New Zafus!

New zafu cushions....

Elegant Cream and Gold Mandala Zafu

Lavender Corduroy Zafu

Roses Tapestry Zafu

Sage Floral Zafu, with Stippled Side Strip,

 and a Sweetheart Zafu in Pink Twill below!

Add caption

Geometric Home Decor Pillow and Mandala Zafu

Two more:

Another Mandala Zafu

Geometric Home Decor Pillow or Zafu

Siesta Key Beach Sunset and Drum Circle

Cowfish, Siesta Beach, Your Immortal Reality

Yesterday morning I decided to head over to Siesta Beach, the beach billed as the #1 Beach in America, for my morning walk. As soon as I got over to the beach I noticed some dead fish on the beach - washed up by the tide. I sniffed the air. Sure enough - smelled quite a bit like red tide. But I wasn't sure. After my walk I followed my plan to sit and read for awhile in my new book Your Immortal Reality,  purchased the evening before at a local Barnes & Noble. People around me were coughing, and I was coughing. My throat and nose burned. Enough! I realized I didn't have to be there. That was when I noticed the sign advising people of the naturally occurring existence of Red Tide at this beach. (btw...red tide does not occur naturally on it's own to that extent)

This morning I went back again to walk - in part, out of curiosity. I wanted to see how much worse it was, and worse it was! Both in the amount of fish on the beach, and the stench. I noticed that after a bit the stench was less noticeable. The sense of smell can turn off at will. Walking along, I notice some people have chosen to make visual art using dead fish, eels and seaweed with sand as a background. That moves my attention away from "dead fish" to "interesting dead fish". Regrettably, once again I had forgotten to take my camera along. Among the many ordinary looking fish one blue/brown fish repeatedly caught my attention. It had hexagonal markings on it...like the pattern used to make a Grandmother's Garden Quilt. Now, I really missed my camera! But, Wikipedia to the rescue. Research suggests it is a Thornback Cowfish. I don't know how long the fish was dead before it washed ashore, or how long it's been lying there, and how all that has affected the colors I saw. If I wanted to make a quilt based on the colors and pattern then I would definitely have to go with a watercolor look.

I'm tempted to head back with my camera. It's rainy and windy now. Would they still be there? Does anyone clean up the fish? I don't know.

~~~

Introducing OOAK Wheel Chair Bags by PonderosaQuilter

In her own words...

"A girlfriend asked me to make a wheelchair bag for her daughter. The daughter and I worked together to design a bag that meets her needs. Then, I began hearing that all the wheelchair bags on the market are boring black. Women in wheelchairs want something pretty just like women who can walk and carry a bag slung over a shoulder. So, I began making more bags in all kinds of fancy, colorful prints. A number of them sold. The most frequent comment was "happiness about finding something pretty!" Then, someone else contacted me through PonderosaQuilter on Etsy about making a different kind of bag that would meet her needs. And, so a second style was added to my shop. This style hangs below the armrest, and does not catch on anything in a narrow hallway. Now, a third person has contacted me about making a larger version of the first bag, and with outside pockets. So, that style will soon be added to my shop repertoire. I enjoy making these bags, and meeting the needs and desires of women in wheelchairs."

Astrological Wheel Chair Bag

This bag is made with all new pre-washed cotton fabrics and cotton batting. 

It is machine quilted. The top edge and flap are bound.
The straps are stiffened lightly with fusible interfacing. 

They wrap around the armrest and are held in place by two 3" strips of hook and loop fastener. 

They are sized to fit an armrest that is 11.25" around;

 this is with full overlap of the fastener.
There is a brown button for closure.

Dimensions: 8.25" high, 9.5" wide, 2.5" deep

Colorful Waves Wheel Chair Bag

 PonderosaQuilter 

Shop Introduction:  Here you will find OOAK items including quilts, tote bags, purses, wheelchair bags, and rag rugs. All the quilts and many of the bags are made from new fabrics. I also like to upcycle the good parts of clothes and sheets by making tote bags and crocheted rag rugs. Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without. Currently I'm on a mission to use up all my fabrics before buying any more. Repeat customers: enter coupon code REPEATCUSTOMER for 10% discount.
This is a smoke free, cat-friendly home.
I hope you enjoy my creations as much as I enjoy making them.
~~~

Amish Mafia...What Next?

Oh dear...hadn't heard of, and haven't seen any of Amish Mafia (no TV, or time for it) but clearly that is just going to add more confusion to the gullibility and misunderstanding that was already there about that tiny but particular and peculiar aspect of humanity. But, I believe people believe what they want to believe on all sides of this saga. Tunnel vision abounds. Few can see Beauty and the Beast clearly, without judgement. Personality distribution exists everywhere - even in places where people expect to see, or want to see no evil.

As Shakespeare said, "All the worlds a stage, And all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts" to which I might add - some (apparently) more so than others. ;-) Playing parts within parts! Now I am starting to amuse myself....

As far as Time goes this is just a tiny blip on the screen of life on this little planet known as Earth, and "this too will pass" as soon as "a dog with a longer tail arrives on the scene" - so to speak, or stage, if you will. Human nature is what it is.

NOTE: Btw...I know whereof I speak. I was born into and grew up among the horse and buggy Mennonites in Pennsylvania, and made my "exit" in my late 20's. The  horse and buggy Mennonites are very similar to the Amish and many "outsiders" cannot tell them apart. The devil is in the details. And I mean that literally.

New Year's Day 2013 - it's here Post-Apocalypse!

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©2013 Foundation for Inner Peace | PO Box 598 | Mill Valley, CA | 94942-0598
~~~
The following text was added on 1/30/2013

'apocalypse now' restoring right-mindedness (peace, love, unity) sorting out the wrong-minded mis-creations following the ego (fear, hate, separation) ...

One of the ways in which you can correct the magic-miracle confusion is to remember that you did not create yourself. You are apt to forget this when you become egocentric, and this puts you in a position where a belief in magic is virtually inevitable. Your will to create was given you by your Creator, Who was expressing the same Will in His Creation. Since creative ability rests in the mind, everything you create is necessarily a matter of will. It also follows that whatever you alone make is real in your own sight, though not in the Mind of God. This basic distinction leads directly into the real meaning of the Last Judgment.

The Last Judgment is one of the most threatening ideas in your thinking. This is because you do not understand it. judgment is not an attribute of God. It was brought into being only after the separation, when it became one of the many learning devices to be built into the overall plan. Just as the separation occurred over millions of years, the Last Judgment will extend over a similarly long period, and perhaps an even longer one. Its length, however, can be greatly shortened by miracles, the device for shortening but not abolishing time. If a sufficient number become truly miracle-minded, this shortening process can be virtually immeasurable. It is essential, however, that you free yourself from fear quickly, because you must emerge from the conflict if you are to bring peace to other minds.

The Last Judgment is generally thought of as a procedure undertaken by God. Actually it will be undertaken by my brothers with my help. It is a final healing rather than a meting out of punishment, however much you may think that punishment is deserved. Punishment is a concept totally opposed to right-mindedness, and the aim of the Last Judgment is to restore right-mindedness to you. The Last Judgment might be called a process of right evaluation. It simply means that everyone will finally come to understand what is worthy and what is not. After this, the ability to choose can be directed rationally. Until this distinction is made, however, the vacillations between free and imprisoned will cannot but continue.

The first step toward freedom involves a sorting out of the false from the true. This is a process of separation in the constructive sense, and reflects the true meaning of the Apocalypse. Everyone will ultimately look upon his own creations and choose to preserve only what is good, just as God Himself looked upon what He had created and knew that it was good. At this point, the mind can begin to look with love on its own creations because of their worthiness. At the same time the mind will inevitably disown its miscreations which, without belief, will no longer exist.
A.C.I.Miracles T-2.VIII.1-4

Gwen Castal Trio of Vintage Paintings

This is a very sweet and adorable trio of original paintings
by unknown and unrecognized artist Gwen Castal.
Elwood, Indiana - December 1974

Size: Small are 3.25" in dia. and the Large is  5" in dia.
Ready to hang in that little nook, powder room or cabin!

Original Artwork, 1974

Signed and Dated by Gwen Castal

SOLD at auction on

ebay.com

Breathe and Radiate! Light up your life!

Crimson Circle 

(via facebook)

‎"When you breathe, you tend to radiate. It’s taken years of the breathing, of getting you into it – some of you have really resisted it – but when you breathe, you start to radiate. You start to light up, and that’s the reason most of you stopped breathing, because initially, yes, it’s intense. Initially, it hurts. Initially, it brings up your crap, your makyo. It puts the makyo right in your face, so you say, “Oh, this breathing stuff is so stupid. I’m going to go find a lot of books and workshops and complex things and pretend that, you know, there’s puzzle parts that I have to put together. I’m not going to do this stupid breathing. That’s so easy. How could it be effective? I’m going to go out and suffer. I’m going to pay big bucks for enlightenment. I’m going to find a guru. Hell, I’m going to find an alien guru and pay big bucks to learn.” So people stop breathing, because it hurts to light up.

You’re learning … you’re doing, I should say. You’re experiencing. You take that deep breath and realize it doesn’t have to be difficult. It really doesn’t. And you don’t have to process your way out of wherever you were, wherever you are. You don’t have to process your way out. Amazing. Brilliant." (feckin' brilliant)

 

Adamus
The [NEXT] Series

SHOUD 11: "Spiral Experience"

June 4, 2011

You don't need one to breathe...or do you? :-)

 

A Late Quartet Trailer

 Christopher Walken has some very interesting lines in the beginning as he talks about Beethoven's  "A Late Quartet", which the film and story depict, as do many people's lives off screen as well. I loved this film...might see it a second time at the theater, or at home with Netflix.

Branching out into Shiny Zafus! Yay!

Just added these three Zafus to my etsy repertoire!

Shiny Avocado Green Print In a Home Decor Fabric!

Another Mandala Zafu - (again with the Shiny Fabric!)

Pastel Watercolor Print in a Home Decor Canvas Fabric

Mindfulness Meditation in Sarasota

"Mindfulness means paying attention 
in a particular way:
on purpose,
in the present moment,
and non-judgmentally."
~Jon Kabat-Zinn

 

Yesterday I had a bit of a frazzling experience while receiving massage from a friend. Halfway through the session as a result of some of the things we were chatting about she started loudly "addressing" some personal gripes she had with some things I do. I had on other occasions corrected her misperceptions of those subjects, and it became very apparent that she is still clinging to her initial interpretation. She excused what she was (un)consciously doing by saying she wasn't "awake yet" so she wouldn't experience the immediate ramifications of what she was doing. She lost track of what she was doing massage-wise, and consequently my front upper body received 3 vigorous massages in a two hour period. I allowed this to continue for that length of time to (hopefully) enable her to get it out of her system, but then it was time for me to go home and get ready for my first visit to Sarasota Mindfulness Institute for their 6:00 - 7:15 Group Meditation. I received great benefit from being in this quiet, supportive atmosphere and environment. I will have to address the situation with my friend one way or another next time we get together, but I want to do this in a mindful, diplomatic way. One of the women in the meditation group said that in a previous meditation someone had said that they realized that "not all their thoughts were true". So true! Another quote I have seen that i love is "You don't have to believe everything you think."

Cotton Linen Buckwheat filled Zafu

No Ordinary Life, This.

It's not for everyone, but I love Osho and his teachings speak to me...such as the following two.

"To be alone is really the greatest miracle. That means now you don't belong to any church, you don't belong to any organization, you don't belong to any theology, you don't belong to any ideology - socialist, communist, fascist, hindu, christian, jain, buddhist - you don't belong, you simply are. And you have learnt how to love your indefinable, ineffable reality. You have come to know how to be with yourself.

Your needs for the other have disappeared. You don't have any loopholes, you don't have any holes, you are not missing anything, you don't have any flaws - you are simply happy by being yourself. You don't need anything, your bliss is unconditional. Yes, it is the greatest miracle in the world." ~osho

"Everyone is blessed by the divine. A few know it; many more remain oblivious of the fact, hence there is so much misery. Misery is fictitious, it is not real. It is only there because we have not known our blessedness. It is the absence of our knowing that we are already blessed that makes us miserable, and then we try to find bliss, joy. But you cannot find it because it is already there. The very effort to find it is utterly absurd; it is bound to fail.

One has simply to relax, be still and know that one is blessed. It is not a question of achieving. The moment you know your blessedness, all misery evaporates, as if it has never existed at all.

My effort here is to make you aware of what you are; it is not a question of achieving anything. You are holy, you are divine, you are blessed; it is just that you are fast asleep. You have to be awakened so that you can know your own treasure - the kingdom of God within."  osho

The Greatest Scam (almost) on Earth

This entire year I have been giving some time to thinking about money, and "what is money?" Here is one retired banker's version of what is going on with money. It's one aspect of money, and I'm very sure this affects all of us. Banking itself isn't evil...fractional reserve banking is a problem. We really need to put a spotlight on the Federal Reserve. They are a privately owned corporation and not a part of government per se. Except they literally have government by the b--lls. Personally, I like to think that money is a tool for me to use in my daily life to take responsibility for myself, and to be a helpful person to others.

Banking - the Greatest Scam on Earth:

Chasing Ice OFFICIAL TRAILER

I scored a free ticket through one of my Meetups groups to see this movie tomorrow...

"You've never seen images like this before: it deserves to be seen and felt on the big screen." - Robert Redford

For more information see:

- The Chasing Ice Ticketing Team
tickets@chasingice.com

December 21, 2012...Entering the Golden Age, Finally!

Imagine you are standing in a windowless room, and it is dark. You feel fear. You realize you always have, but for some inexplicable reason you now know it is fear. Now, you also see that there is a window with a sortof covering on it. Enough light is coming in for you to see there is an overhead light with a pull string. Over your head, in fact. Is it now time for you to pull the light string, or are you still going to continue to wait for a "messiah figure" to come and do it for you?

 2012 Crossing Over: into the Golden Age documentary...



We have found the Messiah, and it is in us'n! Every minute of every day we choose to live by fear or Love. Which will it be?

Arthur Schopenhauer quote

via facebook: Beverly Gowers Brown

~Arthur Schopenhauer
"To the man who studies to gain a thorough insight into science, books and study are merely the steps of the ladder by which he climbs to the summit; as soon as a step has been advanced he leaves it behind.  The majority of mankind, however, who study to fill their memory with facts do not use the steps of the ladder to mount upward, but take them off and lay them on their shoulders in order that they may take them along, delighting in the weight of the burden they are carrying.  They ever remain below because they carry what should carry them."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 

~Sarah: 
"For years, I was so convinced that education and higher education were "the answer".  In retrospect, I don't know the answer to what specifically - human suffering maybe, or the innate desire for unconditional Love. Formal education is OK for this human life. But, it won't get you into "Heaven". Forgiveness is the key to Love. Love is the key to Heaven. Not forgiveness of specific things that have happened in time and space...but the "big Forgiveness of the alledged Separation from God". That one.  We collectively made a miss-Take. We individually correct that miss-take by remembering that we are but dreaming of separation from God. Simple...but not an easy practice. Why? Because we are so steeped in the "reality" of our own ideas of our self/ves and others. Question everything."

Connecting Threads, Freebies and Zafus

In the last few weeks I cut a lot of zafu covers, and am in the process of sewing some every day. As sewing goes it's pretty simple. I am using a lot of thread though, and it was time to buy more. My source usually is Connecting Threads online, and as luck would have it they are having a sale on the kind of thread I use. Usually, I buy the cones but since the smaller spools were on sale I pulled out my calculator and did the math. This time it paid me to buy the smaller spools x 3, which added up to over the $50.00 total for free shipping. Hopefully, my thread supply will hold out till the new shipment arrives during this busy Christmas season mail. I signed up for their weekly email, checked out their blog and saw a post about a making a clutch - something I have yearned to do but never realized there might be kits out there to help me get over the "it's too complicated" hump. And last but not least, I would definitely recommend that you take good look at their freebies section. And, tell your sewing friends!

Without further ado, here are pix of a few zafus that came into existence recently. Oh, shoot! The photos I was planning to use are stored on my laptop. My laptop and my computer aren't on speaking terms yet. Until I remedy that or sign out here and get online via the laptop here is the etsy store link for all my zafus. My favorite is the Cinnamon and Sage Mandala Zafu (made using pie-shaped wedges cut from reclaimed dust ruffles). I also love the Floral Cotton/Linen Zafu (vintage fabric), and the Mustard Yellow zafu (made from a Ralph Lauren duvet). A popular seller has also been Pillow Ticking Zafu, so I felt happy when I lucked out at the thrift store with two large pieces of ticking fabric! And, here's one for the guys made from a reclaimed army blanket.

Present Day Violence

I grew up in a closed religious group, in a small community. In my twenties I became aware of one thing consistently...the tension that grew in the community from "rubbing shoulders" on a daily basis within that close proximity. The tension grew until one day there was a tragedy...such as a terrible accident of some kind whereby some of "our people" were hurt or died. Then, hearts opened up with compassion, and the community reknitted it's relationships. On the surface everybody became sweet and kind. Everything was all "hunkydory" (meaning everything was not OK) for awhile...and then this whole thing repeated itself. Tension building and exploding through one person or an event, and then the coming together again. I used to think this happened only in our little community...until my parameters for seeing better in another radius widened I began to see it happening in the bigger communities as well. Towns and cities are communities. Nations are communities. The planet is a community. The galaxy is a community. Peace begins in the hearts of each one of us. As long as there even one individual left that has not found inner peace then someone is "left behind". It looks like Peace on Earth is quite a distance off yet. The world can't end yet...we haven't finished the Work of Healing yet here. We can't "graduate in the grand scheme of things" until we do heal our World - the outer world reflects the inner world.

Inner Scavenger did it Again!

Once again my inner scavenger lucked out! On Monday I found a lovely 88" x 100" quilt on a neighbor's trash. I also found 3 ceramic soup bowls, and a copper bottom saucepan. The pot is the in-between, Goldilocks size I was wanting. It doesn't have the lid but I'm sure i can find a replacement lid at World's Attic Thrift Store. But, back to the quilt...I washed & dried it right away. Took some time to visualize what it might become. Then...it hit me. I had not yet combined two of my loves....quilts and zafu meditation cushions. Not anymore! I was able to cut 11 zafu cushion covers from that one quilt.

Shabby Chic Zafu Meditation Cushion - from a Repurposed Found Quilt