We are all one, sharing the same soul.

Our hearts unlocked like our front doors used to be.

To touch, feel, connect and truly know each other.
We’ll all dance together.

Rambling through life until we found
Something that mattered.

This community provides intangible benefits,
But more real than anything we’ve ever known.

Can we care for those who share our space and world?
Of course, we can.

Help us to respect value, and treat all
as each would wish to be treated.

Resist greed, denounce hate speech, stand up to ignorance, fight injustice
And share your love.

I walk this beach each morning,
Leaving footprints in the soft sand,
Prints indistinguishable from anyone else,
Easily erased by the next surging tide.
Others will walk this glistening shoreline,
Never knowing I was here.

A timeless sea stretches before me,
And I am dwarfed by its vastness.
I search for answers in the boiling surf,
Envious of the waves for their travels,
Covetous of their freedom to wander.
The crashing surf whispers within the wind,
And urges me to move forward.

The wind caresses my cheek,
Chiding me gently.
My place is not here.
I longed for the peace of this sheltered anchorage,
Now I ache for the excitement of contesting the wind and spray.
I miss the crack of filling sails,
The halyards taut as bowstrings with the morning breeze,
The spinnaker billowing as I run downwind.

When I was exhausted, I yearned for rest.
Now rested, and I know I must move on.
I've learned respect for the elements,
By pitting myself against them.
The effort drained my strength,
However, the contest rewarded me.

A tempest rages beyond that tranquil horizon
While I languish in this sheltered harbor.
I must be patient.
Other seas and other storms will come my way,
And I will sail again.

Base for mattress installed. Bottom right is base for pillar cabinet from floor to ceiling. Tonsu stairs will pull out from far left. Remaining space underneath will house sliding clothes racks and shelves for shoes and accessories. Head of bed on right. Floating shelf will be installed above window with lights beneath. More to be accomplished this next week plus finishing bath, shower and kitchen.

We don't even take time 
      to come up for air.

We keep our mouths full 
      eating crudities dipped in cheese. 

And kissing in between.

No sooner have we made love, 
     than we're back in the kitchen.

 While I dice the peppers, 
     she grins at me.

And sautés the vegetables.

How good the wine tastes,
     that runs red,

Out of a laughing mouth,

     down her chin,

 And onto her naked breasts.

"I'm fat",
     she says.

Turning this way and that,

     "I'm crazy about her vegetables".

I shout to the heavens above.

It’s said true love comes to those who believe, I believed.

It’s said love is empty without trust, I trusted.

I believed, trusted, and, I hurt.

I’m leaving this place, and holding onto my true love.

My candle lights up the dark.

I feel lighter, happier, and, I feel love.

Finally, a warm smile forms on my lips.

But suddenly, oh, too suddenly, everything went dark.

I cannot see:  what’s become of my light?

I trusted, believed, and, now, I hurt even more.

I feel warmth around me, the painful weight lifting.

"Hold on to me, believe in me, trust me, she says".

Andrew W.K. Teaches Us How To Pray

SEP 14 2014 @ 10:46AM

A reader of Andrew W.K.’s Village Voice advice column wrote in frustrated about being asked to pray for an older brother diagnosed with cancer, describing it as “kneeling on the ground and mumbling superstitious nonsense.” W.K. responds this way:

Prayer is a type of thought. It’s a lot like meditation — a type of very concentrated mental focus with passionate emotion directed towards a concept or situation, or the lack thereof. But there’s a special X-factor ingredient that makes “prayer” different than meditation or other types of thought. That X-factor is humility. This is the most seemingly contradictory aspect of prayer and what many people dislike about the feeling of praying. “Getting down on your knees” is not about lowering your power or being a weakling, it’s about showing respect for the size and grandeur of what we call existence — it’s about being humble in the presence of the vastness of life, space, and sensation, and acknowledging our extremely limited understanding of what it all really means.

Being humble is very hard for many people because it makes them feel unimportant and helpless. To embrace our own smallness is not to say we’re dumb or that we don’t matter, but to realize how amazing it is that we exist at all in the midst of so much more. To be fully alive, we must realize how much else there is besides ourselves. We must accept how much we don’t know — and how much we still have to learn — about ourselves and the whole world. Kneeling down and fully comprehending the incomprehensible is the physical act of displaying our respect for everything that isn’t “us.” …

The paradoxical nature of this concept is difficult, but it is the key to unlocking the door of spirituality in general, and it remains the single biggest reason many people don’t like the idea of prayer or of spiritual pursuits in general — they feel it’s taking away their own power and it requires a dismantling of the reliable day-to-day life of the material world. In fact, it’s only by taking away the illusion of our own power and replacing it with a greater power — the power that comes from realizing that we don’t have to know everything — that we truly realize our full potential. And this type of power doesn’t require constant and exhausting efforts to hold-up and maintain, nor does it require us to endlessly convince ourselves and everyone else that we’re powerful, that we know what we’re doing, and that we’re in control of everything.

Courtesty of The Dish, http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2014/09/14/andrew-w-k-on-prayer/  

Kitchen installation continues with cabinetry, appliances and sink. Drawer and door pulls, faucet and shelving in a couple more weeks.  Slow, steady progress continues...more later.