The Topic is Balance...

Every week I go to the Vietnamese Zen Temple hoping to magically understand Vietnamese. They say that everyone can pick up any language within a 6-month period. After two months, I can read Vietnamese enough to follow the service - I have no idea what the words mean, I can just read them - that good old Rote Method.

However, today was different. Today, I did understand the sermon. While largely given in Vietnamese, modern words like: texting, email, Internet, disturbing the conference, etc... have not developed into Vietnamese equivalent. So between body language, facial cues and vocal cues I eventually realized I, or should I say, my behavior was the topic. A wee bit embarrassing to be certain, but enlightening none-the-less. I was very grateful to learned I committed a faux pas - you can't fix something if you don't know.

You see, I've been rather negative lately. It started last week with PMS (Post, not Pre), was encouraged with a lack of books (I'm in my 6th week of College classes) and was further developed with missing my son. So I did some inappropriate text messaging during a conference.

However, the Monk has a wonderful, generous nature and came to Sunday service with a plan. He invited me to drain all my negativity into the soil. He told me to give him my negative energy and he would compost it until it was renewed and positive again.

He also gave me a job to help get me started. I was to clean the outdoor theater area. The children of the Temple will be having their Fall Festival Presentation soon. First, move everything off the cement area (they had been using it to weld large Temple doors), then sweep the rust and acorns away...

He told me that my efforts would encourage others to come help, so I gathered five brooms and laid them around the area in anticipation. "Build and they will come" - they came. The first was well into her 60's and she helped me move all kinds of heavy metal and large plywood. The next were in their 40's and the last were in their teens and 10's.

It became a huge effort with wonderful results. First we cleared the floor of construction, then cleaned it of leaves, acorns and rust. Next we set up tables and found more chairs. The children cleaned the stage with brooms and began practicing their dance routines, while the teenagers gave directions from the audience area.

It was a Great lesson in Balance.

I don't know if I will ever understand Vietnamese, but I am learning more about compassion and positive encouragement....

There's Grace in that...

When Love Happens...

I went to watch the movie and was fairly impressed with the many ways people can handle and not handle grief. That was the focal point of the movie and yet, there was this very quirky, fun love story threaded through the middle of it. It was very well done and enjoyable.

Coming from a mountain community where a mailman lost two of his daughters and all of his grandchildren to a bus in LA, I can tell you that grief is a long road and all the steps in the movie are true - even the "smile for 5 minutes: eventually it will become a real smile." However, the most beautiful part was when the guy stopped traffic and asked his group to describe what they heard and saw. One partaker said, "Well, people are giving us the finger." Then the leading character takes them all up to the roof top for a truly peace-filled moment and change in perspective. If anything, the director should have drawn this scene out more - it was a Kodak moment.

I tell you some scriptwriters are simply amazingly wonderful people. How intuitive! How insightful! The cell phone message was probably the most honest rendition of how most people grieve today - pure magic. The scriptwriters (Brandon Camp and Mike Thompson) didn't sugar coat the situation, nor did they glorify it. They simply provided a different way of seeing it - and did a fabulous job!

If critics said bad things they don't know how to be objective and should look for a new job!

The acting was fabulous (precisely because no one went over the top) and the last scene with Martin Sheen and the cockatoo was priceless. I can honestly say this was a movie that was better the second time around - to value it fully.

Bravo! Thank you for an enjoyable, light-hearted comedy that had a deep-hearted consideration of a topic most people can't handle and actually run away from...

Where's the Spray! - Working Out Set-up Bugs

So, I'm still trying to get everything in sync. PayPal got on board, but had my last name and email address wrong. After sending messages in a bottle to them through their email system, I finally got a hold of a real, live person and they managed to do it.

I want people to feel secure.

The second best thing is that I found out how to do a refund. Again, I want people to know I have a Heart. If they need their $2 back, I want to give it back! So, "Thank You" PayPal for being so Awesome!!!

Still trying to work on my FRC classes. Apparently, I wasn't listed in my History 108 class. Just a tiptoe through the park of beauracracy - and now I am. HA! The class is an Eye-opening view of the early Colonial times and very enjoyable. Once I have my book, I should be set.

Here is a test run on uploading Video feeds.

(HA!!! It sort of worked - see Side Bar)

Here's the situation:

(The video itself is horribly shot - sorry about the bouncing - but the sound clarity and the Heart-ache of the Wolf within Bud and his expectation of being heard and accepted to beautiful to miss.)

Quincy is located in the Heart of the High Sierra's. The wolves of California are long extinct, but the coyote's are still present, move in decent size packs and actually larger than Bud. For wolves and direct dog/wolve mix breeds, California is fairly strict about pens and kennels. But for 100's of year old mix breeds like the Greenland/Icelandic Hounds, the laws are as relaxed as they are for any dog breed.

On this day, a Coyote pack was moving through the mountain range. Since they are a meandering group, they usually take about 2 to 3 weeks to complete their trek along the American Valley. Often, they howl and make verbal contact with all the wolve breeds along the way. This is a way of gaining new memebers for their pack, and purely instincual. However, for dogs, it is also a siren's call. Often dogs are lured with play and then killed for food. Coyote's do not consider dogs remotely similar to them. It's like asking a Tiger to consider a house cat as a cousin. Nope, it's just a kind of food.

So here you see Buddy answering the calls of the coyotes. Unfortunately, you can't hear them. The coyotes are approximately half a mile away. When they pass through, everyone with wolf mixes have to keep their animals very contained and always leashed. If you let them out, you might get your dog back half injured, or they might not come back at all. A mix like Bud would most likely be eaten - since the smell of humans and dogfood permeates his smell. But you never know. They might recognize the wolf in him and take him in. I never thought it was worth his life to find out.

More about the breed:

Greenland Hounds are also known as Icelandic Hounds. They are a cross between the Isabell White Husky breed and the White Wolves of those islands. This also means they are fish eaters. You can feed them dogfood but it's not in their best interest, so we supplement with sardines and other fishes. The ratio of wolf to dog is pretty low - they've been being bred for about 400 years - so you can get away with dog food for a long time, but the wolf in them requires real food - fresh meat.

I highly recommend the breed to anyone in a cool climate. They are friendly, fun-loving, incredibly responsive to physical and vocal cues (bred for dog-sledding). Just realize they shed, but never as much as a true Huskey.

Peace and Tranquil Wolf Songs...

Day 2 & 3 - More Set-up Completed

I'm tickled Pink today!

Yesterday and Today involved getting the PayPal system set-up and running smoothly with the Sponsor-Me program. It took a wee bit of hands-on effort, but is now running smoothly.

I already got two sponsors, prior to launch date - always nice when it happens ! ! !

$20 down and only $1980 to go. (Cheshire Grin)

I also found my camera but not the power cord. The cord will take a whopping $40 to buy - Uggh! But it will be invaluable to people as they watch me cross the country. The picture and sound quality is fabulous. The "Bee & Appleblosoms" photo is just one example of the clarity my FinePix camera, by Fuji, can capture.

Later tonight, I will compare the GasBuddy.com Trip Calculator with Yahoo Maps and historical sights and beautiful vistas to go see. I want to cross the country in a way that captures the imagination of readers and brings them into the experience. This will be a group effort and a group experience ! ! !

As my cousin Eli said, "I am expecting a picaresque journey like Huck Finn or Don Quixote."

And that's EXACTLY what I want to do - Give a Blogging experience that everyone can enjoy. With physical and literary meditations, historical commentary and beautiful vistas.

My Family is all about HEART and they are the Best ! ! !

Day 1 - Setting Up The Blog

Hi Everyone!

Yesterday I set up the Sponsorship Program on Facebook. Today I've set up the Blog and just barely learned the basics. I am excited about putting the two together and hope that everyone who joins me can access all three sites by the time I'm done. I am very grateful for all the wonderful applications in Facebook - ESPECIALLY the Sponsorship Program!

But mainly, I just pray it works. I am exhausted and just want to go home and hug my son.

Looking for work was supposed to be a month long process, then my son was supposed to join me. Looking for work was never supposed to take 9 months. I can't believe how bad the economy is.

However, my movie script is done and that is HUGE! The title, "Operation New Life," is very apropos for both my life and the topic: Refugees leaving Viet Nam in 1975. It's like "The Island" meets Viet Nam meets Jane Austen - fast paced, explosive yet heart-touching too! My sister and I lived many of the scenes near the end of the movie. We were Military Brats assigned to help Refugees adjust.

As for present day life? Signing up for classes through the Internet was HUGE and I had a ton of support from all the staff and faculty at FRC. Finally something positive is happening! ! !

THANK YOU EVERYONE AT FRC!