You found me.

All of the sounds in this world ...

... from beautiful music,
to children laughing,
to wind through trees,
to wolves howling ...
are rendered by the eardrum ...
which can do nothing more than
move back and forth.

Lilium

The Old Ways

Somehow I knew, that you'd have to go
Your world was not mine, your eyes told me so
Yet it was there I felt the crossroads of time
And I wondered why.

Loreena McKennitt

Before I forget ...

Salish
Sasamat
Huckleberry
Hemlock
Deer Fern
Nature
Council
Imperial
Powerline
Long
Sword Fern
Clinton
St. Georges
Iron Knee
Admiralty
East Canyon
West Canyon
Spanish
Pioneer
Aims
Douglas Fir

But of all of these, Sword Fern is my favourite.

If I had known how difficult it would be ...

... I would never have started down this path.
And that would have been a big mistake.

The Universe has an ego ...

... and we're it.
We are life's look at itself.
And as with all egos,
no good can come of it.
Bummer.
It's not enough that the Universe
evolved into this amazing place of near
infinite complexity and wonder.
It needed something that could
actually appreciate it.
That's what we're here for.

Don't worry ...

I ain't lost,
I'm just wandering.
But thanks for asking.

Still not done

I've experienced more than I could have hoped for,
And more than I wanted,
And I'm still not done.

You know I dreamed about you

You know I dreamed about you
for twenty-nine years before I saw you.
You know I dreamed about you,
I missed you for
for twenty-nine years.

Slow Show, The National

It doesn’t matter

It doesn’t matter who you are,
It doesn’t matter where you are,
It doesn’t matter where you’re from,
It doesn’t matter how you got here,
It doesn’t matter what you’ve left behind,
It doesn’t matter what got screwed up,
It doesn’t matter if you’re lost,
It doesn’t matter where you’re going,

All that matters is what you’re doing right now, in this moment.

Understanding

One of the good things about living through challenges ... failures, losses, heartbreak ... is the compassion and understanding they may yield. These harsh events carve deep, permanent holes into us. We can fill these holes with regret, self-pity, anger. Or we can fill them with compassion, understanding. Use compassion. Use understanding. That way, when someone you know goes through a rough patch, you will have compassion and understanding that you can share with them.

Thank you double-oh one ...

... for saving my life. Twice. I may have had it coming the first time. I surely didn't deserve it the second time. But you were there anyway, keeping death at bay. I love you, alien mine.

Still can't believe ...

... all the good things that she did for me.
Sit back in the chair like a princess from a far away place.

I can't let you be because your beauty won't allow me.
Wrapped in white sheets like an angel from a bedtime story.

Have you forgotten how to love yourself.

Mark Kozelek, Have you forgotten.

On Being

Presence.
Acceptance.
Gratitude.
Open heart.

And when you are caught in the rip tide of your thoughts and feelings, don't try to swim against the current. Doing so will just wear you out, possibly to the point of drowning. Let the flow take you. Stay with the swell of emotion. Stay. Breathe. Swim parallel to the shore until you are out of the current. Remember: presence, acceptance, gratitude, open heart.

And when you do leave, just come back.

Breathe.

Another one ...

... for my random musings :)

Frank Schnekenburger

My brain has a mind of its own.

Kayla

Can. OTCh Pacificgold’s Swiftfoehn Kayla CGC
August 11, 1993 - February 2, 2007
My Novice A dog, together she and I discovered the wonderful world of competitive obedience and canine performance,
and made so many wonderful friends along the way.
Kayla was Frank’s camping partner (winter and summer),
and rescued him from being lost in the woods on more than one occasion.
Kayla’s last generous gift was a donation to science. A blood sample was sent to the Broad Institute at MIT.
As part of the Canine Genome Project, they are researching the genes for melanoma in goldens among other breeds.
Kayla is now with her best buddy, Portia the lab.
Rest peacefully, old girl, you’re always in our hearts

Marilyn, Frank, & Java

Kayla at Neys ~ Quinzee Queen ~ ca 2001

Blogger Tip: Youtube video player on phone

Blogger makes it easy to embed a youtube video into a blog post. Typically the post will display the youtube video player with the selected video. However, on some phones the video player might not be displayed. The problem may be in the class attribute of the iframe tag being assigned "BLOG_video_class".

To check for this issue, open the post for editing. Ensure the view is set to HTML View. Look at the class attribute of the iframe tag. If it is assigned the text "BLOG_video_class", delete that text (leave it as class="") or delete the class tag and text and quotes altogether.