Labels, Labels, everywhere...

I know you are not going to believe this but I am still working on putting labels on all these posts I've written. I have another 50 to go. It's taking a long time because I sometimes have to go back and read the posts in order to decide what the most appropriate labels would be. In fact, I have had to read most of them, and you know what? I think most of them are pretty well written. Some of them are funny. Some of them are what the experts would call "thought provoking."
Not bad for an amateur.

I think I need to add another label option- favorites.

Thanks for being so patient, new stuff coming soon!

Check This Out:

I was searching sites of interesting things to do in the southwest, for my cousins who will be visiting from Britain this summer. I thought I would clue them in on some of America's greatest assets- our roadside wonders. There is nothing like a trip on route 66 to make you appreciate how big and beautiful this country is. Here's the song, with some great footage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9OsmSoO8b0&feature=related

and here is the link to one of my favorite sights along Route 66:
www.meteorcrater.com/

Labels

This week I am dedicating my blog time to getting all these posts labeled so that you can search for amusing, enlightening reading material by subject. At a few over a hundred posts, this might take me some time. Meanwhile, have you noticed? How light it is outside in the evening? How long the days are becoming? Is the dark winter of '08-'09 finally over? Let's hope so.

Hello, Hello, Hello

Remember? Floyd?The Wall? Hello, Hello, Hello...
Is there anybody out there-
Comment if you can hear me...

Mix and Match Romantic Poem Maker

Today, I'm going to help you impress your loved one for Valentine's day with out spending a bundle. What could be more romantic than poetry? What could be more impressive than a poem you wrote yourself? Not a writer you say? Well, that is why I invented this handy mix and match poetry writer just for you.

It's pretty self explanatory, however, this is the main idea- pick a line from each section and put them all together. Sign your name, and hand to loved one; or memorize and recite at just the right moment. Not sure when the right moment is? Well, heck, I can't do everything for you- you are just going to have to play it by ear!

Part One: Pick a Title-
Personally I love that famous first line from Elizabeth Barrett Browning, that goes like this:
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I think it would make a fine title.
Now, everyone knows that line, and there is a reason you only know that line. Elizabeth's poem really goes downhill from there. I could not make sense of it even when I tried to think like a Victorian, so I recommend you just steal the first line.
You could also use " All the reasons","My ode to you" or "Two hearts now one".

Part Two: Pick your next line or two from these variations-
But how my love, could I count them all? They are far to many.
To count them all would take the time it took to carve the Grand Canyon.
But how can I? For before I finished my bones would be dust.
With everything I am, and everything I hope for.
With heart, soul and intention.
1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8.. ( you get the idea, carry on as long as you like)

Part Three: Elaborate using a few of the following-
More numerous than the stars in the sky, or the grains of sand on all the beaches in this world.
As many as all of the creatures that inhabit the ocean.
Like the number of waves that have ever touched land.
As the number of leaves on every tree in the great forests of the world.
To count them all would take all the time that the earth has circled the sun.
With my mind and my body.
With joy and affection.
With a passion unknown until now.
With joy at the prospect of our future.
Wouldn't it be great if we had a date?
I could go on counting until hell freezes over, but I would rather kiss.
Tell me when to stop.

Now wrap it up with one of these:
With out end, as light speeds forever across the open reaches of space.
As all the minutes of time that have passed, I count, waiting to see you again.
Like the number of hairs on your hairy little body. (This is the poem-for-a-cat option.)
With fire and passion that will never wain.
With undying love and affection.
I'll pick you up at 7, don't be late!
What do you say?
Last but not least is Elizabeth's last line of her famous first line poem:
I shall love thee better after death.(I think she must have believed in the after life or reincarnation or one of those other wacky Victorian themes).

Sign your name, and you are good to go! No need to thank me, I'm always asking myself how I can help others. I'm happy to do it. I hope you get a lot of mileage out of your poem-
Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day First Aid

It's possible that you are one of those people who is still dateless for Valentine's Day, and oddly filled with hope that someone besides your cat is going to appear between now and Saturday to snuggle with you on that special day.

Perhaps you are in a fine, loving, committed relationship and are wishing to receive something extra special from your loved one on Valentine's day.

Maybe your significant relationship has diverted to the twisted rapids of poor communication and hurt feelings, and you just don't know what to do, and you need help.

It's possible that you have a friend or loved one who is lonely and you have been searching for a blind date for them that would turn out to be Mr. or Mrs. right.

What ever the case, I thought I would give you this Image of Saint Valentine so you could, if you feel inclined, offer up a quick and heartfelt prayer to the patron saint of Valentine's Day. He's rumored to be very helpful when it comes to relationship concerns.

I'll Have A...

I got this cute, charming and relevant work of art in an e-mail recently. Normally I resist passing on cute junk mail, but this one I just had to send to a few choice friends, and I like it so much I have to share it with you as well. I would say this ladies order would be especially appropriate, and a good idea, if you were having your coffee while you read the news paper.

It's times like these we can take comfort from the fact that the only constant is change. I hope you have a week full of joy!

A Horse In The Living Room

So gather round kids and let me tell you a tale of a mind that went away.

Honestly, I have been making a real effort to do my mindless meditation on a regular basis. By mindless I don't mean out of your mind, or with out mindful-ness, or with out attention even, I mean to still your mind until it feels like a feather has captured your every thought and floated skyward with them, ascending to the stars and the silence of space. Then you seem mindless. For a minute. Or two.

I am still trying to get the hang of sitting still and quiet for 15 or 20 minutes. Ask my kindergarten teacher, she will tell you I just don't sit still very well. She used to tell me that It seemed that I "must have a horde of jumping beans in my pants".

I decided to help myself keep my mind still, and by association, my body, by using a cd of shamanic drumming as a prop for my meditation attempts. This cd is about 25 minutes long. Shamanic drumming is done in a tempo and frequency that assists your mind to enter the meditative state. Maybe that is cheating when it comes to meditation practice, but what can I say, I'm just trying to over come the jumping beans in my pants. Maybe some day I won't need a crutch.

The drumming varies a little through out the course of the 25 minutes I spent trying to keep my mind fully focused on the drums and only the drums. Every time a thought about life, work, the weather, home, food, grasshoppers, or anything else came into focus I said "Woa Nelly! Get your mind right back to the drumming!" There were actually long moments when I just stayed with the drums. I found the 25 minutes just breezing by like a Harley on a sunny spring morning.

And guess what folks- nobody noticed that I wasn't working for 25 minutes. No one called to find out why I was missing. No one sent a search and rescue party. The earth did not stand still because I carved 25 minutes out of my busy day to try find a little nothingness. I'm sure we all scurry around like ants from a anthill that has been breached because we think we must. If we don't we won't do enough, get enough, be enough, we just won't fit in and someone is going to notice and trouble will ensue and there will be hell to pay. Now I'm pretty sure that is not the case. We just mistakenly think it is.

So I carved out 25 minutes a few days in a row, and I sat and focused on the drumming. Each time I did, it seemed that the 25 minutes went by faster than it had the time before. I found myself better able to follow the drum beats, with out constantly reminding myself that that was what I was supposed to be doing. I was managing to keep my breathing long, deep, rhythmical and even. Oh, don't get me wrong, my mind was still flopping around like a fish on the end of a line, but it was flopping less each time.

Then miraculously, at the very end of one of these meditation/shamanic drumming breaks from the world, my mind stopped. I don't know how long it was like that, because I wasn't thinking about it. But I could feel the still. And then I saw myself sitting in the chair, and a crack started on the top of my head and ran down the middle of my body. A crack like you see on thin ice over a pond. The crack didn't make any noise, it just crept down the middle of my body, then the two halves of my dissected self fell away and beams of white and golden light came spilling out of my inside. Then I heard a horse neighing right next to my right ear.

Then I was back in the chair listening to the drums and wondering what the heck just happened, and of course you can't be mindless when you are trying to figure out how a horse got into your living room, so that was the end of my meditation for the day.