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...and they lived happily ever after. Smith & Lady: poets, artists, photographers & adventurers.
Our relationship was forged to the soundtrack of Yoko Ono's magic,
frenetic, love-laden song, "Walking On Thin Ice." ( play song )
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Archive for the ‘ladymemoir’ Category
Thursday, May 23rd, 2013
“First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is.”
~ Donovan

Dear Beings of the Universe/Good Luck Charmers,
The moon is full. We are on the Quest. We set off this morning, our little quest within the big Quest. We are going to Fairyland, which is good because I am not just Lady, I am a fairy. We will tell the beings in the basement under Fairyland our stories from Stations of the Lost and Found.
This Fairyland we’re going to is in Minneapolis. On the way, we are stopping in Elgin:
- Much of Elgin is in the county of Kane.
- Elgin National Watch Company’s logo features Father Time.
- Elgin has a Symphony Orchestra and some examples of homes in the Queen Anne style.
- The Indian Removal Act of 1820 and the Black Hawk Indian War of 1832 led to the expulsion of Native Americans who had settlements and burial mounds in the area.
So that Act was 193 years ago, basically, two or three lifespans ago, roughly 8 generations ago. How could one possibly justify the expulsion of Native Americans? What were the settlers thinking? And so overtly, too: the Indian “Removal Act.” It led to the Trail of Tears. Interestingly, many ethical Christians protested the act.
So there’s this potpourri of information that one can dig into—what parts of it apply to the Quest?
What I know:
- I am a fairy and we are going to Fairyland.
- I was asked to ask Brahman to stop the suffering of Samsara. This is part of my long quest and what I was told in the Dream.
- I am Lady of the Church of Not Quite So Much Pain & Suffering.
- Native Americans figure.
I like time and the thought of going West on a quest. East, too, but I’ve been more East than West.
Peace & blessings & love,
Lady
P.S.: I would like to leave you here with a Bree poem from the new Matter Ring:
The Riser
You are the bartender salting the rim
of the earth. You are shaking things up,
good company.
You are the hostess the whole room
rounding while we straighten our shirts
in the mirror moon easily makes
of your eyes,
good company.
The salesman on the ready, always, you
make something out of us, like it was
no thing, this us. And this is us waiting.
We are what we make of each others army.
And you time things right, ever the
doorman, you of the first infantry, opening
into us, you also pull away from us, and off
of us rise.
~ Bree
Tags: Donovan, Elgin, Fairyland, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Native Americans, Quest, Stations Posted in Art, Bio, couples, Creative Writing, creativity, dreams, Events, Lady, ladymemoir, Letters to the Universe, Philosophy, Poetry, Relationships, smith & Lady, spirituality, Travel Notes | No Comments »
Saturday, May 18th, 2013
Lately I keep thinking about the movie “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.” In the movie, they find out that in the future they are worshiped and the whole of future society is based on them. The motto of the society is “be excellent to each other.”
I love 80s expressions like “excellent” and “awesome.” I love thinking about the hearty innocence and doggie gusto of Keanu Reeves. Yeah, he’s kind of bland, but he’s still *excellent.*
I am on a quest. My quest is to be as excellent as I can be in all the little nooks and crannies of the Thomas’s english muffin of my life, the big, most excellent, vegan-butter-and-raw-honey-whole-wheat-toasted english muffin of my life, the english muffin of my life that is delectable yet leaves one wanting more life to live!
So for the past two years I’ve been beating myself over the head with activist efforts without letting myself have the teensiest toe-dip in the actual tangible parts of what it is I would affect positively with my activism.
That’s changed recently. I am working on tangible, immediate results in addition to abstract work.
There are two things we’re picking up: volunteering at the APL doing dog-walking and working on protecting the watershed. So rather than only sitting and talking, Smith and I are out there doing fun stuff and getting exercise and being with each other, helping save the world and being and feeling excellent.
Volunteering at the APL is such a joy–to be with the dogs in the field, being so happy, witnessing happiness. Their walks of temporary freedom also temporary respite for me. It is so nice for the dogs to have the walks–they are treated well and they get out quite a bit, but even so the majority of their time is in the little cages.
I have noticed, though, that some of the dogs who are more shy or who have some physical problems (like Dozer, a sweet, blind dog) have been there for probably quite some time. One dog doesn’t like a leash, so I don’t think she gets to go out very much at all unless someone really pushes her. I’ve been working on a relationship with her and have just sat in her cage to work on keeping her social but she won’t even let me pet her yet.
It makes me think that when I adopt a dog, if that happens in the future, I will adopt one that is shy or has some kind of physical issue, because it will help prevent animals with these problems from having to stay too long cooped up.
This morning we’re going for orientation on the new watershed volunteer gig. This is kind of neat because it’s a new project for the Cleveland Metroparks, a new watershed program in Parma. The more I read the more I read about new programs for reclaiming and restoring the health of land, and I am so enthusiastic about being a part of this, putting my hands into the loam of it, seeing stuff grow and be protected and secure.
~ Lady
Posted in activism, Being, couples, dreams, Environment, ethics, Family, Lady, ladymemoir, Letters to the Universe, Philosophy, Relationships, smith & Lady, spirituality | No Comments »
Thursday, April 18th, 2013
Adding structure and convention
to my day to enforce
ideals and happiness
Dalai Lama says “bar the door”
to practices that cause one
to feel ill,
make it such that it is not
easily possible to get
caught up in them
I am not a werewolf
but I love them
Men who would be wolfen
scraggly bearded bears
of men
Honey and bread
on the table
Butter on the knife
Crumbs on the floor
The tending of yogurt
Cheesecloth
Fruit in a bowl
These men, their stews &
hermitude
Monks
Barring the door to the
outside world
lest the outside in them
come raging through to meet
the outside out there
knashing of teeth
clashing of bones
In ancient times,
werewolves
sucking the marrow
from sacrificed
virgins
Marrow me,
marry me
Marry me
fill me up
fill up my marrow
am mirror
am wife
~ Lady
Posted in couples, Family, Food, Humor, Lady, ladymemoir, Letters to the Universe, Poetry, Relationships, smith & Lady, spirituality | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, April 16th, 2013
The sun
can be something
that illuminates
this particular point
and the shadow, then, the skin
or even the shadow passing over the skin
as though to say here is this particular point
and here is the sun, my mind (at this moment)
and here is my thought of this particular point
cast against something, the casting a skin
of thought akin to a reflection of sorts
and here is the sun, my mind
and here I am opening my eyes to see
what I am seeing,
what I am gilding,
what is being cast
from what is being gilt
This shadow not some kind of malevolent shadow–
a shadow that would be the reverse of ideals–
but rather
something swimming in a universe
of ideas
where shadow
being the opposite of ideals
is only a small speck
in a vast ocean
of ideas
about shadow,
most of which are
blessedly good
Thank goodness
When I walk my shadow out across sand
it walks with me, fluid, easy as anything
like air through a hoop, noiselessly,
frictionless at this scale
The sun passes over clouds
and the wind starts up
(noise at that scale)
But me & my shadow walking across the sand
we’re just easy & peaceful, and I think about the metaphor
for Good being with me and the familiar story
about the distressed person being carried
on the beach, one set of footprints
and I know shadows aren’t so bad
are even sought after
so I choose to defuse
the abusive projection
of something that is only
one part of a spectrum
of ideas about this kind
of skin, a part of Good
not apart from Good
a part of Good
inherently within
it
~ L
Posted in couples, Lady, ladymemoir, Letters to the Universe, Peace, Poetry, Relationships, spirituality | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 20th, 2013
Thich Nhat Hanh keeps coming to mind. I would like to write something fresh and encouraging and good and entertaining for my weekly walkingthinice.com blog. My state of mind is such that I am not sure if I am in the right or wrong by not doing a particular project. Sometimes I think that rightness depends partially on the process one goes through to do the particular thing that is being evaluated as being right or wrong. There’s a kind of hysteresis to many processes.
Another thing that comes to mind is that I am holding a bunch of concepts in my mental hands, my buffer, and sometimes the concepts slide in and around each other when I don’t mean for them to. At least sometimes it produces good and meaningful results anyways.
But I’m holding these concepts in my “hands” and I sigh. How do I explain it? I am a multi-threaded process?
Which reminds me of semaphores. I am not very familiar with the word but have used the concept in programming. The word “semaphore” keeps on occurring to my mind the past two weeks. Wikipedia says “In computer science, a semaphore is a variable or abstract data type that provides a simple but useful abstraction for controlling access by multiple processes to a common resource in a parallel programming or multi user environment.”
Reality is providing me with clues–Thich Nhat Hanh and semaphores.
I have been thinking for a long time about my brain and the knowledge that is made available to me, and wondering how much of it is stored locally in my brain tissue versus how much is encoded on a quantum level elsewhere and can float in to me. I really don’t believe that I am limited by skin anymore.
How much is steeping, and how much can be compartmentalized, made distinct? When I sit in a room it is like steeping in the room, and the attributes of the room become available to me. When I invest in a group of smart people, I become smart in the topic of their specialty, although sometimes this takes time. Or if I watch a violent movie, the movie impresses itself on me and my subsequent reality in a way that I don’t like unless I somehow negotiate the situation well. Thich Nhat Hanh says to consume mindfully and that one benefits by not watching violent media.
I have a toolset, a mental toolset that I use to negotiate and navigate reality. It is still in development, but it works somewhat. I’ve got a mirror in my toolset–that’s for sure. I have my computer–my computer is a good tool for my toolset. And I have my notepad. Oh, I’ve got Spotify. And I’ve got praying, and I’ve got meditation. I have my word.
There’s what I already have, and there’s what I would like to add to the toolset or know that I already have anyways. I would like some capacitors and filters and transformers and transistors. I would like seeds, especially heirloom seeds–I’d like to be an aunt and I would like to make sure that my nieces and nephews and my family (everyone is my family) has good food to eat, and their descendants for as long as the Mother Earth will do it, and that Mother Earth will do this for quite a long time. I would like the future in my toolbox, the good future. I would like Nature and Civilization coexisting wonderfully forever. And the good present. And compassion towards the past.
I would like to plunk parts of the set onto the template with the understanding that the set is very large, and that what I plunk onto it might not always be pithy. I would like to plunk pieces of the puzzle onto it, the n-dimensional puzzle such that reality can interpolate gently, understand with compassion, extrapolate beautifully, and coat irritants in metaphorical pearl to remove any harm without harming that which has irritated. I would like language to be useful but for those who don’t have precise voices to not be limited by lack of technical know-how; I would like for every good impulse to be augmented and every not so good impulse to be transformed or damped.
I am not sure if this relates to your particular threads of reality or not, but it is some helpful stuff for me, and I share it with the caveat that I wish for you to explicitly wish to “do no harm,” but even if this seems silly, I wish for it to not cause harm regardless, and rather, to cause blessings.
~ Lady
Posted in Being, creativity, dreams, Environment, ethics, Lady, ladymemoir, Letters to the Universe, Peace, Philosophy, Relationships, spirituality, writing | No Comments »
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