January, 2009

We knew it for a good day when the sun came out! Although at first the thermometer seemed stuck at first in the teens, we eventually got warmed up a bit past freezing and ice melted all day, although the roads are so badly clogged with thick ice that not much improvement showed. Our fourth day without power was blessed with luck in late afternoon when our telephone service was restored. What a blessing! All my e-mail, stuck in the Outbox for days, was sent and we received a bunch of good news!

Ian wrote to show me the final cover art for 101, which is gorgeous, and to ask me for a small edit on the author’s biographical note. I turned that around immediately and hope we are now set to print! Whee!

And after nine months of waiting for Hampton Roads to wake up and review The Aaron/Q’uo Dialogues, my hunch that it was worth the wait paid off with a note from editor Bob Friedman, who told me that he’d spent that time engaged in a complex political corporate dance at HR which has finally been resolved. Now he will consider our manuscript and let me know yes or no within the week! I hope that he will see the excellence of this material. Everyone who has ever worked with it has reported a high degree of synchronistic detail in interacting with it, and a lot of solid help from its thoughts. So, not Whee! But maybe just a little whee!

Gary and I spent a good bit of time today chewing through various issues. I love it when people try to give us money, but today I found myself turning down $20,000.00! What was I thinking? Here’s the story.

Lorisa has worked with TLOO for years and has found it to be extremely helpful to her. The way she worked with it was to extract all the information on a given topic and put it together. Eventually she had worked with the whole series of books. She then arranged these units of information and created a sort of alternate version of TLOO. Lorisa wanted to publish this information, at no cost to us, for a fee to us of the aforesaid 20K.

The glitch: she had placed no references to her many quotations from TLOO. There was no way a student could look up the surrounding context of any quotation that sparked his interest resonantly.

I suggested that she take the money and use it to pay someone to look up all her references. Gary also came up with the good idea of asking her to define all words in TLOO for which she had substituted other words (like ‘person’ for ‘mind/body/spirit complex’) upon its first substitution, and collecting all such definitions in a glossary for reference by readers of the work.

I do not see the primary work of L/L Research to be sustaining itself and making money, although we do need to do that in order to continue to serve. I feel we need to depend on providence, which sends us many kind donations from those who appreciate what we do, and also on our own ability to market our material. We have good material. The question is, how to offer people things they want to have in the form they want to have.

The most promising of these initiatives currently is the soon-coming offering of audio downloads of our sessions a la iTunes. Since so many of us commute and have lots of windshield time, it seems attractive to have the sessions available for listening in the car. Gary has been re-recording our archives of the original audiocassette tapes onto CDs, and has worked his way back to the early 1990s. So all the sessions from 1994 to 2009 are already available for download. Here’s hoping it provides an income stream!

Anyway, the point is that I see L/L Research as the guardian of this material. I want to see it preserved in its original form for all to use if they wish it. That goes for all of our material. So I had to turn the money down, although in no way does that suggest that Lorisa did less than a masterfully competent job in producing her manuscript. It just needs the references in order to preserve the integrity of the material. And I hope she does hire someone to get that done.

I also received the digital copy of the rest of the text of The Alphabet Mosaics from the Ro Man, and now I can finish that editing and be all ready for Romi when he wants to scoop all the material into a finished PDF for printing. I will be very proud to offer Dana Redfield’s masterfully transformational little book to the world. Another Whee!

I got a lovely note from Chris H, the chief moderator for David W’s forum, on the subject of Bob Reidel’s Memorial Gathering here in April. She said that David may not allow her to post about it, since it has nothing to do with him and does not promote his work. However she knows the folks that might be interested, since they wrote back and forth with him on the forum. If David says no to a general post on the forum, she will undertake to write private messages to those she feels would like to remember Bob with us. I feel that this is very generous of her.

Chris also thanked me for blogging daily, and expressed many kind words about how my nattering on about the doings here at Camelot and L/L Research in general help her out. I was very grateful to her for saying that.

People sometimes ask me why I am writing this daily journal. At the beginning I was unconscious of any motive beyond wanting to keep up with a mass of friends which had gotten to be too many for me to write individually. But as the time has gone on, I have come to see this as part of my effort to live the Law of One.

I do not know how folks take what I say. I do not see myself as others see me. None of us does. But in my bozo way, I am sincerely trying to live the Law of One; to have a fourth-density energy going on in what I think, say and do within this third-density life. And if that comes through, praise the Lord!

I truly believe that life is transformed from the creation we receive into the creation we choose by how we look at it. If we can become transparent to the light from above, our experiences can become a tapestry of love, light and blessings. Not that I would ever sugarcoat things or be dishonest or hypocritical in order to sound all loving and kewl. But I do deal with some challenges, as do we all. And yet I truly think my life is a little bit of heaven on earth. Hopefully, this kind of daily account of a real person living a life by the Law of One—imperfectly, of course—can be an encouragement and support for other bozos like unto me.

I continued to niggle away at Lana L-B’s True to America manuscript, getting through the third of five chapters she has sent me for suggestions. I shall be thrilled to finish it! Political history is not exactly my forte. However I am not commenting on the content, just helping to tidy the writing.

Romi came over just as Mick called bath time. He spent a good deal of time working on a glitch in the bookkeeping computer before we all sat down to a late supper. Mick and I joined the company after enjoying a lovely romantic tryst together. Ocean and Valerie also joined the company. It was quite a party!

Mick took a day off today, enjoying watching Louisville’s b-ball team win over West Virginia. Then he watched the UK team get edged out by South Carolina in a heartbreak finish. He’s fond of both teams because when he lived in the knobs of central Kentucky, faring with kerosene for light and a wood stove for heat, he loved to listen to Cawood Ledford call the UK games on his little battery-powered radio, which was his lifeline to the world as he homesteaded all alone on Hummingbird Mountain. I am a UL alumna, so he cheers for my alma mater as well as UK.

As the steep rays of sunset pierced through the kitchen windows, with Gary and Romi having an animated conversation and little Ocean playing tennis on her Wii, with Mick in the corner seeing to putting the dishes away, I felt bathed in blessings and beauties. The world of nature is stunning in any and all moods, and the brilliant sparks of light from all the ice outside sent little diamond glitters into the room to touch every beloved face. For a few moments I was abstracted into the light. It is a state of consciousness that is entirely mystical. In that state it is quite clear that all is perfect and all is well. How I love those moments out of time when they come!

Gary offered a beautiful closing prayer at the Gaia Meditation tonight.

2009-01-30

February 1, 2009 5:32pm

As dawn broke, I discovered that it was snowing—again! That is just what this disaster needed, a fresh load of snow. After Morning Offering Mick went around to all of his snow-removal customers and cleared walks once again, spreading calcium chloride to keep things safe for any future snowfall during the day. At 11:00 the sun came out, a welcome visit to our winter’s landscape indeed! Icicles began to melt and the roadways stayed clear of new snow due to the bright sunshine.

Connie M. and I had scheduled a lunch together at Ramsi’s World Café, a wonderfully eclectic restaurant with so many delicious things to eat that choosing is the hardest part. Mick was through with his work for the day, being quite unable to address all the storm debris with the thermometer in the low twenties and everything frozen solid, so he came too!

It was delightful to see Miss Connie, whom I adore as I would a sister. She has been settling in to her job as clinical psychologist for a halfway house across the river in Jeffersonville, Indiana and into her new apartment which backs right up to a nature conservancy that has acres and acres of deep forest. She can come home from the job and wander back into the woods for an instant natural recharging of her batteries. So she is happy as a clam! And recently the halfway house went to a four-day work week for the staff, which is why she finally had the time to visit with us. I am thrilled that she is now situated so well.

We feasted on various goodies—I had a salmon panini with cream cheese, capers and hard boiled eggs, Jim had brisket and Connie had an exotic, spicy rice and vegetable stew. It was so nifty to be out and about! This storm has been easy on us because we have a generator, but it still feels a bit claustrophobic to have the town in such terrible shape. So lunch at Ramsi’s was good therapy.

My work for the whole day consisted of editing on Lana’s rewrite of her first five chapters of True to America, the citizen’s guide she is writing. I did not work at it very hard! Somehow, snow days still feel like vacation days to me, even though I have been out of high school since 1961! So I played a lot of solitaire and read a good deal, as well as descending into a couple of naps.

Sue me! It was great to let up! Mick and I talked over his schedule and we may take some outright vacation days early next week, capitulating to the suggestion of this spell of incredibly bad weather.

Mick had asked me for a date this morning, but circumstances conspired against that plan—my tummy became very upset, not due to Ramsi’s wonderful food but to a flare-up in interstitial cystitis symptoms. We agreed to share energy of the romantic kind another day, and settled into an evening of Amy Goodman’s news, Jon Stewart’s and Steven Colbert’s political comedy and then conversation and a late supper with Valerie, Ocean and Gary.

The three went out this afternoon for some sledding in Louisville’s huge Cherokee Park. Petite Val and tiny Ocean had a blast, but long, thin Gary found that every time he reached the bottom of the long, steep hill, he smacked him bottom very hard on the ice which is sitting like iron just under the snow. There is a four-inch cushion over that ice at the top of the hill but lots of sledders had rubbed it all away at the bottom. Poor Gary came home very sore! He recuperated with lots of cocoa!

I offered the closing prayer at the Gaia Meditation tonight.

2009-01-29

February 1, 2009 5:30pm

I awoke to a dark, quiet world. The city was still prostrated with the storm. The skies were again troubled and little snows fell throughout the day. Louisville has now cracked 200,000 in getting the lights back on: the last report I heard said that only 190,000 people now are without power. Statewide the total is 600,000, which in many small towns represents the whole of their village out of power.

After Morning Offering, Mick spent the morning at a customer’s house, where he dug out the path from door to car and got the car unfrozen and scraped. Melissa had given Mick de-icer for Christmas, romantic fool that she is, and Mick got the car unlocked. Then he brought our teakettle over and poured hot water around the door frame, finally getting the automobile opened. He started the car and turned on the heat full-blast, then dug a path to it. He dragged half a dozen limbs out of the driveway and went back to the car. The heat had made it easier to get under the thick ice and pry it off.

He stopped by another customer’s house, having to walk the last block because of three downed trees in her little road. She is no longer living there and the louse is for sale. He turned off the house’s water and then bled the pipes dry inside the house, so she does not need to worry about pipes freezing.

Meanwhile, snug in my bower office, I turned on my cell phone—a rare occurrence for me; usually that phone gets used only for calling from the car if I will be late, or to ask for help—and settled in for a calling spree.

Firstly I followed through with the stores I had asked for donations for St. Luke’s choir’s upcoming Trivial Pursuit fundraiser. The Hallmark store donated a couple of frames, which will make a nice prize. The Ben Franklin store was feeling broke and said no.

I called two doctors to reschedule appointments and was successful with one. I shall need to call the other back tomorrow, as no one was in the office yet. I called a third doctor about a new prescription. That doctor also was absent but a loyal assistant had made it into the office. She could not get me the prescription, since the doctor was out, but she had lots of samples to tide me over. She reserved them for me.

I called Bell South to ask about when our telephone would be repaired. Mick and I both happened to see the wire come down day before yesterday. I could not raise a human but their computer told me that they were due to get the line back up tomorrow.

Lastly, I called Anthem, my prescription insurance carrier. One of the prescription drugs I take for interstitial cystitis, Elmiron, had been denied. Up until now, it has always been accepted. They explained how to go about appealing this decision. It involves the prescribing doctor calling in to Anthem. Luckily for me, I am already scheduled to see this doctor on February 10th, and she is a good soul, always helpful. I feel sure she will make that call for me and save me some substantial money.

I tried to get an on-line business which is having a 40% sale on the phone, but with the line down and our computer on Bell South DSL, I could not get the site to open enough to field a telephone number.

I was glad when Mick came blowing in from his cold morning and called lunch time! I dislike telephones with intensity!

Valerie and Ocean had just roused from a delicious sleep-in at noon. Valerie is an art teacher, while Ocean is a grade-school student, so they were both off from school for a second day. What a great occasion for them! Gary was fixing them breakfast while Mick and I made our sandwiches and we all had our meal together most companionably.

Then I got my boots on and Mick and I went to keep our appointment with Walt C, our attorney, a fine man with whom we have worked ever since our long time lawyer, Charlie S, retired. We are updating our wills and also our waiver form for people who come to Avalon Farm. We do not need people suing us!

And the place is treacherous, in this weather especially. Melissa works hard to develop Avalon, but it is not yet at all tame. There are sinkholes and sudden pitfalls, as is usual in wild country. And there are poisonous snakes and lots of critters, including Kentucky’s brand of half-coyotes and half-wolves, which run in packs.

Reaching out to the surrounding community, Mel has invited the Search and Rescue group of Trimble County to have an exercise on Avalon soon, and we need those release forms signed by all participants before we let them on the property.

Mr. C got all the details down for the new wills for Gary, Jim and me and complimented Melissa on the existing waiver forms, which she created for Avalon in 2005. He said it would not take him long to complete our business, so we look forward to seeing him in a week or two for the signing.

The world outside the car window as we drove was stunning in its beauty and devastation. Each tree was a perfect ice sculpture, each branch and twig articulated with thick ice, which glinted dully in the overcast. Many trees and bushes had laid their branches gently on to the ice-capped snow but had not yet broken off. Many other living beings called trees and bushes had experienced grievous losses, their branches lying around them, broken and inert.

The roads were still a mess! I was surprised at this, because the big storm ended yesterday at noon. However there were no turning lanes even on the big highways; and there were no clear shoulders. And when one was off the main roads, there was one lane, maybe, cleared. On the expressways, there were two lanes open out of four in most cases. Louisville is struggling!

And the prediction is for continuing icy temperatures with no hope of a thaw for many days to come. The winds are supposed to be up tomorrow, and the power company sent out a directive, letting us know that they expect a lot of additional power outages when the heavily iced branches take the oncoming winds and come down.

Tonight we heard that this storm has set a new record—already—as the most damage in one weather event in this fair city ever. After Hurricane Ike last September, we thought that record was sewed up for a while! Hah!

So this is global warming! Who knew?

Gary spent his work day clearing away his Inbox—he cannot send the mail, but he can write it and put it in the Outbox—and then recording about 100 new books that have been donated to L/L Research since the last time he caught up the Booklist. When off-line, one becomes creative!

Mick and I skipped our baths tonight, in honor of saving hot water, and enjoyed Amy Goodman’s examination of the current Congressional bill aimed at the big ‘fix” of the economy. It carries a towering price tag, although it’s peanuts compared to the cost of our war in the Middle East. I wonder if any bill that big can be all good. However, the drive is to “do something fast”. That appears to be carrying all the Democrats, at least, with it.

We enjoyed a quiet evening with Val and Ocean, watching television and chatting most pleasantly. Mick offered the closing prayer at the Gaia Meditation tonight.

2009-01-28

February 1, 2009 5:27pm

As Mick and I sought our rest last night, icy rain and sleet were falling heavily. Our power went out around 2:00 a.m and our new generator kicked in like a champ! By dawn, the trees and lines held four inches of ice and when I awoke at 6:00, I came into my office, which is at the front of the second floor, to hear one long, heartbreaking creak after another as limbs all around us succumbed to the weight of the ice.

When daylight broke, Mick went out to see to his customers. It was pouring rain, as heavy as I have ever seen it, and by the time he returned, it had changed to a driving snow, pelting down so hard that I could not see into our back yard or across the street in front. Lightning eerily flashed across the sky several times. Mother Nature was on a rampage!

Mick told me that the neighborhood was devastated. We have three big limbs to clear away in our own yard, and all his customers are in much worse shape than we are. I am torn at this news between despair and appreciation for the bills we will be able to pay as Mick spends the next few weeks clearing away their debris. He had been just about out of work, the usual fate of a lawn care guy in the dead of winter. Now he will be gainfully employed. He is guessing it will take him four weeks to get everyone shipshape.

Further, the weather in the coming week is no help. There has been little ground wind so far, but the next two days are cold and windy. The authorities feel that we have not yet begun to see the fullness of the damage. Many power poles and trees are barely hanging on. The coming winds are predicted to bring down at least as many limbs as are already down, as well as some poles and trees in their entirety.

Our neighbor to the north is one of those with trees at risk. Unfortunately, the half-split trunk of the 70-foot pine tree right behind their house is leaning towards his roof, 30 feet below it. Mick says a good wind will bring it down, to disastrous consequences for them. Mick was over there at full daylight, stringing one extension cord after another across the 200-foot space between our houses so that our neighbor could hook up his refrigerator and a few lights to our power.

The storm ceased a bit after noon and Mick and Gary went out to do what they could. At full nightfall they returned, weary but triumphant. His customers’ driveways are clear of limbs and the clients who signed up for snow removal on their sidewalks and out to their cars are looking at shoveled walks. Mick said he made it a lot easier for himself by going out twice yesterday and this morning in all the wet and salting the surfaces. As the ice formed from the rain overnight, it remained mushy at the bottom, so their shovels could pry under the massive icefall and break it up.

My day was far less adventurous and very comfortable. I was feeling in a holiday mood this morning, especially when I discovered that my planned work of the day was missing in action. Romi had been going to send me a digital version of his new scans of text for me to edit. He forgot. With my work disappearing and no way to retrieve it, as my telephone DSL is gone with its line—supposedly they will have it fixed tomorrow—I decided to spend the morning finishing up the e-mail.

• I wrote Ian, congratulating him on making a great decision on archiving the prisoner newsletters, LOOP, on the archive site with the other newsletters. What made me so happy about this was that it is these little details that can cause friction in a group of volunteers. Five of us were involved—the two webmasters, the LOOP’s editor, Gary and I. there are so many ways to choose disharmony when something like this comes up. Logic can go a number of different ways and there is no “right” way. However in the event—and it took about a week for this issue to clear—all remained loving and unified. I was thrilled!

• I wrote Chris H, chief moderator for David W’s Divine Cosmos forum, letting her know about the Bob Reidel Memorial Gathering on 2012 Preparation we are holding April 17-19. I do not know if she will decide to post the letter or not, because this gathering has nothing to do with David, and it is his forum and his site. However Bob was a very active poster to that forum, and it is possible that Chris will decide that the people there would like to know about this gathering. Whatever she decides will be fine.

• In addition, I wrote 8 personal e-mails of no L/L Research interest to those friends who had written in, concerned about our big storm and how we were faring.

I finished the day by collecting some yummy recipes for winter soups. The newspaper on Wednesdays generally contains recipes, and today the harvest was especially rich. I collected a chili which uses Andouille sausage along with ground beef for the “con carne”, an especially nice minestrone recipe with the whole garden represented in it and a Hot Brown Soup with bacon, turkey, tomatoes, carrots, cheddar cheese and cream.

The Hot Brown is a Louisville speciality. A chef at the Brown Hotel, a venerable establishment in the heart of downtown, created the Hot Brown a century and more ago. It consisted of toast points covered with roasted turkey slices, then tomatoes and then a Mornay Sauce rich in cheddar cheese and cream. Over that was placed rashers of crisply fried bacon. The little casserole is browned under the broiler and voila! You have a delicious comfort-food meal. The soup deconstructs the casserole beautifully. Cold and snowy days make soup sound wonderful!

Gary’s girlfriend, Valerie, is out of power and so are her parents, so we are hosting Valerie and Ocean, her daughter, until the power goes back on. They came over as Mick and I finished our showers—no baths until we have power—and our rest upstairs. We especially enjoyed Amy Goodman tonight as she probed into the shenanigans of the outgoing administration.

We all enjoyed dinner together and sat for the Gaia Meditation with our guests at 9:00. Gary offered the closing prayer.

2009-01-27

February 1, 2009 5:22pm

I was awakened in early morning by Mick’s arising. Snow had begun falling in the night. Mick went out at 7:00 in the half-light and began clearing his customers’ pathways from house to car. He was working hard until lunch time.

I decided to spend my day cleaning up the old e-mail.

• I postponed three appointments for this week—two doctors and a lawyer. The snow was succeeded by a plentiful, icy rain which froze on contact with the earth, making it a dubious proposition to drive. Several of our roads quickly closed and the schools are all closed today. We currently have four inches of snow, packed down by—so far—two inches of glare ice, and it’s still precipitating. Supposedly it will begin snowing again as the evening deepens and the temperatures drop decidedly below freezing.

• I accepted Wynn Free’s invitation to join him on February 27th on BBS radio and asked him for the time and the contact information.

• I suggested to Steve E, webmaster of B4, that we make the Live Chats a regular feature on Saturday afternoons at 3:00 EST, with the exception of teaching weekends, when I cannot do that. Steve accepted before the end of the day and began working out protocols for a substitute moderator if he should need to be away on any given Saturday.

• I requested of Gary and Aaron, the woman who is pre-editing my poetry database, that when Aaron is finished, I receive the updated poems in one big bunch rather than separately, so that it’s easier to replace the old versions of the poems. Aaron is most kind to edit these to a standard format so that when I go to edit the text and put them up on line, my job will be far easier. Thanks, Aaron!

• I wrote Ian concerning a detail having to do with where to archive L/L Research’s prisoner newsletter, The LOOP (stands for Law of One—Prisoners). It’s a pretty problem, for the newsletter is spiritual activism in that the prisoners write articles and letters in that newsletter—it is not merely filled with channeling from our site. That would logically put it on B4. However, since our two other newsletters, Gatherings and Light/Lines, are archived on llresearch, I suggested archiving this newsletter there as well. Whatever Ian chooses is fine with me. It’s an interesting exercise in logic and librarianship!

• I heard from a beloved sister, Rosie B, who came to the Time of Global Shift in 2003 (I think) and has been a wonderful supporter of TLOO ever since. It was such a pleasure to catch up with her! She is one of the most radiant, light-carrying women I have ever met, and she is still quite young! There is lots of time for her to season and temper. Her ministry of beingness goes on, gloriously unabated, as she raises her children.

• I caught up with Dianne P, whose husband is Rick C, one of my favorite couples in this world. They live in Maine and we send reports back and forth as we both battle the elements and plan our gardens. Dianne recently sent me a fascinating little book by Kyriacos Markides. She suggested that when she cleans up her moving boxes, she send me more spiritually oriented books and I jumped at the chance to add good volumes to our L/L Research Library. She also wants me to see “Lunch with Bokara” and will send me a DVD of four of them as soon as she gets them recorded. That program runs on Link TV, which Mick and I love, but in the daytime, when our television is off.

• I wrote Pupie H-B, a beloved student and friend who lives in Britain with her husband, Peter B. She shared some of her journaling with Guidance—her guide is called Pomegranate Orchard—with me, and it was delightful to read. She also sent me a photo of her latest stained glass creation, an amazing work called “Poison to Medicine”, featuring a caduceus as the central figure.

• I caught up with no less than a dozen letters from Daphne K, a friend of Wynn’s whom I have met twice now. She recently moved to Sitka, Alaska. She is very happy there, praise the Lord! Her observations are always interesting.

• I wrote Dianne S, my bosom buddy from Bedford, Kentucky, suggesting that she try installing Mozilla Firefox freeware in order to solve problems she has reading my blog on B4. I use Mozilla when I access B4 for the live chats, and it works far better than MS Outlook.

• Rick C wrote with his Maine Report—snow and ice, followed by freezing rain down east last week, so now he is digging out. He reported on creating the perfect roast beef for Christmas dinner—yum!

• I thanked my nephew, Ted Rueckert, Tommy’s son, for sending along his photos of our Christmas celebration together over New Year’s and sent the photos on to my other brother, Jim R and to my cousin, Carlos R. It’s always fun to see each other’s photos. Then I thanked Jim R for HIS photos and sent them around too. It was great to see Jim and Kai’s new baby, Wills, looking so robust and healthy in his new crawlers—with padded knees, a present from his Auntie Carla. Kai’s new haircut is smashing as well, but then she’s a beauty! I think she’d look good in any style of hair. Her Thai heritage just shines!

• I read again Julian D’s request for our 12-27 channeling session. It has not yet been transcribed, apparently. I wrote Gary asking where it had gotten to—we usually turn the channeling sessions around in less than a month.

• I wrote Janet I, a wonderful woman whom I know from her attendance at the Mackinac Island gathering in 2007. She is planning to come to our April gathering in honor of Bob Riedel. She had sent about a dozen e-mails covering many issues and it was fun to see what all she is doing!

By this time, it was full evening and Mick called bath time. I had ended the day with all but four people’s e-mails answered. And all of those are quite recent. It was truly a day well-spent! It feels so good to be caught up in the Inbox again!

Mick and I bathed and ate a bit early so that I could have time to relax before tuning for a personal channeling requested by Dwayne, a new client for such sessions. His questions were fascinating, all about dreams and other states of consciousness other than the everyday conscious mind. I look forward to reading the transcript when it is edited.

We offered the Gaia Meditation as part of the channeling session. Rather than praying at the end, we passed the peace.

2009-01-26

January 27, 2009 6:04am

The temperatures surged almost to 30 F from an initial morning chill of not-quite-20 and the skies thickened into a white canopy promising a snowfall before morning. When Mick took me to Dr. Smith’s for treatment of a wart between my toes and a suspiciously enlarging scar from an old sting by a jellyfish, we could see the lines of brine laid down by the bad-weather trucks on our county road. I think we’re in for it by tomorrow!

I spent my morning writing an article for my UPI blog site (www.religionandspirituality.com) on Rachel Carson and Kaiulani Lee, two difference makers that have inspired me. It was fun to share the story on these two remarkable ladies who have made such a difference in the way we look at nature. Meanwhile Mick cleared a garage full of junk for a customer and took the trailer load of detritus to the Trimble County dump for disposal.

After a very quick lunch Mick drove me to Dr. Smith’s office. Smith froze my wart and then numbed my shin and took a sample of the top of the widening scar for biopsy. He will call me tomorrow with the results. He says that in older women, he takes leg ulcers very seriously. I am glad for his care. He is one of the few male doctors I see, and I like him because he has smooth, caring energy and is never in a hurry or dismissive. He’s got that feminine energy going, bless him!

On the way home, we stopped at a couple of stores to ask for prizes for the choir’s fund-raiser this Saturday. In both cases I need to call the store manager tomorrow morning.

Back at Camelot I edited the rest of Channeling Circle 11, from our third Channeling Intensive, and sent that in to Ian to post of the archive site. I also spent some time poking around the forums on www.bring4th. I am tickled to see that there is now substantive use of the forums. And I read several more very inspiring wanderer stories from the wanderer forum. It is wonderful to see the site become useful for seekers! One day it will match our library site, www.llresearch.org, in having a ton of wonderful resources.

I accepted by e-mail Wynn Free’s invitation to speak with his Monday Night group on BBS Radio (www.bbsradio.com) on February 27th. Perhaps by then we will have the new book, 101: The Choice, to talk about!

Mick and I shared a whirlpool bath and then a date, exchanging lovely energy and then resting in the afterglow before coming downstairs for a late supper and the Gaia Meditation, at which I offered the closing prayer tonight.

2009-01-25

January 26, 2009 7:30am

It was a cold old Sunday morning, with skies lowering for a winter storm tomorrow, so I dressed warmly for church. We had a supernally lovely service, with the theme of the readings and hymns being “the call”. The first hymn was

“Jesus calls us o’er the tumult of our life’s tempestuous seas”.

And that was followed by a wonderful sermon on that call—not to grand and glorious ministries of missionary journeys but to the humble ministries of extending Jesus’ love, as we understand it, to mates, children, parents and friends.

And then came a particularly affecting little anthem about Jesus’ infant journey into Egypt when the family was fleeing Herod’s men, “The Stars Shall Light a Candle”. We sang at Communion time one of my favorite hymns, one of whose verses goes,

“In simple trust like those who heard, beside the Syrian sea,
The gracious calling of the Lord, let us, like them, without a word,
Rise up and follow Thee.”

I feel so nourished in this parish community! It is a party every week at the Peace, with hugs and excited voices sharing such love! Unlike my previous parish, which often resembled the fabled “frozen chosen”, this unlikely band of affluent—for the most part—worshipers has unlocked the Holy Spirit. It floats amongst us every Sunday! I am the most fortunate of Christians to have found this sweet parish of St. Luke’s, Anchorage.

I got some strong catalyst today, as I was offered a chance to reenter my days of singing the sacred repertoire in an excellent chorus. After 32 years in the Louisville Bach Society, I had to retire from that group because of the policies of the staff, which did not include any help for the handicapped. The Choral Arts Society of Louisville was very light on alti for their upcoming performance of The St. Matthew Passion by Bach, a piece I know well, and offered me a seat, being glad to work with my limitations. I initially jumped at the chance!

Then I discovered that my beloved Mick was very concerned with my decision. He feels that I am stretched to the limit without doing another thing—and this kind of singing is a strenuous thing to do physically. The practices are an hour longer than choir practice and the piece itself is a very long one, taking over two and a half hours to perform. I have crashed and burned when attempting to do such things in the past, in terms of my health breaking.

Then too, Mick and I have fewer evenings alone together than he would like already, with choir practice taking Wednesday nights, Romi’s visits covering Tuesday nights and the public meetings occurring on Saturday nights. Mick very appealingly said that he looked forward to our evenings together all day, and preferred that I would not take Monday nights away too! Mind you, he promised to adjust to a new schedule if I really wanted to do the extra singing. There was no coercion.

Upon taking thought, I realized he was right on the point of endangering my health. With clusters of specialists’ appointments on my books recently and two more appointments this week, I have to realize that I am vulnerable to a further break in my already guarded health.

And though there is no right and wrong about being with him versus singing the big sacred pieces, I realized that I had 32 years of singing in the Bach Society under my belt and had sung all the big pieces multiple times. Knowing it was a sacrifice, I made it and opted out of the singing. Mick sacrifices for me all the time. It was my pleasure to give back. And Mick was a very grateful and happy camper!

We also talked more this evening about Mick’s taking on a full-time helper for this coming mowing season. I believe we will interview helpers soon and see if anyone clicks. I like the idea way more than Mick’s simply elongating his working days and doing more jobs on his own. It is more practical to expand by taking on help than to try to do it all oneself. And it is more effective at paying the bills.

We had a lucky day “at the movies”, watching two excellent films this afternoon, snuggled under blankets in the living room as the weather worsened. Firstly we saw Get Smart, a variably well directed action comedy starring Steve Carrell and Anne Hathaway as Max and 99. Alan Arkin was deliciously dead-pan as Chief, Dwayne Johnson (“the Rock”) was very funny as Agent 23, and Bill Murray had a delightful cameo as Agent 13. Peter Segal’s sense of pacing was often faulty, his timing suffering from arrhythmia, but the laughs were frequent and genuine.

I most especially liked the scene where Max tangos with a big, beautiful woman of abundant flesh, out-dancing his lithe and slender spy-partner, 99, as she tangos with the villain. The energy of that scene was just perfect, marred only by a poorly directed, vulgar ending.

After a break to create some popcorn, we settled into our second feature, Righteous Kill. It was fun to see venerable actors Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino team up for a buddy-cop movie. The film was staged with sophistication and edited with great subtlety.

I had heard that this was a ho-hum flick, but I did not find it so. I was completely surprised at the ending, always a lovely present from the director and screenwriter. Curtis Jackson (“Fitty Cent”) was very good as Spider and the surrounding ensemble was flawless.

The TV stayed off tonight as Mick and I chewed our way through the matters of whether I should sing in the Choral Arts chorus and whether he should expand his JLS lawn business by adding a helper. Mick was still working out the math on the latter issue when I dropped off to sleep!

It is wonderful to work through catalyst with Mick. He is very present, has no desire to wound or persuade but only to find clarity and balance with me. I could not ask for a better partner!

Mick offered the closing prayer at the Gaia Meditation tonight.

2009-01-24

January 25, 2009 7:03am

As the temperature again plummeted downwards in this yo-yo winter of aught-nine, Mick and I made our Morning Offering and then set about our morning work, Mick cleaning the kitchen and running errands while I came upstairs to work in the office.

I started my work day by reading Gary’s excellent Wanderers’ Forum entry on B4. It inspired me to write my own entry, and by the end of the day Mick had added his own entry to that forum. It was fun to see the activity on that forum after we had posted our entries. Hopefully now that forum will take off and collect lots of wanderer stories. Being a wanderer here on Earth is not always easy, and I think it will help other wanderers to see how profoundly they are not alone in their seeming isolation.

I reopened the channeling transcript from our last channeling meeting on January 10th and worked on editing it until lunch. We were joined by Gary, who was starting on his work day as LL Admin.

After lunch Mick set about a suddenly urgent task—replacing our coat tree with some wall racks in Mick’s bedroom. Our long-time coat tree gave up the ghost today and two attempts at repair tanked. By bath time Mick had found and installed hooks and hook systems to accommodate our outer wear nicely.

Gary and I started off the afternoon by going over the curriculum for the Bob Reidel Memorial Gathering, which occurs April 17 through 19th, later this spring. We got the curriculum all but set, with Gary tweaking it later in the day. We even worked out menus for the Gathering. Since we are eating out at Bob’s favorite restaurants three times, we have only desserts, snacks and the picnic to prepare at home. We chose recipes for the picnic food (Stuffed Eggs and Frank’s Baked Beans), soup (Cream of Tomato and Artichoke Heart) and dessert (Double Peanut Butter Cookies with Chocolate Chips). Melissa and I will work further soon on what snacks we will prepare.

The meeting brought us to 3:00, and I turned to the Live Chat session on B4 which has become a weekly feature. It has been fun all along and this session was no exception, with good questions to consider and a growing feeling of community for all those who attend.

I feel that this weekly Live Chat is a sound idea to repeat as a regular feature, since in latter years I have deliberately removed myself from easy access in order to have time to write and create. While this is a good decision, I think spending two hours a week being accessible to anyone in the world who wants to talk to me is an equally good decision, creating a balance in my service I did not have before. Thanks for that to webmaster Steve!

Steve E, not only www.bring4th.org’s webmaster but also the moderator of these Live Chat sessions, had a good idea for next time—opening with a talk around the circle, letting the members tell a bit—whatever they want—about themselves before opening to questions. Any group is a potential lighthouse, and it develops this group’s power to shine when they know a bit more about each other and are not jsut relating through me.

I especially enjoyed today’s folks, who actually got into prayer mode a couple of times, and asked very good questions. Steve has created a forum especially for archiving past sessions’ Q and A’s. So we will soon develop a good place to browse as the sessions accumulate. Kudos, Steve!

The session went about 30 minutes over, in order to field follow-ups to two questions. Then I spent the last of my office time finishing the editing on the January 10th channeling session and sent that off to Ian for placing on www.llresearch.org.

Mick and I enjoyed a leisurely bath and then we had dinner with Gary and Melissa, who had arrived at Camelot after attending a one-day meeting of Kentucky’s chapter of Community Farm Alliance here in town.

John Daniel E joined us shortly thereafter and we had our public meeting, talking around the circle and then having a channeling session. Gary’s question today stemmed from his reading of Krishnamurti, who said that all the suffering of this world stems from the distance between subject and object. Gary asked how we can decrease that distance and make it disappear, since we are all one. I will enjoy reading the session when I edit the transcript.

I offered the Gaia Meditation prayer tonight in the process of wrapping up the channeling session. We prayed especially for Patrick Swayze and William, a prisoner very interested in TLOO as well as Ramon, a UK player who collapsed at halftime during a basketball game today. Be well, gentlemen! Be well and thrive!

2009-01-23

January 24, 2009 7:02am

This was a very low-energy day for me. I started off, after Morning Offering, by falling asleep in my office chair. Still groggy and weary, I decided to collect some recipes from the newspaper and happily spent the rest of my morning adding recipes for sour-cream and squash casserole with Ritz cracker topping, fried chicken with honey-pecan sauce and baked potato-chip and pretzel-coated chicken breasts to the recipes database.

We have a whole lot of chicken recipes, as we tend not to eat red meat at home. Gary is not fond of red meat, so Mick and I save our red-meat meals for restaurants. I here salute the blameless chicken bosom! Skinless, boneless, it is Al Capp’s schmoo, willing to take on whatever herbs and spices, vegetables and sauces, pasta, grains and potatoes one wishes and transform into unique and varied culinary delights. Pound it and roll it, fry it or bake it, saute it or chop it up, it becomes whatever you wish it to be, and always remaining good, and good for you! Thank you, dear chickens!

In the afternoon, Mick took me downtown through suddenly springlike temperatures and healing sunshine for my third and final epidural treatment. The cortisone is placed right in my neck area, from where much nerve pain stems. It seems to be alleviating that particular discomfort, gradually! Thank you, Lord.

Sara D. of the Madison Courier and I have found a commonly workable time for her interview with Mel and me on Avalon. I will head up there on February 2nd, the Monday afternoon before the fourth Channeling Intensive.

Mick and I enjoyed a bath together before coming upstairs for a date. We shared much profound energy and felt a sense of great thanksgiving. After enjoying some sci fi TV, viewing episodes of Stargate SG-1 and Star Trek TNG, we came downstairs and shared a late supper and conversation with Gary, who offered the closing prayer at the Gaia Meditation.

2009-01-22

January 23, 2009 7:01am

It thawed all day, winding up by sundown almost at 50 F, a lovely relief from the frozen days just past. After Morning Offering, Mick loaded another batch of firewood for Melissa’s use this winter and took it up to Avalon, arriving back from that trip just in time to have lunch with me before I went to have a massage and get my nails done.

I spent my morning cooking up ten questions for the Science and Nature category of Trivial Pursuit. Our choir at St. Luke’s is holding a TP night, to which I cannot go, soon—on a Saturday night, directly conflicting with our L/L Research public meeting—and all I can really do to help is come up with questions for them to ask.

I also juggled some appointments, as one of those booked in the doctor’s office was scheduled over an already existing one, and tried again to make a date with the woman from the Madison Courier who wants to interview me on, and about, Avalon Farm.

I spent the rest of my morning reading through Melissa’s 2008 annual report on Avalon, which she prepared for all the Board members, and her summation of issues on Avalon from our last planning session. Both were excellent and thorough documents, covering many points, from livestock to pasture to cabin repair to tree clearing, on and on through Mel’s many areas of work and research.

My afternoon was spent at Absolutely Salon where my ingrown fingernails were gently clipped and the soreness greatly lessened. I also had a pedicure and what will be my last massage from Jane R. I have loved having her work on my aches and pains, but we are retrenching to save some money, and Mick wants to take over the massages.

Gary spent most of his work day trying, and ultimately succeeding, at arriving at a true report for estimating income at L/L Research. Previously our bookkeeping methods have not yielded a true total, as the book orders are entered twice, once when they come in and again when money is deposited. It was highly frustrating and the Bean Man was mightily challenged to remain a happy camper!

He missed the Gaia Meditation because he was working off his frustrations on the Bowflex, so Mick and I sat for that daily occasion without him. Mick offered the closing prayer tonight.

2009-01-21

January 22, 2009 7:07am

It was another very cold day today, but rich with sunshine and lovely with all the colors of tree trunks and evergreens. After Morning Offering I worked on my e-mail, going through the junk mail, combing through the Inbox and finding a letter tape from Aaron T to go through and edit. It is her very last one. All 150 or so letter tapes have now been transcribed and what advice may be useful to others is available on the archive site.

Those tapes were made by me during the time when I was confined to bed and could not sit up straight or use my arms well due to rheumatoid changes. The period lasted from the late eighties to the early nineties. Eventually my GI tract came to crisis and in ‘92 I had half of my transverse colon removed. This greatly improved my health.

While I was in the hospital recovering from that operation, I managed to talk Frazier Rehab into taking me on as a patient. They tested me for nine mortal days, determining what was possible for me. Then, when I had recovered enough strength to deal with the experience, I went through a three-week in-hospital pain management program and emerged, sore and uncomfortable but vertical.

Praise the Lord, I have never had to lie back down! I do spend my office time in recliners rather than at the desk in a straight chair, and I need to sleep in a hospital-type, articulated bed, but I can now take care of myself and live a vertical life.

However during that time that I was down, I was determined to continue being of service. So I used tape letters to do my counseling. It is those letters Aaron just finished taking from tape to text. Thank you, Aaron!

I also spent some time this morning writing a final thank-you letter, to Jim’s Mom! How could I have forgotten her?

After lunch Mel and I sallied forth to a consignment shop in Crestwood to hunt for sale garments. And I struck it rich! I spent the rest of Mom’s Christmas money on some great - and often purple - clothes—a dress, two skirts, a pair of dress pants and some jeans, a couple of sweaters and lots of pretty tops to go with the other pieces. It was such fun! I could not have done it without Melissa, who did all the snaps and buttons for me and handled the hangers.

Mick took a load of firewood for Mel up to Avalon and as he was driving into our driveway coming back, he noticed a peculiar sound from his truck’s engine. We caravanned after lunch to the repair shop and then when Melissa and I returned from shopping, I took him back there to retrieve Sybil, his truck.

That is one ancient vehicle, being a 1990 model Dodge. Mick wants to run it for a few more years—and the repair shop is grateful! Every time we come home with Sybil once again road-ready, Mick says, “I think I have repaired everything on the truck now.” And I say, “Mick, you’ve said that every time you’ve repaired the truck this last two years!”

My theory is that automobiles in general are designed to begin to need substantial repairs directly after they are paid for and out of warranty.

After a good bath I attended choir practice, where we are practicing for Lent—Ash Wednesday and beyond. The music for that season of the church year is solemn and I came home sleepy!

We enjoyed a good supper while watching Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert make merry with the inaugural details—Aretha Franklin’s hat and the Chief Justice’s incorrect reading of the presidential oath got skewered. There’s always something to laugh at even when the president happens to be one of which both men vastly approve.

Mick offered the closing prayer at the Gaia Meditation tonight.

2009-01-20

January 21, 2009 6:53am

The weather remained frigid, with single-digit temperatures and cold winds, but we stayed cozy inside. Mel joined us for the last of Morning Offering, having come down from Avalon for a bout of paperwork. She and Gary worked side by side all day.

Mick replaced the grouting in the downstairs bathroom, thereby completing the refreshing of that room. New paint on walls and baseboards and newly washed dishes, which decorate the upper ledge in the tub itself, join the new grout to make the little, necessary room sparkle!

I finished my thank-you notes at last! It felt so good! And I did some e-mail. I accepted Wynn F’s invitation to be on his radio show on BBS internet radio some Monday night soon. And I talked further with Sara D, of the Madison Courier, about her interviewing me on Avalon.

I got the great news from Ian that Michele M has finished her cover art on Living the Law of One 101: The Choice and turned the project over to him for final production! He will be tweaking that for a day or three, but it feels wonderful to be this close to sending the manuscript to the printer at last!

The ever industrious Ian is also continuing to think about making archive collections for people to purchase: the 25-year collection of Light/Lines Newsletters and also the annual collections of channeling sessions. I think both are great ideas for scholars and collectors, and since we can print them on demand, they will not constitute a big printing expense. I gave him the green light most happily.

My romantic husband and I had a date after our bath and then came downstairs to greet Romi, who had come for a visit. He also brought great news: he has solved the glitch in scanning images for Dana’s book, The Alphabet Mosaics, at last! We should be able to go forward on that in a timelier manner now! Mel, Romi and I met briefly and agreed that Mel would finish her re-copied page, I would finish my final read-through and Romi would spend the next two Saturdays scanning the remaining appendices.

After a good dinner of Gary’s great cooking—honey-mustard chicken, roasted garlic mashed potatoes and broccoli-corn-mushroom casserole - we formed a circle of seeking and did a personal session for Terry H of Taipei, Taiwan. His questions were about dolphins and whales and Q’uo’s responses were interesting ones. I look forward to editing the transcript.

I offered the Gaia Meditation prayer tonight.

2009-01-19

January 20, 2009 6:43am

The snow lay on the ground, about an inch of it, with a freezing wind to boot, when I awoke. I had an appointment across the bridge in Indiana, which I canceled after Morning Offering. The sounds of sliding and being stuck were common in the neighborhood, and I did not wish to put myself on an icy bridge spanning the Ohio River, especially driving alone.

This gave me the whole day to work on thank-you notes and by the end of it I had whittled my thank-you list to three last notes. It’s a great feeling to get those expressions of gratitude into the mail. I have had a most abundant Christmas and I really needed to give back some thankfulness. My to-do list still stretches on to the second page, but almost all of the urgent personal business is now accomplished.

I also made three appointments—two for doctors to see to new moles on my skin and hormone replacement and one for our lawyer, as we plan to do a routine update of our wills. Looking at my schedule, which fairly bristles with such appointments, I marveled at the engine of life, chugging on, each of us with our many details and duties. No wonder the roads are thick with traffic!

Mick had a putter-day, as he calls it, fixing small things around the house and calling on a potential new customer with his card, listing prices for ricks of wood and for mowing as well.

We saw Gary early, before Morning Offering, on his way to his server job at Cracker Barrel. That was our last sighting of this busy fellow until tomorrow, as he is overnighting at Valerie’s.

Mick had asked me for a date this morning and after our bath we enjoyed a sweet energy exchange, after which we shared a late supper and the Gaia Meditation, at which Mick offered the closing prayer.

2009-01-18

January 19, 2009 6:44am

Snow fell as Mick took me to church—early, since it was St. Luke’s annual meeting day. We had a 9:00 service leading right into the meeting. I enjoyed singing “Lo, Star-led Chiefs” by Crotch, a pretty eighteenth-century anthem, and I enjoyed the sermon, given this Sunday by the head of the St. Luke’s pre-school and also head of the Christian Formation (=Sunday School) at this parish.

She talked about priorities, using the symbol of a jar, big rocks, pea gravel, sand and water. A jar of big rocks looks full, but you can add first the gravel, then the sand and then the water before the jar is truly full. Her point was to put the big rocks in first, like family, work and church.

The meeting went well. This is a very active church, participating in many outreach ministries such as Habitat for Humanity, Wayside Christian Mission’s free meals program, Kids Clothes, Meals on Wheels and the Immigrant Aid which fixes newly arrived families up with furnishings and other needs for their apartments plus clothing and whatever it takes to settle a new family into the community. It is good to feel St. Luke’s heart beat!

By the time Mick picked me up, my wheelchair was traveling through a blanket of snow. We ended up receiving about an inch of snow today. What a good time for a day off, snuggling into our covers and watching a couple of films!

Our first one was Eagle Eye, with Shia LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan playing a young wastrel and a fresh-faced Mom who get caught up forcefully into a terrorist intrigue of unbelievable but fascinating proportions. I suspended disbelief gladly in order to enjoy the breakneck speed of the action. What a ride!

Billy Bob Thornton was unexpectedly excellent as the establishment spy who spends the film trying to catch up to the renegade pair and the reality of the situation. Steven Spielberg was the executive producer on this film and his touch showed. I greatly enjoyed this action film and recommend it for those who love such movies.

After a two-hour break for napping and puttering, Mick and I watched The Visitor, a breathtakingly simple, unadorned and beautiful little film about opening the heart. Richard Jenkins’s portrayal of a depressed and dysfunctional professor is superb. The couple of immigrants and their mother, all without green cards, whom he meets, played faultlessly by Hlam Abbass, Haaz Sleiman and Danai Gurira, warm the heart as they are systematically and appallingly mistreated by the U. S. Immigration Service.

There is a total lack of pretension or preachiness about this award-winning film, but the story itself points up our government’s present callousness and ignorance where anyone of color from another country is concerned. The young people have grown up in America and are productive, creative, engaged citizens, blameless and excellent people. Yet in an incident in the New York subway, first the professor gets stuck in a stile carrying a large drum and then the immigrant does the same. The professor’s difficulty is ignored but the immigrant is detained without counsel. Do yourself a favor and see this film. It will reward your thirst for beauty as it educates your naiveté! At least, that is the effect it had on me.

Gary asked for a meeting with Mick and me today and came up with many good ideas about how we can save money in the household. His thoughts are in response to Mick’s recent decision to take on more work this coming year in order to pay the bills. Mick and I could not have a better partner than Gary! He finds ways to lift burdens from Mick’s shoulders that are creative and heart-warming. I loved one of his suggestions for saving money: follow Melissa around and take notes! Our beloved Avalon caretaker is a crackerjack at squeezing the pennies until they yelp!

Gary offered the closing prayer at the Gaia Meditation tonight.

2009-01-17

January 18, 2009 6:09am

We arose as the weather began to warm, starting in single digits but rising to a balmy 34 by nightfall. The faucets were turned off and it was blessedly quiet in the house! There is no sunshine yet, but it is very good to return to normal Kentucky winter weather.

Mick cleared away everything in the downstairs bathroom after Morning Offering and spent his day painting the remainder of the room, both the walls and the trim, greatly brightening the place! We have vowed to turn on the overhead fan after each bath from now on to keep it that way.

I did my share of napping this morning, but did manage to write a couple more snail mail notes. One was to Kurt R. He is a LOO fan in Canada who has written to me for years, sharing photos of his gardens. Two years ago he wrote that he had decided to sell out and enter a retirement home—one with no garden. It was the “right” and responsible thing to do, he felt. But there in the home he met a woman. They fell in love and decided to make their home together early last year. He sent me photos of his new garden blooms for Christmas and I wrote to say “Mazeltov”!

My other letter was to Morris H, our Vice President at L/L Research. He has supported us ever since he was in college in the 1970s. Lately he has been more than generous, donating not only for our normal bill-paying during our annual fund drive, but also donating enough to print the first run of Living the Law of One 101: the Choice. His character and integrity, his marvelous sense of humor and his bright, shining energy are an inspiration to all of us here at Camelot and I tried to tell him just how much his companionship in our endeavors means to us.

Melissa was in the house when I came down for lunch, working on paperwork and looking very perky as she reported that the work she has done this last warm season on Sugar Shack, the cabin on Avalon, has made it much more possible for her to enjoy zero-degree weather there in some comfort. This is great news indeed!

By the end of the day she had produced a waiver of liability form for people coming to Avalon. Also, she produced the forms needed for the Trimble County Fire and Rescue volunteers to be given permission to conduct training exercises on Avalon. She has reached out to the community on our behalf, and I think that’s splendid. Mick and I will take that waiver form to our lawyer, Walt C., when we do a routine updating of our wills, which will happen soon.

Mel met with Gary and me after lunch to go over a long list of items concerning Avalon and we caught up together on them. On the list were her concerns about our old and dysfunctional wells, which she feels could be more securely covered. I suggested that we place brush piles over them and make small signs which say “Snake and Rodent Habitat”. It polishes two apples at once: we create good habitats for these small critters which are a part of Avalon and it has a far different effect on people to read that sign than if they read a sign which says “Stay Away, Unsafe”. Kids especially love to explore unsafe areas, but are likely to leave the snakes and critters alone!

At 3:00 p.m. I came back upstairs to be part of a two-hour Live Chat on www.bring4th. Those who attended asked great questions and I enjoyed myself thoroughly, conversing with them on everything from ritual magic to translating TLOO into their native languages.

At the very end of the time the software blew up in our faces, leaving webmaster Steve E scratching his head. Thank heavens that it was only a couple minutes short of 5:00, our agreed-upon quitting time, when it happened. Hopefully this will be de-bugged by next Saturday!

Then we had our supper while we watched U of L play the number-one basketball team in our conference, U of Pittsburgh. The Louisville Cardinals emerged victorious! Go Cards! U of L is my alma mater for my undergraduate degree as well as Mel’s for her master’s degree so we were thrilled for Pitino and his team.

Mel, Gary, Mick and I started our weekly public meeting half an hour late to accommodate the b-ball game. Several people had called in sick or car-less, so the group was all in-house. It was a delightful meeting, with the members going deep and bringing up concerns close to the heart. The support and encouragement was wonderful and I entered the silent meditation with a heart full of thanksgiving for being in this service with such incredible people as these.

I offered the Gaia Meditation prayer at the close of the silent meditation.

2009-01-16

January 17, 2009 6:42am

We awoke to a temperature reading of minus two degrees F! Our personal soundtrack today had a background of drizzle—all the taps in the house were slightly open to avoid the pipes freezing. I heard from Vee, a former L/L Research volunteer who now lives in Alaska. She was enjoying a balmy temperature of 45 F. This is goofy weather!

After Morning Offering, Mick started in on our downstairs bathroom. Due to a lack of adequate ventilation, this room tends towards mildew buildup and periodically we have to clean up the mess, scrape down the walls near the tub and repaint. By bath time, he had repainted the target area, only to discover that he was using a different color green paint, one which is more of a light green than a celery green, our previous shade. And we both like the more assertive pastel better. So tomorrow, he will paint the rest of the bathroom wall that shade as well. The remaining mystery is, where did the new paint come from! And what happened to the old, celery-green paint?

I had an inadvertent nap for much of my morning work time, but did manage to offer my chapel time and write my journal entries. In the afternoon I did it! Finally! I began writing thank-you notes! I tackled the longer ones first, and pared down the list of notes by three. It feels wonderful to be working on thank-you’s to those who made my Christmas so abundant!

I also dealt with a spell of computer outage as I tried to send Vee the Mosaics and Wisdoms from Dana Redfield’s book, The Alphabet Mosaics. She has been including one letter per issue in www.planetlightworker.com, which she edits. Apparently it is better to send such data in small batches! My poor computer was badly enough shaken that even a rebooting was not enough. In the end I rebooted three times. All is now back to normal except that when I minimize MS Outlook, which sends my mail, it turns itself off completely. Temper, temper, Jennie Traveller!

Late in the afternoon I got a very kind thank-you note from Linda A., the leader of the Las Cruces, NM, ARE group with whom I conversed yesterday in a two and a half hour interview. They have sent a group donation as a gift to L/L Research for my time. That is very gracious of them, and much appreciated!

After our bath, Mick and I came upstairs for a scintillating energy exchange! We then enjoyed a late supper and then the Gaia Meditation, at which Mick offered the closing prayer.

2009-01-15

January 16, 2009 11:26am

As the thermometer stayed at zero degrees, I had one of those days where you see the Promised Land but never get there. No thank you notes written as yet! After I finished Morning Offering with Mick, after collecting a recipe and returning some e-mail, I handily slept the morning away. Then Mick and I had an early lunch.

At noon I got on the telephone with an ARE group from Las Cruces, New Mexico. They are studying TLOO currently and we had a very good conversation which I enjoyed thoroughly. Kathy, from that group, is sending me the version she recorded on her telephone. I think the transcript of the interview will have some good material for people, as the group asked interesting questions, some of which I have not heard before.

In the afternoon, while Mick sailed up to Avalon bearing a load of firewood for Melissa, I consulted with Gary on any number of topics. We finished the review of the two sites, worked out the curriculum for the Riedel Memorial 2012-Preparation Gathering in April and the schedule for the upcoming Channeling Intensive next month.

I then prepared to write my first thank-you note—to Papa for several books and CDs he sent at Christmas—and was promptly called to bath time! Ah well! Perhaps I shall finally write some thank-you’s tomorrow.

Amy Goodman is having a string of wonderful shows and again we enjoyed her as she interviewed people who are exposing U. S. veterans’ appalling treatment as they return home and file for disability or need medical help, as well as the atrocious situation in Gaza. Democracy Now is a powerful voice for truth and I am so grateful to Goodman for her work!

I offered the closing prayer at the Gaia Meditation tonight.

2009-01-14

January 15, 2009 7:05am

Brrr! We are in for some very cold weather! The thermometer sank all day. By nightfall we were in minus digits, with the wind chill factor. I believe our normal weather has been sent to India, while we have gotten Saskatchewan’s! I bundled up going to choir practice tonight in my Christmas presents from Pam—a warm purple hat—and from Aubine—a rabbit-fur scarf. They kept me toasty!

After Morning Offering I laid all else aside to get to my thank-you-note writing, a ritual I love, but one which has come late this season, because I got a spate of transcripts to edit. I spent my whole day sorting and doing one chore at a time, making appointments, calling my health insurance company and other such sundry tasks. It doesn’t sound like I was on task with the thank-you notes, but when my desk is cluttered I literally can’t think! By bath time, I had updated my to-do list and had everything in piles, ready to be dealt with. Tomorrow I write them!

I did a bit of e-mail, thanking Michele Matossian for clearing her schedule this weekend in order that she can do the final tweak on the cover art for Living the Law of One 101: The Choice. It is incredibly generous and loving of her to do this project for us, volunteering her valuable time.

I also wrote several e-mails to Ian and Gary as we continue to refine the final choices of where to put various things—the archive site, the community site or both. Gary will get together with me tomorrow to hash out the final details and to write new text where it is needed on either site.

It feels great to be getting this matter finalized. I know both webmasters will breathe a sigh of relief when we’re done! Both webmasters are volunteers as well, and I am so grateful to them both for offering L/L Research a face and a name on the net, and with such distinction!

When I posted my blog entry for yesterday, early this morning, I could only see the entries for three days back. That is not right at all! So I alerted Gary to that. I imagine he will take that up with B4 webmaster Steve E.

Sara Denhart of the Madison (IN) Courier e-mailed to ask for an interview and when a telephone call did not get her I resorted to e-mail, accepting the request and asking her to set a time and name a medium. We can work by e-mail, on the telephone or in person.

A nice hot bath never felt better than tonight! Mick and I luxuriated in it. Mick had been out and about doing errands this afternoon, after he deep-steam-cleaned all the upstairs rugs this morning, so he was quite chilly. Even being indoors all day, I was on the cold side. But my circulation got going again in the healing warmth of the water.

We then enjoyed Avi Shlaim’s meticulous dissection of the Palestinian situation on Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now. It has seemed to me for a long time that Israel’s policy towards Palestine has all too much in common with our recent American policy towards any nation that comes between us and the resources we want to secure. Violence is used to the exclusion of diplomacy, and agreements are not kept. All of this is covered, Shlaim says, with a massive propaganda campaign.

It is to be hoped that Obama’s presidency and Clinton’s foreign policy chair will be forthright in asking for a change in Israel’s policies. Under the Bush administration, Israel has been given a totally green light for their shenanigans. Shlaim has just written a book, The Iron Wall, concerning this Israel-Palestine brangle that I shall have to put on my Amazon wish list.

I was fascinated by his apparel. In an era of casual wear’s being considered apropos for anything short of formal occasions, Shlaim was resplendent in a dove-gray suit with a very classy gray silk tie barred irregularly in black and white, worn over an elegant white silk shirt. As his hair is gray, he looked wonderfully distinguished! I love to see people dress really well!

I enjoyed choir practice, where we are working on Epiphany and Lenten music. Mick picked me up to return to Camelot for a late supper and the Gaia Meditation. Mick offered the closing prayer tonight.

2009-01-13

January 14, 2009 6:39am

With temperatures falling all day and hard, dry snow flakes swirling lazily around, the day had more of the feeling of deep winter than any time this season. After Morning Offering, Mick got out the steam-cleaning vacuum and deep-cleaned all the downstairs carpets, working his way through the kitchen carpet twice, as it gets the most wear and receives the most oopses. While he was thusly industriously employed, I came upstairs, settled into my office recliner and promptly fell asleep, not awakening until lunchtime. This is no way to get anything done! However I did feel better for the nap.

After lunch Mick took me to Norton’s Hospital downtown to receive my second cervical-spine epidural dose of cortisone. On paper I had two hours between that appointment and a second doctor’s appointment with Dr. June, but in actuality the wait at the hospital was such that I was five minutes late for Dr. June’s appointment. Fortunately, the discrepancy was not noticed, as they were running just a bit behind as well.

Everything went well with both appointments. There was no blood-pressure crisis at the hospital, thank the good Lord! And Dr. June tells me that there are no new rheumatoid changes in my hands and wrists, which is great news!

I had just enough time when I got back to send Gary an e-mail requesting that we spend some time together Thursday, talking over the details of the next Channeling Intensive and working to renew the text on both web sites.

After a bath for Mick and a half-bath for me—I could not immerse my body because of the epidural tonight—we came upstairs for a surprise date! My beautifully amorous husband asked me to tryst two days in a row! We were swept away together with an amazingly powerful energy exchange, and then rested in the afterglow for an hour or so before coming downstairs to a late supper. Mick offered the closing prayer at the Gaia Meditation tonight.

2009-01-12

January 13, 2009 7:20am

I decided to start writing my thank-you notes today, finally, but then, after Morning Offering, my Inbox was full of e-mails from our archive-site web guy, Ian, who was sorting out a number of issues having to do with the content that goes on the archive site and the content that goes on the spiritual community/activist site.

By day’s end I had exchanged four e-mails with him and had some sit-and-think time, working out the premise that only things in the past go on the archive site—except for a notice on the home page when we are asking for funds or offering a new gathering.

In the course of corresponding with Ian I found things to go over with Gary when he comes to work tomorrow, and sent him a couple of e-mails alerting him to what I would like to examine. Also, in the course of fiddling with my settings, getting ready for last Saturday’s Live Chat, I lost my desktop image, and I asked Gare to restore it for me when he had the time.

I also took some chapel time and wrote my Holly Journal entry for today. Her Word for today was inspiring: it was ‘our’. She is right! It is so easy to get all wrapped up in ‘I’ and ‘my’ concerns while in truth we are part of the world around us, and all our ‘other-selves’. It was a good reminder, as I deal with my present body-drama.

Noting that I have a talk with a group related to Wynn F this Thursday on my Calendar and that I do not yet know how to make contact with them, and also needing a time check, I wrote Wynn, asking about that.

After lunch, I found that my teacher, Papa’s, birthday CD had finally come in the mail, so I wrote him a letter to go with his package. Hopefully Gary can mail it by overnight mail and it will get there by the 15th, a birthday Papa shares with Martin Luther King. The gift is a Harry Pickens CD called Conversations. Papa is fond of good jazz.

The remainder of the day was spent writing two of our Board members who have not yet contributed to our pledge drive, letting them know that we still need funds to pay our bills this year and asking for their help. Both members are in comfortable financial shape. All the other Board members have either donated a lump sum or pledged an amount per month, and when all of the members have done so, I can write a request for funds indicating that people’s donations are being matched by the Board. It helps that people know each of their dollars is multiplied in the giving.

So I shall write thank you notes tomorrow morning!

Mick called me down for an early bath, since today is the day I get one of my Christmas presents from him, dinner out at the 21c Hotel’s restaurant, Proof on Main. This fascinating hotel is also a museum of modern art! So after we had a delightful dinner, I with tenderloin of bison with leeks and new potatoes and Mick with a pork chop of epic proportions done with cannellini and greens, Mick wheeled me around the displays. They were such fun!

Mick tells me that his sojourn in the men’s washroom was the most exciting part of the evening. There is a urinal—elegantly made—which stretches along a one-way window directly out into the lobby. On the lobby side, it is a mirror. Further, there is a wall of water beyond the urinals, making a delightful sound and looking lovely. He said it was a unique experience to use the facilities while gazing out at the passersby!

I offered the closing prayer at the Gaia Meditation tonight during our drive home, feeling so full of thanksgiving and gratitude. And when we arrived home, having the house to ourselves tonight, we gloried in a date to end our beautiful evening together.

2009-01-11

January 12, 2009 7:22am

A very fine snow was drifted down, almost unnoticeable to the eye, when I went to church this morning. It felt wonderful on my face and smelled like fine wine!

We had a lovely service today, and I was able to reaffirm my baptismal vows with the rest of the gathered faithful, since it is the Sunday on which we celebrate Jesus Christ’s baptism by John. What a blessing to be able once again to choose Him as my way, my truth and my life! We sang “A Star from Jacob Riseth” from Mendelssohn’s cantata, a beautiful piece indeed!

Over lunch we unwrapped the first of today’s films, Bangkok Dangerous. Nicholas Cage played Joe in a remake of the Pang Brothers’ 1999 film, variously called Big Hit in Bangkok and Time to Kill. Cage was unerring in his portrayal of an assassin and he looked angelic, his face all angles and planes, ascetic and otherworldly, which made his actions all the more compelling.

I was very impressed with Shahkrit Yamnarm, who played Joe’s gofer and then student with a depth and nuance which gave a great dynamic to Joe’s stoic and terse character. I also liked Nirattisai Kaljaruek, who played Surat, Joe’s love interest. She has a wonderful screen presence and an enchanting smile, all she needed for that particular role.

The music was interesting and the cinematography was distinguished, catching the seamy nightlife of Bangkok with a loving eye. However the script was flawed, finding no better ending for the piece than to kill off the antihero. Pfui!

Our second film of the day was Klimt, and there is little I can tell you about this film except that it alienated me almost from the first frame, so that I allowed myself to drift into sleep.

Gustav Klimt was one of the Viennese Art Nouveau or Vienna Secession School of artists. In real life, Klimt was reclusive and did not frequent the café society of his time, and consequently the apparently endless philosophical debate on reality versus appearance and authenticity versus falsity was inappropriate and tedious. And this debate, alternating throughout the film in monologue and dialogue with others, was as annoying to me as a fly. I wanted a swatter! John Malkovich was the source of the tedious chatter, playing Klimt. It was a good performance of a bad screenplay!

The surrounding production values were oceans better than the script! The music was interesting and modern, the camera saw one beautiful image after another and the costumes were marvelous. It did not keep me awake!

After the film was over and I had roused from my snooze, I asked Mick how he had kept awake. He replied that the very frequent appearance on screen of nude ladies—Klimt painted nudes almost exclusively and his work has been called pornographic—kept his interest “up”!

We took a break after Klimt and I came upstairs to have some late chapel time and write my Holly Journal entry for today. Then I posted notices on the blogger.com site for both this journal and the Avalon Journal of L/L Research, announcing that these blogs were transferring to www.bring4th.org as of tomorrow. Steve E. has this section of the new site up and running and I look forward to blogging there. I feel as though I am coming home.

I sent Ian and Gary notice that I had made the announcement. Ian had also asked about other material on www.llresearch.org, but working with this Firefox software I could not find it. However, in looking for it on site, I ran across some text that needed refreshing, and rewrote the notice concerning Channeling Intensives and other upcoming L/L Research Gatherings which is in the part of the site devoted to Channeling Intensive Three.

Mick used his break time to continue to break down and store our Christmas decorations, folding away the outdoor lights and packing our wreaths, plates, figurines and other Christmas things. Sigh! I do love the look and feel of Christmas with its glory of lights and images! I am looking forward to Christmas 2009 already!

Mick offered the closing prayer at the Gaia Meditation tonight.

2009-01-10

January 11, 2009 1:20pm

Thunder awoke me early in the dark and by the time I arose it was drizzling steadily. I came down to find Lorena up and working on the LOOP (Law of One Prisoners) Newsletter. It is her fifth issue and the beginning of her second year with the L/L Research prison ministry. She has done a wonderful job! And I think this is her best issue yet. I began the morning’s work by consulting with her over format and doing a bit of “translation” from “Ra-Speak” to the vernacular for part of her issue.

I responded to Ian’s request for the dates of the third Channeling Intensive, as I am beginning now to send him edited transcripts from that Gathering. I also talked with him about unifying gender for Channeling Circle 8’s story.

Gary came up with a large sheaf of items to work on with me, and we spent a companionable couple of hours, before and after lunch, hashing out issues having to do with what content stays on our archive site now that B4 is up and running, and establishing a general policy for such decisions in the future. We got that worked out well, I think, quite logically.

Our biggest question was, what content having to do with L/L Gatherings goes on llresearch and what goes on B4. We decided that future and present material goes on B4. Then when the Gathering is over and we are collecting any transcripts or finalizing the curriculum for that Gathering, it goes on the archive site.

I finally had my chapel time in mid-afternoon and wrote my Holly Journal entry. Then it was time for my first Live Chat on B4. I had been concerned mostly that I could keep up with the questions in such a way as to make it clear to whom I was talking and then to make it clear when I was typing for a while and when I was finished. I got better at that as time went on. It was delightful and I really enjoyed the time.

Gary was by my side for this first attempt to work the software, for well he knows my status with computers in general: challenged! He was a great help, and I believe from now on I can do this by myself, which is a great feeling. Steve E., webmaster for B4, acted as my emcee, feeding me the questions one at a time, or trying to do so! Sometimes my follow-ups to a previous question intruded on the next question. But I believe we caught all the questions eventually. I will repeat this next week. I am thinking about making it a weekly occurrence. We’ll see how popular the offering is after a month of trying this out.

Romi invited Lorena and me to dine at Volare, one of my very favorite restaurants. We had such a good time and dined royally! Salmon Crostini—we split it three ways—was followed by seafood bisque and then both Lorena and I got their sea bass, which was incredibly good! What a meal! Homage to the chef! And many thanks to the Ro Man, who truly fed my foolish love of eating out in the best possible way!

We got back to find Gary, Mick and John Daniel waiting for us, and began the meeting forthwith. After a good round-robin talk, I tuned and we had a good channeling session. Gary’s question for tonight was on the dynamic between light and dark and how it seems that as we progress towards positive polarity, we get more powerful temptations from the service-to-self polarity. It was an interesting question and I look forward to editing that transcript when it comes back and seeing what the Q’uo principle said. I offered the Gaia Meditation prayer at the end of the session.

We conversed for a while most enjoyably after the session. Gary loves caves, and JD has one for him near his home which is no longer open to the public, with more formations by far, he says, than Mammoth Cave. I see a trip to visit Daniel in Gary’s near future! Finally Romi and John Daniel had to leave. JD had a two-hour drive back to Bowling Green, so we got him set up with a big mug of coffee to keep him awake and safe on his way home.

2009-01-05

January 10, 2009 5:28pm

I started this cloudy, warm day by composing ten questions and answers for the St. Luke’s choir’s upcoming Trivial Pursuit Night in the area of literature. They are holding the event smack dab across our usual Saturday night public meeting time so I cannot attend, but I can help chairperson Kathy get ready for the event!

I slept too late this morning to write my journals before waking Mick, so I spent a part of the morning having my chapel time and making entries in the Camelot Journal and the Holly Journal. Then I started writing an article on Chris Jordan for my difference-maker series on UPI’s www.religionandspirituality.com blog site, where I blog as A Small Medium At Large. I finished the rough draft in time to make it to a doctor’s appointment at 3:00 p.m. and tidied it up when I returned.

It felt so much like spring when I was outside! Recent rains have perked up the grasses and it smelled green and hopeful! Dan D. Lion was there when I got back, ready for lots of pats on my way inside from the car. He’s thriving in the wild, huskier and more powerful by far than when he was an inside cat.

I also let Doris know by e-mail that Mick prefers to meet for our business appointment at her office rather than at a restaurant as we had originally planned.

Mick arrived home at dusk after putting in a hard-working day splitting tree trunk pieces for a customer who wanted her storm debris turned into firewood. He collected the debris that was too small to split and took it up to Avalon to dump where Melissa had marked for it to go, at the edge of the access road. He was so glad to get that big job done! Now he’s ready to tackle another, even bigger job at St. Luke’s, more downed trees from the big windstorm last fall.

We enjoyed a long hot bath together before coming upstairs for a date, which was just lovely. Then we had supper and offered the Gaia Meditation, with Mick praying at the close.

2009-01-04

January 10, 2009 5:28pm

While the skies lowered and the thermometer topped 60 F, Mick and I had a restful Sabbath. I enjoyed a second Sunday of Christmas and the choir sang a carol by Hector Berlioz, “The Shepherd’s Farewell”, a sweet piece, for the anthem.

Mick took me home to our newly sparkling house and we sat down to lunch while viewing a singularly beautiful movie, Flashbacks of a Fool. The excellence of the film did not lie in the theme of its screenplay, which dealt with the well worn tale of regret while looking back at a wasted talent and life. Rather, its excellence lay in the symmetry and unhurried storytelling of the script, and its seamless realization by the key character, played as an adult by Daniel Craig and as a teenager by Harry Eden.

The surrounding ensemble was entirely competent. Mark Strong, Olivia Williams and Claire Forlani offered excellent support to Craig’s and Eden’s joint portrayal of Joe Scot, a person wooed from meaningful living by his own physical beauty. And the cinematography was spellbinding, lovingly caressing all at which it looked. Songs by David Bowie, Roxy Music and Scott Walker underscored the movement of the piece seamlessly. I cannot say that the film edified or enlightened, but as a work of art it was perfect. I loved the film and awoke from its ending as from a lovely and enchanted dream.

Our second feature was Martin Scorsese’s look at a recent Rolling Stones concert tour, Shine A Light. What a great romp! It was terrific to see the performances, the four durable rockers supported by excellent, compelling turns by Jack White, Christine Aguilera and Buddy Guy. The entire cast had the best time!

What are the odds that four teenagers—Mick Jagger, Ronny Woods, Keith Richards and Charlie Watts—would live into their sixties with full heads of hair and not an extra pound on their frames? Their youthful physiques made the look of the show eternal and iconic.

I have been fascinated by the perfection of Jagger’s concentration and focus as an artist ever since seeing him, a couple of decades ago, in The Rolling Stones at the Imax. I saw that film half a dozen times. Jagger and his cohorts may seem as though they are playing onstage, as indeed they are, but there is not a note off-key, not a beat out of place and each song’s playing is as tight as a drum.

Jagger continues in this film to amaze me with the precision of his art. He is a delight to see, not simply in terms of entertaining but also, for the eye of a former back-up singer in the seventies, in terms of the razor-sharp edge of his performance. As he skips, runs and gyrates, he brings a rhythmic energy to the music that explicates rather than accompanies. His lyrics are crisp and clean, each note accurately placed, sensitively styled and in the middle of the pitch.

Scorsese manages in a few economic scenes, moreover, to capture the manic spontaneity of rock and roll as he fruitlessly tries to find out what songs the lads are planning to play. His humor is entirely self-deprecating and devoid of egotism, and the embroidery of the backstage angst adds the perfect foil to the singing.

Five Bic flicks to this grand, engaging and generous concert film.

We called Mick’s Mom and enjoyed a late supper before the Gaia Meditation, at which Mick offered the closing prayer.

2009-01-03

January 10, 2009 5:27pm

The skies lowered as the temperature climbed and we had a warm, pearly-gray day of it. We slept late and made our Morning Offering before Mick cleaned the kitchen and did his round of errands while I came upstairs and promptly fell asleep. After the impromptu nap, I got my journals written and had a good chapel time before lunch.

After lunch Mick went to a customer’s place to replace some shingles which had blown off the roof of her 200-year-old farmhouse. I edited the transcript of the channeling session from December 13, 2008 which transcriber Aaron T had sent in.

We have been offered an advertising opportunity by BBS Radio (www.bbsradio.com) which airs our channeling sessions weekly on Saturday nights, and I sent the offer along to Mick and Gary so we could discuss it.

Romi came over to work on the computers. He had some frustrating moments, but in the end, he said things were coming along on his upgrade of our book-keeper’s computer. He also has had a failure on his first attempt to scan Dana Redfield’s appendices for The Alphabet Mosaics into a finished document. He can send me the text portions of her appendices to edit, but the images changed size when he put them into a finished document. So he will start over on them, scanning the images another way.

Mick and I welcomed Daniel and Romi for silent meditation after supper. We had an excellent talk around the circle, and then a very good half-hour meditation. I am always able to meditate more deeply in a group, carried by the combined energy of the sitting circle. At the end of that meditation I offered the Gaia Meditation’s prayer for peace in our hearts and peace in the world.

Afterwards, Daniel sat and read Chapter 8 of Secrets of the UFO, which reports on three hypnotic regressions of subjects who tell of coming to Earth as wanderers, while Romi opened his Christmas presents from Mick, Melissa and me and Mick did laundry, getting the house back in order after the Craver-Rueckerts’ visit. We all said good-night around 11:00 p.m.

2009-01-02

January 10, 2009 5:26pm

Since the Craver-Rueckerts had expressed the desire to leave the house at 7:00 a.m., I was thrilled to have awakened, quite naturally, early enough to have my chapel time and write my journal entries before going downstairs to fix some coffee and hot water for tea at 6:45. However no one stirred. Finally, knowing just how crowded their schedule was when they returned to Falls Church, I knocked on Tommy and Mary’s door at 7:30.

When the family surfaced around 8:00, they decided to skip breakfast at Artemisia (drat!) and get on the road. I waved them off and found Mick just awakening, so we snuggled for a while and went right into our usual schedule. After Morning Offering, Mick set out on a full day’s work with storm debris, clearing a large, messy back acre for a customer. He took one load of debris to Avalon and he and Melissa dumped it where she needed it for erosion control off the edge of the access road and into the ravine. He spent the rest of the day splitting big logs for his customer and stacking them for her use. He still has another day of work to do there.

I came up to my bower office, the happy, chilly sunshine pouring into the room, and promptly fell asleep. I roused briefly and starting to update my to-do list but sank inadvertently into slumber once again, awakened only by hunger. After lunch I repeated the routine, spending some work time in napping twice. However I did finish my to-do list, which runs to one and a half pages single-spaced. Now I merely have to accomplish each task!

Gary asked me to look over his announcement to our full e-mailing list about our launch of www.bring4th.org, and I spent a most pleasant hour tweaking his work. Gary has a tremendous sense of humor, light and playful, and so my goal was to shape up the letter while retaining his whimsical style. He came upstairs when he received my edit and thanked me for doing just that, so I am satisfied that I did not quench his wonderful style.

I hope everyone will come aboard B4 and register, surf around with the forums and in general settle in to our L/L Research extended community. Our hope is to provide a good meeting place for people who, in their own environments, feel somewhat isolated and have no one with whom to talk about their interests.

I have set up a tentative date for live chat on January 10th, a week from now. If webmaster Steve can finish getting that software set up by then, we’ll have an open conversation. It’s something I have wanted to offer for a long time.

We have received a good many donations in the week between Christmas and New Year’s, and I thank all of those who were so generous! We are close to halfway to our goal for this year, a really good start.

We also received news today that Peter Schiffer, the publisher of the Law of One series, has died. He was always adamant about retaining all rights to our work and it has been a sad hassle since he never wished to do things we wanted to do with the work, like republish it in mass-market format for store racks, or combine all the volumes in one master-volume. Perhaps now the company will release its grip on our work! That would be marvelous.

After Mick returned home at dusk and we bathed together, we came upstairs for a lovely date. As we celebrate our 28th year of being lovers and friends, the energy between us continues to climb and intensify. This defies both our natural aging process and the popular cultural concept of passion that must cool with time. It’s a beautiful thing, and I attribute it to two things.

Firstly, Mick never asks me for a date unless things between us are clear and positive, unshadowed by issues or hurt feelings.

Secondly, we are very conscious of the sacred nature of sexual sharing, and are present, not only with each other but also with the Creator, as we come together. It adds up to wonderful, joyous fun. Thank you Lord, and thank you, Mick, my dreamboat forever!

Mick pried me out of the afterglow to have a late supper. I offered the closing prayer at the Gaia Meditation tonight.

2009-01-01

January 10, 2009 5:16pm

Happy New Year! Mick and I enjoyed having Tommy join us for a late Morning Offering. For the hymn, Tommy got out his guitar and we sang “Down to Earth like a Dove” together. It felt so good to sing with my li’l bro!

I made a streusel coffeecake—thanks, Tom C, for the recipe—for the assembled, who joined Mick and me throughout the next couple of hours. Ted was the last one up, surfacing at 11:30 or so. There was half a coffeecake left, after everyone else had had all they wanted, and I was amazed to see it all disappear! It brought me a vivid flash of how different my attitude towards food is from a mother feeding a 16-year-old son! I think in terms of cooking for a week. Mary must think in terms of cooking enough for today, she hopes!

Our day flowed effortlessly from there. Melissa spent her work time today at the computer, doing research and e-mail. Gary joined her at the L/L helm around lunchtime and worked until late into the evening.

Mick settled in with the generous array of football bowls at 1:00 and enjoyed the games all the rest of the day when he was not cleaning up after us all in the kitchen or staging dinner. He was a happy man!

I enjoyed hanging with the kids and Mary in the morning, and spent the afternoon with Gary up in my office, getting further educated on www.bring4th.org, our new sister site to www.llresearch.org. I learned how to make a forum entry—I chose the 2012 forum since I wanted to mention the upcoming 2012-oriented gathering this April—and gave a link to my two Mackinac Island speeches on 2012 at “A Time of Awakening in August 2007.

We all came together for a dinner of Wimmer’s Wieners, which we brought back from Nebraska, mashed potatoes, white chili and a big salad. Mick put that all together, and again, thanks to Ted’s appetite, the chili and the wieners were all polished off! Ted is a slender young man who tops out at 5’ 8”, so he clearly has the proverbial hollow leg. I must say that Tommy and Mary’s three children are exceptionally fun and good to know, bright as new pennies and full of interests and gifts. It has been terrific catching up with Rosie, EJ and Ted.

Christiana Rose is in her freshman year in college now, while Theodore Thomas is in his junior year in high school and Emily Jean is in her eighth grade year. They truly do Tommy and Mary proud! And they all happen to be beautiful of face and form. As Melissa said when she was preparing to leave late in the evening for Avalon, “You are a remarkable family!” I am so grateful that Mary Craver said yes to Tommy Rueckert just a few short years back!

After supper we settled down to a thoughtful time of reflection and shared around the circle about our spiritual journeys. I talked about finding a new level of prayer as I did the daily Holly meditations and Journal. Then Mick talked about faith, and from there it just got better and better.

We then sang carols, with Tommy accompanying on guitar and EJ on violin, until midnight.

Finally it was time for a late session for the Craver-Rueckerts of packing the car so that they could make an early start for the drive home tomorrow. We’ll go downtown to Artemisia Restaurant for their farewell meal, a breakfast with Walker and Kays, Mick’s and my favorite local jazz group. Artemisia is having a special “New Year’s Brunch”, and that fits our plans perfectly.

We were supping at 9:00, so Mick and I shared a brief prayer for peace in our hearts and in the world, the quickest Gaia Meditation in history! But the thought was there!

2009-01-09

January 9, 2009 6:00am

Mick awoke me at 8:00 a.m. in Fox and Steve’s lovely bedroom, the sunrise still pink and orange on the horizon. We came downstairs to find the couple preparing our breakfast—homemade waffles served with their own blueberries in a homemade compote, homemade cherry preserves, butter and maple syrup. They also produced juice, coffee and sausage and we had a most enjoyable meal together before going outside to see their new construction.

Steve has built everything in his home except the foundations. It runs to three levels now as well as including a large garage and Steve’s woodworking shop, over which extension is a full story of storage for building supplies. He has also created a greenhouse attached to the other side of the house. Now he is projecting out from their kitchen forward to create a full dining room off the kitchen and below it, a large studio for Fox’s weaving. She creates beautiful fabrics on her loom and in latter years has become increasingly able to find catalog and store outlets for her lovely handmade work.

Melissa was in her element as the couple showed us around, asking all kinds of questions and sharing from her vast research. She and Fox spent a good bit of time looking at her loom and materials while I went with Steve and Mick to see Steve’s growing collection of indigenous rock. As he’s dug out for these new additions to their home, when he comes across rock he harvests and sorts it. He has in mind—after the current projects are finished—a large area of patio connecting all the elements of the home. By the time he gets to that, he will have all the materials he needs!

The H’s are a very inspiring couple. Good and true, they met each other during their college years and from that day forward, they have been together. Eventually they married and had children, two beautiful babies whom Fox home-schooled. I remember the day she had to let them go to enter public high school. She said, “I am going to miss them so much!” In this day and age, a family who treasures their kids and wants to keep them close is a rarity.

The family now runs to six grandkids, which is what is driving Steve to build the dining room, and theirs is an extremely loving family, geographically and emotionally close and supportive. The life they have built is beautiful in so many ways! I admire them tremendously and it is such fun to be with them as they share the bounty of their farm and the sweetness of their personalities and lives with us!

We drove home to Camelot through warming temperatures and brilliant sunshine, with a pale full moon to guide us and mackerel clouds drifting by. When we got back, Lorena L, who had come down from Chicago last night late in order to work over the weekend on the next issue of L/L Research’s prisoner newsletter, The LOOP (Law of One—Prisoners, which she creates, had joined Gary in the office. The atmosphere was festive, with great music playing.

Mel caravaned with me to Bachman Subaru, where the parts which our encounter with the dog on our trip to Nebraska had destroyed had come in. On our way home we stopped by the cleaners to drop off my sweater, on which I had dropped tomato soup last week. They handed it back to me saying that they had no solution which would remove that stain. Rats! It is a favorite old garment of mine!

We also stopped by Ben Franklin, where we shored up our supply of giftwrapping items which last Christmas had depleted, all on good sale. We even scored six more trays for use when we have large L/L Research Gatherings. Now I think we have enough trays to serve 35 people. That’s a good feeling! And I found four tree ornaments for 1/16th their original price! That’s my first Christmas purchase for Christmas 2009!

Mick made a run up to Avalon to dump a big load of storm debris which he had cleared for a customer yesterday while I came upstairs to write my journals and have my chapel time—a late hour for that, but we were off schedule for the best of reasons! When he got back, my beloved Stanley Outback was ready to pick up and he took me there to collect it.

I spent the rest of the work day editing on Channeling Circle 11, the question for which was about the spiritual use of a sense of humor. I got within three pages of finishing that before bath time. So far it contains very good work by the new channels! I also collected a nifty, simple recipe for Honey Mustard Chicken.

As I came downstairs, Mel was just leaving, so we had our hugs and goodbyes. After Mick and I bathed we enjoyed a great date together. We were stunned by the energy we raised with seemingly no effort. I looked into his eyes and said, “Incredible!” he replied, “Miraculous! Thank you, Lord!” Feeling the best I have all day, I joined Mick downstairs and thought to join Gary and Lorena as well, but Gary had taken Lorena out for dinner, so we enjoyed a solitary late supper and then I offered the closing prayer at the Gaia Meditation.

2009-01-08

January 8, 2009 6:00am

My day started early, as I awoke early and arose instead of rolling over for another hour of snoozing. I wanted to have time to write my journals, have chapel time and write Steve E a thank-you letter for his marvelous and ongoing work on B4. I got that done in good time to come downstairs and enter in to the regular morning schedule.

After Morning Offering Mick set out on a run up to Avalon with the harvest of storm debris from yesterday’s JLS (Jim’s Lawn Service) work with clearing downed trees for a customer. I caught up with correspondence with Ian, our archive site web guy, and then tackled the editing of Channeling Circle 8, from Channeling Intensive Three held last October. I found the story that the circle members channeled quite interesting. The only changes I made were to unify the tense of the story and the sex of the main character.

After lunch I enjoyed a manicure with my nail tech, Bethany, making good inroads now on my ingrown fingernails. As I grow older, those nails are ever more prone to roll right into my fingers on both sides of their nail beds, so I have recently upped my manicures from one a month to twice monthly, to very good effect.

Gary and I had made a date with Steve E, webmaster for B4, for a practice session for me in preparation for the live chat session scheduled for 3:00 p.m. EST on Saturday. Never have we been so glad for a rehearsal! My software balled up and sulked in SO many ways! Before the session ended we had installed Firefox freeware to replace my old Outlook and fiddled with the settings on my version of B4’s chat rooms site.

We also decided that Steve would not only moderate during our chat time of 3-5:00, but also emcee, placing himself between me and the people tuning in. I have a tendency to focus down on what I am doing, and have not learned at all well yet how to expand my awareness to multitask. Steve will make up for my lack by feeding me one question at a time.

After I left the meeting, Gary continued to work with Steve for some time, and I believe we’re good to go now for the Saturday session. I am jazzed and looking forward to the time. If it goes well I shall make it a weekly event.

I’ve limited my exposure to the general public in the last few years so that I can accomplish creative projects, and that’s a good decision. But now I can be more accessible, and give back to those who support me so beautifully, for two hours a week. And I think that, too, is a very good decision.

Melissa, Mick and I then drove down to Perryville, Kentucky, in Boyle County, as the night came and the weather turned frosty. We bore pizza and homemade mulled apple cider as gifts for Fox and Steve H, with whom we had planned to watch the National Championship Bowl. The drive down was delightful, as Mick had bought Yusuf Islam’s (formerly Cat Stevens’) new album, “Another Cup of Tea”. I loved every note!

We got there in good time for the game, which we enjoyed in their fairly newly built media room. Mick’s alma mater for his master’s degree in early childhood education, the University of Florida, won handily over Oklahoma in a defensively powered, relatively low-scoring game. It was so great to watch it with good friends!

Since we were not in a position to make a Gaia Meditation offering tonight, Mick and I simply passed the peace during a time-out break! We said our night-time prayers in our snug room in the same fairly new addition to their house while Mel tucked herself in downstairs in the H’s other guest room. Mick and I fell asleep with Venus shining in the window, blessing our slumber!

2009-01-07

January 7, 2009 6:00am

As the cold rain fell, and fell, and fell, and the city skies were pearly-white, Mick and I made our Morning Offering. Mick had already gone out, sprinkling calcium chloride at the day care center at St. Luke’s and on the three customers’ walks who have subscribed to that service this winter, while I wrote my Camelot Journal entry for yesterday.

I did a bit of personal e-mail and batted back the junk mail. Then I had my chapel time and asked Holly what the ER experience yesterday was all about. Hollt’s answer is worth repeating here. She said,

“Living a life in Christ is a challenge indeed. If you follow all the injunctions of the Bible for diet and so forth, that is one kind of challenge—but not the challenge which cuts to the heart of the Christian injunction to love the Lord and your neighbor as yourself.

“Sometimes, the person one is most challenged to love turns out to be the self. When one is ill, helpless, vulnerable or uncomfortable, temptations arise that are a real challenge. There is the temptation to criticize the self for being in such a condition. There is the temptation to lose heart. There is the temptation to feel all alone. There is the temptation towards self-pity. These constitute a challenge which only a seasoned disciple of Christ can encounter with the knowledge that all is well and a prayer of thankfulness that such a challenge has been offered.

“When challenges of this kind come, accept them in gratitude and rest in peace of mind, knowing that the Lord is with you every moment of the way.”

Meanwhile Mick manhandled the Christmas tree through the front door after gently laying away our homemade tree-top angel, our many ornaments, each with a story to tell of who gave it to us and when, and the lights that had wreathed the tree.

We went at 11:30 for a conversation with our trust officer, Doris S. Over a delicious lunch we talked over strategies and concerns. It was an excellent conversation. Doris will continue to lower our exposure to Exxon, with whose ethics we are in disagreement. We also will continue to look for non-equity sources of good investment for Don’s legacy to us. That trust has been our go-to for special needs for 25 years now, and we hope to nurture it well into the future.

When we returned to Camelot I came upstairs to my bower to edit another recent channeling session, this one responding to a question from Gary on the difference, speaking in terms of energy expenditure, of channeling radiance of being and being radiant. It was a fascinating session for me, and also contained an interesting Q and A on illness and the spiritual principles concerning it.

After a good warm bath for Mick and me to toast our cold toes and fingers and enjoy being clean—a metaphysical event for me as well as a physical one—I was off to choir practice at St. Luke’s. We had a wonderful rehearsal, starting the New Year with lots of new music for Epiphany, that wonderful liturgical season of light. I swam in the music like an otter! Whee! And I got to sing alto all night, a singular treat!

When I returned home we offered the Gaia Meditation—Mick offered the closing prayer - and then had Gary’s Christmas. He’s been gone for all previous 2008 occasions to open presents, so we had our own ceremony quite late. Gary gave me the best present ever: a certificate good for his detailing Stanley Outback! He’s superb at doing this, and Stanley will soon shine! Mick received one gadget which lets him listen to his beloved iPod in the car and another one for the iPod which I did not understand—but Mick did and he was thrilled!

We gave Gary a gift card to the nicest near shopping center, where he promised to spend it on clothes and books, and a couple of pairs of flannel-lined jeans for his camping excursions. And he exclaimed over Mel’s stocking, which was amazingly generous, filled with three candles for his baths, lock de-icer and all manner of candies, nuts and fruit. Merry Christmas, again!

2009-01-06

January 6, 2009 6:00am

While the skies wept over chilly Kentucky, I spent my morning writing my journals, having chapel time and rewriting a paragraph in my UPI article on Chris Jordan to include more places to see his photographic images. Then I had an early lunch, as at 1:00 p.m. I was due downtown at Norton’s Hospital for a new procedure to me, an epidural in which anti-inflammatory medicine is placed directly into the neck area. I have recently had a good deal of nerve pain in that area and down my shoulders and arms.

Unfortunately I thought that the procedure was to take place at The Spine Institute, and I arrived there and waited for half an hour before the receptionist realized that my doctor was not at the Institute today. She called me up to investigate and I told her that I was there for an epidural. She said that they did not give them there but at a hospital. A record search showed that the appointment had been made at Norton’s. They kindly called over to Norton’s for me to explain the foul-up to them and Mick and I searched out the place I was to go in the rambling Norton’s campus. Thank heavens for wheel chairs! I would never have made the long trek on foot.

Once there the nurse spent time getting my health history—it is complicated and lengthy—and prepping me for the epidural. The procedure went well and I liked Dr. Morris, who has been doing this procedure for 19 years with a perfect record. The problem came when my blood pressure would not go back down after the procedure. Morris sent me to Norton Hospital’s emergency room. By now it was after 3:00.

It was a wet and sloppy day on Louisville streets, and one ambulance after another rolled in while Mick and I waited. All of these cases were more urgent than mine, and so they went in ahead of us. Hours sauntered slowly by. It got dark. Eventually I suggested that we get something to eat, since once I was called back for treatment, food would not be allowed. Mick got a cafeteria meal for us both.

At 7:30 the nurse said that he had prepared a bed for me in the aisle of the treatment rooms, because he hated to see me in the waiting room so long. Back Mick and I went. We had a great view of the action of a downtown ER. For each patient, a different piece of ungainly equipment rolled by and was used. Each machine sounded a different tune, one like a harmonica playing a five-note tune, another dinging, another clanging. We spent time speculating on the nature of each pile of metal bells and whistles.

My favorite patient during this period was a very large, older woman of color whose opulent flesh overflowed her treatment bed. She had a marvelously fashioned, highly bouffant wig on, or mostly on. When she moved her head, the wig stayed where it was. The effect was fetching!

The ER doctors kept me until 10:00 p.m., giving me oxygen and medicine to lower the blood pressure that had landed me there and taking my blood pressure again and again. It came down from 230 to 200, and they finally agreed that I could go home as long as I made an appointment to follow up with my family doctor.

I already have an appointment with Dr. Aboud, my GP, on January 20th, and it is likely that I could not get an earlier appointment than that, so I easily agreed. It was never so sweet to see Camelot. Our Christmas lights were up for one last night as the Feast of Epiphany comes and Christmas’s twelve days end.

Mick and I offered the Gaia Meditation there in the ER hallway, since that’s where we were at 9:00. However the prayer was never completed at the close, because suddenly there was a rumpus in one of the treatment rooms with a foul-mouthed woman screaming her lungs out, demanding that she not be touched and accusing the staff of improprieties. Mick and I opened our eyes, looked at each other and, over the din, said, “Peace!”

I prayed, “Holly, I thank you for the gift of this day. When it is convenient, I would love to know the nature of this gift! Lay it on me!” The attitude of gratitude always makes things better, and I look forward to Holly’s eventual explanation!

January, 2009

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January, 2009