Some Life Lessons

How many times do people have to tell you you are amazing before you get it?

There is no peace without forgiveness. Attack thoughts toward others are attacks on ourselves. ~Marianne Williamson

Gratitude Thanks for this writing

“But how do I feel grateful when I want so many things to be different than they are?” Well, the answer is by wanting to focus on gratitude, by choosing to be grateful. Everything is always a choice when it comes to our focus.

Being grateful, however, is not about pretending to be grateful. It’s not about just saying the words. It is not a mental exercise. You must feel it. And you can feel it even when circumstances may seem grim. To quote Eric Butterworth’s Spiritual Economics, “This is precisely the time to stir up the gift of gratitude! Remember, it is not a reactionary emotion but a causative one.” In other words, by being grateful, you cause or draw to you more experiences to feel grateful about!

Gratitude and appreciation are powerful, high frequency emotions. You don’t have to look outside to your environment for things to be grateful for in order to feel and experience gratitude. You can choose to be grateful, to feel grateful, to experience gratitude. In other words, gratitude is not a response to something external, but a state of Being that you bring to the world. When you do this, amazing things happen."

______________________________

A Few Wise Words

"An open home, an open heart, here grows a bountiful harvest."
Judy Hand

"There is hope for us all. Well, anyway, if you don't die,you live through it, day in and day out." Mary Beckett


Gorgeous music
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU_QR_FTt3E&feature=PlayList&p=D215BC8DB7EDC253&index=0&playnext=1

Many blessing.
Eve

New website

Check out my new website at http://brownstonetherapeutics.com/.
Come visit and say "hi".
Eve

Happy New Year!

A New Year is dawning 5770.
May we all have a happy and healthy New Year.
L' Shana Tova!

Art Tarot

Art Tarot Friday August 7th. A celebration of community and Tarot.
7013 Sheridan Rd. $5 at door. 6pm door open.

7013n Studio

Please join me for an Open Art Studio Wed June 10 at 7013 Studio 7013 N. Sheridan Rd. in Rogers Park. You bring your supplies and lets have some fun.

Have a Good Memorial Day

With My Family on Memorial Day
Northridge Review, Vol. 4.1 (1986)
Wes Hempel

**This site was awarded a Times Pick by the Los Angeles Times on 5/23/97.**


We sit next to the barbecue, already two grown men
you with a family of your own
and listen to Uncle Frank tell how shrapnel
spread up the back of his legs
He waves a spatula at the smoke and fills his glass
as he talks, white foam spills over the sides
In Dresden the bodies like coals

I think of the only death I ever saw
We lived in a comfortable house then
four rooms behind the railroad tracks
a back porch, a walnut tree
bodies of cars in the yard

First we caught the frog in a potato chip bag
then dropped him into a pot of water
We were boys and your friend Mike said
if the temperature is raised slowly enough
the frog doesn't even notice

When the afternoon is over, you carry Jenny
on your shoulders to the car. Donna pushes
Chris in the stroller. Everyone kisses me goodbye

This is not something we do often. Years creep
in between the days we see each other

Driving home, I think of the voices we listen to
the imperceptible progression
how it starts in the garage with a broken Volkswagen
Dad directing your hand on the wrench
There will always be cars to repair
So you follow him onto the floor of the shop
bend over engines where years of oil
slowly seep into the lines of your skin

At night you drive home to the same neighborhood
where the row of walnut trees, your daughter
in the driveway with a hose, your son lifting
his face from the edge of a bra, and the white head
climbing the sides of your glass
have nothing to do with choices

It is the same life we knew
with nothing but years between
nothing but slowness and gradation

It is not a question of happiness
or repair, the reassembly of a life

We have not returned with killings every night
a child's face ripped from his head
each time we close our eyes
the smoking remains of a man on his knees

We are two boys who yell Jump to a boiling frog
two men who do not know destruction
only this slow comfort, and the summer
gradually rising around us

Home

Home

What makes a home? Is it the brick, cement, metal and wood that create a home? It is what the heart knows, connections between loved ones, the feeling of being held with love and safety. It is the feeling of being seen as good enough and encouraged to go for what you want, even if it involves leaving home to make your dreams come true. As you make your journey into to this unknown adventure, you find that your home is still with you in your heart. It says to you, “We are with you, you are safe and you can do this.” Your sense of home is reflected in the way you say “hello”, help out a friend, and stand up for yourself. Home is also a place you may return to again and again. You are welcomed with open arms.

Introducing 7013 Studio

Going Inside

I am going to go on a walk about inside my heart for a few weeks. I will be with other people..present...but I will be listening to my heart more..that is my intention....

Shadow

7013 Studio Opening Friday May 15

Changes- Got It Going On

Life is all about learning. Being open to learning new things..opening new doors..sampling..if something doesn't quite fit try something new. These days I'm trying many new things like helping a friend open up an art studio/ gallery and some old wonderful things like making more art and writing more. Everything seems more right in the world. I love to create to be in a zone..it is like taking a short vacation to Bora Bora without the jetlag. Be well and Enjoy the Sun.

Hilda Brownstone

Hilda Brownstone 1914-2008 I love you grandma.

West Wind by Mary Oliver

West Wind

You are young. So you know everything. You leap
into the boat and begin rowing. But listen to me.
Without fanfare, without embarrassment, without
any doubt, I talk directly to your soul. Listen to me.
Lift the oars from the water, let your arms rest, and
your heart, and heart’s little intelligence, and listen to
me. There is life without love. It is not worth a bent
penny, or a scuffed shoe. It is not worth the body of a
dead dog nine days unburied. When you hear, a mile
away and still out of sight, the churn of the water
as it begins to swirl and roil, fretting around the
sharp rocks – when you hear that unmistakable
pounding – when you feel the mist on your mouth
and sense ahead the embattlement, the long falls
plunging and steaming – then row, row for your life
toward it.

~ Mary Oliver ~

(West Wind)

Making a Choice to Help

A few weeks back, I was walking down a snow covered Granville. I saw a pigeon looking like it was caught on some ice on the side walk. I bent over the poor thing and touched it with my glove. It wasn't stuck but injured. I couldn't just leave it there to die. So I picked it up with both gloves and held the bird gently as I walked two block to the vet office. It's little heart was beating quickly..as I walked along suddenly the bird stopped moving. I think it died in my arms. I got to the vet practically in tears. I lay the pigeon gently on the floor of the office and walked away after letting the office clerk know. I wasn't positive that the bird was dead but it sure felt like it. It hit close to home for me. I remembered holding my dog childhood friend Flower as she was put to sleep eighteen years ago. I remembered standing in Lake Michigan with my Rabbi spreading the ashes of my beloved cat Ezzy three years ago. I was reminded of how animals touch our lives even if just a few seconds. Thoughts of guilt rang through me, maybe I killed it, I thought to myself as I left the vet's office. A friend reminded me later that maybe the bird was already dying and I just gave him/her some comfort. That thought gives me comfort.

Hardest to Love

Usually the hardest folks to love are the ones most in need of it.

Gift From The Sea

The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too

impatient. To dig for treasures shows not only impatience and greed, but lack of faith. Patience, patience, patience, is what the sea teaches. Patience and faith. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach -- waiting for a gift from the sea.”

From: Gift from the Sea

by Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Love Is..

I want to love you without clutching,
Appreciate you without judging,
Join you without invading,
Invite you without demanding,
Leave you without guilt,
Criticize you without blaming,
And help you without insulting.
If I can have the same from you,
Then we can truly meet and enrich each other.
-- Virginia Satir


You and I... We meet as strangers,
Each carrying a mystery within us.
I cannot say who you are:
I may never know you completely.
But I trust that you are a person
In your own right,
Possessed of a beauty and value
That are the earth's richest treasures.
So I make this promise to you: 
 I will impose no identities upon you, 
 But will invite you to become yourself 
 Without shame or fear. 

I will hold open a space for you in the world 
 And defend your right to fill it 
 With an authentic vocation. 
 For as long as your search takes, 
 You have my loyalty. 


--- Theodore Roszak

Journey to Obamaland

The Journey to Obamaland

We met at a church called The Sanctuary. Mom and me joined hundreds of folks going by bus with Congressman Danny Davis. The coordinators of this trip rented 10 buses for us to make the twelve hour trip. Before it was over twelve hours stretched to twenty because of getting lost, stopping for a picture for Newsweek, Bus Ten breaking down. Bus Ten was featured on the news. We drove by caravan so our bus had to wait until bus ten was free to go as well. What made it for me, this never ending trip, was that I was going through this with amazing people.

We came from all over Chicago and as far away as Kalamazoo Michigan. We were brown, black, white, red and yellow. There were teachers with big hearts, an editor from Street Wise, ministers with prayers and encouragement. “We can do this with the Lord’s help,” they prayed. There older women like my mother who had been working for the campaign, praying and hoping for Obama to be President. My mom had volunteered for the Obama campaign for the past two years. Our family is proud of her. There were other families of women traveling together- women bringing their daughters or granddaughter. Everybody was saying ”I was not going to miss this.”

My mom and I started praying to Jesus and Alla to cover all of our bases to ensure a safe journey. We did make it to the Inauguration safely but it wasn’t always a certainty. In Pennsylvania, we passed a burnt out truck…the cab of the truck had burst into flames. We reached our hotel around 9pm. We all breathed a sigh of relief, then cheered the bus drivers.



The next day we left our hotel at 5am for Washington DC. (We were staying at a beautiful resort hotel called the Herrington Standard right on the Chesapeake Bay. Gorgeous.)

Try to imagine two million+ people conversing on the Capital. Our bus went in circles and didn’t drop us off until after 8am. I think to have a good spot we needed to be there at on the Capital Mall by 5am.

In reality though just being there in the area was a good spot. The feeling of unity was incredible.

Off the bus mom and I walked into a Starbucks, we met students from NY, a man from Seattle whose son had worked for Obama on his campaign. We shared our stories-what brought us there. The kind man gave my mom and I two tickets to the Blue Gate. I gave him a rainbow cookie to thank him. We headed out in search of the Blue Gate. We found the Silver Gate and the Yellow Gates right away. We kept walking. Mom and I probably walked ten miles that day.. We found the Blue Gate at the opposite side of the Capital.

The Blue Gate was a daunting experience…there were probably 5,000 people ahead of us…waiting in line for hours…everybody was happy to be there..nice even..folks came from Texas…New Mexico, Pennsylvania, DC…and everywhere else….

Mom and I realized that we weren’t going to get in the Blue Gate. Shortly after we left the Blue Gate, the gate was closed…thousands of us couldn’t get in…but mom and I were okay..we accepted the fact that we couldn’t get in and thought about the best next best way to experience this big moment for Obama and our country. We found some high steps that looked out over the Mall. We couldn’t see anything..but we could hear Aretha Franklin Sing. Mom was tired we found a spot to sit in the Sun. It was around 30 degrees but sunny. In the sun we met a man from Dublin.

Behind us catching some rays and hearing what they could were several hundred people, keeping warm and their spirits up together.

Mom suggested to me, ”Why don’t you climb a tree?” We saw twenty-something students resting on near by branches. I am forty-one and couldn’t see myself climbing. Mom and I found ourselves near a fence on the outside of the parameter of The Mall with thousand of other Americans. A nice couple who were listening to radios on headsets were kind of enough to give us the play by play..”now Nancy Pelosi is speaking..Bush came on stage…people are booing…” and cheering when our 43rd President left the Capital.

Everybody breathed a collective sigh of relief. Amen.

Mom and I started walking again..we wanted to hear the inauguration speech. We wanted to hear it ourselves. We were also cold and tired by this point. We had been outside for four hours. Mom and I sat down on a bench to rest away from the crowds. To our left about 50 yards away was a small group of people standing around another older African American man.

We were curious, so mom and I joined this small group. The older black man(George) was holding a small radio. These small group of Americans listened to Barack’s Inauguration Address on this small purple portable radio that George held in his cold hands. People around the circle wept..I wept. We all were glued to every word and grateful to George. George’s wife wanted to walk on a head and she asked her husband to move on with her. George told his wife that he was going to stay with us with his people until Barack’s speech was over.(His wife did stay until the end of the speech.) Her husband trembled with emotion. These moment with George and this small group of folks were very meaningful to me. We didn’t know each other..but we were cheering, weeping together..feeling so proud of being Americans together. Thank you George wherever you are.

With warm hearts, we walked on..we were ready to find the bus…we walked to the drop-off point. There was no bus..

The Bus…….luckily we had the bus driver’s card. He told us he couldn’t pick us up and we would have to walk to him. By that point mom and I were exhausted. It was about 2:30pm. We had to hustle with achy feet and bones to the new drop off point. We thought the bus driver might leave us by 3pm..we couldn’t be sure what he would do…As we approached the spot where he told us to meet him..he was pulling out…I lumbered across the street and stood infront of the bus to make him stop. He stopped and mom and I got on the bus. The only way folks from our bus knew to come to the new pick up point is if they called the bus driver. There were no coordinators on the bus at this point. We decided as a group to try to call the remaining people not on the bus to let them know where we were and where we could pick them up. Within a few more hours everyone was accounted for. I am very proud of the women that took charge on the bus to find everyone. We were empowered by that day and out of necessity.

Mom and I stayed back at the hotel that night..watching the Balls on TV. The Obamas made it to Ten balls before 1am I heard. We have such a cool President and First Lady.

The next day on the way back to Chicago, Mom and I and the wonderful women sitting close by to us reflected on the experience. We were glad that we went we acknowledged that parts of it were hard-the bus, the cold, not being able to see-but we all had our moments that made it worthwhile. We were all glad that we have a new President. We Did It!!!

Going to Washington DC

I'm off to Washington for the Inauguration. I will be one of the screaming ...happy masses. I 'll be on the bus with my mom and Danny Davis and maybe some peach cubbler from Edna's Restaurant.
Peace,
Eve

Okay

Okay
Things are okay...not really..but presently in this present moment infront of my eyes...no it is cold out side..and why am I not living in Maui..I love Chicago..bbrrrr
Stay Warm!

A New Day

I set the alarm today for 5am..exercised and now I am writing a little bit. I set an intention nd now I'm following through with it. I know my day is going to be better than yesterday because of it.

I an open for new experiences on and off the page...

If Severin can find me on Facebook..a friend from Israel..now living in Switzerland that I knew when I was eighteen..anything is possible.
Amen.......