February, 2009

March is certainly roaring in like a lion this year! Cold rain fell overnight and the temperature slumped all day, down, down and down some more! The water froze and the roads were full of black ice by bedtime. We kept our two travelers, Gerri and Daniel, overnight, since both were loath to travel into such poor road conditions. It was fun finding a toothbrush and toothpaste for Daniel out of our stash from the dentist, who insists upon gifting us with those items each time we visit, even though we use a different brand of both.

I spent the early part of the day after Morning Offering finishing the fourth read-through of Dana’s work, in preparation for Romi’s coming to scan the images into the appendices. In the event, he did no work on the book, a disappointing thing, but he was occupied in getting Gerri’s computer ready to handle the teleconference the Channeling Circle group has planned in March.

Mick bustled about, cleaning the kitchen, doing a bit of work for two of his customers—repairing digging dogs’ damage for one and removing some honeysuckle bushes which had gotten split to flinders in the ice storm for another—making bids for several potential customers and accepting one new customer for mowing and another for clearing work. He is in fine position to achieve full employment for Daniel from the word ‘go’, since many Anchorage homeowners have clearing work for Mick, whether or not they hire him to mow.

At 3:00, I enjoyed a Live Chat on B4, fielding great questions from those who dropped in. We got off on sexuality, always a lively topic among seekers as well as everyone else, and also discussed pyramids and crystals, among other things

After the Live Chat, I attended to some e-mail.

• I worked with Gary on language for our channeling sessions. He would like to change “Saturday Channeling”, feeling that it does not explicate what that is. I suggested “Public Channeling”. I also suggested “Personal Channeling” instead of “Special Meditation”. And he suggested a new one, “Readers’ Channeling”, which would consist of his asking questions sent in by readers of our books and sites. There is one big rub—Ian would need to change the whole doggone site! There is only one approach, which I suggested to Gary: he needs to make a comprehensive chart of each date, throughout our archive, and the name for the channeling on that date. I am not sure it is worth doing, but I volunteered to change the wording from now on.

• I responded to a prisoner’s question sent in by Sister Lorena, editor of the prisoners’ newsletter LOOP (Law of One for Prisoners), who is in correspondence with many incarcerated souls, and suggested that the Channeling Circle session she wishes to have when she is here in April be done instead of the silent meditation at the usual Saturday night public meeting.

• Ian wrote with news concerning 101: the book is being printed as we speak (!) but they are still working to satisfy him on the cover. He must be weary of this! This happened when we printed A Book of Days too. It is odd that it would repeat. Ian was very clear about our needs in both cases, and they just flubbed up! However I am grateful for his vigilance, for our book cover will look far better using the technique he has requested.

• I sent Gary a request to write up an announcement for 101 on both sites, B4 and llresearch. I like his humorous way of approaching such announcements and I think readers will too.

• I sent a query to both Gary and Ian about the price of the book, which I suggested be $16.00. Gary thinks it is too high and Ian thinks it is too low. We may have our appropriate pricing!

• I responded to friend Jules’ sad tale of moving woes. He had moved into the perfect place, with wide panoramas of Santa Barbara’s beautiful coastline. But he got the downstairs neighbors from Hell. I congratulated him for moving on. I told him, “The heart knows its places.”

• I wrote Mel to thank her from the heart for repairing our various lamps—she has been on a campaign to create more safety in our lighting—and for replacing the wiper blades on the Subaru. Driving today to the Midas shop to drop off Mick’s truck and then to pick it up again with heavy-duty shocks installed, I was grateful indeed for them. They work perfectly and I can see through the raindrops again!

• I set up a lunch date with my friend from college, Sydney. I love my Star-Sniffer—she has a particularly solid freckle on the very tip of her nose, and she also has a wonderful, lively curiosity, so my myth for her is that she was nosing around a star to find out what was what, and got singed—and greatly look forward to hearing of her latest travels.

Romi arrived at bath time and set to work on Gerri’s computer and then we all enjoyed Gerri’s treat—pizza! Daniel arrived in time to help finish it up. Then we settled into the public meeting, talking around the circle. After the round-robin, I tuned and we had a Public Channeling, fielding questions from Romi, Gary, Gerri and Daniel. It was very interesting and I look forward to seeing the transcript when I edit it.

I offered the Gaia Meditation prayer at the end of our channeling.

2009-02-27

February 28, 2009 6:48am

The day dawned warm and steadily cooled until by the dusk, we were back to winter. We expect a cold front in overnight, and then another one in during the day tomorrow, which explains the temperature drop. Today, except for a trip out with Mick, repairing his truck, I got to stay inside and toasty-warm!

After Morning Offering, Mick finished his last customer letters and sent them out before doing some errands. He tells me that he has already gotten four responses from the letters he sent out just yesterday! His campaign to expand his schedule of mowing jobs is launched!

In the afternoon, he went to his customer’s farm and cleaned up a huge amount of storm debris from right around the old farmhouse. He will be working at the farm for another few days, he estimates, for outbuildings were damaged and there is a lot more debris in the fields.

I finished editing D’s personal session and then worked my way through about half of Dana’s text, doing a fourth read-through. Today, I found that I had not yet unified the language of the Table of Contents with the pages themselves. Knowing that Dana’s work was in the TOC and Romi’s was in the individual titles on the text pages, I brought all titles listed in the TOC through to the pages and now they all have the same phrasing.

After I finished that I wrote my Editor’s Preface and then started through reading the actual text, OK-ing about half of it. Tomorrow I hope to finish that job and have the text all ready for the Ro Man when he comes in the afternoon to work on scanning the remaining Appendix pages.

Around the edges of the day I corresponded with J, who is preparing for a personal session with the Q’uo group, talked to our lawyer, who asked us to send some material to our trust officer and wrote Father Joe to OK his waiting until next week to meet with me so that I can give my Lenten Confession. I also responded to a question from Terry H on translating TLOO into Chinese.

All day, off and on, I was collecting my own saliva into little lab test bottles to send off tomorrow to the lab. This is Dr. J’s way of testing for six different hormones in my body. It ascertains levels for all six instead of only two, which most hormone replacement diagnostic tests examine. I was so glad to have that done! I refrained from taking any medication all day in order to avoid messing up the test. It takes a while to collect the samples! I was not finished with the last collection until well after midnight.

At the Gaia Meditation tonight, Mick offered the closing prayer.

2009-02-26

February 27, 2009 6:49am

Warmer and warmer got the day, almost up to 70 F, with a moody sky. I was out in it quite a bit! After Morning Offering, Mick and I caravanned to Big O Tires in Middletown and Jim left his truck there to receive new shoes—two new tires. Mick gets them a pair at a time, spreading the expense of a complete set over time. He knew it was time for this when his old tire blew, yesterday evening.

At lunch I took him back and then went to an appointment with another specialist, this time a nephrologist, Dr. Rai. He was a pleasant young man who looks rather like the author photo for Kahlil Gibran. He doubled one of my medications, Nifedical. He had no idea in this world concerning the distressing symptoms which I have experienced lately, which have rendered me unable to exercise. Oh well! Neither has anyone else!

Before I came downstairs this morning, I did a bit of e-mail that needed doing instead of writing my journals and having prayer time. So I occupied my morning catching up with the Camelot Journal and Holly Journal and enjoying chapel time. I barely started on editing a transcript that had come in, one for D, and after my doctor’s appointment, continued a brief way into it before bath time. This was not a productive day!

I finished my day by writing Father Joe and asking for a date for us to get together and do my Lenten Reconciliation of a Penitent, otherwise known as Confession. I find confession very powerful in my life in Christ, and recommend it for anyone who wishes to create space in his life by clearing away old mistakes. We all make so many—usually not killing errors, just things we have done amiss or neglected to do. The exercise of recounting these errata seems to blow away the cobwebs and feels like spring cleaning for the emotions and mind.

Gary and I conferred about the final form for the Gatherings Newsletter, whose format he has tweaked into great stylishness. We ended up choosing an ecru vellum background after lingering over a lavender one. With a new banner which matches that of B4, it looks swell! Kudos, Gary!

Mick and I came upstairs for a lovely tryst after our bath, and basked in the mutually transferred energy before descending for a late supper and the Gaia Meditation, at which Gary offered the closing prayer tonight.

2009-02-25

February 26, 2009 6:58am

It was a very pleasant day outside, full of spring, with a brisk breeze out of the south and temperatures almost to 60 F. Mick spent his morning working on the JLS letters, getting them all stuffed into envelopes, putting the labels on the envelopes and then the stamps. He will finish that process tomorrow. Then over 700 households will have a chance to say, “Yes, Jim, please mow our grass!” In the afternoon he finished up the storm debris clearance on St. Luke’s campus.

I finished a complete third read-through on Dana’s text. I fired off three notes to Romi, who is doing the scanning on her book for L/L Research, on various small points. I can see that her book is coming together at last!

Editing Dana is endlessly tricky! My best find today was that for about ten pages of introductory text, she was using a ‘1’ instead of an ‘I’ for her first-person sentences. I did not see that before! Hence the value of going through text again. I think I will do yet one more read-through before Saturday, just to be sure all my ducks are lined up and quacking prettily! I want her book to be flawless! It is so very good.

I had a bit of time left after I finished the read-through so I edited a transcript which has just come in from Aaron T, the trusty and excellent transcriber who transcribed the majority of the counseling letter tapes in our on-line Library. It was the session from December 27, 2008 and it took up the question of whether we can learn from others, or whether we must learn from experience.

Around the edges of the work day, I received a good letter from Wynn Free, who agrees not to compare David’s channeling with mine any more! Thank you, Wynn! So we will continue to work together. We set a date for March 23rd.

After an amazingly quick bath, I robed and sang the Ash Wednesday Service at St. Luke’s. I prayed that I may make a good Lent, going ever deeper into faith and joy.

I came back for a late supper and the Gaia Meditation, at which I offered the closing prayer tonight.

2009-02-24

February 25, 2009 6:44am

The weather was sweeter than it has been for a few days, with dulcet temperatures rising almost to 50 and a flirting sun in and out of the clouds all day. How the birds enjoyed it! And you can feel the earth thawing and stirring.

After Morning Offering, Mick went to the printer to retrieve his JLS envelopes and to the grocery to repair our larder’s lacks while I set out to write about U. Utah Phillips. By the end of the day, I had crafted my UPI article and posted it.

Mick spent his afternoon at St. Luke’s, continuing to clear its campus of storm debris. He drove me by the wall of neatly stacked debris he is making along the roadside by the lower end of St. Luke’s on Cherry Lane. It is substantial, and it joins a solid line of such debris that stretches perhaps 100 feet along that tiny road. And the chain saws are still bawling all over the neighborhood as people continue to dig out from this disaster. Mick has just one more day’s work to complete that job. Then he will tuck into a huge job on another customer’s 200-year-old farm.

We came together for a bath at dusk, very pleased with our day’s work, and then went to St. Luke’s for a pancake supper which the youth group there staged. The sausage was good and the company better! We enjoyed the convivial atmosphere and the music provided by some members of the youth group who have formed a Christian band.

Gary was at the L/L helm today. He and Steve E, B4’s webmaster, are working on getting digital downloads a la iTunes going on the site. At a dollar apiece, these downloadable sessions have to be one of the best bargains going if you like our work! Most of our sessions run an hour or so. That is a lot for a buck! And hopefully the people who purchase them will help to create a more adequate income stream for L/L Research.

I spent some time today writing Wynn Free, with whom I shared a radio show on BBS.com yesterday evening. He likes to say that David W and I channel the same source. We do not. I have asked him not to say that when I am with him on air, but he always wants badly to say just that, and did last night. I assured him that if he makes that statement with me on the air again, I will henceforth refuse to work with him. Wynn got back to me before day’s end saying, “Well, at least you disagree with your heart!”

And this is true. I have never separated from David and I do not comment negatively on his work. I know many people have found it useful. And he has sent many folks to the Confederation channeling. I am grateful for that. Nevertheless, by David’s own admission, these two sources are not congruent. I am hopeful Wynn and I can work something out.

Gary also talked with Tobey W and ascertained that Tobey would be glad to take up the notation work on Lorisa’s proposed book of deconstructed Law of One, An Octave of Infinity. Gary will now write her with that proposal. I hope she accepts it! With proper notation, her thematic re-working of the material might aid people who find the Q and A of the original material and its episodic and rambling nature frustrating. Personally, I like it just as it is!

Romi came to join us for a visit around 8:00 and we enjoyed watching the Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert shows together. Mick offered the closing prayer at the Gaia Meditation tonight.

2009-02-23

February 24, 2009 10:38am

It was a chilly, sunshiny day and Mick made the most of it in the afternoon, getting about a third of the mammoth debris-clearing job done on St. Luke’s campus. He spent his morning picking up the JLS letterhead envelopes in which he will send his letter to the Anchorage database, discovering that they were the wrong kind of envelope and taking them back to the store to arrange for the right kind of envelope!

It was a frustrating glitch for him, but he made the best of it and did a lot of folding instead, so that when the right envelopes do come in, he will be ready to stuff them immediately. His hope is to send out the letters on Ash Wednesday—day after tomorrow. He got a pretty first-class sunflower stamp to use for the mailing.

I majored in napping today, having two short ones and a very long afternoon snooze. Consequently, although I did manage to finish my research for an article on U. Utah Phillips, my UPI difference-maker for the week, I did not get the article written. Hopefully I will have better luck tomorrow!

At 9:00, while Mick and Gary offered the Gaia Meditation, I came upstairs for a one-hour BBS Radio broadcast with Wynn Free. The questions kept coming, so I stayed on the telephone for another full hour after the show went off the air, responding to the callers’ questions.

Mick and I had a bit of catalyst tonight over nothing at all, which is how catalyst usually is—something one says hits the other one wrongly and the mood goes sour in a heartbeat. We dug in and talked it through, coming back into harmony before our bedtime prayers.

It is not so easy to do the work right then, because one is being triggered and is in the mood for fight-or-flight, not harmony. But it is the very best time of all to do it! We try never to let any time pass while we are out of harmony. We succeed pretty well, because we both value that harmony very much. It is our safe harbor.

2009-02-22

February 23, 2009 7:05am

It was chilly and dreary outside, the thermometer never reaching above freezing. Nevertheless spring is on the wing; we startled a dozen robins on the way to church! The choir sang Morten Laurendson’s O Nata Lux at the offertory, a mystical, sophisticated piece with tone clusters that end up sounding just right.

We viewed our first of two films over lunch, Two Days in Paris, starring Julie Delpy, who also wrote and directed the piece, and Adam Goldberg, who played Woody Allen playing a neurotic New Yorker with health obsessions. The banter—it cannot be called dialogue, as it sounds accidental—reminds me forcibly of Allen and Diane Keaton in Annie Hall. Paris is an enchanting city and the cinematography was excellent, and the film was amusing throughout, but the determined banality of the film’s content palled for me somewhat.

Between movies we both sank into a nap, a Sunday luxury, only to be awakened by the doorbell. Our neighbors, having had a party the day before, brought us a bag of leftovers to thank us for letting their guests park along our parking area by the street. Cream puffs, tiny chocolate-pecan pies and lemon bars made our second movie sweeter!

Our twofer film was Broken Flowers, starring Bill Murray as a joyless, middle-aged bachelor who receives a letter telling him that twenty years ago he sired a son. Bill’s character is willing to let the matter lapse, since there is no signature on the letter, no return address and even the postage meter has failed to stamp a date and place as it cancels the stamp.

But Jeffrey Wright, Bill’s next door neighbor, is intrigued. He takes the information Bill provides and creates for Bill a roman a clef road trip where he systematically checks to see which one of his then-girl-friends became the mother of his natural son.

It all ends in mystery, like a true art film. The bigger mystery for me was: what did Jeffrey do for a living? How did he pay the bills for his expensive house? He seemed to spend all the day winkling out Bill’s girl friends’ living details!

I could dismiss this as a silly movie except for the considerable art involved in the heavily episodic film’s progress. Each time a scene ended in a black-out, Bill’s character got a bit grayer until the final black-out claimed his last wisp of shadow.

The musical theme, a jazzy treat, was just part of a very good sound-track. Murray was exquisitely bored and boring, a credit to his acting ability, and the film has racked up many award nominations at art festivals. I ended up appreciating the film without loving the film.

My favorite image from the movie was Bill, sitting on his long, red, leather couch watching a movie on his flat-screen TV. Gradually he falls sideways on to a pillow, weighted down at last by nothingness. He pulls in his legs without further adjustment of his torso and goes to sleep. The inertia of utter ennui was beautifully captured.

My only business of the day was to write Wynn F inquiring about a radio show he and I will do tomorrow evening on BBS Radio. He has not yet given me the time and contact information for that.

After our bath, Mick and I had a very romantic tryst, sharing scintillating energy!

Mick offered the closing prayer at the Gaia Meditation tonight.

2009-02-21

February 22, 2009 6:59am

Saturdays tend to be a bit lazier than the rest of the week for Mick and me, although we keep at it to an extent. After a brief Morning Offering, Melissa and I sat down once again with the tax preparation work and slogged our way through medical expenses. It felt great to get this far! The rest of the Schedule A deductions - Office in Home, Taxes and Legal - are relatively easy to capture.

Meanwhile Mick cleaned the kitchen and then went on a round of errands, coming back at lunchtime to turn on some basketball and enjoy a fairly leisurely afternoon. While he watched, he signed letters. His ambitious goal is to hand-sign all 770 letters! His potential customers will open a letter that is not Xeroxed off but personally signed! It adds to the magic with which he approaches this search for new lawn service clients.

In early afternoon I finished editing the transcript of Channeling Circle 9, the last CC to join the ranks of Channeling Intensive Three’s sessions, and sent that off to our archive web guy.

Then I did a final, third read-through of Dana’s Alphabet Mosaics appendices texts and sent that off to Romi, who is scanning in the images that go with each text. Romi came over at 6:00 and worked on the computer network until supper. He looked over Melissa’s rendering of the Master Sheet from Dana’s appendices and approved it, as had I, but Mel wants to make final adjustments. She also took to Avalon a sheet which needs re-inking along the left-hand margin for ease of seeing Dana’s small printing.

By next Saturday, Romi feels he will have most of the rest of the scanning done, and Melissa vouches to have the Master Sheet and the re-inking finished. And for my part, I will do my third read-through of all Dana’s introductory text. I am excited to think that finally we will bring her wonderful work to the printing stage!

I sent Mick an FYI on St. Luke’s fish fries, which they offer each Friday during Lent. I also clued him in on the youth group’s Pancake Supper for Fat Tuesday evening, which is next week. St. Luke’s folks offer a lot of food-oriented events, and their food is always the best, so it is not a sacrifice to support our parish! And often, by Fridays, our store of home-cooked food for the week has been exhausted as we have hosted guests earlier in the week. So the fish fries will come in handy!

At 3:00 I went on-line on www.bring4th and was part of a Live Chat with Carla which has become a Saturday fixture now. We had a good time. I fielded questions both personal and metaphysical, and we ended with a short meditation and prayer at 5:00.

I was fairly weary, and did not work further today, spending a bit of time finishing the very last pie recipe in the database! That was a large folder! I still have several large folders to go—cookies, cakes and brownies—in the desserts section. I think I’ll tackle brownies next.

I came downstairs to find Melissa full of lists and in need of consultation, so she, Mick and I sat down and hashed out some Avalon matters, including the matter of capping a dry well and a wet well on the property. The dry well is easily and safely fixed by filling it with rocks, which are plentiful in our limestone creek, covering the rocks with small rocks, gravel, sand and then soil and then planting stinging nettles. The wet well needs treatment to keep it from seepage. Mick OK’d her plans, which included a board cover and some water clean-up treatments.

We had some snow this afternoon, not enough to cover the roads, but sufficient to limn the limbs of trees and bushes with white and cover the rooftops. It was a beautiful storm, gentle and chock-full of snowfall, making mystical clouds of the air outside my windows. Mel began to be concerned for her safety in getting back up to Avalon, so she left before meditation, just to be prudent.

After a most pleasant supper with Gary, Mick, Romi and I joined him for a round-robin discussion. Then he said good-bye for the night, headed to Valerie’s, and Romi, Mick and I had a very good silent meditation together. I offered the prayer for Gaia at the end of the public meditation.

2009-02-20

February 21, 2009 7:12am

We are experiencing more cold weather this winter than is the norm for our area, and today was no exception, with the thermometer in the teens to start the day amid brilliant sunshine. The clouds poured in, bringing southern warmth, and as Melissa and I drove over the Ohio River to keep a lunch date with Connie M, the waters were full of storm energy and swollen, the color an angry grey-brown. However the sun broke through again by the time I had said good-bye to the marvelous Connie and seen Dr. J, who tests me for hormone replacement each year. The river’s mood had changed completely and the skiff of the wind made a million silver flecks of all the little wave edges as we drove back across the I65 bridge, a beautiful sight indeed.

Other than that very pleasant middle of the day, I edited early and late on Channeling Circle 9, as the transcript finally came in and I am eager to get the one remaining back CC session off to Ian to put in the archives. It will be good to be caught up on that series temporarily. Of course, as soon as the transcripts come back in from our faithful transcribers for the four Channeling Circles we accumulated at Channeling Intensive Five, I’ll be behind again!

Mick created his Jim’s Lawn Service letter today. Then it underwent tweaks, first by me, then by Gary and then by Mick again. I added bullet points so each of the five references would stand out on its own line, and injected a bit of humor into the text by noting the amazing array of odd jobs Mick has done over the years. Gary added the phrase “Anchorage residents” to the sentence preceding the references. And Mick noticed that he’d neglected to put his telephone number on the letter—a great save! In the end we had a beautiful JLS customer-seeking letter!

Mick will sign every single one (770 of them) by hand and send them out first class. That’s part of his magic! He feels that it gives potential customers the message that he always does a ‘first-class’ job! He’ll start that signing, folding, stuffing and stamping process tomorrow. I suggested he get special issue stamps that have a flower, tree or something else from the natural world on it, rather than the usual flag.

Gary chose my newly collected recipe for cod baked with spinach and salsa to make for next week’s menu, and the house was redolent with the savory odor of the mixture when Mel and I blew in from our trip to Indiana.

Mel worked on the Schedule A tax records for the 2008 Rueckert-McCarty taxes in late afternoon, recording prescription costs and dates for the year. It is a toilsome task since I take many prescriptions for various ailments like high blood pressure and interstitial cystitis, and I am most grateful for her diligence! I will join her tomorrow morning for a completion of the medical data needed so Linda can do our taxes. It will be good to clean up the medical portion of Schedule A deductions. That breaks the back of the record keeping. The rest of the duductions are relatively simple to record.

After Mick and I had a whirlpool and then a bath, we came upstairs for a scintillating energy exchange that went on and on, a true sensual experience! We slept in the afterglow for an hour and then came downstairs to enjoy a convivial dinner with Gary and Melissa. Gary offered a beautiful prayer at the end of the Gaia Meditation.

2009-02-19

February 20, 2009 6:52am

Under a cold sun, the thermometer never made it much above freezing here, but the yard is alive with birdsong, and Mick says our Lenten Roses are beginning to bloom! Mick had his long johns on today in late morning when he finished our across-the-street neighbor’s storm debris clean-up! He spent the afternoon working with two other customers, doing the same thing. Everyone got lots of dmage from the recent ice storm, and then the wind storm on top of that! Mick says that he does not know what year it is in Chinese Astrology, but here in Anchorage it is the Year of the Downed Limbs.

After Morning Offering, Mick finished entering all the Anchorage addresses in his customer database. He is now ready to write his “My name is Jim McCarty and I want to cut your grass” letter! He got his fifth customer reference OK, too—he will put those references at the bottom of the letter. They are very solid references from four customers who are members of Anchorage’s City Council and then St. Luke’s Church, names people know locally.

And all five customers just adore Mick. And why not! He is ever there with a little extra something to warm his customers’ hearts—an extra planting weeded; the patio washed off and so forth. And his work is impeccable.

Mick is still concerned that he will fill his schedule. I am not! I am superbly confident that within two weeks of sending out his letter, he’ll be fully booked. That is what happened in 2001, when he sent out his first letter asking for customers. It will happen again. I know the economy is tanking, but here in Anchorage there are a lot of apparently tank-proof households. The normal mentality among the movers and shakers is to have their gardening done professionally. And Mick’s the best!

Daniel E. moves to Camelot on March 16th. By then, I think he will have plenty of work to do as Mick’s new full-time helper.

I continued to do a read-through of all of Dana’s text, getting 21 pages OK’d by the time I left the computer to have a manicure-pedicure with Beth M at Absolutely Salon.

We enjoyed a quiet evening together. I offered the closing prayer at the Gaia Meditation tonight.

2009-02-18

February 19, 2009 5:34am

As the temperatures sank and the robins shivered, Mick and I had a different kind of day. The cold rains kept him from his outdoor work and Pam’s early arrival to do the bookkeeping for the week kept him from working on his customer database, so this was the morning Mick made good on his Christmas present to me of a round of consignment shopping.

We went to The Wright Stuff in Middletown and I came home with some beautiful new duds, most costing three dollars per garment! It was delightful! My best find was a deep purple suit for three bucks! Given that the suit was at least $100.00 new, I saved 97%!

After lunch Mick went to a neighbor’s house—she is one of his clients—and I could hear him all afternoon across the street, slicing up the victims of the recent storms, a fallen pine tree and a huge limb from another tree in her yard. When I went to choir practice later, I could see the long “wall” of cut up limbs at her roadside, awaiting city pick-up.

Meanwhile I re-read the text in The Alphabet Mosaics appendices, getting them all ready for Romi. Now I am only waiting on Eli’s reference to Toby’s book on the alphabet.

Then I started re-reading Dana’s text for the Preface, Introduction and explanatory work which precedes the Mosaics and Wisdoms. I got about ten pages into that work by bath time.

I am still waiting for Ian to OK the proof of 101. There is a glitch with which printing system blitzprint used to produce the book. This is the same glitch we had last time, with a Book of Days. It is worthwhile to have patience here, as there is a substantive difference in the two processes and naturally we want our book to look its best.

In the cracks I reworked some pie recipes—I have been reworking my recipes, a large job since there are over 2,000 of them, since early in 2008, whenever I have to catch my breath and get my focus back after activity. The most notable recipe with which I worked today is one for pumpkin pie which boasts a sweet, orange-flavored crust and streusel topping. Marie Callender, eat your heart out!

We do not cook many desserts here at Camelot—only for company meals—which is why it has taken me this long to get to the dessert section. I have long since finished reworking the vegetable, pasta, grain and meat sections of the database, since we use them constantly.

Connie got back to me regarding my trip across the river to visit Dr. Johnson on Friday. She and I will meet for lunch in Clarksville, where she works and lives, and where Dr. J practices. I so enjoy her, and look forward to the occasion!

After a restorative whirlpool, I attended choir practice, where we are rehearsing a lot of Lenten music—pretty but oh, so solemn! This year we’re offering a lot of chanting and sung psalms during Lent, a particularly effective kind of music for a penitential season, since they are set in modes rather than keys and have a haunting, melancholy feel to them.

I came home to a late supper and the Gaia Meditation, at which Mick offered the closing prayer.

2009-02-17

February 18, 2009 6:24am

It remained cold today, climbing barely to 50 in late afternoon after a start in the 20s, but the sun was shining and the birds were singing happily. The day felt a bit jaunty, like a young boy whistling down the street on his bicycle. After Morning Offering Mick put in a morning of entering data in his customer database, coming halfway through the S’s by lunchtime.

We enjoyed a sandwich together before Mick set out for his afternoon of cleaning gutters and clearing storm debris for a customer. I spent my day editing Dana Redfield’s text within her appendices to The Alphabet Mosaics. It went well, although it is always a challenge to edit her work.

She has a characteristic use of dashes and parentheses which feels somewhat hectic to me, out of kilter with smooth reading, and heaven knows her topics of discussion are dense enough to warrant all possible help. It was fun to find ways to present her prose more transparently, by changing the dashes to dependent clauses or separate sentences, and removing parentheses to replace them with less bumpy, gentler commas and bullet-points.

I found only one glitch, an incomplete reference. Fortunately I know the fellow who gave her the reference, so I wrote Eli E and asked him for the complete bibliographical information.

After a bath, Mick and I rested for an hour and then went down to an early dinner, for we were due to have a channeling session. However when I read her questions more carefully, I determined to cancel the session. The questions were repeats of a previous channeling session’s, and I knew the Q’uo group would not be able to respond further to her very specific queries. They had come full stop against the infringement of the client’s free will the previous time around.

So I talked with the client when she called in, apologizing to my toes for not catching this problem earlier. The client was lovely about it and gave me her assurance that all was well, but I still feel quite guilty for not giving her questions fuller attention when they first came in. I vowed to do so in the future!

Romi visited tonight and we had a talk about the work on Dana’s book. He promised that he would get the remaining scanning done soon! This is good news!

Gary put in a full day’s work at the L/L Research helm today and joined us for The Colbert Report and the Gaia Meditation, at which he offered the closing prayer.

After Romi left Mick and I came upstairs for a late date and shared shimmery, intense energy before spiraling down to our final prayers and goodnights.

2009-02-16

February 17, 2009 6:41am

It was a chilly, bright day, shading into dim skies by late afternoon, a day full of robins and a sassy cardinal outside my window at the nooning.

After Morning Offering, Mick worked on his JLS customer database, getting over halfway way through the job now. After lunch he set out to joust with a formidable array of limb-dragons, coming home at dusk with another great deal done, and as he pointed out, a good deal yet to do! This is hard work! He said he is looking forward to mowing! It is much easier!

I spent my morning researching Rocky Anderson, the former mayor of Salt Lake City who has done so much to create a good buzz about going green. My afternoon was spent writing an article on him for the Difference-Maker series in my UPI articles and I posted it just before bath time. That is the tenth Difference-Maker I have profiled! It is good to see that series accumulate. There are so many folks out there making a good difference!

In the cracks I managed to snooze a couple of times and collect a good-looking recipe for cod baked with spinach and salsa. The newspaper was very generous with fish recipes this week, since it was Valentine’s season and reputedly, fish is a brain food and an aphrodisiac. That sounds good!

We eat a lot of fish here, along with chicken and turkey, to fit in with Gary’s preferences. Mick and I both eat red meat, but not at home usually, since Gary does not. We shall have to see what Daniel’s tastes are when he moves here next month.

After a long, soaking bath and whirlpool, Mick and I came upstairs for a sweet, slow date and shared much good energy. We ended the day with a late supper and the Gaia Meditation, at which I offered the closing prayer.

2009-02-15

February 16, 2009 6:58am

It was winter as usual today, a pleasant and brisk change, with a high in the mid-forties and pearly-gray skies for the most part. That is typical of a Kentucky winter, what I am used to experiencing all my life here, and how good to have it for a change! This winter has truly been a hibernus horribilis!

As Epiphany draws to an end and Lent beckons, the service at St. Luke’s turned inward and thoughtful. We sang Tallis’ O Nata Lux and pondered the Lord’s willingness to heal us. There was much laughter also, as Fr. Joe’s sermon took us to a story of his early ministry, when he substituted for a seminary friend at an Assembly of God service where he was asked to pray over a woman stricken with arthritic hands. The story included Pompeii olive oil, his prayee rolling under the altar, leaving an oil slick, and him crawling under there after her so he could lay hands on her. The punch-line—her hands were healed! The message—even if you’re way out of your comfort zone have faith! The Lord is with you!

Mick and I enjoyed lunch while viewing Frozen River, a small and tightly built movie about a trailer wife in upstate New York whose gambling husband runs off two days before Christmas with the downpayment on their new trailer. The wife is played with admirable finesse and subtlety by Melissa Leo. She finds shady employment taking illegal immigrants over the border from Canada with a Mohawk woman, played with equal restraint and intensity by Misty Upham. Charlie McDermott does a fine job playing Melissa’s teenage son.

Two moments from the film were especially poignant. In one, Charlie, full of rebellion and frustration because his Mom will not let him quit school and earn money for the family, who is subsisting on popcorn, turns an unlit blowtorch on his mother and thinks about turning it on. In another, Melissa’s other child, a five-year-old tyke, trails the glowing lights for the absent Christmas tree around as he plays. The silent commentary on the passage into manhood and the jimcrackery of a Christmas without the whole family present and without money for food, much less gifts or a tree, is eloquent.

After a break we settled into our second feature, A History of Violence. Viggo Mortensen is excellent as a former gangster who has gone straight for twenty years and has ended up as a happy man, running a diner with his wife, played by Maria Bello. He has left behind a particularly violent childhood shared with his brother, played ably by William Hurt. Then Hurt’s henchman, played with quiet ferocity and complex shadings by Ed Harris, comes into the diner and asks Viggo to come back with him to the old neighborhood in Philly to square things.

The viewer is caught in the completely mild and courteous persona Viggo has developed. We know that he is innocent and that all this is a terrible mistake. Or do we? As violence erupts again and again, we are swept along on a voyage of discovery.

I enjoyed both of these excellent films thoroughly and recommend them to those who want a dramatic experience rather than a couple of light and amusing films.

I went upstairs in the late afternoon, while Mick entered more addresses into his JLS database, coming to the “M’s”. I collected a delicious-looking recipe for Sole a la Provencal with Maitre D’Hotel Butter and played some happy solitaire. We ended our day with a late supper and TV Lite. Mick offered the closing prayer at the Gaia Meditation.

We had an odd moment out of time when we both went to sleep downstairs and then were jolted awake. We felt clumsy and irritated and altogether unlike our usual selves. By the time we got upstairs and ready for bedtime prayers, we had worked through a lot of catalyst.

We were so surprised when things suddenly fell apart! Where was our happiness? Where was our peace? We came through the brief upset, supporting each other, and clung to each other at last in gratitude, so glad to be past the bumpy places. It is amazing how fragile our usual, wonderful feelings are, and how easily we can be plunged into negative emotions. Never take the good times for granted!

2009-02-14

February 15, 2009 6:45am

Mick and I started off our Valentine’s Day by exchanging beautiful cards with each other. It is wonderful to love and be loved so deeply and I am forever grateful to one James Allen McCarty for being so grand a fellow and for loving me so well! I absolutely adore the man!

I was almost completely sleepless last night, and so the day was riddled with naps here and there, but because of the schedule I was more alert than yesterday. I finished editing Channeling Circle 10 but did not send it into Ian, since the designations of who was channeling when in the transcript were very shaky. Instead I sent it to Gary with a request that he circulate it among the CC-3 attendees so that they could identify their channeling. Even though initials instead of names are used for the transcripts on line, I would like the designations to be correct.

I went downstairs after that and worked for a while with Melissa on taxes. Then came lunch, and after lunch Melissa and I went out to Middletown and papered the town’s storefronts with posters for the upcoming St. Luke’s Trivial Pursuit Night. I got back just in time to attend the B4 Live Chat from 3:00 to 5:00. Then came bath, supper and our public meeting.

Daniel E drove up from Bowling Green and Gerri G came from the Nashville, Tennessee area. Melissa attended as well, and Romi was on hand, so we enjoyed a very good round-robin and then had a channeling meditation.

The three questions tonight were on the meaning of the word, bias, in the TLOO session, on thought forms and on how to create a positive life experience. It should make for an interesting transcript and I look forward to reading it when I edit it.

We shared the Gaia Meditation between us at the end of the regular meditation time.

Daniel has accepted Mick’s offer to become his JLS helper. We talked over household routines and showed Daniel the two rooms available for becoming his room. He liked the compass room’s bed, and he liked the vault room’s higher ceilings—Daniel is quite tall—so he was undecided. He will be moving here in a month, so he has plenty of time to decide.

Melissa hitherto has used the vault room (so-called because of having only one small basement window) for the last year when she stays here, but was happy to consider coming up to take the remaining bedroom on the second floor, opposite my room, for her own now. I would rather have her across the hall from me than Daniel, both for modesty’s sake and because Mel is used to my ways and will never be disturbed if I seek my computer early in the morning.

2009-02-13

February 14, 2009 4:52am

Friday the 13th is always notable! And we get one next month too, courtesy of February’s 28 days. In the event, the day was more ordinary than the title would suggest, with mid-50s, sunshine and that feeling of spring one gets when the air is fresh and the ground is moist. I heard birds singing all day long!

After Morning Offering Mick set himself to a huge clean-up job and worked non-stop all day, eating his luncheon sandwich between trailer-loads. He came home very weary but happy in the dent he’d made in this customer’s mess. She lives in a very old home and the trees all around it were planted when the house was built, so nature misses no chance to prune the mature trees. And this windstorm was no exception. A huge old grandfather tree came down! This was the centerpiece for any number of other limbs and branches accompanying it. Mick says he’ll finish that job tomorrow morning.

I did my share of napping today, courtesy of my angels, but did manage to do some useful work as well. I finished Lana’s True to America chapters and sent the edited version off for her perusal and turned to editing Channeling Circle 10, which has just come in from the transcriber.

Before lunch I went downstairs and joined Melissa, who came in early this morning and joined us for Morning Offering, for the initial start on the tax preparation needed before I can turn everything over to Linda D at Compton Kottke for the final stage. We got through Schedule A Donations and started on Schedule A Medical Expenses.

I collected a scrumptious-sounding recipe for Heath Toffee Cheesecake today. I enjoy making cheesecakes since they are relatively easy and taste so fine! In addition to crushed Heath Bars, the recipe boasts heavy cream and cream cheese, and has a crust of Oreo crumbs and butter. How can one go wrong? This may well make an appearance at our next Channeling Intensive as the dessert at the opening feast.

At 3:00 I enjoyed an hour of counseling a new client, Mr. K. It was a most enjoyable hour spent talking about, among other things, the nature of STO and STS and the right use of power. I get to meet hte nicest people doing this work!

I ended the workday by doing some office work, calling the specialist I will see on the 26th to check that the records from Dr. A had been sent. They had not, at least not yet. The specialist’s office will call Dr. A’s office and remind them that the records are needed. Then I fribbled, sending cute forwards on to those who like those, and articles of political insight to a whole different set of networking folks.

After a good, soaking bath and some prayers for Mick’s currently flared-up right hip, he and I set out for Volare’s. We used Romi’s Christmas gift card there tonight, celebrating Valentine’s Day with the meal. From Salmon Crostini to a lovely bisque to the main course of sea bass with young greens and new potatoes to the post-prandial brandy-coffee, my banquet was superb!

We offered the Gaia meditation in the car coming home through all the brightly lit suburban streets from Crescent Hill to Middletown. There is so much for which to give thanks! I offered the closing prayer and then we just enjoyed the ride home, the ribbons of light on the highway, the familiar streets of our village, and finally our sweet Camelot. Dan D. came running to greet us and purred his loud welcome while we got him his dinner on the porch.

When we came inside, we found Mel curled up fast asleep in the living room, looking like a little kid under her blanket, while her movie played on, so we tiptoed upstairs and enjoyed a very romantic date, sharing lots of good energy before our last prayers and sleep rounded the happy day.

2009-02-12

February 13, 2009 6:28am

I awoke feeling poorly, so today was a bit subdued for me. But still, I greatly enjoyed the day. The weather was lovely, cool and sunny—what a treat! After Morning Offering Mick set out on a long day of storm-debris clearing and shingle repair, rolling in at dusk very satisfied with his unique way of carrying the cut debris—his ride-behind mower, Susie! He bundles branches and limbs on top of the body of the relatively light mower, secures the load with bungees and rides the load over to his trailer, which is on terra firma. He cannot currently get larger equipment into his customers’ yards because of the saturated ground.

I had two naps today! Between snoozes I continued to edit on Lana’s True to America chapters. I have only five pages yet to edit. Yay!

I did a bit of office work. I let Doris S know that our lawyer had suggested that we needed to correct our trust instrument to match our will. I made an appointment with Dr. Johnson, a re-make of the appointment missed during the ice storm. I jotted into the schedule the two needed dentist appointments for replacing two of my fillings. And I talked with Jan E concerning the process to go through for getting one of my prescriptions from her, Elmiron, approved by my prescription insurance.

Gary put in a good day at the L/L Research helm, meeting with me in late afternoon to snug up L/L’s plans for the weekend. I have a counseling session tomorrow afternoon and on Saturday I’ll do a live chat. In the evening on Saturday there is L/L’s public meeting. Gary will be gone this weekend, attending his Mom’s second wedding in Ohio. It is a happy occasion but of course it is also bitter-sweet, since it signals the final break-up of his childhood home. She is selling the house in which Gary grew up and moving to join her new husband in Arizona.

After Mick and I bathed and had a restorative whirlpool, we came upstairs for a date. The energy was delicious today! I drowsed until 8:00, then we came downstairs for a late supper and the Gaia Meditation, at which Mick offered the closing prayer. I loved it! He said, “Dear Lord, we offer our weary bodies 100% for your use.” How true!

2009-02-11

February 12, 2009 10:51am

I awoke to the sound of soughing wind out the window. It blew all day, reaching 62 miles per hour here in the afternoon, 75 mph on Avalon, 50 miles northeast of here. There are now 32,000 people out of power locally, compared to 270,000 out of power after the recent ice storm. It’s not nearly as bad a storm as the ice storm, thank heavens.

The power company retained their emergency help, since they were still wrapping up the last of the ice storm power outages, so they should be able to address the new outages quickly. We never lost power completely here at Camelot, although my printer went nuts with the power flickering repeatedly. I ended up with a stack of the sheets it produces when it is turned off and on!

I continued to edit on Lana L’s True to America all day, off and on, along with napping—I did that twice, inadvertently—and collecting recipes, which I do when I am feeling too fuzzy to edit. I suppose I am still recovering from the Channeling Intensive. I feel fine, just very weary and prone to sleeping when I least intend to do that! I still have the fifth chapter of Lana’s good work to edit and then I will be thrilled to have that done!

My favorite recipe collected today: Fettuccini Alfredo—yum!

Mick is working himself silly clearing his customers’ storm debris, but he knew that today would be stormy and rainy, and decided to put in a day of entering the 700+ households in the Anchorage address book into his potential-customer database. When he finishes with the entries he will compose a Jim’s Lawn Service letter, the burden of which is, “Hello, I’m Jim McCarty and I’d like to mow your lawn.” He’ll send it out and hopefully fill his schedule quickly. People are always asking him to take them on as customers anyway, so I think he will have quick results.

He wants to increase his work load and work with a full-time helper, plus retaining Gary’s services on Fridays, when his more socially minded customers like their lawns freshly cut for the weekend’s entertainment, in order to pay our bills. We have asked Daniel E, a fine young man from Bowling Green, Kentucky who has been driving up here on Saturdays to come to our L/L meditations, to join Jim as his helper, and Daniel has replied in the affirmative.

At Saturday’s meeting, I imagine Mick will talk with him at greater depth and perhaps Daniel will move here to Camelot soon. There is plenty of work to do, even before Mick adds the new customers. And with Daniel living right here, he and Mick will be able to coordinate their work very easily.

It will make for a very cozy communal family here at Camelot, especially when Mel joins us and adds her inimitable presence! And when Romi drops by, as he often does on Tuesdays and Saturdays, we’ll have a real party! There is so much love in this little group! We are enormously blessed.

After lunch, Mick took me to see Dr. A. for a check-up on my blood pressure. I’ll see her again after I see the nephrologist. Things are better, the blood pressure numbers still too high (160/100 or so) but coming down with the new prescription.

I worked with Gary concerning several issues today. Firstly, we worked out what he should write to Lorisa, who hopes to publish her take-off on TLOO, which she has arranged by topic and in which she has changed wording when the terms were too Ra-like. I know that her donation would pay a whole lot of bills—it would be the single largest donation we ever got—but I feel like a dragon guarding treasure. And unless she notates her quotations so students can refer back to the original TLOO sessions when they want to study further, we cannot take her money.

The gentleman—a true gentleman of the spirit and a wonderful guy, Tobey W—who created the re-listening project and has brought that work to the public on http://www.lawofone.info, works from his home and I asked Gary to write Tobey and ask him if he would take up the notation for Lorisa’s book, which she has titled An Octave of Infinity. If he says yes, I have asked Gary to propose to Lorisa that we use part of her donation to pay Tobey for the notation work, and that after he is through, she will be given permission to publish her book complete with Tobey’s notations at the end. I hope she agrees.

Gary and I also chewed over how to go forward with the teleconferencing which I promised the Channeling Intensive Four folks that I would try doing, to see if it works for me so that we can have a Channeling Circle monthly by teleconference in addition to the Channeling Intensives which we offer here three times a year. We decided to start with my doing a Q’uo channeling for them in March. If that feels OK, we will start doing Channeling Circles by teleconference in April, and monthly thereafter. When members cannot make it in person to the CIs, they can still participate in the CCs by teleconference and continue to gain channeling experience.

Gary also showed me a very encouraging statistic about our store. The on-line, secure-site store on wwwbring4th.org makes it possible to use credit cards to buy our materials or to donate. Since the store went on-line a year ago, our donations and purchases are up an average of 183%. We are slowly becoming more able to provide our own income stream. Until recently we depended almost entirely on donations to run L/L Research. Now we are supplying income other than donations at a rate of almost 40% of what is needed to pay the bills. Donations are still critical to us, but we don’t feel quite so desperate!

Gary offered the closing prayer at the Gaia Meditation tonight.

2009-02-10

February 11, 2009 6:47am

The weather continues unseasonably warm! It was another 70-degree day today. The fly in the ointment is that a huge windstorm is headed our way. Cooler temperatures would abate the intensity of it. However with the weather warm overnight tonight and warmer tomorrow, temperatures well into the 70s F being predicted, the storm is expected to grow. Straight-line winds gusting to 65 mph are expected. Embedded tornadoes are possible.

It is also predicted that all the ice-storm limbs currently gathered at the roadsides across the city of Louisville for pick-up will become dangerous missiles, doing a lot of damage to cars and other property. Widespread power outage is also expected, as limbs and whole trees, already weakened by the ice storm, come down on wires.

I feel for this city. It is completely exhausted! Even today, when I was out for an appointment, I could see bits of ice remaining, where snow plows had piled the white stuff. The ground is saturated already, and a lot of rain is predicted. So flooding is also expected. Pray for us!

Mick has been working steadily, right through the weekend, since the weather cleared enough for him to get out there and work on his customers’ storm debris. The onslaught tomorrow will probably give him much more work. So there is one gift in the folds of this challenge—his usual off-season has turned into full employment!

I napped, inadvertently, most of the morning. My one accomplishment was to collect a recipe for whitefish baked in lime juice with vegan salsa. It sounds good! We eat a lot of fish at Camelot. When Mick heard about it at lunch, he immediately selected it for next week’s menu!

I drove through heavy rains after lunch and spent most of the afternoon at Jan E’s office, where she worked on altering the prescriptions I take for interstitial cystitis in order to avoid medicines which are metabolized through the kidneys. She is hoping that my current diagnosis of malignant hypertension is due to medications rather than a basic health situation. I hope so too! It was good to connect with Jan, as her caring simply shines. I am in good hands.

One last thing I found to do today was to view this beautiful video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rooyt3ptNco. It has the sound track of Louis Armstrong singing What a Wonderful World while the video of a fawn and a kitten snuggling together is shown. It takes only a minute or so to watch and is wonderful to see.

Romi visited us tonight, always a treat, and he offered the closing prayer at the Gaia Meditation.

2009-02-09

February 10, 2009 6:01am

Imagine the impact of a 70-degree (F) day on Louisville’s storm-torn feelings! We all reveled in it! Every last speck of ice is gone from our yard now, although in town, where parked cars guard the ice pack, you can still see ice lingering along the curbs. It felt like spring today and oh! How welcome it was!

I expected to find myself napping this morning after Morning Offering, and was not disappointed! But eventually I did write my journal entries and enjoy a good chapel time. I got back to the editing of Channeling Circle 12 and finished that in late afternoon. I had hoped to write a UPI article today, but my brain was a bit too fuzzy. Perhaps tomorrow!

Mick spent his day clearing limbs for customers. He predicts that he will be clearing debris for his customers for the next four weeks solid. All this storm clean-up work will definitely help pay our bills! When he finished for the day he noticed that our new neighbors to the north, the E’s, had some huge limbs which they had dragged to the roadside. However he knew that the city crews would be unable to lift them, so he took his chain saw to them and readied them for pick-up. Talk about a generous act of kindness! Mick rocks!

I drove over to Anchorage Dental for a teeth-cleaning and found that two old fillings will need to be replaced—oh, joy! The prospect makes me quail! I brought home a “water pick”, the dentist’s suggestion for my improved dental hygiene. With my fingers having lost most of their feeling, I cannot floss any more and this is supposed to take up the slack.

Gary gave me my Christmas present today! He detailed Stanley Outback inside and out! What good timing! The back was full of calcium chloride from Mick’s use of the car while salting down sidewalks for his customers. Now my little Subaru buddy shines!

After a whirlpool and a bath, Mick and I shared some sweet loving. It was a powerful energy exchange and we had such a good time recharging our batteries! After a late supper we offered the Gaia Meditation. It was my turn to pray tonight. For the prayer I sang a sweet hymn which I love—

“Come down, O Love divine!
Seek thou this soul of mine
And visit it with Thine own ardor glowing!
O, Comforter, draw near!
Within my heart appear
And kindle it, Thy holy flame bestowing!”

Amen!

2009-02-08

February 9, 2009 6:22am

We had a gift of a day for our last session day at Channeling Intensive 4, with the thermometer showing well about 60 F! After Morning Offering, we studied again from the database on channeling from our L/L Research archives. Then we tuned and had Channeling Circle 16, in which a story was told.

After lunch I took a much needed nap and arose to have a last channeling session, this one channeled by me so that the other CI-4 members could ask questions of Q’uo. The group question had to do with meditation. I look forward to editing the transcript.

Thereafter, the party broke up, with the attendees setting out for their homes. By 5:00 I was alone in the house. I walked around picking up glasses and water bottles, tidying the sofa pillows and clearing away the normal detritus of having eight people in the house for four days.

Gary came in just as Mick pulled up at full dark. After helping with the group this morning and at lunchtime, Gary cleared away the luncheon items and went to take a walk in Bernheim Forest. Meanwhile Mick was hauling limbs and other storm debris all day except for the channeling sessions.

Mick ran a quick vacuum over the downstairs rugs before inviting me to a leisurely bath. I was unable to eat dinner tonight, as my stomach had seized up solidly all of a sudden. I was so thankful that this did not happen in the middle of the Gathering! We offered the Gaia Meditation before we went to bed, with Mick praying at the end.

CI-4 is now history! Gary and I amended the curriculum to reflect what we actually did during it and sent that on to Ian for the archives. Everyone made great progress! And there was an amazing amount of love in the group.

The CI members decided to try and get together via teleconferencing software once a month. We’ll see how that goes.

2009-02-07

February 8, 2009 6:29am

Our second day of working in Channeling Intensive Four enjoyed a warm day, with temperatures climbing above 60 F. By the end of the day I could see parts of our yard - green spots showing through the still tightly enduring snow piles and ice. How wonderful to see the earth again! We have been a wasteland of ice and snow long enough!

The work went well. We worked with the channeling quotations after Morning Offering and then tuned for what was intended to be our next Channeling Circle. However, both Lorena and I had been told by our gatekeepers that channeling was not advisable for us. Furthermore, there were questions in the group that seemed substantial and deserved addressing. Consequently we changed our plans and had a very good and fruitful discussion period instead on some of the challenges of becoming somewhat experienced channels but still doubting and wondering.

We ended the discussion with a meditation, and during the meditation I got the idea of asking the troops to do some storm debris removal for a customer of Mick’s who has fallen on hard times. He has been jobless for months and his family is struggling. And they were totally devastated by this storm—every inch of their yard is buried under debris. I called these customers but no one was at home. So we could not help them.

Gary got the idea of picking up Camelot’s storm debris instead! After a delicious lunch the group all did so, clearing our yard completely! When Mick got home from doing limb removal for customers all afternoon he saw all the limbs at Camelot’s street-side and told the group that they’d made his day!

Again in the afternoon the group studied the quotations and had a lively discussion. Then we tuned for Channeling Circle 15. Instead of the group’s working on a question, we decided to tell a story, which we felt would help a couple of our number who feel somewhat overwhelmed by being behind the power curve. The storytelling went well and I look forward to editing the transcript.

Again Mick and Tom C stayed home and spent a quiet evening while the rest of us went to The Corner Café, just a couple of miles down the road in Lyndon, for supper. We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly and tonight, it was the restaurant crowd who remembered to offer the Gaia Meditation and pass the peace, while it was Tom and Mick who forgot. That has worked out perfectly—yesterday the diners-out forgot and Tom and Mick offered the evening meditation for the group. Teamwork!

Mick and I bathed and then enjoyed the downstairs conversation and plentiful laughter until about 11:00, when we came upstairs to make sweet love and go to sleep in the afterglow.

2009-02-06

February 7, 2009 6:23am

Channeling Intensive Four enjoyed warming and sunny skies all day, the temperature reaching into the forties. Most roadways are clear, finally! I saw on the news that the power company had only 900 people left to return to the grid.

Our area is left with incredible amounts of storm damage as the ice and snow gradually recede. Debris lies thickly everywhere. Jim’s Lawn Service—in the person of Jim - will be working full-time for several weeks on his customers’ properties, cutting the big limbs up, clearing them and hauling them away. However we can hope for no more catastrophic weather this winter! I think the two worst weather disasters in Kentucky history—Hurricane Ike last October and the recent ice storm—are quite enough for one year, thanks!

The Channeling Intensive began its work after Morning Offering. The group is studying from the collection of Confederation quotations on channeling I compiled before CI-2. We are more than halfway through it now as we work with it for the third time.

In late morning we tuned and sat for Channeling Circle 13. Gary has been compiling a list of questions which have come in to our Inbox from seekers around the world, and for the morning, the group tackled a question on addiction, one on symmetry and one on crystals. They did excellent work, although at this early point in the Circle’s work, they were more concerned with what they perceived to be glitches than what they had been able to bring through.

After a delicious lunch and good conversation we again studied from the quotations and in late afternoon, we tuned for Channeling Circle 14. This time the question from Gary’s stock had to do with inner versus outer work. We had agreed beforehand that this time, the question would go around the entire circle, so that everyone would have a chance to work on the same question, and that we did. Then I fielded questions, as requested, from the Circle participants. I was most satisfied with our hard days’ work.

We enjoyed conversation for about an hour before setting out to Ramsi’s World Café. Once there we ordered this and that and passed around brie wrapped in pecans and baked with honey, crisply fried tempura vegetables dipped in sauce, lamb chops, sea bass, salmon panini and any number of rice-based stir-fries. It was wonderful!

Mick and Tom had begged off from driving into town for this meal, and they held down the fort at Camelot, washing dishes, clearing the living room and offering the Gaia Meditation. Mick prayed at the ending.

This is their usual habit. Neither of them enjoys the restaurant experience nearly as much as they enjoy being home, setting all to rights and then surfing the TV, meditating or doing some reading.

2009-02-05

February 6, 2009 6:25am

After Morning Offering, which we shared with Tom C, I had fully intended to work in the kitchen. However my beloved Mick, the most thoughtful husband on Planet Earth, banished me to the living room Mama Chair with my laptop. There I was available for cooking questions while I worked desultorily on editing. During the work day I finished editing the transcript from January 24th and started on Channeling Circle 12, from Channeling Intensive Three, getting perhaps a third of it edited by the end of the day.

Mick was hilarious in the kitchen, making some key errors on both recipes he made and finally quitting with apologies. I told him none were necessary, for his work had had the desired effect—I was resting from physical labors thanks to him!

I heard from Ian that 101 is now off to blitzprint! Early in the morning, I sent him the final bit of text—I had not acknowledged Michele Matossian’s incredibly lovely work on the cover art since, when I wrote that page, she had not yet designed it. Ian cranked open the PDF and got those needed thanks in there!

At lunch I asked the hard-working Melissa how things were going: were they going to finish the cooking of snacks and desserts by 3:00, our deadline for freeing the kitchen for Tom and Gary as they came in to cook the feast. She replied, “We are soooo outta here by three.” Sure enough, by that hour Mel had rescued Mick’s two cookie recipes—his brownies were fine but she saved the Peanut Butter Crisps and the Orange Balls—and made two dozen stuffed eggs, a blackberry pie, a cheese ball and roasted garlic and bell pepper hummus.

Gary and Tom outdid themselves with making honey-mustard chicken, a broccoli-corn dish, garlic mashed potatoes and garlic bread, as well as tossing a good salad. They also made a pot of white chili for lunches.

Steve T was the first traveler in, arriving just as I returned from having my fingernails cut and polished, which I am having done every two weeks now in order to keep ingrown fingernails from bothering me. What a blessing! It was wonderful to see him! Then, as Mick and I emerged from our bath, here came the G’s, looking wonderful. They have recently moved from Virginia to Tennessee, shortening their trip here by two thirds. Soon Lorena and Romi came, and finally Maria, to make up our number.

Mick and Tom spent their afternoon doing a delicate but heavy-duty job—winkling a large branch off a customer’s roof. Tom’s cables, which he had brought just thinking they might be useful, came in very handy, Mick said. They were able to secure the huge limb so that its many dependent branches would not break windows or swing into the dwelling on the limb’s way down to the ground. Mick and Tom got an enormous trailer-load of storm debris piled together and when Tom came in to help Gary cook, Mick drove the debris to Avalon and offloaded it at Mel’s designated ravine-preservation sites along our access road. A steady habit of bringing storm debris there and placing it strategically has almost totally stopped erosion along the road’s steep ravine side.

We sat down to the wonderful meal around 8:00 and the conversation was uproarious, excited and so loving the room glowed. That is the grand thing about a series of Gatherings being done by the same people. We all have gotten to know each other very well, in that special way that comes when we are meditating together and working on a common goal larger than ourselves. The love in the group could light Louisville!

Lorena offered the closing prayer at a powerful, highly charged Gaia Meditation and then we had our round-robin and created our fourth channeling circle. Work begins tomorrow morning.

After the talk went around the circle, we continued informally chatting while we enjoyed Mel’s blackberry pie and Mick’s brownies as well as a delicious fruitcake which Tom C had made and brought. By common consent the party broke up near midnight. Channeling Intensive Four has begun!

2009-02-04

February 5, 2009 6:23am

We awoke to a very cold day, starting in single digits and rising to 23 F. The sun shone fitfully. Tom was up before me and joined Mick and me for our Morning Offering. I did a spate of e-mail this morning. Our B4 webmaster, Steve E, called Monica L to see how she would feel about being substitute moderator for our Saturday Live Chats if Steve cannot make it and they ended up talking for two hours! She wrote to ask me where I found him and I replied that he found us! He saw that the volunteer position of spiritual community site webmaster was open and since he already was working on just such a site, he asked if he could develop B4. Such are the ways of spirit and I am humble before them.

The aforesaid Steve sent us statistics for January, the first full month in which the site has been in operation. We had over 720,000 hits and over 2,900 unique visitors last month! This seems to me a terrific first month on line! Kudos, Steve!

Gary sent me some appointments coming up and I marked on the calendar an interview with Nancy Wallace on March 2nd at 7:00 p.m. and a counseling session with Nalin K on February 13, both by telephone.

I responded to Jean-Claude Koven’s loving e-letter asking after our welfare in this ice storm of 2009 with the good news of our generator.

Eventually I wrote my journal entries and enjoyed some chapel time before turning to writing an Avalon Journal entry for Melissa to use when she posts there for the first time on B4.

Then I had the delicious task of looking through Ian’s final PDF of 101. I found two minor errors on my part and sent him the suggestions for repair.

At lunch, I rendezvoused with Mick, who had spent the morning doing a site clean-up at a customer’s vacation home on the Ohio River. We received our new wills in the mail and Gary, Mick and I read them through and found everything perfectly done. So I made an appointment with Mr. C to sign them for next Tuesday morning.

I also wrote Lisa L, my choirmistress at St. Luke’s, explaining that since I will be absent this weekend from church, there is no point in my rehearsing tonight.

I spent the remainder of the afternoon editing our January 24, 2009 channeling transcript, getting a bit more than halfway through it. The question came from Gary and was on a Krishnamurti quote. I could not find the reference, so I asked Gary to send it to me so that I could cite the footnote for those who want to read Krishnamurti’s comment in context.

Gary and Tom spent their day working on getting the house all set up for the Channeling Intensive. In late afternoon they headed out to Chez Kroger and stocked up on all the groceries needed for cooking tomorrow and eating over the weekend gathering time.

Mel came down from Avalon to help with the cooking tomorrow and we all enjoyed a companionable dinner while we watched Mr. and Mrs. Smith, a delightfully farcical movie about two assassins who are assigned each other to kill, on the tube. Everyone but Mel had seen it before, but it is good enough to see twice, so we all enjoyed it.

At the Gaia Meditation, Gary offered the closing prayer.

Mick and I enjoyed a late date, making sweet love and spiraling down from afterglow to our final prayers and good-nights.

2009-02-03

February 4, 2009 10:09am

When it dawned, I saw snow falling again! It is amazing how drawn out this siege has been. It has reached past freezing yesterday, but as the snow moved through the weather got colder and we ended the day below 20 F. We collected another 1 1/2” of snow, but the roads stayed fairly clear because at this point, we Louisvillians are shell-shocked, needing to get on with things and driving regardless.

I have been surprised at how stubborn this ice is. We continue to collect deaths in this area due to treacherous road conditions as well as carbon monoxide asphyxiations due to the un-vented use of gas heaters, kerosene heaters, portable generators and even barbecue grills. There is much suffering here. However the power is back on for 90% of all Louisvillians now, although statewide the conditions are much worse, with over 200,000 people still off the grid. And this cold will not abate until day after tomorrow—just in time for the Channeling Intensive.

After Morning Offering I completed my journal entries and then responded to some e-mail before going downstairs to enjoy the last day of Jim’s and my mini-vacation. I responded to Gary’s e-mail on saving money by doing some research on on-line coupons and sending Gary the results. I believe we can save substantial money on groceries by taking our grocery lists to the computer and downloading coupons for the products we need. They seem plentiful.

I also got one last e-mail off to Ian promising him to have Gary do all the necessary things to get the 101 manuscript off to blitzprint. Later in the day, Gary and I consulted together on the volume of our first order and chose to order 250 rather than 500 for our first run. We have had to reprint A Wanderer’s Handbook and with both books coming in at once, we will be short of inventory space. I OK’d the charge for the printing. We should hear tomorrow that they are printing the sample for Ian and me to approve. How delicious!

Mick took me to the Images Salon for my facial and haircut, after which we celebrated the last day of our vacation by using a twofer coupon at Ruby Tuesday’s. The food was delicious and plentiful and I brought some shrimp and ribs home for noshing tomorrow.

We watched our last film after a break for Mick to consult with Gary on entering names into his Anchorage Database. He will send out a letter soon asking for more mowing jobs, preparatory to acquiring a full-time Jim’s Lawn Service helper. He became familiar with the way one enters information and declared himself ready to begin the task of typing in over 700 names and addresses.

For my part, I returned to my e-mail and wrote a note to Beth P, my old friend from Nova Scotia, responding to her questions.

Then we sat down to Closing the Ring, a perfectly composed film directed by Richard Attenborough. Whenever I see his name, I know to expect lush, impeccable production values and the sweeping feeling of epic sagas. He did not start out with big films, for I can recall a small black and white art film he did in 1964 called Séance on a Wet Afternoon, where he played most effectively the part of a quietly, desperately unhappy husband, using music from Swan Lake with that same impeccable taste to create a haunting atmosphere.

In this present film, the story moves between 1941 and 1991 in Ireland and Michigan. The central romance is a love match between Ethel Ann and Teddy. The 1941 couple is played by a luminous Mischa Barton and an incredibly handsome Steven Amell. Teddy dies in 1941. Ethel Ann is distraught and turns to Teddy’s two best friends, Jack and Chuck, played as young men by Gregory Smith as Jack and Dave Alpay as Chuck.

Shirley MacLaine plays Ethel Ann in 1991. She has been married unhappily for 50 years to Chuck and her story takes up at his funeral. When a ring is found by a young Irishman and he returns it to her, the whole saga unfolds. Jack in 1991 is played by Christopher Plummer. Notable in the ensemble are Pete Postlethwaite and John Travers as the old and young Quin and Neve Campbell as Marie.

Pardon all the names! But the cast was flawless, wonderful, delightful and deserving of credit! Production values soared. The soundtrack was lilting and utterly tasteful. The scenery delighted the eye. And each actor shone, both alone and in ensemble. This film should sweep the Oscars, although I doubt that it will. Its values are too quiet and subtle. I loved every minute of this movie!

Gary worked throughout the afternoon and evening, taking time only for meals. He is putting in large numbers of volunteer hours and I will ask him to work an extra day on the clock each week for L/L Research from now on. It is an expensive proposition, but at this point I believe it is needed. He worked a twelve-hour day just on e-mail and still had 30 letters to answer when he quit at midnight.

This expansion of our service is wonderful news! Now, we have only to bring in donations and other income sufficient to pay the man!

Mick and I bathed and came downstairs to welcome Tom C, who drove up amidst all this weather from Texas to help us with the preparations for CI-4. He requested a personal channeling session and after we enjoyed a meal together, I tuned and we created a circle of seeking and asked about a half-dozen of his questions. Q’uo offered some interesting answers and I shall enjoy reading the session when I edit the transcription. I included the closing prayer of the Gaia Meditation at the end of this session.

Mick has now gotten caught up on laundry and prepared all the bedrooms in Camelot for the Intensive. What a guy!

2009-02-02

February 3, 2009 7:19am

Happy Groundhog Day! I do not know about Punxsutawney Phil, but a Louisville groundhog would have seen his shadow for most of the day! And the temperatures stayed above freezing, although not by much. The last icicle vanished and there was finally no more ice on the trees and bushes. The stubborn ice was so thick that roadways are not yet clear, not fully. But things are measurably less miserable out there! This is our sixth day without power.

Believe this or not: snow is predicted for tomorrow, one to three inches of the white cover that looks so very pretty!

Mick and I had our Morning Offering while Mel worked away in the office, having gotten up before the dawn, determined to catch up on office chores while she has the chance. Then she and I came upstairs and hunted around until we found two cookie recipes and two snack recipes that are non-bake, since we still have no ovens and the Channeling Intensive starts day after tomorrow.

I continued with the cooking detail by finding Gary half-dozen recipes for good soups. I am encouraging him to use an actual recipe this time, because we have had his Throw In The Garden Soup, a non-recipe creation he makes by buying everything that looks good in the produce section and cutting it up into our homemade broth. It is always good, but we have repeating seekers and they have had this same soup for the last two years at every Gathering! This time, we’ll have a change!

Then I got a couple of items seen to for Ian, who is trying now to wrap up the 101 details and get the book to blitzprint. Yes!

We three gathered together thereafter to view Stargate Millennium, a very good sci fi film using all the Stargate SG-1 players. As in most of these film versions of TV shows, it felt like an extended episode on TV. In a way that’s a compliment to the TV series. The special effects on the small screen are just as good as the big-screen SFX. We thoroughly enjoyed seeing Amanda Tapping, Richard Dean Anderson, Christopher Judge, Ben Browder, Claudia Black and the rest of the merry crew fight the bad guys. They had a Baal! And so did we!

Lunch was delicious—I have found a new combination for an open-face sandwich: butterkaese cheese, tomato slices and chicken salad—and we were going to watch another film. However Ocean had arisen and was watching a movie Mick rented just for her, Horton Hears a Who with Jim Carrey. And upstairs, Mel had my bed torn apart trying to figure out how to make the two halves of the bed work separately. Mick will need to bunk in with me during the upcoming Gathering due to our having now power. The local hotels are booked solid. We will need to put everyone up here at Camelot. We can do it, but the G’s will need Mick’s bed!

In the end, she did not have orthodox success. She determined that the controls need to be adjusted by the maker to have two different frequencies instead of the same one. However she triumphed like the genius she is by figuring out that if you unplug my side of the bed completely—the two beds are one big King-sized bed taken together, but the two sides are built separately—and then work the controls, you can make a flat bed out of Mick’s side while my bed stays articulated. Voila! Kudos to Melissa!

With no venue available for films, Mick dropped back and punted with some house chores while I disported myself with solitaire—and the popcorn left over from movie plans—and writing to Beth P, one of my oldest friends. She and I were together one day in 1965, when I was living with my first husband in a one-room apartment near U of L. She had had a dream where we were together in a spiritual community in the country. We have the community now, and have hopes to move to the country on Avalon. We’ll make the dream come true one day. That’s how far back we go.

Beth is a wonderful actress and became a teacher when she turned from theatre to more steady ways of making a living. She lives in Nova Scotia with her present husband, a gardener like Mick. Her two kids just bought her a new Mac, and she is reveling in being able to use e-mail and access the internet for surfing. She wrote a long and newsy letter—her daughter will live with her for the lying-in of her second child, since she is high-risk and her son and his band, Dog Days, will be touring Canada. I wrote a similarly long-winded letter back and assured her she’d better learn to access my blog from now on! Days with time for these deliciously long private letters are few and far between.

Valerie’s power came back on, so she and Ocean departed. I was sorry to see them go! It’s a joy to have them. Melissa also left, having conquered all in her path! Gary, Mick and I sat for the Gaia Meditation, with me offering the closing prayer.

2009-02-01

February 2, 2009 7:14am

Happy February! Our version of it started with a gently overcast day which eventually opened into sunshine now and then. Its temperature warmed to almost 50 F, our first break from freezing or below in a couple of weeks. The icicles disappeared from our eaves at last! The amount of thick ice on the ground has made thawing very slow but at least most of the trees have lost that fairy-tale gleam, which bodes well for their recovery.

St. Luke’s power was restored late Saturday night, so we actually had a fairly warm church. The service was shortened to Morning Prayer but I was very glad to be there with my community of worshipers, staying faithful amidst this disastrous time for our area.

We bore home the Brotherhood of St. Andrews’ Super Bowl Barbecue, plus slaw, baked beans and banana pudding and enjoyed the special meal while watching the Super Bowl, naturally, this evening. It was absolutely delicious! Charlie H rules! (Charlie is King of the Cooker!)

In the afternoon Mick and I watched a double feature. Our first film was Vicky Cristina Barcelona, a charming, slight romantic comedy staring Javier Bardem as a Spanish artist who propositions two American girls on holiday in Barcelona, played ably by Rebecca Hall and Scarlett Johansson. Penelope Cruz steals the show with her extroverted and delightfully hysterical portrayal of Javier’s ex-wife. The script and direction are by Woody Allen, who manages to entertain very well with a witty screenplay and scenes that seem less staged than impromptu, and very funny. The scenery is marvelous and beautifully showcased and the theme music is haunting and sweet. I enjoyed myself thoroughly.

After a break to produce popcorn, we went on to our second film, Iron Man, starring Robert Downey, Jr. This film version of a Marvel Comics superhero’s story had all the right elements to be a very satisfying movie. The script felt true to the original character. Downey is excellent both as the superhero in his grand costume of high-tech metal armor and as the conflicted leader of industry who rebels at last against his father’s business, which happens to be high-tech weaponry. The mood was dark, and the villain, played with a shaved head and a Van Dyke by Jeff Bridges, was deliciously baaad. The ending of the film suggests that Downey has a franchise and that the Iron Man will have further noisy adventures!

Melissa was able to get down to Louisville today by dint of walking up the hill twice to pack her baggage to the car, which she had cleverly parked up on the road before the big storm. We all enjoyed the football, rooting hard for the Cardinals but seeing the Steelers prevail. Bruce Springsteen was terrific at the halftime show, truly and always The Boss. I enjoyed hearing his new song, “Working on a Dream”, for the first time. I think it will be a hit!

Mel, Gary and I stole some time from the festivities to talk over our plans for making food for the upcoming Channeling Intensive. We’ll have Honey Mustard Chicken, Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes and a broccoli-corn casserole, plus salad and blackberry pie, for the feast. Mel and I will create some brownies for sweet snacking and a couple of appetizer-type items—a cheese ball and breads plus perhaps a dip—for noshing at odd moments, especially late at night. Those late-nught conversations are always the best!

I also took some time from watching football to post my back entries for this journal.

Mick offered the closing prayer at the Gaia Meditation tonight. And so ended Day Five of our current (pun intended) power outage. Thanks to Genny the Generator, we’re doing fine!

February, 2009

Previous Next Table of Contents

L/L Research

Carla’s Niche

Camelot Journal

February, 2009