Welcome to a World of Spiritual Harmony

So my friend Diane and I had a sleepover last night - I went to her house at 10 p m, went to sleep right after the Miss Marple movie was over. We got up at 3:30 a m- to watch the 7:30 p m Sunday evening Australian time men’s tennis final.

And watched Roger Federer tame a red-hot Scot, Andy Murray - whose aggression and accuracy had been on full display against world number 2 Rafael Nadal just a couple of days ago. Roger just put the lid on all that energy, and Andy played fairly lackadaisical tennis in losing the first two sets. He made a real comeback in the third set - but not quite enough. The score was Federer 6-3, 6-4 and 7-6 (13-11). That tiebreaker was just terrific.

Roger makes it look easy because he’s already put in the hard work, the strategic thinking. He loves to win against the top guys, and really doesn’t much like easy matches. He appreciates Andy’s talent - as he told him in the trophy presentation. But he wills those wins. Tennis is all about working out, practicing, repetition (true in any discipline, whether physical, mental or spiritual). But once you’re out there - it’s all about the outcome you see, focus on, choose.

Roger is the Greatest of All Time - great physical gifts, great mental focus. Wow!

I know it’s incredibly cold - down to 11 degrees tonite - but the snowdrops are already on their way up. The very pointy tips of the leaves are up a quarter of an inch all over the woods and the yard. And when the temperature hits 40 later this week, they will shoot up so fast that I always feel I could see them grow if I was watching closely enough.

They do mean the world has turned sufficiently that the wheel of the year is reaching toward spring. Hurray! And I’m hoping that the rest of the winter is instead an early and prolonged spring. That’s what I’ve talked myself into, anyway!

Wow! What a breakneck pace Dan Brown sets in his latest book, The Lost Symbol, which is all about the Masons. Most folk I know who’ve read it really could not put it down for long. My read was just like that. Over 500 pages, and the book covers less than 24 hours.

Maybe if Robert Langdon, the hero, had had more time, we would all have figured this one out. While getting a Ph. D. in items Masonic, and the entire geography and architecture of Washington, D. C., especially the US Capitol. Even up inside the dome, looking at the unusual depiction of George Washington.

Brown is really an addictive writer, racing just ahead of the reader and throwing out secrets to keep us moving. So much about the CIA, science, arcane rituals. And of course all this is fiction. Right?

The story is fiction, the rest of it, the framework, is real. As in the DaVinci Code, the world Dan Brown recreates feels very real to many of us. Angels and Demons didn’t really matter, because the Catholic church is busy making itself irrelevant. But the DaVinci Code, which brings back the Sacred Feminine, is recaptured history, and writes women back into religion.

And this book about the Masons re-introduces the sacramental power of ritual. The power, the energy that focused minds create and hold is present here, whether with the good guys or the bad guy, whether through the scientist, the enigmatic CIA officer, the symbologist, the Capitol Architect, or in the National Cathedral. The book also, teasingly, gives us some of the findings of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, which has, for instance, found that the human soul has weight.

Much to muse on after reading The Lost Symbol - a good feeling after an excellent read.

This was a fun mystery - found it when I was looking for Christmas mysteries, and it looked so intriguing, I bought it anyway. The Victory Vanishes is a series featuring the the Peculiar Crimes Unit, and is by Christopher Fowler.

The Unit is full of exceptionally eccentric and unique police officers and detectives, whose job is to solve problems that don’t fall in the normal purview of police work. Lots of history thrown in as well, and it would be fun to follow the trail from pub to pub, as Bryant and May, the two key detectives, try to prevent the next crime.

Well written, very smart, lots of fun. All the while you’re learning the history and functions of the English pub. Tres satisfying.

Since I once lived in a house with a greenhouse built in, I learned to fill up all spaces with plants. But about 3 or 4 years ago, I just stopped for a while. Lots of flowers outside, and bouquets from Thanksgiving to spring. But few plants inside.

Just before my neighbors moved, they showed up on my doorstep with their ficus bonsai. They knew they couldn’t keep it in storage while they wandered the country. And of course I accepted this new relationship, though I know nothing about bonsai, except for the occasional visit to that area of Krohn Conservatory. I googled it, and found out it needs to be misted, and likes indirect light. Will have to bring up one of the empty window spray bottles from the garage and start misting. But at Ryan and Lauren’s, it was in the front window - which got direct light - so I’ve got it in the same window at my house.

When Brian and Patrick and I did our Christmas, I was presented with an orchid in bloom. I’ll have to look up its name and proclivities (it’s one I’ve seen before). Very easy to water - the set of directions with it said to put 3 icecubes in the pot once a week. That’s worked so far.

I figure I may as well not try to push the river - not fight this influx of plants. In fact, I may buy myself a cyclamen, and definitely need a shamrock to celebrate that season. Feels like that pendulum has swung back.

Woke up Thursday morning, it was just time for Christmas to be over. A little bit of Christmas had already been put away - the stockings hung by the chimney with care, for instance. But since the season infiltrates every square inch of my house, a lot was left. So I started picking up various Christmas merries (as my sister calls them) and carrying them to the kitchen and back hall. I counted 8 items in the bathroom alone - and it’s a small bathroom.

By the time the friend who cleans for me showed up, the hallway was impassable. When I got home, she had it all bagged and boxed up and stacked in the hall. And she had un-decorated the tree. I’ve spent the weekend putting it all in the garage, and taking down the pine roping and outdoor decorations.

So what’s not put away as yet is the bows which were decorating the roping - it was raining, so they’re in the back hall drying off.

And I already have the St. Patrick’s Day stuff up! Plus a little bit of Valentine’s Day. You know me - I go right from making Christmas bread to making Irish soda bread. It’s a Great Life! : >

Often, I resolve to visit Findlay Market more often. I really like the place. But I don’t actually cook very often, and food can end up on the compost heap instead of in a wonderful soup.

Today, a close friend I hadn’t hung out with in a while and I had breakfast at Tucker’s, on Vine in Over-the-Rhine, just a couple of blocks from the market. It’s always a good breakfast and lunch place - now even better for us veggie / vegans, with veggie bacon, tofu, non-dairy sour cream. Goetta, etc, for the meat eaters, and real food for the rest of us. So I had vegan huevos rancheros. With real home fries.

We both have the same favorites: Madison’s, which has a fair amount of organic and lots of local, and the Mediterranean Store/Dean’s, where I always get a batch of samosas plus haloumi (sheep cheese), plus lots of the other great smelling things there. So we decided to wander the market first, and then come back to do our real shopping at our favorites.

There were actually vendors in the market shed, which is usually pretty empty in the winter. In the summer, it’s the best place to get local / organic. I got a big bag of sweet potatoes. Luckily, I had brought a ton of shoulder bags to put everything in. We then wandered among the street vendors, ending up inside the market itself. More spices, actual bulk butter like our grandmothers and great-grandmothers used. Lots of carnivore / omnivore food, as well as lots of gourmet choices for those of us who eat lower on the food chain.

By this time we were loaded down enough to make a trip to the car. Then we came back to Madison’s (where I found the leeks I was looking for) and Dean’s (just breathing in there is such a good idea!).

The leeks are because I had bought some black-eyed peas, and went looking for recipes. Most of the recipes called for kale (which I harvested from the garden just before the cold snap) and leeks. Now I’m all set.

Then we took one of our cars down to Park + Vine to do green shopping, and walked back up Vine to the other car, while stopping to shop, and to look at some of the housing projects being built in the Gateway Quarter. A great day.

And then - I had agreed to meet another friend for our Christmas high tea - at Churchill’s, which has moved to the Market. Turns out they no longer do high tea, though they sell tea and accessories. So on this second trip in one day, we wandered in to the Taste of Belgium, inside the Market House. I virtuously got a vegetarian crepe - so beautiful and so good! - so that I could then wipe out on a genuine Belgian waffle - bears no resemblance to the insipid waffles we make. And I tried taro tea - which is purple / lavender.

What a great day. Lots of adventures, lots of friends to hug and laugh with. Findlay Market - it’s all good!

I expect you’ve noticed - I am paying close attention. The days are getting longer. About 3 or 4 days after the Solstice, Wunderground (my favorite computer weather) said ‘today will be 6 seconds longer than yesterday.’
We’ve been adding a little bit of brightness and lightness each day since. Today was 1 minute, 28 seconds longer.

As I’ve noticed over the years, by Valentine’s Day, there is light just a little after 7 a m, and it stays light to about 6:30 p m. And only a couple of weeks after that, daylight savings time will begin.

Because we’re on the western edge of our time zone, we have light in midsummer until nearly 10 p m. A Boston friend was blown away by that last year. I love wandering around in that extending gloaming, as the Scots call it.

I really love watching more light show up each day. I can get through the darkest part of the year, because we have all those great holidays to look forward to. It’s definitely a good thing that soon after the holidays are gone, more light slips in.

Spring Is Coming Soon! : >

I loved this movie. For many reasons. And I don’t even like blue!

As a quick response to a friend, I said “This is what life can be like, once you get the white guys (and other guys) with guns out of the way.”

Anybody with a gun seems to think they have a solution to a problem. All they have is a way to change the problem into something else entirely. Usually much worse.

I loved the fact that men and women were not sexual with each other in ordinary encounters, even though no one of the NaVi had many clothes on. I loved their easy and casual power and grace, even though much of it was computer generated. I loved the powerful woman shaman. I loved those dragons! I loved the way the NaVi felt and thought, and loved their beautiful tree. I loved the helicopter pilot at the very end, with her tribal markings.

I don’t understand folk who do not like this movie, or who don’t think it has much plot. Its plot is the entire paradigm shift, presented in its entirety. Without philosophical discussion. Maybe they should just go see it again - take a Rescue Remedy pastille first to release any tension, quit thinking, and just allow the movie to happen.

There’s a thing or two I could nitpick, but I’d rather not. I rather just be there in that space with those people.

The pundits haven’t recognized it yet, but I believe we’re going to see definite results from Barack and Michelle Obama’s concerted efforts to live, work and play in a different world from the normal American culture. They are teaching us that we have choices about how we live. And how we can be gentle and civil with one another.

They absolutely refuse to be rushed - and they proceed at their own pace. Whether it’s that blessed garden (and now there’s a winter garden), or standing in a receiving line greeting guests, or just walking the dog. Their separate and together visits with Oprah during her Christmas White House special were full of great examples of their openness, ease and comfort in their lives.

Pundits write of Michelle as though all First Ladies were gardeners. Some of them walked through the Rose Garden. Michelle is making an effort to change the entire country’s eating habits. A different level altogether. And she isn’t just showing up for photo-ops. She actually got the whole White House staff to contribute toys, and then took them to the Marines herself.

I loved watching her show off Bo’s high five to Oprah. And her pride in the White House decorations and special ornaments. And I loved watching Barack hand her that apple from the bowl in the Oval Office. No bowls of candy hanging around. They are living, in small ways and large, what they believe in. We are learning from them, and will be doing more of that, too. Can’t wait to see how we are in 3 to 5 years. Hurray!