Meredith Kendall's Blog, page 25
January 14, 2016
tiny houses
the photos always look so charming. Tidy, orderly, cozy. Lots of wood and books, sleeping lofts, small stoves and refrigerators.
I lived like this, in the woods in Maine. Two rooms and a loft. Woodstove, gas light, no electricity, no running water. We had an outhouse and an outdoor shower. We had 20 acres of cedar, moss, and berries. Good times.
I lived like this, in the woods in Maine. Two rooms and a loft. Woodstove, gas light, no electricity, no running water. We had an outhouse and an outdoor shower. We had 20 acres of cedar, moss, and berries. Good times.
alpaca sweater
is almost done.
A coworker gave me the fleece. Well, I bought some, she gave me more.
I washed it in hot soapy water. Dried it outside in the sun. Carded it. Spun it on a drop spindle; I'm a bottom spinner. Knit it into a sweater. Almost done and just in time. It's cold outside; icicles like stalactites.
A coworker gave me the fleece. Well, I bought some, she gave me more.
I washed it in hot soapy water. Dried it outside in the sun. Carded it. Spun it on a drop spindle; I'm a bottom spinner. Knit it into a sweater. Almost done and just in time. It's cold outside; icicles like stalactites.
January 9, 2016
on fleek
2016
Here are things you could do in 2016:
use your passport
go for a bike ride
take a cooking class
get certified in something
share Reiki
publish
go to an outdoor concert
swim in the ocean
Here are things you could do in 2016:
use your passport
go for a bike ride
take a cooking class
get certified in something
share Reiki
publish
go to an outdoor concert
swim in the ocean
where's the heat?
My friend and coworker M found a restaurant online and we went. Little hole in the wall place: a brand new sparkling clean kitchen with 5 bar stools, attached to a convenience store, gas pumps outside. So, a gas station, convenience store with Asian food. Interesting. Three of us got take-out and headed back to work.
It was good; my palate was amazed with an abundance of interesting flavors. Heat, citrus, flavors I couldn't identify, greens I didn't recognize. Every bite was a marvel; it was good to the end. I told people it was the best food in town.
I've been back a few times; it's right on my way home. Subsequent meals have disappointed. My memory of our first meal has not been reinforced. Where is the garlic, lemon, lime, cilantro, and heat? Where are the peanuts? It's bland. I brought a meal home last night and added my own vegies, spices, and condiments.
The kitchen last night was grimy, grills rimmed with charred chunks, the cooks' trousers filthy with brown grease. No longer appetizing and exciting. I need a new place.
It was good; my palate was amazed with an abundance of interesting flavors. Heat, citrus, flavors I couldn't identify, greens I didn't recognize. Every bite was a marvel; it was good to the end. I told people it was the best food in town.
I've been back a few times; it's right on my way home. Subsequent meals have disappointed. My memory of our first meal has not been reinforced. Where is the garlic, lemon, lime, cilantro, and heat? Where are the peanuts? It's bland. I brought a meal home last night and added my own vegies, spices, and condiments.
The kitchen last night was grimy, grills rimmed with charred chunks, the cooks' trousers filthy with brown grease. No longer appetizing and exciting. I need a new place.
January 5, 2016
winter
Winter in Maine.
I go to work in the dark, come home in the dark. It's bitterly cold. Single digits. Sidewalks are covered with snow and ice.
Pipes might freeze. Ice might fall on your head. You might slip and fall on ice or skid on black ice and smack your car into a tree.
You can ski which is like flying. You can snowshoe through deep fluffy snow and discover animal tracks and cloud shapes. There are no bugs. There is stillness. Sometimes snow glitters like a blanket of diamonds.
I go to work in the dark, come home in the dark. It's bitterly cold. Single digits. Sidewalks are covered with snow and ice.
Pipes might freeze. Ice might fall on your head. You might slip and fall on ice or skid on black ice and smack your car into a tree.
You can ski which is like flying. You can snowshoe through deep fluffy snow and discover animal tracks and cloud shapes. There are no bugs. There is stillness. Sometimes snow glitters like a blanket of diamonds.
December 30, 2015
a cup of tea
according to Thich Nhat Hanh, attention reminds my mind that I have a body. Attention is mindfulness: peace, joy, & concentration. Pay attention to your breathing or to drinking a cup of tea. Smile, drink tea, find joy.
source: Shambala Sun, Jan 2016, p. 57.
source: Shambala Sun, Jan 2016, p. 57.
is it OK to send distance Reiki when I have a cold?
not a trick question. Not a joke. Always wondered. I hesitate to send Reiki if I'm sick or feel off-center; I like to be my best self when I share Reiki with others. That's one reason Reiki inspires me to be as healthy as I can be. I want to be my healthiest best self because I believe I'm part of this process of sharing Reiki. I believe that as a nurse, and a Reiki practitioner, I interact energetically with my clients.
I don't see myself as merely a pipe or a vessel.
I'm alive.
My attention alters the energy.
I interact with the energy and with my clients.
Do you agree?
Or do you believe that sharing Reiki is a passive process? Sure, I need to step back, take my ego out. Get into the flow. Relax and just be. But then. Then I disappear? If my energy has nothing to do with Reiki, then why can't a student get attuned from a book or online? Isn't Reiki alchemy? The magic of connection and love, also known as universal life force energy?
When I get a psychic reading, I know that the information is filtered through the medium's life experiences and education. When I'm on the table at a Share, I can discern differences in energy of the various practitioners. I can feel energy. Your energy feels different from hers, from hers, from his, etc. Yet everyone is sharing Reiki. So if it's passive, if we are pipes or vessels, why does one person's energy feel different from another's?
Anyway. When I send, I like to send from my best self. That's why I eat nutritious food, sleep well, and exercise. That's why I meditate, do self-Reiki, and practice yoga. That's why I work on my social relationships. I want to be healthy. I want to send from my peaceful centered self.
Reiki does no harm. So I'm sure it will not harm anyone if I send when I have a cold. Wait, this is the part that confuses me. I don't imagine that I'm sending germs, or giving someone an etheric virus. I just wonder if I should send if it's not my best.
I did a quick poll among other practitioners and no one else seems to feel the way I do.
I don't see myself as merely a pipe or a vessel.
I'm alive.
My attention alters the energy.
I interact with the energy and with my clients.
Do you agree?
Or do you believe that sharing Reiki is a passive process? Sure, I need to step back, take my ego out. Get into the flow. Relax and just be. But then. Then I disappear? If my energy has nothing to do with Reiki, then why can't a student get attuned from a book or online? Isn't Reiki alchemy? The magic of connection and love, also known as universal life force energy?
When I get a psychic reading, I know that the information is filtered through the medium's life experiences and education. When I'm on the table at a Share, I can discern differences in energy of the various practitioners. I can feel energy. Your energy feels different from hers, from hers, from his, etc. Yet everyone is sharing Reiki. So if it's passive, if we are pipes or vessels, why does one person's energy feel different from another's?
Anyway. When I send, I like to send from my best self. That's why I eat nutritious food, sleep well, and exercise. That's why I meditate, do self-Reiki, and practice yoga. That's why I work on my social relationships. I want to be healthy. I want to send from my peaceful centered self.
Reiki does no harm. So I'm sure it will not harm anyone if I send when I have a cold. Wait, this is the part that confuses me. I don't imagine that I'm sending germs, or giving someone an etheric virus. I just wonder if I should send if it's not my best.
I did a quick poll among other practitioners and no one else seems to feel the way I do.
December 28, 2015
Principles and practice
Principles are the foundation of Reiki: living the principles facilitates connection to source, is a path to enlightenment.
Hands-on (with others) is a blissful merging into the flow, sharing the experience of the energy, and hopefully an inducement to others to become students of Reiki.
These are the principles I learned from my teachers:
Just for today, do not anger.
Do not worry.
Honor your parents, teachers, and elders.
Earn your living honestly, in a way that benefits others.
Respect all living things; everything is alive.
These are the principles, as rewritten by some of my students. I love this update.
Just for today:
Forgive.
Have faith.
Honor your parents, teachers, and elders.
Earn your living honestly, in a way that benefits others.
Respect all living things; everything is alive. Be grateful.
Hands-on (with others) is a blissful merging into the flow, sharing the experience of the energy, and hopefully an inducement to others to become students of Reiki.
These are the principles I learned from my teachers:
Just for today, do not anger.
Do not worry.
Honor your parents, teachers, and elders.
Earn your living honestly, in a way that benefits others.
Respect all living things; everything is alive.
These are the principles, as rewritten by some of my students. I love this update.
Just for today:
Forgive.
Have faith.
Honor your parents, teachers, and elders.
Earn your living honestly, in a way that benefits others.
Respect all living things; everything is alive. Be grateful.
December 23, 2015
August from My Desk
My favorite poem.
August from My Desk – Roland Flint
It is hot today, dry enough for cutting grain,
and I am drifting back to North Dakota
where butterflies are all gone brown with wheat dust.
And where some boy,
red-faced, sweating, chafed,
too young to be dying this way
steers a laborious, self-propelled combine,
and dreams of cities, and blizzards—
and airplanes.
With the white silk scarf of his sleeve
he shines and shines his goggles,
he checks his meters, checks his flaps,
screams contact at his dreamless father,
and, engines roaring,
he pulls back the stick
and hurtles into the sun.
August from My Desk – Roland Flint
It is hot today, dry enough for cutting grain,
and I am drifting back to North Dakota
where butterflies are all gone brown with wheat dust.
And where some boy,
red-faced, sweating, chafed,
too young to be dying this way
steers a laborious, self-propelled combine,
and dreams of cities, and blizzards—
and airplanes.
With the white silk scarf of his sleeve
he shines and shines his goggles,
he checks his meters, checks his flaps,
screams contact at his dreamless father,
and, engines roaring,
he pulls back the stick
and hurtles into the sun.
December 22, 2015
Chewbacca
Laryngitis x 4 days. I can whisper, but when I try to speak I squeak and wheeze. I sound like Chewbacca.
How can I order home heating oil? Go grocery or Christmas shopping? Volunteer at the cancer center? Go to holiday parties? I can't do any of those things. I can't speak. Oh, and I have all the usual cold symptoms too: coughing, sneezing, sinus stuff. Usual life is cancelled or postponed.
I'm stuck at home. I did a 1000 piece puzzle, read the Elena Ferrante Neapolitan novel series (4 books), mended a dress, spun alpaca fleece, read spiritual articles, wrapped Christmas presents, ordered presents online, watched a movie, and cleaned. I rested. I drank fluids continually: water and herbal tea. I took ibuprofen, echinacea, and elderberry. As good as Silver Lining Playbook, the movie, is; I like the book even more. Watched it, read it. Did laundry, wrote Christmas cards, listened to the radio.
Tomorrow I will drink water and herbal tea. I'll read a book, spin, and rest. I'll try to speak. Maybe tomorrow I'll sound like C-3PO.
How can I order home heating oil? Go grocery or Christmas shopping? Volunteer at the cancer center? Go to holiday parties? I can't do any of those things. I can't speak. Oh, and I have all the usual cold symptoms too: coughing, sneezing, sinus stuff. Usual life is cancelled or postponed.
I'm stuck at home. I did a 1000 piece puzzle, read the Elena Ferrante Neapolitan novel series (4 books), mended a dress, spun alpaca fleece, read spiritual articles, wrapped Christmas presents, ordered presents online, watched a movie, and cleaned. I rested. I drank fluids continually: water and herbal tea. I took ibuprofen, echinacea, and elderberry. As good as Silver Lining Playbook, the movie, is; I like the book even more. Watched it, read it. Did laundry, wrote Christmas cards, listened to the radio.
Tomorrow I will drink water and herbal tea. I'll read a book, spin, and rest. I'll try to speak. Maybe tomorrow I'll sound like C-3PO.
