Happy Sunday
Here is what is resonating with me this morning, a wonderful quote from Willa Cather, as seen on Brainpickings.

The earth was warm under me, and warm as I crumbled it through my fingers. Queer little red bugs came out and moved in slow squadrons around me. Their backs were polished vermilion, with black spots. I kept as still as I could. Nothing happened. I did not expect anything to happen. I was something that lay under the sun and felt it, like the pumpkins, and I did not want to be anything more. I was entirely happy. Perhaps we feel like that when we die and become a part of something entire, whether it is sun and air, or goodness and knowledge. At any rate, that is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep.

I've been revisiting Oprah and Depak's,  Expanding Your Happiness, meditation- on Day 19 today so this really caught my attention. Lovely, isn't it? 

Finally recovered from two weeks of bronchitis and I've been having a busy time here at the Lake. My mom was here for a week and we made a trip to Rockland and the Farnsworth Museum - always happy to visit the wonderful Wyeths - and visited with Mom's college roommate, Marty, who is a lovely and artistic sort of person whom I feel a kinship with every time I see her. (And how awkward was that sentence but you get the gist.) We had lunch at Archer's on the Pier and visited Clementine for a fabric fix. Here they are, cute girls.

And here is the view from Archer's. The forecast was for gray and rainy and look how beautiful it turned out.

I took this picture of rosa rugosa outside the restaurant. My phone takes such beautiful pictures, doesn't it? See the bee?

We also made a trip down the Friendship peninsula to a sweet little vacation house on Muscongus Bay to visit an old friend of my Mom and Dad so it was old home week for Mom. Mitch hadn't seen me since I was 15(!) and said how much I looked like my Dad which made me feel good. And I still can't really believe, deep down, that he is actually gone. But I digress.

Gloria is back. We had a fabulous breakfast at Morse's this morning and then paid Beth's farm stand a visit. Beth's is in full on fall mode and where may I ask did the summer go??  We bought a veritable cornucopia: berries and corn and mums and pumpkins. 

And I love this picture of Sophie. She is reminding me that we have not been out joyriding in Miss Barbie Dreamboat for way too long. Mom and me and Sophie took a little cruise the other night and that was blissful and today is looking to be just right for a repeat performance. Finest kind.

Greetings from hot hot hot Lexington, Mass, and can't wait to get back to Maine today! Visited with my wacky sister and family and saw my mom, safely back from Wales and more interested in checking her email than anything I had to say!

Leslie made a lovely dinner of smoked salmon, corn on the cob and salad and we caught a cool-ish breeze on their back deck. A short visit but sweet. Mom and I are headed north this morning.

My friend, Sue, sent this to me last night:

There comes a time in life, when you walk away from all the drama and people who create it.

You surround yourself with people who make you laugh, forget the bad, and focus on the good.

So, love the people who treat you right.  Think good thoughts for the ones who don't.

Life is too short to be anything but happy.   Falling down is part of LIFE... Getting back up is LIVING.

I am so blessed with my wonderful friends. 

Well I was sick for 5 days and finally ditched my arsenal of holistic remedies and went to the doctor. Had a nebulizer treatment and got prescriptions for Prednisone (yuck) and an inhaler, and today I am much better. Yay for that. But listen, how crazy is this? So I'm waiting for the nebulizer treatment at the doc's and my phone chimes and I have this text:

Steady energy throughout the day

Great positive mood(s)

Freedom to breathe deeply and easily

Waking up clear headed and refreshed

A Clear mind and good memory

A strong vocal expression.

Deep Breathing should be a part of our everyday life. It not only can lengthen the years that we get to live, but can make us happier, more productive and energetic living them too. Breathing deeply is a well-known stress reliever and has a multitude of health benefits as well. However, in our high stress busy lives, we often breathe very shallowly most of the time. But with a little effort, deep breathing can become an easy and unconscious part of our daily life. By making a conscious decision to focus on our breath for a part of each day, we can make it so that we regularly breathe deeper without having to think about it at all.

I just love it when stuff like that happens!

Lousie Hay says problems with the lungs are due to grief or depression, of not being able to live life fully. I passed the 6th anniversary of the day my husband left a couple weeks back. And I admit, there is some part of me that holds on to the past. For instance, feeling so miserable and having to get up and take care of Sophie and myself when I was sick, I found myself thinking, he should be here for me. Silly moi!

It is hot and humid in Maine with cooler weather coming in a day or two, thankfully. Today Barbie Dreamboat is beckoning to me but I am on my way to Boston to see the fam and pick up my mum. And not a moment too soon.

hazy, hot and humid 

I've made enough squares to see what's curvey about the curvey log cabin block. Awesome, right?

And here, I paused in mowing the lawn to take a picture of this beautiful girl posing with her stick in the sunshine. When I push the mower towards her, she just looks at me like, "oh go around".

I've been busy lately. The weather has been spectacular so lots of swimming and boating. My friend Lu was here for a few days and now my friend, Gloria, has arrived. Lobster rolls have been on the menu. More than once. My friend Carole and I have started working on a little sewing project as well. I have been remiss when it comes to documenting it all in pictures so I promise to renew my efforts at photography. In the meantime, here is yet another beautiful sunset from my dock. The centering thought in my meditation today? I am content with who I am. Ain't that the truth.

Finally had a chance to sit down to some sewing yesterday. I've been so excited to use my new curvy log cabin ruler. I cut about a million strips and separated into darks and lights and various sizes because the curvy log cabin uses wide and narrow strips to make the curves. Batiks, of course.

I set up the new ironing board I got at the quilt show. It attaches to the table and sits right next to me with my mini steam iron. LOVE!

A mighty wind came out of nowhere and blew the window open and papers, glasses, fabric, EVERYTHING went flying through the room. Here is a view of the waves through my window. The yellow thingy to the right is my neighbor's swim float.

 ugh  Back to the drawing board. I found strips of fabric by the fireplace, in the kitchen, on the couch...

 Calmed right down and we had a gorgeous sunset though.

And here are three things I'm loving this morning:

1.    Brainpickings.org  I get this thoughtful "interestingness digest" every Sunday and it never disappoints. Today, the drawings of Beatrice Potter and Maurice Sendak and many more and a quote from Toni Morrison that struck me:  True adulthood...is a difficult beauty, an intensely hard won glory which commercial forces and cultural vapidity should not be permitted to deprive you of.  Love that.
2.    Expanding Your Happiness. A guided meditation with Oprah and Depak Chopra. I've listened to it many times and it never gets old.
3.    Scrambled eggs in butter! OMG what a nice break from my usual smoothie! Delish.

Happy Sunday!

Guest blogger

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Friday Firesmith – The Sins of Walter Palmer

Let’s put away all the yelling and screaming for a few moments and look at the facts.

• Walter Palmer killed a lion in 2008 and did it legally.
• Also in 2008, he killed a bear illegally and faced prison time for lying about it to Fish and Game officials. He wound up paying a fine and walking away from it.
• Palmer has been investigated for sexual harassment in the past, also.
• Palmer has killed Leopards, Big Horn Sheep and a sickening array of wildlife in his lifetime.
• Mostly, Palmer kills with a bow and almost exclusively for sport.

So, right now, this guy who has spent his entire life killing animals for the fun of it, is telling us he had no idea at all he was making an illegal kill.

Bullshit.

Palmer has been skirting around laws all of his life in his bloodlust and suddenly he’s the victim of an innocent misunderstanding? He got the hell out of Zimbabwe pretty quickly, didn’t he? But quickly isn’t what’s important to Palmer most of the time..

The 13-year-old black mane lion suffered a slow and painful death, according to the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force.

The hunters lured him out of the park, the conservation group said, and Palmer then shot the lion with a bow and arrow, a method he is known for. But the arrow wasn’t enough to kill Cecil, who survived for another 40 hours until the hunters tracked him down and shot him with a gun.

Palmer’s henchmen lured a lion named Cecil, who was accustomed to being around humans and photographed heavily by tourists, out of a protected area and then shot him with a cross bow. Cecil carried that arrow around with him for nearly two days before he collapsed and was shot with a rifle. The “sportsman” then directed his cronies to destroy the GPS collar on Cecil to hide the crime, then beheaded Cecil and skinned him.

The “trophies” were later recovered from the two men who had helped Palmer kill a defenseless animal. In the past, Palmer has smugly laughed at those who suggested that his vanity wasn’t as important as the lives of those animals he’s killed.

This time it is a lot different.

This time Palmer finds himself being hunted. His dentistry practice has been closed down. His home phone and cell phone has been turned off. His FB page, his families FB pages, and the FB pages of every one of his employees have been shut down. Anyone remotely connected to Walter Palmer has discovered that there are a lot of people out there more than just a little mad about this. It’s a level of fury usually reserved for child molesters and the people who talk during movies.

Suddenly, Walter Palmer has discovered that his home address can be found through a search of Minnesota State registry of dental practices. He’s discovered that there is no hiding on the internet from people with the intent of finding him. He’s being hunted and he’s helpless against those who have decided that this hunt will be one for Walter to remember.

Just on FB, I read his address, his phone numbers, the address of his practice, saw photos of his employees, saw photos of his family, and everywhere he’s lived in the last twenty years.

Wow. Damn, Walt, I think you might have shot the wrong lion this time!

Here’s the thing; for every one thousand people who are screaming and yelling, there’s only one person willing to do anything at all, and that person is most likely just tracking down personal information. That’s a nuisance and it’s real, but that’s not the problem.

For every thousand people willing to do something only one is likely to cross over into territory that can be defined as true stupidity.
Right now, there are thousands and thousands of people screaming and yelling about this.

I don’t think the man deserves to die for this and I hope no one punishes his family to get to him. This reduces all of us who are outraged down to his level; blood sport for some inner satisfaction.

I say we send him to Zimbabwe and let him do some time in their prison system.

Five years of learning what real helplessness looks like in a Zimbabwean jail sounds like justice form where I am. I just hope that he lives to see it.

Take Care,Mike 

Mike writes regularly at his site:  The Hickory Head Hermit

Lucy's Lilac is blooming!

I found this sweet picture of her the other day. Lulu has been gone three months now and I miss her so much, words cannot describe the hole she left in my life.