What a day!

 Waiting

 An old friend

 Bloom where you're planted!

 The wider view...

Jane & Lottie

www.nieniedialogues.blogspot.com

Remember these guys?

The Flatlanders' "Pay the Alligator"

Yesterday with Garrison Keillor

 Prairie Home Companion on the air

from City Bank Auditorium

right here in Lubbock, Texas,

with performances by Lubbock's own
FLATLANDERS!
http://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2013/4/13/1000/PM/The-Flatlanders/

Adorable!

Congrats, Jennifer, William & Bill!

Homage to Image

Pick your pain, if you like:

Regret, disappointment, betrayal,

rejection, defeat,

total annihilation of your

Image

It will be terribly hard to let it go,

To drop it into the flames

That lick at your soul.

But when the heat begins to

Scorch your hands,

You will, thankfully,

Have no other choice

But to drop what you thought

Was your very soul,

And find cool comfort in knowing,

Without a doubt,

You still exist!

Think on it...

 Be a thermostat

Not a thermometer

Animal Instinct

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Enjoy!

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Airigami

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Goodness!

Hospitals Exchange BBQ, Pizza After Disasters in Boston, Waco

It all started when Dr. Chris Kabrhel, an emergency room physician at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, sent pizza to theHillcrest Hospital staff members in Frisco, Texas, to thank them for their hard work after the fertilizer plant explosion that killed 14 people and injured hundreds of others.

Kabrhel sent the pizza to Texas Friday night even though his own hospital had received 29 Boston marathon bombing victims earlier in the week and were working with a smaller staff Friday because of the citywide lockdown that continued till the early evening.

"Thanks for all of your hard work," the handwritten note says in black marker. "From one member of the E. R. family, Chris Kabrhel - Mass General Hospital."

When Trace Arnold, who owns a newly opened barbecue joint, heard about it, he decided to return the favor - Texas style.

"For the medical staff in Boston to be so thoughtful in the middle of their own city's tragedy and think about us down here in Texas was just awesome," Arnold said in a statement.

Courtesy of his new restaurant, 3 Stacks Smoke and Tap House in Frisco, Arnold flew about five coolers of ribs to MGH today. It arrived along with a giant, green Hillcrest Hospital flag that had been signed by 300 hospital employees offering words of encouragement.

"Literally, you can't believe," Dr. Paul Biddinger, who directs emergency operations at MGH, said as he spoke to ABCNews.com just before tucking into a plate of ribs. "You can't believe the smiles on our staff's faces right now."

Five bomb victims remain at MGH. Of the 28 patients admitted to Hillcrest Hospital on the Wednesday after the plant explosion, 24 have been discharged.

A must watch!

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=uFxnBrO9n7o

Remembering

"Be careful the environment you choose

for it will shape you;

be careful the friends you choose

for you will become like them."
W. Clement Stone

"We don't live in a world of reality,

we live in a world of perceptions."
Gerald J. Simmons

"It's not what we get but who we become,
what we contribute that gives meaning to our lives."
Anthony Robbins

Recycling

In the beginning

was the word

LOVE

and God, being LOVE, shared it with

the whole wide world.

Here, take ME into YOU

and multiply the JOY.

LOVE,

free and timeless!

Breathe it into your very LIFE, and

simply let it settle into your very nature.

LOVE  IS

 your very nature.

And at each birthing, sing this song of LOVE.

Breathe LOVE in.

Breathe LOVE out.

More and more and more LOVE

Nothing but LOVE

Nothing but

WAIT!

If it is I who receives LOVE,

then, perhaps, there is even MORE than mere love to be received.

Besides, this feels too easy, too empty, too nothing-like,

and I am certainly not nothing.

In fact, I am something, and something deserves everything.

Well, doesn't it?

Just LOVE, you say? 

Thanks, but no thanks!

             I'm thinking maybe an identity, a reputation,a modus operandi,                   

a purpose--yes, that's it--a purpose!!

Now, you can't argue with that.

Well, I can't just hang around here doing nothing.

I've got WORK to do.

Besides, I'm already feeling a bit weary and breathless

just thinking about this..so much to DO.

Better get busy.

Better stay busy.

Better be busy.

Better be better.

Better BE

                  

Who? What? When? Where? Why?

The Seeker. The prize. As long as it takes. Out there. Just because.

 This is hard work, but surely it's worth it.

I'll just keep at it, try harder, seek harder, work harder!

(Time passes, or not)

Now what was it I came into this world to do?

I'm getting so forgetful.

Hmmmm...I vaguely remember...something about love...my birthright,

My very nature.

Hmmmm...is it still there for the getting?

Or is it too late to ever remember it back

in the beginning

was the only word,

LOVE

never ends...

Written in 2010...and still true in 2013!

"If only I may grow:  firmer, simpler, quieter, warmer." 

Dag Hammerskold

Just for Fun

 Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

 Rub-a-dub-dub

Seven babies in tubs!

Little Handful

Finding her pace...

The Peaceful Fish

Just you wait and see!

As we were walking to our car in the parking lot 

of the Science Spectrum yesterday, Sawyer looked up at me, 

smiled, and said, "I'm tooting."

Happy Boy

Sawyer spotted this "tractor" in a neighbor's yard yesterday,

and first he wanted to look at it...then touch it...then sit on it.

The neighbor was nice enough to let him do all three.

Doesn't he look pleased?

Sunday Playdate

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Lottie-in-a-Drawer

Circling

 Cafeteria  Style

Love

Is a circle

Of remembering

How it never felt to dish it out

When you have just been served a big

Helping of Well-That-Didn't-Feel-Good;

And in time, and certainly no sooner,

You finally forgive all broken hands,

And remembering

Is a circle of

Love.

Written 7/5/2010

and reaffirmed this past week!

Goodness prevails!

In times like these...(thanks, T!)

Precious Boston Baby...Today!

Still Life!

OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR

A Senate in the Gun Lobby’s Grip

By GABRIELLE GIFFORDS

Published: April 17, 2013

• 
  

WASHINGTON

SENATORS say they fear the N.R.A. and the gun lobby. But I think that fear must be nothing compared to the fear the first graders in Sandy Hook Elementary School felt as their lives ended in a hail of bullets. The fear that those children who survived the massacre must feel every time they remember their teachers stacking them into closets and bathrooms, whispering that they loved them, so that love would be the last thing the students heard if the gunman found them.

On Wednesday, a minority of senators gave into fear and blocked common-sense legislation that would have made it harder for criminals and people with dangerous mental illnesses to get hold of deadly firearms — a bill that could prevent future tragedies like those in Newtown, Conn., Aurora, Colo., Blacksburg, Va., and too many communities to count.

Some of the senators who voted against the background-check amendments have met with grieving parents whose children were murdered at Sandy Hook, in Newtown. Some of the senators who voted no have also looked into my eyes as I talked about my experience being shot in the head at point-blank range in suburban Tucson two years ago, and expressed sympathy for the 18 other people shot besides me, 6 of whom died. These senators have heard from their constituents — who polls show overwhelmingly favored expanding background checks. And still these senators decided to do nothing. Shame on them.

I watch TV and read the papers like everyone else. We know what we’re going to hear: vague platitudes like “tough vote” and “complicated issue.” I was elected six times to represent southern Arizona, in the State Legislature and then in Congress. I know what a complicated issue is; I know what it feels like to take a tough vote. This was neither. These senators made their decision based on political fear and on cold calculations about the money of special interests like the National Rifle Association, which in the last election cycle spent around $25 million on contributions, lobbying and outside spending.

Speaking is physically difficult for me. But my feelings are clear: I’m furious. I will not rest until we have righted the wrong these senators have done, and until we have changed our laws so we can look parents in the face and say: We are trying to keep your children safe. We cannot allow the status quo — desperately protected by the gun lobby so that they can make more money by spreading fear and misinformation — to go on.

I am asking every reasonable American to help me tell the truth about the cowardice these senators demonstrated. I am asking for mothers to stop these lawmakers at the grocery store and tell them: You’ve lost my vote. I am asking activists to unsubscribe from these senators’ e-mail lists and to stop giving them money. I’m asking citizens to go to their offices and say: You’ve disappointed me, and there will be consequences.

People have told me that I’m courageous, but I have seen greater courage. Gabe Zimmerman, my friend and staff member in whose honor we dedicated a room in the United States Capitol this week, saw me shot in the head and saw the shooter turn his gunfire on others. Gabe ran toward me as I lay bleeding. Toward gunfire. And then the gunman shot him, and then Gabe died. His body lay on the pavement in front of the Safeway for hours.

I have thought a lot about why Gabe ran toward me when he could have run away. Service was part of his life, but it was also his job. The senators who voted against background checks for online and gun-show sales, and those who voted against checks to screen out would-be gun buyers with mental illness, failed to do their job.

They looked at these most benign and practical of solutions, offered by moderates from each party, and then they looked over their shoulder at the powerful, shadowy gun lobby — and brought shame on themselves and our government itself by choosing to do nothing.

They will try to hide their decision behind grand talk, behind willfully false accounts of what the bill might have done — trust me, I know how politicians talk when they want to distract you — but their decision was based on a misplaced sense of self-interest. I say misplaced, because to preserve their dignity and their legacy, they should have heeded the voices of their constituents. They should have honored the legacy of the thousands of victims of gun violence and their families, who have begged for action, not because it would bring their loved ones back, but so that others might be spared their agony.

This defeat is only the latest chapter of what I’ve always known would be a long, hard haul. Our democracy’s history is littered with names we neither remember nor celebrate — people who stood in the way of progress while protecting the powerful. On Wednesday, a number of senators voted to join that list.

Mark my words: if we cannot make our communities safer with the Congress we have now, we will use every means available to make sure we have a different Congress, one that puts communities’ interests ahead of the gun lobby’s. To do nothing while others are in danger is not the American way.

Gabrielle Giffords, a Democratic representative from Arizona from 2007 to 2012, is a founder of Americans for Responsible Solutions, which focuses on gun violence.

Stay tuned...

Boston

Thanks Sarah, it still doesn't seem real but it helps to know i am able to help the people that came to our hospital. There are some tragic injuries, but people are pulling together and trying to keep spirits high. I am so thankful we are ok.
Love ya,

On Apr 16, 2013 8:04 AM, "Sarah Mulkey" <mulkey.sarah48@yahoo.com> wrote:

Oh, sweet Meg, my heart hurts for your amazing city. I LOVE BOSTON, and right now I am praying for all of you that GOODNESS will prevail in the middle of this awful dark time. I know you are touching hearts and lives as you serve so many; I'm assuming Geoff is also probably being called to respond. Hug each other for me...and don't forget that sweetie-pie...Miss Evy.

Loving you from way down here...Sarahs & s 

Bless Boston's Heart!

Here's little Evy with her beads before they

headed down to watch the 

Boston Marathon,

returning early when she needed a nap.

Weekend Goodness!

A great weekend with Ed & Virginia

all the way from Austin! 

Our hero, Baron Batch, featured artist 

at the Lubbock Art Festival

after he signed our print of Papa Time

PAPA TIME 

In either hand he holds the sun and moon. 

He controls every millisecond, to every millennium,

 and all things before in-between and after. 

 His name is Papa Time. 

 I think at times we all wish to control the sun and moon, 

play with night and day on strings like a marionette, 

and control the timing of what happens in our lives. 

 We like to think that we control the timing of things, 

but we don’t, because we can't. 

 And that in itself is a scary thought. 

 Or a completely amazing one. 

 Each morning when you wake up, 

acknowledge the fact that that someone somewhere 

went to sleep the same time as you did the night before. 

 This person planned out what they would wear to work, 

what they would eat for breakfast, 

and the errands they would run the next day. 

This person lays in bed texting his girlfriend for whom he cares deeply. 

He is not good at saying how he feels. 

He knows he loves her, but has been unable to say it. 

Before telling his girlfriend goodnight he lets her know that he has 

something he wants to tell her tomorrow, 

something that he has needed to say and that she needs to hear. 

In his restless mind he plans how he will tell this girl three words 

that have been impossible for him until now. 

 “I love you.” 

Both of you set your alarm for the same time 

and close your eyes to get some rest. 

 You wake up grumpy complaining about work 

and the fact that it’s Monday. 

You are rude to everyone you meet throughout the day. 

You waste precious time being negative and after work you head home. 

When you get home you complain some more 

about having to wake up the following day. 

You set your alarm again, banking on the fact that you will have 

the opportunity to be awoken by it in 8 hours. 

 You close your eyes to go to sleep, 

while halfway across the country a woman cannot close hers 

because of the tears she weeps. 

 This woman’s eyes are red and her mind cannot comprehend 

the last 24 hours. 

She has lost someone that she loved dearly. 

She reads through their text conversation the night before, 

laughing through tears about some of the silly things he said. 

She reads the last text he sent and begins sobbing uncontrollably again. 

 “Goodnight. Tomorrow I wanna tell you something 

that I’ve been wanting to for a while. 

It's something that I want you to hear from me face to face.” 

 24 hours earlier both of you set your alarm 

banking on the fact that you would wake up to it. 

 You woke up. 

 He didn’t. 

 Time is the most precious and irreplaceable thing that humans have. 

When it is gone, it’s gone forever. 

 Sometimes things that are left unsaid can never be recovered. 

They are gone forever, because they never were used. 

They were invested in time that did not yet exist. 

 The only time that is guaranteed 

is the moment that just passed as you read this. 

The only time you have has already been used. 

 Time is ticking. 

 What you say and do with the unforeseeable amount 

of the precious resource 

is what makes life worth living, not the amount you are given. 

We are dying from the day we are born. 

 Time is precious, 

and it is the precious things in life that really matter. 

Life is death. 

And death is beautiful.

Thursday evening...

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Lost & Found

The Gift of Today!

Yes!

Like it?

Winter is back!

At least for the day...

(I declare! And just when spring had sprung.)

Wisdom from Regina...

Written by Regina Brett, 90 years old, of the Plain Dealer, Cleveland , Ohio .

"To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. 

It is the most requested column I've ever written. 

My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short - enjoy it.

4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick; your friends and family will.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don't have to win every argument. Stay true to yourself.

7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.

8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.

10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.

12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.

13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.

15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye, but don't worry, God never blinks.

16.. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful. Clutter weighs you down in many ways.

18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.

19.. It's never too late to be happy. But it's all up to you and no one else.

20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.

21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a   special occasion. Today is special.

22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.

23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.

24. The most important sex organ is the brain.

25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.

26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will this matter?'

27. Always choose life.

28. Forgive

29. What other people think of you is none of your business.

30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.

31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

33. Believe in miracles.

34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.

35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

36. Growing old beats the alternative of dying young.

37. Your children get only one childhood.

38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved. 

39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.

41. Envy is a waste of time. Accept what you already have, not what you need. 

42. The best is yet to come...

43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

44. Yield.

45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift."