achievement & fulfillment

All done with the first four chapters of my ARP - already I feel like a champion!

This action research project is the second to last class of my master in adult education and training. 

I had to write four chapters of research based on over 25 literature reviews. 

Creating the charts, graphs and tables to substantiate this just about drove me to destruction! 

In the final class (which begins next week) we write the fifth and final chapter and publish the approved paper online. 

puff! PUFF!!! final home stretch - four more weeks and I am done and graduated. . . .on to bigger and better stuff! ! !  the real thing 

wild & vulnerable

I listened to the Eurithmics song, 17 Again.  Love that Annie Lennox! 

The YouTube video reminded me that yup!  those times where like negotiating thru a war zone and mine field of an untamed heart and primal instincts.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k-hU_YPL7o&feature=related

Today I am comforted by the wisdom in Rumi's ecstatic poetry. . . .

Love came, and became like blood in my body.

It rushed through my veins and encircled my heart.

Everywhere I looked, I saw one thing.

Love's name written. . . .   

on my limbs, on my left palm, on my forehead,

on the back of my neck, on my right big toe. . . . 

Oh, my friend, all that you see of me

is just a shell, and the rest belongs to love. . . . 

Mawlana Jalal Al-Din Al-Rumi
Philosopher, Sage & Sufi Saint

I'm back. . . .

I took a longer break than planned - figured turning 55 was a good enough reason to return " ) we shall see. . . .

Time to reflect and recollect - especially on the blessings and challenges in our lives.  Seasons and occasions have an energy and a feeling to them and whether we realize it or not, we too are affected by this. 

We celebrate and prepare for birthdays and holidays in different ways.  Birthdays are occasion to celebrate new things, new beginnings, birth and rebirth - promise come to fruition. . . .or not.  

Half a year  has gone by since my surgery and at 55 I can gratefully laugh that other than this I am in perfect health.  Yet my body has changed dramatically.  One thing I noticed is that my processing, though more heightened in sensitivity, is slower and less efficient in unfolding - physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. 

All too often in the daily grind of our lives we forget ourselves.  We are so immersed in the mundane world - doing our lives as ordinary human beings - we have become so removed from the fact that we are all spiritual beings having a human experience. 

This world that we think of as so real and tangible is in fact transitory and an illusion of our own creation.