My box of tissues are soaked!

My dog & me, well we just laid on the bed and cuddled listening to birds rejoice.  Reminding me how much I love the stolen songs of the Mocking bird.

That was the day that the lights went out in our small part of Florida.  Our small grid of nineteen where electricity was lost in the wee hours of the night.

So here I am now sitting, using natural light from a window hearing the raindrops, a plane flying nearby, cars passing by the house and Hobo, forever cleaning his adorable self.  Oh, and writing this letter with pen on paper.

I am reminded that the ice on door of the refrigerator does not work without electricity, nor does the telephone.  Which leads to an entire other list of realities.  Here is a tip for all: we have an old fashioned orange telephone, the cord actually prevents you from walking around, almost everyone I could call to chat with this morning is programmed into the cordless, that does not work in a power outage.  Ok, two duhs!  However, when in need ... keep on in a drawer and tell all of your family members where it is.  You never know when you or a neighbor may need it during a time such as this.

Of course, there is my cell phone.  However, it is in the car and its raining.  And, I'd have to get out of my night clothes.  I just thought of something. I really cannot remember what it was like before technology permitted us to screen our calls, and the answering machine before we decided whether to answer the call or not...could you just let it ring?

Have you ever heard the saying, "If you want to hear God laugh just tell Him your plans"?

Later...

As it turns out, I realize the peace of sitting in one place, in my quiet home, listening to the world outside, and within my head.

~

Oh the tissues?  I had moved some items out of my car to make room for traveling buddies.  My small trash basket, a shirt to return, and my box of tissues... left outside with the intention of returning it all to its rightful place.

I see the sun, an awesome opportunity to get dressed and get to photographing.  After all, I have been complaining to myself the need , without seeming to have the time due to allowed distractions.

It is another perfect day...

Tibetan Monk Workshop & Performance - Van Wezel - April 2010 - Sarasota, Florida

In the wake of the 1959 Tibetan uprising, a Tibetan diaspora has made Tibetan Buddhism more widely accessible to the rest of the world. It has since spread to many Western countries, where the tradition has gained popularity. Among its prominent exponents is the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet. The number of its adherents is estimated to be between ten and twenty million.
On Wednesday April 21st, my awesome friend Judy Levine did a very informative presentation on Buddhism and the Tibetan Monks. Eight years ago, she and a friend traveled to Tibet, Nepal, and surrounding countries. They were able to visit many Buddhist monasteries and other buildings in Tibet, Nepal, India, and Indonesia. Judy included many of the photos she took during that month-long visit.

At the same time, the visiting Monk's were spending eight hours a day, over a period of five days constructing a sand Mandala.  The creation of a sand mandala requires many hours and days to complete. Each mandala contains many symbols that must be perfectly reproduced each time the mandala is created. When finished, the monks gather in a colorful ceremony, chanting in deep tones as they sweep their mandala into a jar and empty it into a nearby body of water as a blessing. This action also symbolizes symbolizes the cycle of life.

During the evening of April 23 at this same venue, following dinner with friends, the Tibetan Monks performed for a packed audience, teaching us through this performance, about their culture, history, ceremonies, and so much more.  Their colorful garments memorized, while the guttural throat singing captivated.

Wikipedia:  Also known as overtone singing, also known as overtone chanting, or harmonic singing, is a type of singing in which the singer manipulates the resonances (or formants) created as air travels from the lungs, past the vocal folds, and out the lips to produce a melody.


The partials (fundamental and overtones) of a sound wave made by the human voice can be selectively amplified by changing the shape of the resonant cavities of the mouth, larynx and pharynx.[1] This resonant tuning allows the singer to create apparently more than one pitch at the same time (the fundamental and a selected overtone), while in effect still generating a single fundamental frequency with his/her vocal folds.

After the performance, everyone was invited to see the Tibetan Monks hold the special ceremony and then they deconstructed the manadala. The sand was placed in small ziplock type of plastic bags and given to participants as a blessing.  What was left was carried to our local bay, an open, flowing body of water to be dispersed. The mandala represents life and its impermanent nature.

This was such a special experience for my husband and myself.  There are so many things that remain with me, such as one of the Monks in particular who had the gift of throat singing, the community mandala for which I was a participant, the lenght of the horns, and the ceremony of giving the sand back to the earth via moving water.

"The creation of a sand Mandala requires many hours and days to complete. Each Mandala contains many symbols that must be perfectly reproduced each time the Mandala is created. When finished, the monks gather in a colorful ceremony, chanting in deep tones as they sweep their Mandala into a jar and empty it into a nearby body of water as a blessing. This action also symbolizes the cycle of life."

 Research:

 Tibet, you will learn how to be happy and live a life full of contentment without a complaint. Just pass a smile to a Tibetan who is looking at you and believe us you will get an even bigger smile in return. This is the way they are much warm, caring and full of hospitality towards their guests for whom they will go out of the way to help. To learn the simple courtesies of life and to acclimatize moral values there is no other place better than Tibet where one can learn the best of it. They seem like a new breed of humans, happy the way they are, totally unperturbed by outside world. Come to Tibet and get to know these wonderful people, from whom we can still learn a lot about life.

 The Drepung Monastery was established near Lhasa, Tibet in 1416 by Chojey Tashi Palden. It had four departments, of which Loseling, or "The Hermitage of the Radiant Mind," was the largest, housing more than three quarters of Drepung's ten to fifteen thousand monks. Drepung Loseling was especially close to the Dalai Lama incarnations; the Second Dalai Lama made his residence here in 1494, and subsequent incarnations maintained this link.

 After the Chinese Communist invasion of Tibet in 1959 and the forced closure and horrid destruction of its 6,500 monasteries, some 250 monks from Loseling managed to escape the holocaust and rebuild their institution in Karnataka State, South India. The traditional training program was thus preserved. Over the years many more young spiritual aspirants have fled Chinese-occupied Tibet and sought entrance into the monastery, thus helping to preserve their traditional culture. The number of monks presently in the re-established Drepung Loseling has increased to more than 2,500.

In 1991, as a result of The Mystical Arts of Tibet tours, the monks were invited to establish a seat in North America. Thus Drepung Loseling Monastery, Inc. was born in Atlanta, Georgia. A non-profit organization dedicated to the study and preservation of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of wisdom and compassion and a center for the cultivation of both heart and intellect, Drepung Loseling provides a sanctuary for nurturing inner peace, community understanding, and global healing. In 1998 Drepung Loseling and its North American seat established academic affiliation with Emory University with the objective of promoting transcultural understanding and scholarly interchange. This historic affiliation between two major institutions of learning was inaugurated by His Holiness the Dalai Lama on May 12, 1998.



In addition to its academic and spiritual programs, Drepung Loseling is committed to helping preserve the endangered Tibetan culture, which today leads a fragile existence in the exiled refugee communities in India and Nepal. In conjunction with Richard Gere Productions, it coordinates The Mystical Arts of Tibet World Tours and oversees the Drepung Loseling Educational Fund, a sponsorship program for the adoption of monks in training at Drepung Loseling Monastery.

Wordless Wednesday

Tuesday's Tip

Received the following in an email from a close friend:

Over the weekend, the doting owner of two young lab mixes purchased Cocoa Mulch from Target (also available at many other big box retailers) to use in their garden. It was advertised to keep cats away from their garden. Their dog (Calypso) decided the mulch smelled good enough to eat and devoured a large helping. She vomited a few times which was typical when she eats something new but wasn't acting lethargic in any way. The next day, Mom woke up and took Calypso out for her morning walk . Half way through the walk, she had a seizure and died instantly.

Although the mulch had NO warnings printed on the label, upon further investigation on the company's web site, this product is HIGHLY toxic to dogs and cats.

Cocoa Mulch is manufactured by Hershey's, and they claim that "It is true that studies have shown that 50% of the dogs that eat Cocoa Mulch can suffer physical harm to a variety of degrees (depending on each individual dog). However, 98% of all dogs won't eat it."

*Snopes site gives the following information:http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/cocoamulch.asp *

Cocoa Mulch, which is sold by Home Depot, Foreman's Garden Supply and other Garden supply stores contains a lethal ingredient called 'Theobromine'. It is lethal to dogs and cats. It smells like chocolate and it really attracts dogs. They will ingest this stuff and die. Several deaths already occurred in the last 2-3 weeks.

Theobromine is in all chocolate, especially dark or baker's chocolate which is toxic to dogs. Cocoa bean shells contain potentially toxic quantities of theobromine, a xanthine compound similar in effects to caffeine and theophylline. A dog that ingested a lethal quantity of garden mulch made from cacao bean shells developed severe convulsions and died 17 hours later. Analysis of the stomach contents and the ingested cacao bean shells revealed the presence of lethal amounts of theobromine.