Fireside III
It is to the Village Square that the townspeople come to exchange views and thoughts on their beloved spiritual philosophy, learning from each other in kindness and wisdom. Then when their minds have been filled, they retire to the tavern on the western side of the square where they share in social discussion, learning of each other’s events and challenges, happinesses and sometimes sadnesses, too. With a mug or glass in hand, they collect in front of the great Fireplace that dominates the long wall. Benches and chairs are often filled on market day with those who have come from farther away, bringing news of events and views the local people delight in hearing.
If you are feeling disoriented by all the philosophical talk by the fountain in the Village Square, then come sit down on the bench here with us for a while just to soothe your mind and share a mug of tea or coffee. Let’s all make sure the conversation is quiet and simple, caring and thougtful, exactly the kind of talk you might have around a warm hearth, the only light filling the room coming from the fireplace.
This is the third installment in the Fireside discussion series. After we reach 900 comments, the page takes too long to load on your computer, and so we start another fresh page. To review previous discussions, we keep the old pages (Fireside I and Fireside II) which you can find under the ‘Village’ tab on the navigation bar at the top of screen under the image of the tree.
Precious win-win ….
by “smacks” I don’t guess you mean “kisses”? (lol)
I love to “sleep” now – I dream about Helen all the time.
Helen in the cave – in a boat – in a river – in a house …
Helen waiting….
I try not to accept (or reject) anything these days.
That would require judgement – which is best left to One who knows.
I just (try to be willing to) “forgive” every little Fox Pass I see, or think of …
Which also requires judgment… but of a different sort!
Being Vigilant only for ideas that are disruptive to my truer purpose here.
To quote DU “… people need to forgive themselves by forgiving the images they see.”
If I myself really knew that I was dreaming – That everything really IS projection
on my part….I wouldn’t have to react at all. Except maybe to ask my Guide if it’s
ok to laugh at the silliness of it all.
My former acim pastor said that right before you really “get it” – all the ego stuff
becomes laughable, and completely and forever unbelievable.
“Poof – be gone! You have no power here!”
Hee,hee Winnie, “where’s a bloody poet when you need em?’hee,hee. Nina’s right you have an inner poet and didn’t even know it.
Hope you don’t mind; with a few small tweaks Gahlas can be longer.
Gahlas?
I’m looking at one right now.
Oh! Wait! That’s the mirror.
Seriously, I saw three.
Sitting ’round having a chat.
Just this morning.
Where I am camped.
I want to join in this lovely conversation of poets and galahs…but I’m pressed for time.
Keep dancing my friends and I’ll join you again real soon.
Leaving a trail of kisses inside each soap bubble I’m blowing…
Happy Happy Day (:
Winnie, I’m afraid your days of resisting poetry are quickly waning… You are being subtly coerced into the intimate group of those who are “unknowing poets” as Pam says. We all belong to that group, by the way. You, my dear, have shared your beautiful poetry with us many times already, maybe against your wishes. We’ve blasted your cover, you closet-poet! Great work, Pam and Nina! Now you’ll have to take on Katrina! Who’s left, who still thinks there’s no poetry in them?
Wow, such cool thoughts Anne. I’m re-reading your post. You get everything essential into so few words. I REALLY need to take a lesson. No reactions… no judgments…
Like in the movie The Village –
the kids would dare each other to stand near the woods….
I know it’s a silly game, but I still delight in playing it –
The shivers are real! So on some level,
I sometimes want something other than peace.
Just like in the movie, I tell myself to “steel myself” –
Reminds me of the “cobwebs of iron” Miracle Principle in the Urtext.
Are you familiar with it? It never made it into the text proper.
“Miracles are cobwebs of iron. They unite human frailty to the strength of God.”
Helen considered changing “iron” to “steel”.
The correction (from J) was: No. Steel would NOT be a better word. Steel is very useful but it would have to be tempered by fire. Iron is the raw material. The point of miracles is that they replace fire, thus making it unnecessary.
So – off the play in the big bad woods – me and my little red cape.
Blindly making haste…. against monsters of our own making.
Love you all – very much!
You know this!
hee hee
surprise for ms Winnie:
I saved a lot of earlier goldnuggets from the Monastery – do you maybe remember when Anchor Woman Donna D reported from a visit to Temecula in 2010? ms Winnie may be surprised to read this poem I cut and pasted here:
here’s some poems for breakfast dear – enjoy – (-:
i`ve decided cancel my plane flight……..
Ha Ha fooled you !
I`m still coming but
i`ve decided how much more romantic it would be
by hot air balloon
made of patchwork silk
and a lovely wicker basket to stand in….
The pilot is a wonderful old old wise man
with twinkly eyes
and he loves me…
.We`re going to fly very low so i can see
the dolphins leaping over the waves
and everytime we come to an island
we are going to land on a white beac
and take tea with the natives {happy sigh}
oh `twill all be such jolly fun…
It might look like just a regular story book hot air balloon
but the one i`ve booked is also a time machine
and we will arrive at the airport precisely on time
and at a secret terminal just for hot air balloons..
(Nina sighing happily ahhhh)
That’s it, Nina! We’ve got her on the run now! That little ol’ poet in Winnie just can’t escape, even if she does head out to another town in her camper van. The verses will be following her…
For Katrina re.142
I love that so many here
speak in poems.
Who knows?
Maybe I can give it a try.
Thought of putting together
a toolbox.
A steel one with a hand drill, a hammer,
a little hacksaw, nails.
Ya see the problem here?
Density!- be the issue with me.
Oh! Now I recognize this –
thinking I need to draw it out
before I can write.
Wanting to design the program before the code.
Words are just mechanics –
the codeing.
Knarly old hands and joints
they just don’t like -TYPING!
But the design…..
It could FLY!!!
A good poem is a free fall into self. One is lost and found simultaneously spelling out truths that have been lurking waiting for the right moment to be born again. I have heard poetry out of my own lips, in the morning after meditative shower, words would effortlessly pour out of the fount of my being, and I, to slow to capture them in any tangible way was more than content to let them shower me with their truths.
I believe it was you Nina who captured your truth’s through recording. I will have to try that someday. This past week I have lost track of time, I will steal some of it soon and get back to the Village and my friends soon. Beautiful poetry and fun, great news Bernard about you plans, your writing etc. Hugs to all, big hug to Annie. I have to catch up on reading some posts.
Peace & Posters
May The Course Be With You
And of Course
God bless us every one
Pam – how fun. Katrina’s poem made visible. I did not know that they really hide themselves in seemingly innocent prose-texts – until I dug out the one Winnie unwittingly wrote. And now we have katrinas: its bright! it shines!
And it really IS fun to look at the texts and find the shy poems inside them, helping them out and giving them space and lots of air.
(I wonder if Winnie and Katrina has gone in hiding, thought. We’ll see.)
lotsalove
Nina
Lawrence: pinkie-jinx!
And now you have to divulge which posters you are offering to us – for many years now. Where are they? what are their texts??? enough secrets- and a hug
Nina
Of Sunsets and Stones…
Who of us hasn’t been preoccupied with a stone in our shoe? How many times have I scaled that same mountain of fear with irritation and pain as a constant companion?
Todays Lesson 186 “Salvation of the world depends on me.” Felt like a whack from good ole Pierre to the side of the ribs…in the hightest possible way of course. (:
Then this jewel in the Journey Through The Workbook…a passage from the manual:
The path becomes quite different as on goes along. Nor could all the magnificence, the grandeur of the scene and the enormous opening vistas that rise to meet one as the journey continues, be foretold from the outset. Yet even these, whose splendor reaches indescribable heights as one proceeds, fall short indeed of all that wait when the pathway ceases and time ends with it (M-19.2:5-7).
L 186 was deeply thought-provoking today. And I understood in one section where it says…
“If you are being asked to do the impossible (or what you think is impossible) remember Who is doing the asking. What the Voice for God asks for is certain of being accomplished (and therefore not impossible)- because there is no Will but God’s and your Will is the same as God’s”
Now I’ve put all that in quotes, but of course, that’s a loose (very loose) paraphrasing.
And it was really cool to have the thought/feeling come into my head when I read that, this morning, of the numerous times in the past I have felt down, depressed, grey, despairing, and it seems just *impossible* to get out of that funk.
And it seems to be clear to me now that the next time the thought of despair and bleakness hits hard, it’s almost certain that this (correcting) Thought will come up in quick succession, and just by virtue of being linked to the prior thought of depression, will slowly and surely reduce the hold that darkness holds on me.
And so many other sections of this 3-page Lesson from our dear Friend went so deep into my mind, that I can’t even begin to list it all. It seems overwhelming to my little mind to even try to list out the numerous ways that 186 helped me today !
And to top it all, I only thought of it 3 at best 4 times all day. (And I had a splendid day, just unrelatedly, or perhaps not-so-unrelated :))
And I didn’t feel guilty at all – that I had *only* thought the central thought of 186, only 3 or 4 times. (surely as a *good* student, I “should have” made a commitment to myself to think of it every hour or whatever. But I didn’t. And it was fine).
Of course, this whole series of Lessons, starting at 180, (and I think even before – can’t remember exactly when) is fantastic from that point of view – because it doesn’t lay out any fixed number of times to remember or do this or do that. It’s now coming to a point in the path where it leaves the student to figure out for themselves what timing/duration/frequency is best for their individual path.
And just in that, I think, there is perhaps a glimmer of a deepening relationship with the Inner Guide.
Excellent all around !
And the next day that is not excellent, I trust I will remember that there is no difference between that day, and this ! (:
And the next day that is not excellent, I trust I will remember that there is no difference between that day, and this ! (:
this is exactly what I needed today.
Your post was like a ray in darkness.
I am so grateful for what we have here
What the Voice for God asks for is certain of being accomplished (and therefore not impossible)- because there is no Will but God’s and your Will is the same as God’s”
thank you dear A
hugs
nina
Love your posts. Sorry I’m going to be a bit scarce for a few days – I’m away working. I just loved Pam’s discovery of the poet in Katrina. Lovely thoughts for all others. Blessings, my beloved family…
Hi All — not exactly in hiding, but just a busy busy long weekend, reading my lesson pages from 11 pm to past midnight, cause the day is wild and crazy with lots of people around. (My DH being home for 4 days is tantamount to lots of people.)
Pam, I see what you mean. Hmmmm, I may have to contemplate my bellybutton for awhile to see what this means. . . hmmmmm . . . Who Am I ?
Oh Guys i just got back into range… well i did late yesterday evening, but i cant come to the Village at night – i feel way too shy to….( shuffles feet, flutters eyelashes}
It’s just before Dawn, I’ve made me pot of lemon and ginger tea, my laptop is sitting on the lid of the stove so i can see out the window and the sky has just begun to colour.
I’ve just read through all the posts and feel so touched and connected with you all..
What marvellous fun we are all having as we journey home together…
Something wonderful happened the other day. I don’t know what, let alone know how to express it, but i have been thoroughly enjoying trying to write about it in my journal.
Thank you Nina for your warm encouraging words and to think that you saved that silly ole stuff from the Monastery …. and then went to the trouble to re-post it here – well it just makes me feel all niggy-wig….
Pam i agree with you about Katrina having a way with words…. “I never liked the writing, old knarly hands and joints don’t like the typing, and the words were just mechanics, but the design could fly” – yay here’s to the design !
[chinks glasses with Annie, lemon martinies of course, and yes i know martinies isnt spelt like that but it looks so cute ….oh i do love poetic licence…. by the way i got a tingle from every little bubbly kiss that came floating right down on ye ole Village from you this morning.
We love you too Texy….. your posts are as fresh and crisp as daisy toast – what ? it’s poetry ! [ holds up credit-card size official “Poet License”] …. tee hee…{I’ll make the buggars sorry}…{laughs evilly]
By the way Tex watch out for the big bad wolf as you skip through the woods today…. maybe you can say to him “Poofter – be gone! You have no power here!” although that does seem extremely offensive, oh wait ! you said ““Poof – be gone! You have no power here!” {brandishes licence once again which comes complete with really cool sunglasses]
Loved your post a*….. “It seems overwhelming to my little mind to even try to list out the numerous ways that 186 helped me today !”
…and yet it was like i understood exactly how much it helped you – i felt it…
Ya know we dont have to worry too much about the words we choose to use, or any of our inadequacies, we are tuning in to each other on another level.
blessings and hugs to you too dear Lawrence and Bernard…..so you are going to be away for a few days aye? oh good i feel like getting up to some mischief – what? nothing…[ puts hands behind back, saunters off in purple pixie boots, whistling ]
hey Winnie in your purple pixie boots and cool sunglasses, I love to read you and am softly touched by your posting -challenge -embarrassment in the night (and the fluttering eyelashes.)
and daisy-toast – mmm. Just tasted it, it tasted just like tex.
here is where i am at today:
The last two nights I have dreamt that I am acting. There has been a crystal clear sense that i am witnessing something – and what I am witnessing does not seem to be the point, but that i am witnessing. How cool is that!
On a hunch, I just opened a note-book on synchronicities and joy where i save my beauties. It was a note from 2008.Coincidentally (not) it is a theme in the latest lessons now, in 2011- that God gave me a gift, I received it and He does not take gifts back. This means, than when i believe in lack and separation, I am wrong.
That day in 2008, I noted, was gray and cold and cloudy. Outside mirrored inside. I said, and meant it: “Truth is correcting all errors in my mind, and I rest in Him Who is my Self.”
Brilliant sun in the same moment
*
I think I must be dreaming
now that’s cool dreaming Nina …… you do such excellent dream work…
Hi, Sweet-lings…
Such fun reads you all are providing. Thank you all for your positive, uplifting views. I’m looking at the power of the mind today. Which brings out a number of ancillary issues. Like a mountain of them. Here’s a long quote from the Foundation for A Course In Miracles question and answer site that especially spoke to me:
“The Course tells us that the only meaningful ability is the mind’s ability to choose between the insanity of the ego (separation) and the Holy Spirit’s healing (undoing separation). Jesus tells us in the text: “Healing is the one ability everyone can develop and must develop if he is to be healed” (T.7.V.3:1). In the curriculum of the Course, this healing is accomplished through forgiveness. Forgiveness, therefore, is the only ability we truly need to develop and practice, practice, practice. It won’t get us to Carnegie Hall, but it will eventually get us to our home where we belong, and never truly left.
When the mind chooses the ego and identifies with the body, it misuses the power it shares with God by projecting it into a variety of “abilities” that mimic the mind’s true function. The ego thus develops its own logic with “abilities” that serve its goal of separation. What appear to be the use of reason, e.g. thinking, learning, imagination, memory, are actually functions of the body’s brain. They serve the ego well by using the logic of its “reason” to support and defend the belief that the separation is real and life outside of Heaven is possible. In the section “Healing as the Recognition of Truth” (T.7.IV), as in many sections of the Course (T.9.III.8, T.14.VI.5, T.21.III.6, W.pI.64), we are told that the Holy Spirit can use everything the ego has made for His purpose of healing. Indeed, the study of the Course requires many intellectual abilities. It is, in itself, an example of how the Holy Spirit uses the ego’s abilities for the purpose of learning His curriculum. He uses the ego’s distortion of the mind’s power to return it to its only meaningful ability, which is to choose, then guides it in learning to make the only real choice, which is to accept the Identity God gave us as His innocent Son. We are not asked to deny that we think we are bodies with specific abilities. In fact, a very important part of the learning process is seeing how impressive and important we think our abilities are. But Jesus tells us in the text: “The body is merely part of your experience in the physical world. Its abilities can be and frequently are overevaluated” (T.2.IV.3:8.9). “Overevaluated” is an understatement, considering Jesus tells us elsewhere in the text: “At no single instant does the body exist at all” (T.18.VII.3:1). It is only our belief in it and its abilities that requires the Holy Spirit’s help and the curriculum the Course sets forth to show us the way out of the ego’s thought system, using the specifics it made. And so we are told: “Abilities must be developed before you can use them. This is not true of anything that God created, but it is the kindest solution possible for what you made. In an impossible situation [belief in the separation], you can develop your abilities to the point where they can get you out of it. You have a Guide to how to develop them, but you have no commander except yourself (T.6.IV.9:1,2,3,4). In other words, only we can decide whether our “abilities” will be used by the ego or the Holy Spirit.”
Hugs and More Power To Your Mind!
Happy Lesson 189 Day!
It’s all downhill from here!
Just get this one lesson, and the journey is complete.
I feel the Love of God within me now.
Now?! Yeah, why wait?
Such an excellent dream-thought, Nina: “There has been a crystal clear sense that i am witnessing something – and what I am witnessing does not seem to be the point, but that i am witnessing.” For me, it’s really absolutely all about that. It’s all about learning to witness everything (‘everything’) from that quiet place of kind, understanding, non-judgmental observation, and giving importance to that process, and less and less all the time to what is actually being witnessed. Eventually we can fall into witnessing ourselves from outside ourselves, starting to get the impression that, yes, Dr Ken was right all along, it’s just a dream figure, one amongst many, in a funny dream-land doing funny-dream things that it takes sometimes so seriously…
Winnie, you’ve really intrigued me with this now: “Something wonderful happened the other day. I don’t know what, let alone know how to express it, but i have been thoroughly enjoying trying to write about it in my journal.” Well, well, WELL…???
Laura, thanks for stopping by to share those great thoughts. So clear on the role of the mind. I love it how the answer talks about how the Holy Spirit can use the ego’s ‘abilities’ to turn us back toward the truth, those same abilities that were made to turn us away from truth. That’s very nifty. So we CAN get back Home, it’s not all hopeless. The ego would have us believe that it’s a lost cause, but that same intellect that is used to divide and separate can also be used to join and unify and return our understanding back to the right mind. So cool.
I spent a few days away from home this last week doing some work at a Buddhist retreat center. So between that work, which I’ll be doing a few days a week during the summer, and working on the new French Center for ACIM, website etc, I’m not going to be able to find tons of time to write for the Village. There are so many articles and thoughts just waiting to be put into print, but it all takes time. And I still like to sleep between midnight and six am, darn it. If only I could stop wasting all that valuable time just ‘sleeping’, I could get so much more done!
Hugs all around… Have a great weekend, One and All.
Forgot to mention… I had an article appear recently in the Miracle Worker magazine in the UK. The Miracle Worker is a really good magazine created and run by Ian Patrick who heads up the UK ACIM organization, Miracle Network. He published my ‘Soup, Surrealism and the Right Hand of God’ article. Ian’s organization does some really great things over there in the UK. They run an annual ACIM conference, run a comprehensive database of study groups, have a free classifieds section, and host a great ‘Miracles Café’ in Neal’s Yard in London once a month. If you’re ever heading over to good ol’ London Town, then you should try to work out dropping in on the Thursday evening that they put on one of their Miracles evenings at the café. Address: http://www.miracles.org.uk/
Often, when posting here at this now-intervowen-into-my-life Village, I’m in a quandary on whether to respond to the most recent post just before mine, or all the posts between my last post and the one I’m about to embark on, or all the people who wrote to my prior post, and acknowledge them, or just to move on to the next set of thoughts that occupy my mind…
Never an easy decision, and somehow the decision makes itself as I write.
Life is getting better each day for me. All the “troubles” and “issues” of the world remain. But they seem to be losing their power to upset me. I watch them, like I watch the rain fall off the edge of the tiled roof of my home, in the little Village where my grandparents once lived, many moons ago. It is a distant memory, but vivid in my minds eye.
Drop, by drop..
There is perfection in each drop, as it stops on the edge of roof, waits a second, or less, as it forms into its familiar bulbous rain-drop shape and falls onto the green earth below.
The sound of the raindrops on the tiles continue in a steady rhythm. All is well. It’s a good movie. I have nothing to do but to sit and watch the raindrops. There is peace.
Lesson 190 sinks into my mind, like the raindrops fall onto the earth. Somewhere, in some part of my mind, it was thirsting for these words, just as the parched earth craves the raindrop.
The words of the Lesson are like the raindrops. Falling slowly, gently, dancing for that millisecond as it makes its pre-destined way. The earth gets greener, it loses its dryness, my mind gets softer, loses its edges.
Pain is an illusion, the Lesson gently intones. Joy is awakening. It makes sense. Just as the raindrop moistening the earth makes sense. It’s inevitable. It’s peaceful. It is lovely.
“Would I deny some part of my mind its own inheritance, and keep it as a hospital for pain; a sickly place where living things must come at last to die ?”
I would rather not.
And so it is.
Peace.
Beautiful Anil. Just beautiful!
There is is again – this sweet simplicity permeating A’s post.I feel welcomed back to something that is so known – but someone still has to show it to me. A does.
The raindrops-image is in my mind now, and conveys more than words ever could. It’s like it is the essence of what I have to do: nothing – just watch and listen to the drops slide off, sensing the welcome in my dried-up parts.
I am certain we all felt that peace
love and gratefulness dear Anil
I learn so much from you guys! How to say it all in such a few beautifully chosen words… Thanks, A. I put your words on the home page. I would like everyone to be warmed by them.
Congrats on the magazine articles, Bernard and it’s a nice web site.
Splendid a*
Oh a* that was superb from beginning to end ! You are a gifted writer…
Congratulations Bernard on all the exciting things going on around you.
Sweet Laura – thank you for writing that out…. Yet another reminder to just be normal, and normal people develop their abilities and they don’t deny how special they secretly think they are. Of course “normal” people may not recognize that it is all simply a classroom.
” Forgiveness, therefore, is the only ability we truly need to develop and practice, practice, practice.”
I just came from Susan Dugan’s site foraysinforgiveness DOT com. and wanted to recomend her July 4th post “forget this book: well; maybe tommorrow”
so ya wanna hear something funny ?
I was driving along a country road and noticed a fire truck in someone’s paddock and another one further along the way. Shortly after i saw a sign on the side of the road which just happened to be outside a farmer’s house. I took it to be protest sign. It read “End Fire Fighting”. I was puzzled. What would anyone have against fighting fires, i thought ? But ovbiously they do. So much so that their passion has driven them to make and display notices. Wow i thought country folk aren’t as meek as they appear, but i still couldn’t see any justification for not wanting a fire to be controlled….
and THEN the penny dropped……. { still laughing}
:::SMILE:::
Allow me to explain more fully………
The sign was a courtesy to drivers to let them know that they had now passed through the area in which the Bush Fire Brigade, who must have been engaged in some kind of low-level fire drill, were doing their thing…. hence End {OF} Fire Fighting. I had read it at face value, as if an individual had placed it there to protest about fire-fighters putting out fires…….Do ya get it now? Anyhoo dont worry if ya dont. I told my daughter and she was puzzled too. She reckoned nobody but me would think it meant that….. {tippy-toes backwards quietly towards exit, as the men in white coats appear at entrance}
P.s. You see it wasnt a joke. It was just part of my adventures…. Today i had a big bunch of them including accidentally setting my bed on fire. I had lit a match but the lit bit flew off i know not where. I just assumed it had gone out and lit another, then went outside to get something. I came back in to see my bed in small flames – dont worry i quickly put it out with a nearby garment. It burnt a hole right through the eiderdown. Surprisingly i wasnt frightened. Ken was yacking away about miracles on the laptop just centimeters away as if nothing happened … tee hee…
My fridge has completely broken so i cant buy any perishables and tonight i ran out of gas so i couldnt have a cup of tea….. never mind i just had warm milk… well the milk was warm because the fridge doesnt work….. If you are not laughing, you should be… i am….
I am parked tonight at the very spot where i picked up the bush rat that gave me such an ordeal about a month ago. I HAD decided i would never come back here because of that, and so i had planned to stay at another spot 20 kilometres further back. It was a very isolated spot which didnt have a good feel about it. Even so, i would have stayed had it not been for the human “dump” right on the edge of the track. “nup” thought i, ” that kind of crap i aint gonna tolerate”, if you’ll pardon the pun… and yes i did forgive the disgust i felt.
So i decided to move on… But there was not a lot of choices for the budget-conscious. Then i made a decision. I would camp at ye old Bush Rat Hunting Ground and bloody take on the bush rats if that’s what i have to do. I am not going to play the game of “Being Traumatised by the Past”.
I’ll be careful i thought, to not leave any food source out. Last time, they had found a way into my van because they were attracted by the pumpkin seeds in a plastic bag i had hanging off the door knob. This time, thought i, i’ll have an early tea, then wash the dishes, then dispose of all rubbish bags.
So after I arrived,i cooked tea, put the water on to heat up so i could wash the dishes but it was then that i ran out of gas…
Well no worries – I just love being resourceful ! I’ve hidden all the dirty dishes in the fridge.. well there’s no food in it, so it’s perfect……
big hugs to all xoxooxoxoxoxoxo
WinWin, that last post is such a picker upper.I see a movie of you when you write, and it would be a blockbuster with your own voice-over, and your expressions on the screen. I LOVE the clothes in the fridge. AND I finally got how you perceive the fire-fighters sign, and GOT IT! (They didn’t find you those white coats, eh? maybe you hid in the fridge?)
Now we await anxiously the story about how you camp through the wilderness with a gas-tank in hand and a little tamed bush-rat walking behind you.
xoxoxoxox!!!!
Nina
Winnie, Me thinks perhaps someone will be dispatched to rescue you. Your predicament seems ripe for an off center Disney movie. Be careful though, or you next post might be a story of how some shaman or someone had to cure you of some down under disease. And that doesn’t sound good no matter how you slice it. Be thinking of your luv, be careful. I so enjoy your posts of your travels.
Our youngest daughter Kaitlyn does crazy things like you. I never thought I was a chauvinist, but more of a dad I think, when I think that woman shouldn’t travel alone. But I have almost come to realize you can’t live your life afraid. It isn’t real so whats to lose! Ah but it seems real and that’s the rub. Let us know when the knight in shinning armor arrives.
be safe
God bless us everyone
lawrence
Where’s that Fire Brigade when you need them!
You are hilarious Winnie and so are you Ms. Nina [ tamed bush rat following Win Win] …yes please keep us updated (:
Oh by the way for those not following the news, we here in L.A. are preparing for Carmageddon this weekend. I happen to live a stones throw away from the 405 Freeway closure…but I am not worried. The hype has been going on for awhile and now that its upon us the doomsday preachers are at an all time high. There are even videos, skits and a Jay Leno sound bite leaked from Tonights opening monologue.
I’m sure none of this will affect the opening weekend sales tickets for the last Harry Potter movie. In fact, presale tickets have already broken records something in the area of
32 million…there are folks already camped out at the local theatres to be first in line. Of Course, pun intended, I will be pitching my tent at the Tree of Life premiere (:
Er, Annie, I’m afraid you’re going to have to explain your last post to us strangers a little more. What on earth is Carmageddon??? What on earth is a Jay Leno sound bite???? I’m just a country hick and I’d love to be cultured up. Dying for the details.
Suggestion: Carmageddon is the Armageddon with a Carmic twist. And Carma is written with C because Hoagy Carmichael’s music is celebrated and – and — oh well maybe not
Oh, And Annie from the City Of Angels….
The traffic doesn’t move much anyways (at times)
So it’s about all the same, eh?
Carmen plus Armageddon equals a romantic operatic catastrophe with a bull fighter and a jealous cop, traipsing down the highway in north L.A. looking for the flirtatious gypsy girl of their dreams. Ah, Southern California where anything is possible. Or…
Karmageddon, as Nina suggests. Siddhartha Gautama takes a left at the Old Testament and finds himself on 405 rolling down the road in repeated cycles, over and over, until he finally finds the right exit.
LOL {{{Bernard}}} !Siddhartha Gautama takes a left at the Old Testament and finds himself on 405 rolling down the road in repeated cycles, over and over, until he finally finds the right exit.
Oh I see that. Marvelous! I love the operatic catastrophe too. Most operas are, aren’t they?
You guys crack me up!!!
Too Funny. Between beds on fire and Carmageddon there’s a glimpse of the happy dream. (although Winnie I’m not sure I’d be as peaceful thru all the adventures you’re having.)
Ahhhh…just what I need at the close of the work week…Village Vaudeville. This was really funny! Ahhh, I needed that laugh. Thank you, thank you. You all make me understand that none of this is serious.
Armageddon this Course little by little. We’re all ageddon this thing slowly but surely, I figure. Like Armaworkin on the railroad, armaworkin on this Course, and itsaworkin for me. Yippee! Or YAY! as A would say. And Yippee I Yay!
Really cool thoughts, Texanne. Just listening to you coming from that magical place.
Oh Bernard very clever – “Armageddon this Course little by little” – high five baby ! oh and Laura I like “Village Vaudeville”..It’s even fun to say it
Thank you for your loving concern dear Lawrence, but i’m fine. I thought it was really cool your mentioning the-knight-in-shining-armour at the same time that Laura dubbed me. I am being my own knight, hence the title.
I am loving my adventure and the best part of it is being on my own, having to work out stuff myself and facing up to all manner of fears that inevitably arise when one journeys outside of the Comfort Zone.
Hi ya Bev{ hugs to you} yes the burning bed was a bit of a thing. I still havent patched the eiderdown. Every now and then bits of burnt material surface, but the good thing is that every single time i light a match now, i aim it towards my little sink. I stayed at the back of a pub last night. I never go into pubs, especially being a single female traveller, but this one offers free overnight stay so i thought it only proper to go and buy a Guinness.
I’ve never sat at a bar before all by myself and was glad there was a telly on with some Irish music to watch. Then a man called me over to sit next to him. I felt obliged to accept. He was engaged in a conversation with the barman so it felt safe. Well i kid you not. He was a Maori with only one eye. He had one front tooth missing and his nose had been badly broken at some stage.
I could tell he was lonely by the need to touch me now and again, so as soon as i was able i made it clear to him that i needed no company. I was very proud of myself for not being scared and then the locals rocked up. Now there were about 4 blokes and myself and the bartender and we exchanged some great stories and had such a lot of laughs.It was just a really fun time. The maori constantly asked me if i would have another drink, but i just kept politely refusing. After an hour or so, i slipped away without wanting to make a fuss, to “go home” to my van to cook tea and go to bed, but not before thinking what fun it had been. I have always associated scary drunken men with bars at pubs. But these were just decent regular people, even the fierce-looking Maori. I am learning to be less and less intimidated..
Big hugs to all the beloved Villagers….