free and well favored

The Buddhists speak of the preciousness of a human birth that is free and well favored. I thought about this quite a lot today while I was volunteering at a home-rebuilding project for an elderly, low-income family in Denver.

This particular volunteering group was organized by Michael's companyHere we were, a bunch of employed, well-paid, mostly caucasian individuals who were taking a few hours of free time to help another family.

In the midst of all this, there were a few volunteers whose job it was to make sure the other volunteers had their free T-shirt and foodlots of food. We were provided with free Starbucks coffee & Einstein bagels all day, and a barbecue lunch (hotdogs, sausages, 4 kinds of chips, sodas, bottled water, 2 kinds of potato salad and slaw). And since I'm choosing to be meatless right now, I starting thinking about the lunch I would make out of pretzels and potato salad when it really hit me how much privilege I have...

I can make the choice not to eat what is provided for me at this event because I know I don't have to worry about whether or not I'll be able to get food again whenever I want. I can actually make a choice to not eat meat because I can afford other options to remain well nourished. Here I was volunteering to help re-build someone else's home when I've been paying someone else to remodel my bathroom.

Sure, I've experienced my share of oppression and prejudice, but the amount of privilege I have is really incredible. And I am grateful for the opportunity to experience such a precious human birth, free and well favored.

9 eggs today (forgot to get them yesterday)

creative void

So I have nothing original or clever today. So I shall share some other people's creativity that I enjoy:

Peeps Research: http://www.peepresearch.org/
Naked Dancing Llama http://frolic.org/
Llama Song: www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/llama.php

hiccups

I have the hiccups. My hiccups are loud, and tortured goose-like.

you want my whipped cream?

Whew, so it has been several days since I posted! Here are the highlights

Friday: We had a booth with 2 alpacas at Naropa's Earth Day. Long day in the sun, but good fun sharing one of my passions with the world. 3 eggs

Saturday: I went to an alpaca meeting in the AM then came home and started cooking like crazy for the seder...which was good fun! Discovered Mogen David wine...yum. And had a very nice time chating it up with a bunch of Jewish men. 4 eggs.

Sunday: spent the day cleaning the house, washing dishes, doing laundry, and cutting Miko's hair. Also spent a while chatting with my sis for her birthday...her birth is my earliest memory :) 4 eggs.

Today (Monday): highlight of the day was dinner with the raquetBall guys. I had an avocado smoothie that had whipped cream on top. Usually Miko eats my whipped cream, but he turned to D and said "you want my whipped cream?" D, not seeing the topping on my drink though that Miko was offering ME! 5 eggs today.

Jews and Chinese Food

Yesterday Paul and I spent many hours bonding while planning a passover seder for some of our goyim friends. Yes, Passover ended already, but this weekend was our only option. I really enjoyed spending time with someone who has a shared cultural background...What did you do on Christmas Eve growing up? Go to the movies and eat Chinese food, of course!

I think Paul might be a distantly related cousin...he feels like family, and it is nice to have family around, nu?

5 eggs today! We'll be having Deviled Eggs at our seder...yum!

connections

Today has been all about connections...making closer connections with certain friends and re-connecting to my heritage and my past have all been "up" today.

Here's a favorite passage/poem from Verses from the Center: A Buddhist Vision of the Submlime by Stephen Batchelor

Connection

I the beholder,
The one I behold,
The beholding itself
Do not connect with one another--

Just as I who desire,
The one I desire,
The desiring itself
Do not connect.

We do not connect
Because we are not
Apart from one another;
We would not be together

If we were apart.
I am other than you
In relation to you;
I could not be your other without you.

Were I other than you,
Then even without you
I would be someone else;
I cannot be your other without you.

There is no otherness
In either you or me;
Without otherness,
There is no me or you.

I do not connect with me
Nor do I connect with you--
No connecting, no
Connections, no connectors.

tenderhearted

Earlier today I thought about my friend the persnickety lady when I heard a discussion of the correct usage of weary vs. wary. And today when I looked at the date, I realized it was the birthday of my very first ex...he turned 18 on the 18th the year I turned 16 on the 16th (my BFF would be extremely upset to learn that occasionally I do still think of this ex). And one of my students gave me a formal hand-written invitation to graduation and her class's after-graduation celebration. And my honey was still down in the dumps today and I think he's finally back out.

4 eggs today!