Musings of a complex woman

This is our nephew...

I'm reading Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love, and it's quite good.  I wanted to share (and record for my own memory) this passage:

I keep remembering one of my Guru's teachings about happiness. She says that people universally tend to think that happiness is a stroke of luck, something that will maybe descend upon you like fine weather if you are fortunate enough.  But that's not how happiness works.  Happiness is the consequence of personal effort.  You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it.  You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings.  And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it, and you must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it.   If you don't you will leak away your innate contentment.  It's easy enough to pray when you're in distress but continuing to pray even when your crisis has passed is like a sealing process, helping your soul hold tight to its good attainments.

Saw this on another group and appreciated it.
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Thoughts from Swami Beyondananda

There in the garden, a young monk speaks: "Master, I've been thinking
about getting a dogma, and I seek your advice. Any thoughts on the
matter?"

The Old Monk collects her thoughts, and calmly replies: "Well my son,
everyone has a pet belief, so why should you be any different? Yes, we
human beings have had dogmas since the dawn of recorded history. This
is understandable. You cannot imagine how comforting it is to curl up
with a warm fuzzy dogma on a dark night of the soul. Or to take him to
the park on a fine sunny Sunday in January and watch him sniff and
chase other dogmas, and bark at strangers.

Some folks keep dogmas for protection. It's reassuring to have a guard
dogma to scare away frightening thoughts - and it's great to have a
loyal companion to fetch you an explanation when you get home from a
hard day at work.

And dogmas come in all varieties. Some humans like big dumb dogmas,
and others prefer squeaky little irritating ones. And with compassion,
someone has to stand for the underdogma. Dogma is truly wo/man's best
friend.

Now, some may ask, why not let sleeping dogmas lie? But who really
wants to be lied to? And what about menacing dogmas that bite? Or
dogmas that run wild and get in everyone's garbage? I know, I
know`you're probably thinking, "It isn't my dogma making all the mess,
it's my neighbor's dogma."

And indeed you can look out any night and see a pack of aggressive
dogmas running down the street chasing a doubt. And what should you do
when you are walking down the road and a threatening dogma appears in
your path? Stay calm and let the unfamiliar dogma know who's boss.
Say, "Bad dogma, roll over!"

It is a fact of life that dogmas have sharp teeth, and when backed
into a corner, they can bite. As a dogma owner it is your
responsibility to see that your dogma does not bite. And - if it does,
well, sometimes a vicious dogma has to be put down.

Another fact of life is that dogmas inevitably get old and sick.
Perhaps you've spent years lovingly taking care of a tired old dogma -
and still the time comes to put that old dogma to sleep.

It is sad when you must give up a loyal dogma like that - so I say
enjoy your dogma while it is alive and playful. You know how uncanny
it is that dogma owners come to resemble their dogmas. So, my son, you
may have a dogma. But just make sure your dogma doesn't mess on your
neighbor's lawn.

And know that on non-judgment day, all our dogmas will run free, and
surely they will bother no one.

P.S. Always be careful not to run over your dogma with your karma.

Granted, you can only get so close in a multiple choice quiz.  But I was surprised at my results on this "Candidate Match Game." 

If your e-mail doesn't automatically delete it, please share the most... interesting SPAM subject line you've received recently. Here's mine:

"Cigar and a signal risk of your godlike power, so, but it might it. The flagship Wienis"

Filched from funfairiegirl, who was embarassed of her high score. Not me, I'm proud to be a Carolina Girl. Just don't bring up red state, Jesse Helms, or anything like that.   Oh, and I think there is more than one right answer on a few of these.

A very, very happy birthday to TGTD! 
I know it's technically not your birthday yet, but I wanted a birthday wish already showing at midnight when it becomes your birthday.  And I wanted to be first to tell you how much I love you and want you to have a great day and great year.  :-)


Love you!!! <3 <3 <3  <smooch>  :-*

If you have children, or ever care for children, or are occasionally around children, or were a child sometime since 1969, go read this article.  How Not to Talk to Your Kids


In other news, my drug-whore ex-sister-in-law applied for custody of my 6 year old neice again.  Then she didn't even bother to show up for the court date.  The suit was dismissed, but I am so annoyed that she does this crap just to jerk my brother-in-law around.  This time, though BIL said he wanted nothing from her and nothing to do with her, the judge said she needs to be paying child support, and there's another court date to determine how much.  Which, since her family is nouveau riche, could be lucrative for him, but is more likely to just be a pain in the ass.

My daughter had a GREAT day at school today.  Considering she's had pretty much crappy days every day (her own behavior issues, the school is great), this is a cause for celebration.  We're hitting Chuck E. Cheese tonight for dinner, because big accomplishments deserve dinner with a giant talking rat.  :-)

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I know, you've missed me. I've missed me too. All I have time (okay, to be truthful, all I have the energy/ brain power for) is this poll.