when our hearts are conscious

I've been in Toronto since Wednesday, training for my new job. I've experienced cultural differences on several levels - Canadian vs. American, and non-profit vs. corporate for-profit.  Everyone here has been really friendly, helpful, accommodating, and it's actually been a lot of fun!

We wrapped up yesterday, and last night I went to dinner with one of the VPs,  who, even though he was doing his corporate "duty" by taking the new Director out to dinner, was also a genuinely nice guy whose company I really enjoyed. It wasn't "just" dinner in Toronto, though...No, we drove to Niagara Falls, about an hour south of the city, and had dinner at a restaurant on the 33rd floor of the Hilton, overlooking the Falls, complete with a fireworks display.

Have I mentioned that I'm the luckiest person I know?

You can lean right over the guard rail, and the water is literally just a few feet below

When night falls, the lights come up...

 And then, FIREWORKS!

From the restaurant

Next up, Chicago for more training. I have to run - my limo will be here in 1/2 hour to take me to the airport. (TRUST ME, I'm totally awed by this, and any attempts to be casual about it are purely an act!!)

Have I mentioned that I'm the luckiest person I know? :)

We can only be said to be alive in those moments 

when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.  

~Thornton Wilder

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It's Official!

I GOT THE JOB!!  The job I wanted, the job I convinced my new employer to create for me, the job where I work from home, travel, and get handsomely paid. The job that's not only in my chosen field - Animal Welfare - but which gives me the opportunity to expand my sphere of influence to something more in line with my sphere of concern. Hell yeah!

To all of you in blogland who have supported me, encouraged me, and cheered me along:

from the bottom of my heart!

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only this moment

This Uncertain Summer is almost over.  Next up, September, which brings:

• A new job!
• The 11th Anniversary of the day I married my unlawfully wedded wife.
• And a VERY BIG birthday:

Begin doing what you want to do now.  We have only this moment,  sparkling like a star in our hand, and melting like a snowflake.   ~Marie Ray

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this is life

Everyone has to make their own decisions. I still believe that. 

You just have to be able to accept the consequences without complaining.

- Grace Jones

*****

THIS IS LIFE

Grace Jones

This is my voice
My weapon of choice

This is life
This is life

This is plate
This is a cup
This is a story I didn't make up
This is a girl lost in the woods
Some kind of wagon from some other 'hood

This is a voice
These are the hands
This is technology
Mixed with the band

Are you going into the light
Are you free of fear today
When you lie down to sleep do you kind of float away

This is life
This is life

Most of my crimes are of optimism
40 thousand volts of recognition
They tried to strip me of dignity
But I still have tenacity

These are the words I didn't invent
Only an attempt to say what I meant

This is the paper
This is the pen
This is my weapon
A means to an end

Are you going into the desert
You're out of control of your fate
There are no warriors without a war
So get ahead before it's too late

This is life (ya'll)

Lay down your spear
Let go your fear
Far becomes near

Oh Lord
This is life (hey!)

This is the tree
The Buddha slept under
These are the clouds
This is our thunder

This is what makes me look up and wonder
Into the eye of the wind
Through the rain
On to the plain

This is what I'm focused on
This is my head on straight
This is the harness
This is the bait
This is me
I'm flying again

This is a lawyer
Professional liar
There, Taking
Igniting the fire

This is the key
This is the door
Imagine the view from the basement floor

(Hey!)
Now you're going into the desert
You're out of control of your fate
Are you a slave in a chain of command
Serving up another man's head

This is life

Lay down your spear
Let go your fear
Far becomes near
Look out

This is life

Are you going into the light
Are you freeing your fear today
When you lie down to sleep
Do you kind of float away

This is depression
It comes when you're blocking
This is expression
It comes when your rocking

This is life

This is (ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!)
This is (ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!)
This is (ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!)
This is (ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!)
This is (ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!)
This is (ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!)

When you lie down to sleep
Do you kind of float away
(This is a plate, this is a cup, this is a story, this is a story I didn't make up)

When you lie down to sleep
Do you kind of float away
(This is a plate, this is a cup, this is a story I didn't make up)

This is the world still healing
This is man that's feeling
This is the world still turning
This is the rage still burning
This is the man not learning
This is life

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

DISCLAIMER: I found this post HERE first. I loved it so much, and it so perfectly fits how I feel,  that I decided to repost - with a few edits - it here, in my world. Thanks to AGNETA for the inspiration!



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the peace of wild things

We moved to the country for many reasons. We wanted privacy, quiet, security, room for our dogs to roam and romp..and the simple beauty of living where the world is slightly less tame, and slightly more wild.

BlackBaroque on etsy

We've found all that and more here on Moss Hill, and although most of what happens here - at least most of what we witness - isn't particularly spectacular, and is, in fact, really quite routine, the wonder of it all never ceases to delight and amaze.

Quail scurry around  - looking rather idiotic - eating the bits thrown from the bird feeder by messier birds. Deer pass through every evening, always along the same path at the edge of the yard. Hummingbirds swoop and flitter around the feeders, fueling their mania with sugar water.

Under cover of darkness, tree frogs swim in the pool, and climb onto our outstretched hands if we're in the water with them. One of them has taken up temporary residence on the porch, singing from the rim of the fountain in the evenings, and sleeping in the now-empty pollywog pool during the day. (Did I tell you about the pollywogs?...We raised a dozen or so in a habitat I put together using an under-bed storage tote, sand, rocks, and water. They all grew up over the course of the summer, some into toads, others into tree frogs. The last one moved out yesterday.)

tinyartjewelry on etsy

Bats soar and dive at dusk and dawn...Last week I lay down in the grass at sunrise as a whole cloud of bats fluttered and plummeted to within a few feet of my face, catching their breakfast of insects rising up from the warming grass. I had to hold my hand over my mouth to keep from crying out, it was so thrilling. My equivalent of swimming with dolphins, I think.

I know these things are commonplace, but to me they'll never be ordinary. This humble world of hours is a marvelous place, and I, for one, am madly in love with it.

Property of Russ Thompson, Louisville KY
Visit Enjoyable Hummingbirds to see more.

THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS

When despair for the world grows in me, 

and I wake in the night at the least sound 

in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be - 

I go and lie down where the wood drake 

rests in his beauty on the water, 

and the great heron feeds. 

I come into the peace of wild things 

who do not tax their lives with forethought or grief. 

I come into the presence of still water. 

And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. 

For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

~ Wendell Berry

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dream a new dream (or: Plan B Comes to Fruition)

...

7/28/2011

(that's A.M.)

 

(that's P.M.)

Start date: September 15, 2011

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