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March 4 2023 The Stupid and Beautiful Paradox of Peanut Butter at home

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  The Stupid : Those impossible "Easy off tops" of peanut butter containers that have those way-to-tiny-little "tabs" that aren't big enough to pull, and that eventually require a knife or scissors to remove! Frustration!!!!  The good part is that, rather than be frustrated by the sadistic designer, I've learned not to be angry every time I try to remove the top. Now I see it as a meditation as I use a knife (that amazing invention to be discussed in a future blog!) to slowly mindfully  "zen slice" the top, then roll back and peer joyfully at the beautiful peanut butter below. Fully immersed in the now! I've changed frustration into a new meditation. The Amazing : We take everything for granted. Yet there is a long and creative history to the development of peanut butter. It was NOT magically developed in the grocery store. Who would have thought that peanuts (also known as  groundnut, goober, pindar or monkey nuts),  those underground seeds,  ...
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March 3 2023 Raindrops on Fallen Madrona Leaf

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Beautiful. This raindrop bejeweled Pacific Madrone leaf with its multicolors and intricate webbing. I photographed on my rainy day walk with   Louie this morning.  " Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where others see nothing."   Camille Pisarro.  I am blessed to see so many beautiful things in humble places. I want to share that in this blog. Beauty surrounds us everywhere. Wise . I asked chat GPT about How Aquinas understood beauty. According to ChatGPT: In his commentary on the sentences, Aquinas writes extensively about the relationship between God and beauty, and how beauty can lead us to a different understanding of God in Book IV, Aquinas writes:  "Beauty is found in things because it is a reflection of the divine goodness, which is the source of all beauty and loveliness." Stupid. Tear open food containers things that don't work! My example tonight, Crystal light packets that I have to cut open with scissors! Amazing . Look at t...
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Stupid: Forgetting Chiropractor Wise: Starting Over after disaster Beautiful: Bread

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Beautiful ! Oven Bakend bread (I do mine from store bought frozen bread dough)! The smell of of fresh baked bread baking, the joy of slicing it, the taste, oh my god the taste, of fresh baked bread slathered with melted butter! Wise : Creativity can often result from "when one's whole pattern of thinking proves untrue." This quote is from the Introduction to John Steinbeck's East of Eden (copyright 1992). The introduction points out that both Steinbecks big books were written "on the cusp of a divorce." We are creatures of habit And ways of thinking. When our ways of thinking, are torn away by disaster, divorce, loss, pain, or illness, we are forced to see the world in new ways. Hopefully, with more wisdom, kindness, and compassion. I found this to be true in my own life. Stupid : Me: again :) I often have to laugh at myself, and hopefully learn. I have chronic, and sometimes severe back pain. Going to my chiropractor helps. I forget! OW OW OW! I ...
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Flowing Twirling Cascading Purple Yellow Flower Beauty that heals (And Louie too!)

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This is another flower for you to contemplate on, and Louie too! I found the flower on my daily walk with my service dog, "Sir Louie Nelson." I'd never heard of Cavachon dogs before, but they are a mixture of a Cavalier King Charles (designed to be lap dogs for English Royalty) and a Bichon Frise (a furry teddy-bear non-shedding dog). So, anyway, for the last 4 years I have been the loving (and loved) "commoner" responsible for Sir Louies daily walks in the wooded trails in the 55 plus community where I live. Walks in nature heal. The sounds of wind in trees heal. The changing of seasons heal. The feel of the breeze on your face heals. To heal, get out in nature! Louie got me out twice a day, every day over the last 4 years, and while Louie sniffed, and smelled things (in dimensions I will never truly understand) ... I saw, with my photographers eyes, the amazing beauty that I cherished in moments (and in dimensions Louie will never truly understand)...
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Shared Beauty: A New Beginning 02/23/23

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  Beauty. Appreciation of Beauty.  And gratitude for each moment, these are things that heal, and that I want to teach and share. For Example. You walk by flowers every day, You seldom really look at them, or see their beauty. Please take a minute to really look at my photograph above.  Do you see the gorgeous 5 winged purple star in that flower? Or how mystically awesome the white light is, that flows from its center? Or how delicate, and blue veined, and delicate paper thin that flower is? Or how quickly it too shall pass, and that flower will wither and fall, and winter; only to come again bright and new again in the Spring? Take time to see the beauty that surrounds us everywhere. A reflection of the sacred. So much beauty surrounds us everywhere, yet few of us see it. I am lucky to see it, and want to pass that gift on to you. When I was 16 and I saw an old man smile. It gave me hope. Now I am 74, and I am that old man. I want you to know why I smile. So you can smil...
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