Why me, Lord?
So 
So here are the rules. (You know how it is ... you gotta have rules. Otherwise, people just do whatever they want.) Anyway ... you're supposed to list five things you love ... and five you don't -- five things you'd really like to see dropped permanently in the trash! Then you're supposed to tag some other poor souls to join in the fun. (Be sure to pick out people who have absolutely no time and then call in favors until they have to cave.)
Doing it right this time
I actually enjoyed this ... (except I didn't do it right, so now I'm here making "adjustments" to get things back on track.) I opened this second account specifically for things of this sort that just don't fit into the motif on 
So ... here are my tags for other people to join in. (Somewhere I'm sure I have a list of souls I never want to hear from again. I can get a bunch of names from that.) First off there's 
Next up will be 
More on my list
Next ... how about 
And next ... 
Finishing up
And my last-but-never-least choice is going to be 
Now here's my list, so read it. Ok?
Five things I love
Number 1
Cooking ---> I love cooking. I do. I love finding new recipes to try. I love making up my own. I love the process of planning a meal and putting it together. I love trying new things. I love buying new cookbooks. I love having gadgets and appliances that let me do fancy stuff with food. I love eating, too, sure, but most of all, I love when everything comes together -- from soup and salad to dessert ... and is absolutely grand.
I have made some meals that were as splendid as anything in any restaurant in the country (and I've eaten in some fine ones!!) The measure of whether a restaurant is worth a return visit -- or a spot among our standard favorites -- is whether or not I can do better at home. If I can, we try somewhere else next time. It's part of the adventure.
Number Two
Writing ---> I absolutely love writing. I never run out of things to say. I also never have enough time to get them said. Writing is a positively joyful experience for me. I don't understand those authors who agonize over "writer's block." Maybe it's simply a well-developed habit, but when I sit down ... I don't know what I'm going to say ... only that something will come.
Words stretching out into sentences ... and paragraphs and pages. Ideas tumbling one over the other. And eventually I will have said what I wanted to say for the moment ... and I'm ready to move on to something else.
Before computers, I loved the feel of pencils in my hand and the smooth surface of paper below. Now I love that I can write almost as fast as I think. I totally wear out at least one keyboard a year. It's part of the cost of living and a huge part of the joy -- and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Number Three
Thinking ---> I love meeting new ideas. I love to learn. I love to find patterns and connections between one thought ... one piece of data ... and another. I love the invitation to create something new, to see something differently, to understand life and experiences in ways I didn't before.
I love working with my imagination ... and romping on the playground of my own mind. I love discovering what it will come up with next. I love to dream and meditate and visualize. I love to see the "deeper meaning" behind life's ordinary moments and I love to see visions become real. I think that's part of why we come here ... to watch this process in action.
Number Four
Sufficiency ---> I love having enough money to feel safe and I love having enough to share. That's been very tough for a lot of years, but I'm working to make it better. Years ago and for quite a while I knew what it was to have plenty of money. Looking back, I like who I was as a person then. They say money reveals character ... and if that's true, I'm good with that. I used money well, and I am proud of my choices.
I miss the person I used to be. Struggling and constant anxiety have changed me, and I don't care for a lot of those changes. But I know what I'm reaching for, what I want to become again and occasionally I get there -- just for a few minutes. I occupy that space again. I am for a brief time that person again. I am grateful for that.
Number Five
Loving companions ---> I love being married to The Weasel ... and I love the pets that share our home. A piece of me dies when we lose one and I don't think there's a way to make that stop. The Weasel -- being who he is -- can drive me totally nuts. (Any normal woman would have killed him already. I guess that's why he has me.) But he is an interesting soul, and I believe he has gained from knowing me. (I know he's gained weight ... but that's a different story.)
We "fit" together in ways that confirm we have known each other a long, long time. Far longer than just the 19 years of our acquaintance in this life. That feeling was there from the start ... before we even met. I believe in past lives and previous alliances, and there's no other accounting for this. Occam's Razor directs you to take the simplest explanation to solve a mystery. That we met again in this life, in unlikely ways across time and distance because parts of our souls were seeking each other ... says it all.
Five things I don't like
Number One
I don't like daylight savings time. I know it's a trivial thing, but it's true. It makes my astrology calculations more complex -- and more subject to error. It's not healthy. It feels awful. It's inconvenient. I don't like it one bit. The government can't seem to do anything worthwhile. They come up with this kind of crap instead. When their day of reckoning comes -- and it will, I want Daylight Savings Time included on the list of what The Powers That Be need to answer for.
Number Two
I don't like that there are only so many hours in the day ... and I have to sleep sometime. If I could arrange it I would have days that lasted for months and sleep could be condensed into 15 minutes, tops. Maybe then I'd get all my work done.
Number Three
I don't like the fact that the United States is now the biggest bully on the planet. I don't like that we spend so much money on war ... and that we seem to think we can kill our way out of problems. Every "problem" we meet, we declare some kind of "war" on it. War on drugs, war on crime, war on people half a world away.
You don't win a war by destroying your "enemy." You win it by removing the reason why he exists. Killing someone is easy. (Doubtless that's why it's our default response.) Forming alliances, partnerships, supportive projects for mutual gain ... that takes time, patience, skill and endless negotiation. It takes trust and good faith ... and a whole different perspective. That is not easy.
We probably need a few centuries of practice to work on that, but it needs to start somewhere. This other way isn't working worth squat.
Number Four
I don't like that we don't work together as a species for the betterment of everyone's life. Maybe this sounds like a continuation of the point above, but it stands as its own topic for discussion. I look at the resources we have to work with and the ingenuity and the energy and the sheer available manpower and I think how much we could accomplish if we as a global species set out to eliminate hunger, cure disease, provide education, teach skills, insure a basic decent standard of living, support art, etc., what kind of world we could build!!
If we would cooperate instead of compete ... if status, respect and power were measured by positive contributions and generosity instead of by the accumulation and hoarding of wealth and "leverage" .... If our perspective were one of tolerance and accommodation -- the desire to see everyone succeed in his dream -- instead of acting from defensiveness, suspicion and jealousy ... we could build a very different world. And it could happen. We just have to decide to make it so.
Number Five
I don't like how things that are supposed to do good get twisted.
I don't like what money does to some people -- both for what it can do to those who have it and for what happens to those who don't. Peter Coyote said, "Money is a means of producing scarcity." The first time I read that statement, it took my breath away with its clear and honest truth. It's not that we lack goods and resources, it's that if you don't have enough of the right kind of paper ... you can't have it.
I also don't like what religion does to some people. A body of thought intended to unite us as family, to uplift and inspire, to offer wisdom and comfort, to teach that there is more to life than what we see in this world ... becomes something else in the hands of those who misuse it.
In conclusion
My spiritual beliefs are not one bit conventional. I've accumulated them carefully over time ... and for that reason, they work for me. I believe in Something ... not Nothing. I believe there is an intelligent source behind all reality ... but it's not "God" in the classical sense. In my head as I write this I hear yet another quote. This one from James Baldwin who wrote, "If the concept of God has any validity or any use, it can only be to make us larger, freer and more loving. If God cannot do this, then it is time we got rid of Him."
I understand the sentiment, but I think the conclusion is wrong. In a perfect world -- or even just in a better world -- religious fanatics would be the most loving, generous, peaceful people you'd ever hope to meet. They wouldn't blow themselves up in the name of Allah ... or screech hatred at their neighbors for being "different."
All the world's great religions are built on that foundation of fraternity and unconditional love. We just have to fashion from that common standard an overarching structure of goodness, acceptance and life affirmation that endows everyone with inherent dignity and value -- and means it.
Yes, it's a major shift in attitude, and idealistic as all get-out. But great changes start somewhere ... and the only way to get there is to begin.
About the art in our visual essays ...
Although sometimes the background pictures in our visual essays support the topic and text, they don't always. Sometimes the connection is clear. Sometimes it's symbolic and subtle. Sometimes, there's no connection at all.
The scenes depict landscapes and natural features, buildings and wildlife. They were chosen because they show something lovely or interesting ... or simply because the photo appealed to me.
Our spectacular and remarkable planet is changing at astonishing speed. Rarely are these changes for the better. Few people seem to know ... or care ... or have the will and power to do anything about this. It may not be long before the world humans have known and lived in for centuries is forever lost. We certainly won't be able to make repairs as fast as we destroyed it.
So a few years ago I began collecting pictures of the way things were ... and still are for now, a record of the beauty we have while it is still ours to love and honor.
The photos here are part of that collection, with sincere thanks to the artists who saw these moments ... and with their cameras ... preserved them. All of us at Enchanted Spirit are profoundly grateful to them for their generosity and skill ... and for the added grace, depth and dimension their art brings to ours.
Original images used under this Creative Commons license or this Creative Commons license and modified by added text.
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