Career Miracle Find Me Now

Today is the first day I have been unemployed in over 20 years, and it seems altogether strange and exhilarating. I am structuring my days as my responsibility now is three part - finding a job, taking care of myself, and doing something for others - not necessarily in that order. I figured blogging about this would give me another thing to focus on. I know something great is happening. I shout out my mantra, for the world to hear...Career Miracle Find Me Now.

I'm Back with 29 Gift

It's a new year, so I thought I'd enter a post. I've been blogging, but mainly on my 29 Gifts page. Never heard of it? It's a wonderful concept developed by Cami Walker. You really should check this out.

www.29gifts.org

You can find me there as Southernly.

I am continually inspired by the life led by the Dalai Lama. Seeing his face alone is calming. I was thinking today about this book - The Wisdom of Forgiveness. It left something special with me - a vivid image that I carry to remind me of all the things that are truly important in life, the things the Dalai Lama lives every day. I'll try to capture the spirit of that special image here.

The Dalai Lama was visiting the town of Bodhgaya to pay respects to Buddhism's holiest shrine. He was there beneath the shadow of the bodhi tree, a descendent of the one the Buddha achieved enlightenment under. He and a large crowd of Tibetan monks were there to participate in the ritual of sojong - confession. The author describes in vivid detail how the Dalai Lama managed to "accordion himself" into the smallest form of what many yoga enthusiasts know as child's pose, and what the book refers to as "pure humility". Then this sentence pulled the vision together..."With his yellow patchwork robe stretched across his back, he looked like a large golden turtle amid a sea of others."

It is this image that I carry with me - reminding me of the importance of humility, confession, compassion, happiness. Many years back after hearing me talk about this, Rachel & Veronica gave me a small, brass (golden) turtle. I always keep it close by as a reminder that life if so much greater than the day-to-day things we have to deal with. As 2009 approaches and I know there will most certainly be difficult things ahead, I can remind myself through the vision of the golden turtle the teaching of the Dalai Lama - that the formula for happiness is emptiness plus compassion.

These are the things I ponder.

Superman

This weekend I saw Obama as Superman gracing the sidewalk. As I kept looking at this, I wondered what the artist was trying to say.

Is Obama a larger than life hero? Do we need a superhero to get us out of this mess?

Perhaps this artist made obvious to us what we need now - a leader who can leap tall issues in a single bound, who can repair an economy that's dropping as quickly as a speeding bullet. Then again, it actually doesn't matter what the artist was trying to say - he got my attention and isn't that what art is all about - getting our attention and causing us to think?

Perhaps if we'd been thinking more clearly in the past, we wouldn't have gotten ourselves into this mess in the first place. And our superheros wouldn't need to inhabit the Oval Office to keep our country the best place on Earth to live.

Election Night

Wouldn't you agree that Tony carved a rockin' pumpkin? We're keeping the torch burning through Tuesday night, when we have a few friends coming over over for sushi and the election results. I'm quite sure all of my friends are voting on Tuesday; however, I don't really know who everybody is voting for. I could take a guess, but don't want to assume. Half my co-workers couldn't guess who I would vote for, the other half were surprised. My comment to them was to not judge a book by it's cover. A vote is a personal thing, so I won't take any time here to bore you with my opinion. All I'll say is...vote...it's a privilege to be able to give your input about our future.

Fashion

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. At the Grand Canyon, the scenery is amazing, but even I had to look away when this lady caught my eye. Then again, I think she caught everybody's eye. Three cheers to her for making her own fashion statement and ensuring that she would not be lost in any photograph.

Sedona

I could fill this page with amazing photos from Sedona, but I'll leave it with this one. We're having a great time - so beautiful and so romantic. I think I need to sit with the experience a few more days to be able to communicate the feelings. If you're a friend on Facebook, check out the Vacation 2008 album for a few more pics.