being.  He works hard on our behalf.  We need to be grateful to him.  Our gratitude for the things of Earth awakens our hearts and gives wings to our minds.


May we receive awakening.  May we ascend.

Here is an Earth contemplation written by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: 

"Sons and daughters of the earth, steep yourself in the sea of matter, bathe in its fiery waters, for it is the source of your life and your youthfulness.

You thought you could do without it because the power of thought has been kindled in you?  You hoped that the more thoroughly you rejected the tangible, the closer you would be to spirit: that you would be more divine if you lived in the world  of pure thought, or at least more angelic if you fled the corporeal?  Well, you were like to have perished of hunger.

You must have oil for your limbs, blood for your veins, water for your soul, the world of reality for your intellect: do you not see that the very law of your own nature makes these a necessity for you?"

Tuxie

This is Tuxie the tuxedo cat.  Ray is fond of Tuxie.  I was trying to photograph the white squirrel, but Tuxie is all there was today.