Blossoms Around Town


It was just approaching the deep dark of the solstice when I left for places warm and light. Last week, when I got home, just by comparison to the sultriness of southern India, it felt dark. This morning, though, I noticed earlier morning light. When the wake up call sounded, I was deep in a rather wonderful dream in the violet-tinged landscape of the American southwest. As I had an early meeting at another governmental agency that required me to walk 10 blocks further than my usual walk to work, and I did not want to miss my regular morning practice, I had to get up right away.
The light through my second floor skylight seemed softer than it had just a few days earlier. Instead of being absolutely dark, there was enough of a hint of dawn that there was no need to turn on the light just to walk downstairs. I thought perhaps a little of yesterday’s snow might have accumulated. No snow. It was just the first glimmer of the days starting to get longer. When I walked past the Capitol on my way to the meeting, I saw several robin red breasts. With global climate change, many of them now do not fly farther south for the winter.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Maitri has been fussed while construction prevents her from going outside on the catio. This morning, she went into the yoga practice room, went into a trance, and projected herself astrally into the garden.

A sweet offering, but not one that many noticed or accepted based on the color of the cuttings.
Would more have accepted a sprig if passers-by knew that rosemary is said to improve memory and to symbolize remembrance and loyalty? What if they knew that it has been said that Aphrodite was draped in rosemary when she first rose from the sea?
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Bhagavan — another name for Shiva — literally means “possessing fortune, blessed, prosperous.”
What does it mean in this context to be possessed of fortune, to be blessed, to be prosperous?
What does it mean in the context of balancing individual and societal needs, hungers, and wants? What could it mean the current conversation about taxes, government spending, and healthcare? In the discussion of budget, war, etc?
We live at one level in a paradigm in which communal wealth is finite and is fought over to obtain individual wealth. How do we live within that paradigm and still find a sense of inner prosperity with what we have been given?
It is nice to have lettuce in January without a cold frame, but the trees could use a couple of good snowfalls.
Snow pea shoots, kale, carrots, spinach, lettuce, grape tomatoes, arugula, chard, (not shown), turnips, parsley, mint