I've made a blogging resolution for the upcoming year. In the past, I've tried to be tolerant of everyone, even if they were nasty or mean to me or others.  I've failed a few times, yes, and I've let me anger get the better of me more than once.   It's only bought me misery and angst.  I've gone from trying to not rock the boat to blogging on the attack.  Neither of those approaches (and everything in between) have worked.  They've caused upset, not onl...

What I am: ... emotionally bruised.  Damaged goods, I suppose. ... trying to be less angry and vengeful. .... trying not to give in to temptation. ... a worthless friend sometimes. ... a not-so-good mom some days. ... a lazy housekeeper.  I'll do it when it needs doing, but hardly ever before. ... "flighty" (my dad's words) ... selfish. ... a wanna be, trying-to-be Zen warrior. ...sensitive to other people's perceptions of me. ... afraid of co...

My good friend Rob, who reads my blog everyday (but who has yet to comment....*cough cough*...hint) has an online diary of his own Link   that I visit occasionally (yes, I know I should be better about it). Rob's a single parent.  He has a boy, AJ, who's Jake's age, and a daughter who's 6 now, I guess.  AJ has ADHD, and is on the same meds as Jake.  Rob's a wonderful guy (if there are any single Pagan chikkies reading this, I'm telling you he's a catch...)...and he's...

Take note, all those who create fake internet personas, all those who make anonymous comments and then swear it wasn't them... Link It was this woman's IP address that sealed her fate.  

I hurt myself at work today. First, I burnt myself.  Not too bad, I just brushed the back of my hand against a hot popcorn machine kettle. Then, I sprained my ankle.  I was putting boxes of candy away in the warehouse...we had had a delivery and the boxes needed to be taken off the wooden pallette it came on and put up on the shelves.  So, there I was with a 20lb box of Wonka Runts in my hands, and I stepped half-on, half-off the pallette and turned my foot up underneath my ...

When I started out on this Dharma (path, way) I was under the impression that, much like Siddartha himself, I would be meditating one day and all of a sudden, with a flash of light and trumpets sounding, enlightenment would come upon me and I would be a Buddha. The further along this Dharma I get, the more I see that's not the way it happens. Enlightenment, or wisdom, comes in small doses.  Little drops of it fall steadily into your life.  (Whether you absorb them and unders...

Isn't it funny how you can go through life without really seeing things as they really are?  How one day you wake up and feel like you've had the veil lifted from in front of your eyes because you see things differently? The things I see differently today are things that have been there all along...I just never really saw them for what they truly are before.  I saw parts of them, yes, but.....I never saw the whole thing.  I cannot place the single event that made me see thi...

I'm thinking about going on a retreat. A buddhist retreat.  There are quite a few within a 8 hour drive from where I'm at.  Some are weekends, some are months long.  Some you have to pay for, some you don't...the ones that don't require cash ask that you pay 'in kind', that you bring some food items from their list of approved foods, or that you donate things like cushions or bed linens etc.  You're also required to do some manual work around the monastery....it's pret...

I do my best to stay away from you. I don't talk about you, I don't write about you, I don't even think about you most of the time. I don't like you...actually, I detest you...but I still respect you enough to not mention you or gossip about you. You apparently cannot do the same for me. You take everything I say and you twist it.  You mock me and my lifestyle, you take great delight in manipulating my words and my actions and using them for your own selfish gain and self-amusem...

I have a headache. It's not a classic migraine.  I'm not sure what it is, but it hurts like a sumbitch. It started this morning.....it began with my right eye hurting, then getting a little fogged over...I can still see out of it, but it's like looking through slightly frosted glass.  Then my temple and right forehead started to hurt, then the pain extended down the right side of my nose. I instinctively rubbed my right temple, and there's one 'sweet spot' there that, when I appl...

I think that I'm the only person in the world who needs a certain amount of space around them in order to function properly. I don't ask for a lot of space, in fact my needs have diminished significantly over the years.  I've gone from requiring 3' between me and the next person to about 1'.  Any closer than that, and I start feeling very uncomfortable and claustrophobic, especially if I don't know the person next to me from Adam. Take my experience the other day, for example.&nb...

i've decided to decorate one room in my house the way i want to....to create a sanctuary for myself and my husband. the rest of my house is a rustic, folk-y kind of decor....but our bedroom is just a mish-mash of various and sundry bits and pieces that didn't 'go' anywhere else in the house. so, I'm making it into a buddhist retreat. i found a tapestry pinky-purpley bedspread with a big buddha head on it for $25, and i'm using that as the room's center.  i saw a wooden buddha ...

I'll have been married 11 years in January. That's a long time.  Over a decade, almost a third of my life. I have learned that being married does not automatically entitle you to a lifetime of happiness for nothing. Marriage is a work in progress. People change...I'm not the same person I was 11 years ago, physically, mentally or spiritually, and neither is my husband.  Because the people change, the relationship changes.  I'm not just talking about the dynamics, I'm...

So, you're in love.  You've met the man of your dreams, and he's asked you to marry him.  You've said yes, and are full of hopes and expectations of a long life of blissful happiness together. Say that your dream guy is a cop. In the US Air Force.  You're going to be a cop's wife.  Not to rain on your parade, but life amongst our ranks is a little different, sistah.  Here's what you can expect: Expect to move every 3 or 4 years (less if your man is co...

No, you didn't read the title wrong. A hospital in the Netherlands has started euthanizing terminally ill newborns. Link This is a country that has allowed euthanasia for terminally ill adults for some time now.  I remember watching a show about it when we were still living in England, and that was 9 years ago. Adults are one thing, they have the knowledge and presence of mind needed to make a conscious decision to end their lives if they're terminally ill....but a newborn? ...