2008-05-14

Today was a wet, wet day. It stopped raining in the afternoon, so Mick got some mowing done, enough to keep him vaguely abreast of his schedule for the week. In the wet, after Morning Offering, he drove up to Avalon and dropped off the DR brush mower for Melissa’s use. She says she finds Dearie handier to store and use than the big mower, so she is swapping Fielder, which Steve F donated to L/L Research, to Jim in exchange for Dearie. That way she can see to cutting the pasture on Avalon herself. She will also get a small Toro from us after it is repaired. Jim dropped that off to be fixed on the way up to Avalon.

Mick’s big triumph of the day was that, after he got his customers mowed here, he drove down to Steve F’s place near Shelbyville and got his acreage mowed. Now he can see his way clear to going to All Saints Retreat Center with me on Saturday so I can sing in the big hoopla service for the presiding Bishop. Thank the Lord! I did not relish the idea of going there on my own.

As for me, I worked all day on the databases – Channeling Intensive 2’s channeling quotes database and my recipes database. I am up to July 15, 1982 in the channeling database, with 41 pages of good quotations collected so far, and in the recipes,I am coming right along on reassigning dishes in the casserole section, which Mick never uses, to their meats or to their designation in the pasta section, which sections he DOES use. It was quiet work and I enjoyed the utter peacefulness of the day, drowned as it was in soft rain and pearly gray light.

At choir practice tonight, there were bagpipes, guitars and violins. We practiced everything we will sing during the All Saints service on Saturday. All went well! I think we are ready for the bishop!

Mick offered the closing prayer at the Gaia Meditation tonight.

2008-05-13

We had a gift of a spring day, cool and crisp. We won’t see many crisp days from now until next winter, as the Ohio River valley is very soggy during warm weather. So after Morning Offering, Mick relished going out and doing his work. This was a signal blessing, as he had a double load today. Rains come in tomorrow and settle in for a couple of days, so he is mowing ahead. He did not return until after the channeling session in the late evening! Mick is one hard-working man!

Melissa came early and did town chores until 11:30, while I finished the re-do of the format in the daily entries of the Holly Journal. It was good to see that accomplished. At this stage of my life I am conscious of how my literary executor will come in after my death and try to create finished products from the writing I have done. This Journal will definitely be a possibility for publishing. I now have an alphabetical index of Holly’s Words for the Day, which should make the editor’s job of arranging the material easy.

It may sound cold-blooded or ghoulish, but to me it is logical and positive to look ahead. I was born with three basic gifts, a bone-deep devotion to and hunger for the Lord, an instinct for service to others and a facility with words. These have twined and plaited into the work of my life. There is much material beyond my published works waiting to be edited and published, if that is ever desired. So I think like a librarian and try to keep my letters saved, my speeches and interviews edited and my poetry, recipes and journals in order.

Melissa and I went retail today, something I generally avoid. But neither the consignment shop nor Wal Mart had a pair of khakis to fit me, so off we went to the nearest cluster of shops like Old Navy and Banana Republic. We did not have to go far, just a couple of miles north to The Summit Center on Old Brownsboro Road. We ate first at Max and Erma’s Deli and then tried the shops. We got lucky at Lane Bryant and found khakis for 60% off, almost as good as consignment prices. I now have my first pair of cargo pants. I’m kewl!

We stopped at Wal Mart to return the failure khakis and at Pier 1 Imports to find a dozen more trays for our next Homecoming. Then we stopped by the drive-through at the bank to deposit some cash donations for L/L Research. It was a good outing, maximizing our expensive gas!

I spent the rest of my work day working on the database on channeling for Channeling Intensive 2. I am working chronologically. Today I got to the end of 1980 in searching our archives, and so far I have 30 pages of Confederation quotes on the subject. It’s coming along nicely!

With scarcely a break, I tuned for a private channeling session with Yelena and then Romi and Gary sat with me for that session, while Yelena joined us by telephone. Her questions revolved around seeking her guidance, the status of her energy body and psychic greeting.

Romi offered the closing prayer at the Gaia Meditation tonight.

2008-05-12

A gentle sun and a cool breeze blessed our iris blooms today while the temperature just kissed 70 F by nightfall, making it a great working day for Mick. After Morning Offering he set out on his rounds of mowing and a lot of gardening.

I had a strong impulse to break away from my routine and worked on my Holly Journal entries, starting an alphabetized list of her Words for the day and adjusting the daily entries' format, which did not settle down for months after I began having my private chapel time. If this material ever sees print, I would imagine the best way to present it would be alphabetically. When I am finished, the material should be uniform and easy to get ready for publication.

By the evening, I had progressed most of the way through March's entries, so I have only a few weeks of entries left to do tomorrow and I will be all caught up with myself. Meanwhile, Mick accomplished all he had set out to do. It was a fine day for both of us.

After our bath, we had a date and cuddled afterwards for a while before descending to the downstairs for dinner. I offered the prayer at the Gaia Meditation tonight.

Our llresearch.org website is getting a slightly new look, as our web guy replaced the pure white background with a warm off-white and colored in Don Quixote’s sun in the logo. It’s quite handsome, I think.

There was crushing news tonight. An earthquake in China is said to have taken over 10,000 lives! Now that surely made a terrible disturbance in the force! Here in the States, we lost 12 more people to large tornados in the southwest. I know the victims are all in paradise now, and I pray their transit was swift and sweet.

2008-05-11

The day dawned rainy, windy and ornery. All day it either misted or softly rained while the winds gusted to 50 miles per hour. While it was only squally here, southwest of here tornados took the lives of four people. As the Ra group said, “the inconveniences have begun.”

We had a lovely day, warm and dry inside. After our morning’s “cleanliness is next to Godliness” routine, with Mick cleaning house and I singing the service at St. Luke’s, we settled into a triple feature, which turned into a double feature when, for the third time, the DVD of Reservation Road would not play on our machine.

Over lunch, we began with I’m Not There, a non-linear look at Bob Dylan’s music and generalized life experience so far. Seven actors played Dylan, the most successful of them being Marcus Carl Franklin and Cate Blanchett. This very personal and affectionate film was awash in Dylan’s music and rang with the genius of his words and melodies. I greatly enjoyed the movie and would recommend it to anyone who likes Bob Dylan’s work.

After a break to brew some popcorn, we settled into our second film, The Brave One, with Jodie Foster playing an urban victim turned predator. It is the next vigilante film in a long series of American films which focus on the theme of a person being victimized by criminals and then turning on those who victimized him. Foster did a very good job with the role, but the action was predictable and there was the inevitable tendency to generalize and moralize, which limited the film’s appeal. The production values were excellent. Foster was most appealing, as was Terrence Howard, who played a policeman trying to help Foster.

When we could not get the DVD of Reservation Road to play, we found I, Robot on the tube and watched that instead. Will Smith owned this film and carried it nearly single-handed, squaring off against some beautifully conceived, computer-generated robots. He did a great job. I love science fiction and enjoyed this film thoroughly, but it was indulgent, going over the top in its special effects to the point of the film’s occasionally lacking clarity and coherence.

Mick offered the closing prayer at the Gaia Meditation tonight.

2008-05-10

Mick’s birthday was a deliciously cool, breezy day. We skipped Morning Offering, a rare departure for us, and went straight for present-opening after our breakfast and newspaper time. He received some money and a good pair of dungarees from his Mom. He opened 6 CDs, a shirt and shorts set with a Hawaiian theme and the University of Nebraska logo, an Obama tee and a Nebraska tee, an Obama baseball cap and a Nebraska baseball cap, from me. I topped the offering off with Hershey’s kisses marked “Happy Birthday Mick”. Still to come are a black, a blue and a light brown pair of casual-dress pants and two short-sleeved party shirts. Mick loved everything! No returns this time!

Gary gave him a ticket to the upcoming Dave Matthews Band/Willie Nelson concert and a download of the entire discography of The Who!

I worked at my CI-2 database on channeling, organizing the database chronologically and continuing to collect quotations from the Confederation channeling in our archives. I cleared 20 pages of quotes by bath time. And I am only in 1974! I should be able to amass an awesome collection by the time I work my way through all our material, one which may see us through more than this Intensive as study material.

I also continued to improve my recipes database. All the chicken and fish recipes are now reworked. I have only the roasted-potato recipes to finish in order to declare the white potato section all reworked. And several vegetables are now completely reworked – asparagus, broccoli, carrots and corn so far. With 3,000 recipes to rework, the project will be ongoing. But it is good to see progress in the most popular sections.

I confess to feeling most eager to get the rest of the comments from Steve amalgamated into Living the Law of One 101: The Choice. I am keeping busy, but everything palls before the anticipated time of finishing all the last touches on this book and declaring it DONE! However, it is important to have all the energy put into the project be purely loving, so I have encouraged Steve to finish his comments only when he is in the right zone. Waiting is.

Mick cleaned the kitchen in the early morning. At mid-morning I drove Mick into Middletown to pick up his truck, now equipped with new front brakes and feeling like a whole new vehicle, he said. He spent the rest of the morning doing his usual round of errands and then worked in the yard all afternoon, spiffing up the Rose of Sharon hedge in front and collecting two big garbage-bags full of yard debris.

After our bath we got dressed up and went out to Applebee’s for his birthday meal out, where we knew we could get in and out in time for the L/L Research meditation and study meeting at 8 p.m. Romi and Allen F joined us for meditation. Mick asked a question tonight about sacred sexuality. I look forward to reading it when I edit the transcript. We have only one more public channeling to go before we break for the summer! The season has gone very quickly.

2008-05-09

The sun rose on a chilly day, and full light came and went as showers and mist filled the morning work for Jim and Gary with damp conditions. They set out after Morning Offering together and powered through the day’s work in good time.

Jim is having equipment woes. A belt came off Fielder and he just got that repaired when Suzie’s handle got ripped off tangling with an Anchorage work truck. That damage was amazingly extensive, the repairs coming to $1,000–plus. And yesterday Thetis barely finished mowing and then would not start. On the way home, Jim’s truck’s service light came on. Gary helped him drive that into the dealer’s for repairs. As Mick said, there are months when all the money you make goes right back into your equipment!

I basically spent my day collecting good quotes for the Channeling Intensive 2 attendees to discuss. I have 11 pages now. Around the edges I drove up to Middletown to get Mick his birthday card, as he turns 61 tomorrow. I am bummed that the clothes we ordered have not yet come in – two shirts and three pairs of pants. He will have to enjoy an extended birthday celebration! But he has some nice presents to open, as I have been collecting CDs, tees and baseball caps for him.

I also wrote Gary concerning the curriculum for CI-2, and Melissa concerning Avalon affairs. All in all, it was a delightful day. However, my tummy is still acting up, and Mick was exhausted, so we had a very quiet night, cuddling and snoozing our way through Star Gate SG-1 episodes and finishing with an episode of House. I offered the prayer at the Gaia Meditation tonight.

2008-05-08

This was a blissfully quiet day for me, as I did not need to stir from the house. It rained off and on all day, so Mick split the wind after a shortened Morning offering and got all but one of his mowing jobs done before being rained out in mid-morning. He had two gardening and landscaping jobs to do and accomplished them in the wet. It was warm, so he was comfortable. And he enjoyed the thought that his new plantings would have a wonderful welcome to their new garden homes, blessed by the raindrops.

I worked first on my journals, then on several e-mails from our archive site’s web guy, who is in the midst of revamping our entire site. Then I wrote Phyllis Schlemmer at some length, reminiscing about Andrija Puharich, with whom I was associated in the late 1970s and with whom Phyllis did a great deal of loving and service-oriented planetary work for two decades. She would like for us to do a workshop together. I also think that would be good, if we can work out the details and find a sponsor to fund its production.

I then wrote my essay on why I want to learn to channel, which is a requirement for the upcoming Channeling Intensive 2.

After lunch, I spent the rest of the working day starting the database on Confederation quotes concerning channeling, which will be studied during the CI-2 Gathering. I got four pages into it before Mick came home. He was an hour early for bath time, and I needed some presents wrapped, for Aubine’s grandson, Fassely, and for Mother’s Day, for Jim’s Mom. He very kindly lent me a hand.

After our bath, Mick and I came upstairs and made sweet love. After cuddling together for a while afterwards, he helped me try on the khaki pants needed for the choir trip on May 17th. They were too short in the inseam, too tight in the hips and too loose in the waist. My typical luck with pants, as my waist is smaller and my legs are longer than the usual, for my size. We won’t talk about my hips! That pair was all Wal Mart had to offer, so I will ask Melissa to do a retail run with me to cop a pair of khakis that fit next week.

Mick offered the prayer at the Gaia Meditation tonight.