New Under the Sun

Costa Rica photo taken by LoLaSuzanne

You think in your idle hours that there is literature, history, science behind you

so accumulated as to exhaust thought and prescribe your own future.

In your sane hour, you shall see 

that not a line has yet been written:

that for all the poetry that is in the world 

your first sensation on entering a wood or standing on the shore of a lake

has not been charted yet.

It remains for you;  

so does all thought, all objects, all life remain unwritten still.

--Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walden: And Other Writings 

Making Peace

Human Peace Sign--Budapest--2006--Google Images

I don’t recall meeting my biological father until I was about twelve years old. My mom met my stepdad when I was four days old and he was the man who raised me as his daughter.

My two older sisters remember our parent’s marriage. I do not. They clearly resemble our bio-dad, but I do not.  This never bothered me, until I moved out of the house. As a child, I learned bio-dad wasn’t well thought of in our home and that he had been known to mistreat people once or thrice. The message I got was that he never deserved to be in our lives.

 No longer living at home, I made a decision to get to know my biological father better, to complete that missing part of my DNA. I knew we had Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and migraine headaches in common.  It would take many years before I would find a more admirable connection with him.   

As I started my relationship with him at 22 years old, he would tell me stories about the feral cats that began showing up in his back yard.  At first it was one or two cats, then they began having babies.  Hearing about his wild cats was pleasing to me, and in some way I felt closer to him because of it.

Many years later, a feral cat showed up in my backyard.   His coat was matted and part of his ear was missing.  I made friends with this cat and his health improved. He let me pet him and care for him.   If you’ve ever nursed an animal back to health, you know that’s a special relationship.

Only recently did I make the connection that my fascination with animals, and taking care of them was something I shared with my bio Dad.  I’ve chosen to see his more admirable qualities, knowing that there is at least a little good in anyone if we look close enough.  

--Leah from The Daily Piglet

Whole Hearted Spring

Spring from my window--LoLaSuzanne

 Below is from the book Oneness, Great Principles Shared by All Religions:

Be Wholehearted.

Wheresoever you go, employ all your heart.

--Confucianism

He who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.

--Christianity

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might.

--Judaism

Free yourself from doubt and you will find your life quickened in the goodness of God.

--Shintoism

Neither eating, nor fasting nor penance, nor sacrifice, nor observance of the seasons, purify a mortal who has not conquered his doubt.

--Buddhism

Beckon Lovely

I am crazy about Amy.

Amy is a person who likes to make things. She made this wonderful video called 17 things I made which made me want to make things and make a video about making things.

But Amy's video went even further...it challenged us, the viewers, to meet her in Chicago to help her make the eighteenth thing and that video, The Beckoning of Lovely, is amazing and hopeful. I'm hoping to catch up with Amy to make more things when she gets to Washington DC in May. Here are the two outstanding videos.

17 things I made

The Beckoning of Lovely

Wanna be involved?

Check out Amy's website Who is Amy? Beckon lovely.

One Prayer

I am of the family of the universe, and with all of us together I do not fear being alone; I can reach out and touch a rock or a hand or dip my feet in water. Always there is some body close by, and when I speak I am answered by a plane's roar or the bird's whistling or the voices of others in conversation far apart from me. When I lie down to sleep, I am in the company of the dark and the stars.

Breathe to me, sheep in the meadow. Sun and moon, I smile at you both and spread my arms in affection and lay myself down at full length for the earth to know I love it too and am never to be separated from it. In no way shall death part us.

--David Ignatow

from Earth Prayers from around the World edited by Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon

Snow & Beans in Carolina

I know a lot of folks living here aren't from around here - and y'all have a big time when the locals get all excited at the mention of a little snow. I don't mind. Everybody seems silly to somebody over something sometime.

The truth for me is that I AM excited at the mention of a little snow. This morning while my coffee was perking I put a pound of pinto beans out to soak, humming a Hank Williams' song, one of my Aunt Pearl's favorites, and I can still hear her tuneless warbling - why can't I free your doubtful mind and melt your cold cold heart? A really good question, but this morning there were bigger fish to fry, or at least beans to soak.


I bought smoked pigs knuckles at the Harris Teeter Friday, wondering all the while if I'd completely lost my mind or just found a particular brand of sane. My daughter retched a little when she saw what was in the grocery bag, but she always was delicate when it comes to animal parts, and I was listening to a Higher Voice anyway - the one that whispers - snow. Snow. It. Might. Snow. Put a pot of beans on, 'cause it might snow.

I simmered and stirred all Saturday evening, adding onions and salt and whatever else Aunt Pearl's voice in my ear said. I surprised myself and her with a near perfect round of cornbread baked in her iron skillet from ingredients I had in my cabinet.

I've got a pot of pinto beans cooked. Calling for snow. Why can't I free your doubtful mind, and melt your cold cold heart?


--Caroline Boatright


Photos: snow dog by Christmas w/a K on Flickr
tulips by Alan1954 on Flickr