Sunday - my church

THAT LIVES IN US

If you put your hands on this oar with me,
they will never harm another, and they will come to find
they hold everything you want.

If you put your hands on this oar with me, they would no longer
lift anything to your
mouth that might wound your precious land-
that sacred earth that is
your body.

If you put your soul against this oar with me,
the power that made the universe will enter your sinew
from a source not outside your limbs, but from a holy realm
that lives in us.

Exuberant is existence, time a husk.

When the moment cracks open, ecstasy leaps out and devours space;
love goes mad with the blessings, like my words give.

Why lay yourself on the torturer’s rack of the past and future?

The mind that tries to shape tomorrow beyond its capacities
will find no rest.

Be kind to yourself, dear- to our innocent follies.

Forget any sounds or touch you knew that did not help you dance.

You will come to see that all evolves us.

If you put your heart against the earth with me, in serving
every creature, our Beloved will enter you from our sacred realm
and we will be, we will be
so happy.

-Rumi

please help save the bees

Bike to work week ends - now what

I'll tell you what - More biking to work thats what!



Today is the last day in Spokane's Bike to Work Week. For most of the year I had been taking the bus to work and school, Richard had been riding to work quite a bit. The weather finally changed and the days were long so I jumped on my bike a couple of weeks ago and have been riding ever since.

I don't want to wax poetic about riding my bike but it's a good feeling to know that I'm saving more than gas. I'm also saving my body and my environment. I take tougher routes to get a good workout. I'm more aware, when I am in my car, of the world beyond my four doors. The other thing I really like is that I get to feel connected with the communities I ride through. I can stop along the way and look at the view or talk with a neighbor. I get to ride through the park and smell the apple blossoms. Ok, I'm waxing.

Yes, there have been a few chilly mornings and a mindless driver here and there but let's just say bike commuting totally rocks!

I don't know if it's the gas prices nearing $4.00 a gallon, the 90 degree weather or the intense amount of PR and community ground work that the city and volunteers did to get the word out about Bike to Work Week but our bike cage at work is totally full today - in the six years that I've worked here there has never been more that 5 bikes including mine in the bike cage and today it is full! I'd say that BTW is a huge success this year. Congratulations Spokane, well done!



I hope to see a full cage like this more often. We need more bikes on the road!

Know anything about marmots?

Richard and I have a new backyard inhabitant - a sole marmot.
We call him Charles or Charlie because Charles Marmot sounds sophisticated, for a marmot.

Wiki says that "marmots are basically large squirrels, that they are highly social, and use loud whistles to communicate with one another and that they mainly eat greens." Which seems to be true because our marmot has being dining on dandelions.

Wiki also says that "marmots are credited with transmitting numerous coughing ailments to humans and that they may have been the primary carriers of the Bubonic plague during several historic outbreaks. Making them second only to the malarial mosquito as a killer of humans."

So, I'm wondering...





friend or foe?

somebody needs a blog

this is my sister - she used to be the 'balcony girl'.


now who is she? Don't you want to know?

Let's all send her the blogger vibe so she might one day
type and post again.

Now available in a real live building

I finally found someone to carry some of my yoga mat bags. OK, I haven't really been out there pounding the pavement flogging my wears like I should be but since I'm so lucky someone came along.
If you live in Spokane you can purchase one of my Yoga mat bags at Main Street Yoga. It's a lovely yoga studio in the heart of Downtown Spokane.

pedal2thepeople

I finally got my butt on a bike this Sunday despite the snow!
I won't bore you with my particular brand of blog philosophy today.
Instead, I'll just share the day with you in photos.
(thanks to T for making such a thing perfectly acceptable)


We headed south from home across the Spokane River on the Monroe St. bridge.


Here's us, looking a little odd but happy. (nice helmets eh?)


Our destination was a pizza place called Bennidito's


The point was to go there and watch the Paris Roubaix and to support the organization that gives bikes to the community Pedals2People


The turn out was great - everyone and their freak bike showed up.


Here's John Speare modeling one of Richard's Trials bikes.





there was lots of good food to be had




Here's Richard contemplating his next bike adventure or is it purchase???



good company...







and I think some really good fund-raising for the cause.





On the way home we tried to capture the weather on the ride - it was snowing.



But all together a pretty perfect day. (I even got to eat)



(ps. the good photos are by Michael Conley, Richard's boss)

Happy Brithday Richard!

Happy Birthday to my best friend, my love. I'm so lucky that
I get to celebrate with someone so wonderful each and every day
of the year. But on this special day please know that you are
and will always be the best part of my life.



You are the chocolate frosting and black cherries
in my white bean salad...YUMMY! - You make everything sweet and I love you.
xoxoxoxoxo