July 20, 2008

Quilts & Friends





Quilts and Friends, they really are very much alike. The longer they are around the more comfortable they are, we love them even if they have a little worn spot or get kinda lumpy!
When you're sad or miserable it is fun to wrap them around you and feel safe, if you laugh so hard you blow wine out your nose they really don't mind....too much!
Though sometimes I will leave a quilt in the trunk of my car after a picnic at the park or a day at the beach and I would never do that to a friend....well....maybe Mike....

July 05, 2008

What is your nature?



Two monks were washing their bowls in the river when they noticed a scorpion that was drowning.
One monk immediatelyscooped it up and set it upon the bank. In the process he was stung.
He went back to washing his bowl and again the scorpion fell in.
The monk saved the scorpion and was again stung.
The other monk asked him, "Friend, why do you continue to save the scorpion when you know its nature is to sting?"
"Because," the monk replied, "to save it is my nature."

Strange 4th








My family usually celebrates Independence Day with a rowdy day of bbq and swimming, little kids splashing and dancing, adults laughing and joking and playing games. The anticipation of fireworks fueling the fun.


About 9:30 in the evening we all gather our chairs and blankets and walk over to the park to ooh and aah at the explosion of color and sound of the fireworks.


No fireworks this year and the absence of the "expectation" was worse than the actual absence of the show itself!


We have been surrounded with over 800 fires. Though yesterday was the first day we actually saw a little bit of blue sky for the first time in weeks, the air has been so thick with smoke that you could very definitely imagine cutting it.

Some days the visability was so bad that I couldn't see the house across the street. Several times I thought about swabbing the inside of my nose just to see if the swab would come out black but I was too freaked out to find out that it might!
At our clinic we have had families of firefighters calling us for prescriptions for the treatment of poison oak because the firefighters themselves haven't been able to leave the fire lines for days on end. There have also been lots of respiratory complaints and one of our older patients had taken 4 nitros in one day because it hurt so much to breathe. Of course, she also worked in her garden all day inspite of air quality alerts....but at 91 I guess you do what you want!


There were so many fires at one time, and maybe even now, that only the fires that were threatening structures could be fought, just not enough man-power to fight them all.


Living in Northern California these past couple of weeks has really felt as if I was a citizen of a science fiction movie, living on a strange planet, with a red sun and a brown moon. The sun has been so incredibly red at times that it took every bit of will-power in me not to just stop and stare at the ghostly glow of it.


Air quality warnings have been issued and we have been advised to stay inside. Makes me wonder what the consequences of this fire could be. During the huge blackout on the east coast in 1965 there was a marked rise in the number of births 9 months later.
Can we expect that in California? Will the birthrate drastically rise in March of 2009?
Will the rising price of marijuana rival the increase of gas prices since much of the land burning is prime location for illegal marijuana plantations?
Will there be a marked increase of lung cancer, asthma and other upper respiratory ailments in the years to come?
Will the California Supreme Court reconsider next time it wants to overrule a decision that the population of California voted against (twice) again without considering the Karma of it?


Imagine a world.....


In today's hectic world too many of us forget the important things in life.

We often live our lives for the things we will have tomorrow and we forget about living today. We forget to nurture our spirits and those of our loved ones and neighbors. We forget to breathe in life, to relish the precious moments.

Much, much too often we forget to smile and tell those closest to us... "I Love You!" Every day we must love, cherish and protect our children, not just the children that call us Mom or Dad but all the children of our world. We must provide them a world of peace. They should be safe. They should never know hunger. Most of all they should know they are loved and they are special.

Imagine a world with no hunger, a world with no war, a peaceful world where each child sleeps snug and warm and wakes each morning with zest and enthusiasm for the new day, a world where parents rest at night knowing their children are safe and they will be able to provide for their needs in their growth and well-being.

Our thoughts and beliefs help us create our reality. When we fight war we make more war, when we imagine peace and act peacefully that will be our reality. Every time we make a statement or think a thought that is positive and beautiful we make this world a better place.

I've said it before and I will say it many more times but I am sure there will come a time when our great-great grandchildren will be reading in their history books how primitive man once believed that the world was flat and that conflicts could be resolved with violence.

Those wonderful children will shake their heads at such archaic and ignorant philosophies. I also think they will be reading how the women, sisters, mothers and grandmothers gathered together and changed the world one heart at a time.