My posts may seem unusual for a while as I’m going back through writing from twenty-five years ago.  What was I exploring?  I was learning that allowing myself to be received is an act of giving, so here I am.  Receive.  

I asked myself “questions as bait”, as ways to wake.  Try it.  It’s fun!

Questions as Bait

How do I hang rainbows from the sun?

How do lips climb?

How do I fold and unfold my heart – origami sails for sea and sky? 

How do I lick the sky like blueberry pie?

How do I empower joy, and lift my heart on a bench to look out at the world from a cloud?

Can I be like anemone,

fed from air, like sea? 

I said to myself each day:  I am a commitment to birthing a focus for my life each moment, each day,  a changing lens knowing that for the Dalai Lama, and therefore for what I intend, kindness and awareness are the same thing.

At the time, I came upon a young boy loading fish from a stream into a cooler.  He then carried the cooler with the fish up the stream to a pond he had dug.  He was trying to save the fish from the usual summer drought.  I think of intention, beauty, kindness, diversity, survival.  

I would have forgotten this episode if I hadn’t written it down on paper, a layer received from a tree.  

When my niece was young, she waltzed her semi-personally created character through Toon Town on the computer.  I could see her hand-eye coordination creating new pathways in the brain, and activating what may lie dormant in me.  It was like learning a new language, an opportunity to interact with others in a virtual, and yet, emotionally satisfying way.  

Now, she, too, is a lens for me, as I turn the kaleidoscope of my life round and round.

People have mixed feelings about Next Door.  I have mixed feelings about it too but yesterday there was a post about a lost chicken under someone’s car.  What to do?  Advice came clucking  and the chicken was rescued and is cuddled and safe.  It takes a village.  

I was at the Cat Clinic yesterday with my cat Bella.  I was there twice as she had to stay for tests.  We’ll find out the results after twelve today.  They don’t take appointments so there’s usually a  long wait.  Sitting there, I thought of the old advertising slogan, “You meet the nicest people on a Honda!”  I was thinking “You meet the nicest people at the vet.”  In the waiting room, each cat is acknowledged, examined and clucked over.  Yes, chickens are on my mind, and you can make that a political statement if you so desire.

Last night, I took an on-line test on kindness my son sent me.  I was surprised to see how much the day affected my answers.  I was in a super-good mood.

I offer the test to you.  It’s part of a study and anonymous but take it and see how it affects your endorphins.  Invite the questions and answers into your moments and days.  Notice stimulus and response.  

The link to the test is at the bottom of the article but all of it is fascinating.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210921-what-we-do-and-dont-know-about-kindness