Newly Done Deck

Ian is the "Handy Man Can" guy!

This weekend he took out my old crappy deck and installed an amazing new one that is about twice as big and much more interesting to boot. Ian is super sensitive and managed to install the new deck without harming the perennial plants in the ground. Virtually anyone else would have trashed the place.

I can now spread many of my bonsai all over the deck and actually see and enjoy them. He did an amazing job but most importantly, the dogs love it. They can now sit all over, between and among the bonsai; each one, dog and bonsai, is in his/her own space. (As always, click once or twice on photos to enlarge them.)

I am in the final pages of my latest "read": - eat, pray, love by Elizabeth Gilbert.

Some nuggets: -
"Instead of trying to forcefully take thoughts out of your mind, give your mind something better to play with. Something healthier. Like love."

"Your ego - - - keeps you feeling separate, - - - tries to convince you that you're flawed and broken and alone instead of whole. Your ego's - only job is to keep itself in power."

"There's no trouble in this world so serious that it can't be cured with a hot bath, a glass of whiskey and the Book of Common Prayer.

"Seva is the Sanskrit term for spiritual practice of selfless service."

"God dwells within you, as you."

"In 1954, Pope Pius XI, of all people, sent some Vatican delegates on a trip to Libya with these written instructions: 'Do not think that you are going among Infidels. Muslims attain salvation, too. The ways of Providence are infinite.'"

"You can do Yoga, but Yoga too hard. Why they always look so serious in Yoga? You make serious face like this, you scare away good energy. To meditate, only you must smile. Smile with face, smile with mind, and good energy will come to you and clean away dirty energy. - - - Not to hurry, not to try too hard. Too serious, make you sick. You can calling good energy with a smile." (Ketut Liyer)

"I think about religion, most of it is same-same. - - - I have good idea, for if you meet some person from different religion and he want to make argument about God. Never argue about God with him. Best thing to say is, 'I agree with you.' Then you go home, pray what you want. This is my idea for people to have peace about religion." (Ketut Liyer)

"Bhuta ia, dewa ia." - "Man is demon, man is a god. The ingredients for both darkness and light are equally present in all of us, - - - it's up to the individual to decide which will be brought forth-the virtues or the malevolence." So what can we do about the craziness of the world? Nothing. "This is the nature of the world. Worry about your craziness only-make you in peace."

Yourself to yourself, "I love you, I will never leave you, I will always take care of you."

"An oak tree is brought into being by two forces at the same time. Obviously there is the acorn from which it all begins, the seed which holds all the promise and potential, which grows into the tree. Everybody can see that. But only a few can recognize that there is another force operating here as well-the future tree itself, which wants so badly to exist that it pulls the acorn into being, drawing the seedling forth with longing out of the void, guiding the evolution out of nothingness to maturity. In this respect say the Zens (Bhuddists), it is the oak tree that creates the very acorn from which it was born."

With thanks and apologies to Elizabeth Gilbert from, Eat, Pray, Love"