Good morning, glory

 

An hour ago in the park. Never saw this Dry before

Time for tea. Already been to the park, even though slow and draggy. I am so clumsy lately!  God grant his peace for this day for the whole world IJN

It’s our turn

 

Sun and shade. Yesterday’s walk

That’s what DJ said. It just struck me as profound and true.

Rehearse Psalm 23 for solace. 

And give thanks for the bad and the good. IJN

Help!

 

Already?!! Yesterday

It’s hard to feel my help is unwanted even though I know the reasons. And I am truly frightened for her survival.

Then the images of the avalanche in Nepal are so haunting. Lord help us! And help us help each other. 

   I am especially grateful for JPG’s kindness and help   Thank you for putting him in my life. iJN

Can’t help worrying

 

Last night at 8 PM

Que sera, sera, No matter how I ask and I expect that. Help us to weather it with love and kindness. Let your presence survived no matter what IJN

God guide this day for us

Evening Primrose also at ER vet office two days ago

Keep us safe, each and every one, I pray IJN

Imagining the images of that flash flood in Nepal yesterday. Never saw anything like that:  all those poor souls running but overtaken by a black mass of water and debris, no escape possible. Then poor B’s fall and broken wrist, Red’s illness, and S’s diagnosis. 

  Again I pray, keep us safe in each others and your love, even though I don’t see your intervention. I know it may well lay beyond the visible world. IJN

Detritus

 

Vet’s patio yesterday

  Crabby, fatigued, clumsy, and overheated it is. Bad slumped posture. Sore knees. Time for more shots?  Oh. And did I say worried?  That always emerges when the other negative feelings do. Red, Red, Red. And our girl

  Lord give me strength and optimism. And bless the ones I care for. IJN

I need Your support

8-23-26 Glory in the ‘hood. Thank you

I need constant attention to that need for Your support. 

Lost and found

 

What a smile. I love this. 7-30-26

Nagging dream:  I’m at a school workshop on Gorham campus, Reggie there, and maybe Eileen. No point in staying. I don’t teach anymore. I. leave. Two big parking lots, I go to lower rear one and manage to find my car, an old one—VW? Turn on radio, go right onto an empty rural road.  Pass some classic style pillars that reinforce my notion I’m on back road of campus but shortly come to a huge structure like a ruined temple/ strip mine. I explore, trying to read its signs, but can only speculate. Not Muslim. People are gathering for a religious assembly so I leave but stop at a trash can for a clue. Man or two comes over and I ask who what. No clarification. Soon get to a fork in road. Go left. Encounter a bunch of women and babies—pediatric practice? Ask for directions no help. Go to right fork.  Same. Repeatedly ask Siri to navigate to Home address. No responses, except once it seems to indicate Pownal over to left. Wake up with urgent sense of being lost with constant futile attempts to get a response from Siri. I comes to mind. So does Daichi

Lord help us all day by day to find the way home through this life, to you IJN

            Lee Morning Five Substack today, chemistry…

And from this place 

I sense the way that life 

is born in goodness

and dwells in goodness. 

A fact that cannot be touched 

by the damage that is done by mankind. 

And from this place I grow roots of awareness 

into much more natural places than the places 

that the mind invents. 

I return to the body as though I were returning home, 

to a safe and welcoming place, 

deeply rooted in the experience of life itself 

and nothing else. 

For this is what goodness consists of:

Joy and sorrow, 

blended into glory 

here in this being. 

Thank You

Presumpscot, yesterday

 The attention of the mind lets go. 

And instead of attempting to penetrate the body 

with the mind and its attention, 

I do nothing 

and I allow the attention of the body to penetrate the mind. 

And here is the place where I see that the phrase, 

Lord, have mercy, 

is not so much a plea for help 

as a key that can be turned in this door to help open it.          

   Lee van Laer, Glory Be, The Morning Five,7-4-26 SS

God bless Daichin this morning. 

And I, and S, and E, and A, And J. And B, and B,and R, And A, and me. IJN

Recognizing

 

S’s hs friend lived there

To know, cognize, again. (Damned auto edit does not do that.). Went to LC‘s Meditation session last night, but left early. No energy for the hard chairs or the order. God is not in that place, if that’s what I was seeking. Then I set off S by phoning her after she had ranted about her bad day to her dad. I caused her overwhelm through repetition of the misery despite my good intentions, which as we all know gang aft aglay. I asked her for patience and forgiveness, as I ask of you, Lord. 

Reaching out, con’t

 

10-12–2019, at S’s funeral

Text to B and T C now:   

Hello, I have been thinking about you both this summer and B and family. I’m rather depressed however so not up for a phone call yet  But I do want to let you know that my daughter S  just discovered she has breast cancer. This will be difficult for us because she has no friends or family to help her through it and we are so old and far away that I’m not sure how much help we will be for her. I know you will keep us in your thoughts and prayers.  And I cherish the idea that you are my mother‘s sister.  There is still connection among us all as long as there is life and beyond. Love Sandy

So sorry to hear this about Susan   We will pray for her. And  you and Alan. We are getting old too.  We stay home most of the time. B’s family is doing great.  Their kids are going back to college this week. Time sure flies by.  Call me any time. I have been thinking of you too. You are special to us and love you. 😍 

Thanks so much. You help. I guess it does boil down to love. 

Yes. I like the bible verse “He knows the way I take and when He tries me I shall come forth as gold”.  I think it’s in Job. 

That’s a comfort. And you are still my quick link to Jesus 

2:20 am

Tonight

I begin to see that my mistake 

always begins with trying to understand life, 

an impenetrable mystery

when what is needed, 

here and now, 

is to understand being. 

To be with this sensation of the body. 

To take in its goodness deeply. 

To remember, with every tendril and root and fiber 

of this cosmological sensation. 

          Lee van Lear, Tounderstand being, Substack themorning five 8-19-26

2 am

4 am, The real butt crack of dawn on the right with the neighbors headlight I think

Stay awake

 

JPG‘s pick new player hit it out of the park

A bomb he called it

I pray for all the help we need

My world changes

Band practice , 5 pm 8-17

   Lord abide with us.  Us with you.  Bless the chilly , the music makers. Amen

I remind myself here for a moment 

that I cannot ask for forgiveness 
and yet remain unwilling to offer it. 

I cannot ask for love and remain unwilling to offer it. 
I cannot ask for mercy and yet remain unwilling to offer it. 

     Lee van Laer, Substack, the morning five,  today, goodness flows into being

Discipline slips

 

7:10 am walk

I hardly know what to say. Cloudy day doing nothing as usual, at least we all took a walk together this morning.  That  discipline seems to be holding, but I skipped another blog yesterday day although I took photos and piled up another good intent

     Lord, help us get through these new trials and help S Survive and thrive IJN

Rock of ages

 

Cleft for me,

 let me hide myself in Thee

I am tired today

 

Reach for what you need

Calling Red

And here he us

Lord, thank you for neighbors and children. 

Help them in oh. 

Thank you for those you have helped. IJN

Hail, you say

 

Was that thunder?

Sure was

Lord, did we get soaked!

And the day just kept getting better. Not  Starting with power outage, then notification red has Giardia 

But Lord give you gave us strength to get through it all. Thank you IJN

God help us

tired and overwhelmed at times

Would swear falsely…

 

Catalpa or Catawba plant? Definitely. 

Learned something new today,

 very interesting plant

…That  I made an entry yesterday Apparently, I only thought about it. Did take pictures of this plant along sidewalk while walking yesterday, JW’s property . Wouldn’t really expect to see it up north here. When I read about it, there’s a northern and southern variety as well as a Chinese variety.  People do plant them as ornamentals. And they aren’t the exclusive food source of Catalpa moth caterpillars, which are a popular fishing bait for southern fisherman  of course, now I will have to look for the caterpillars on our walks. They’re quite colorful and pretty.

Another of God‘s great wonders and glory TYJ

Undeniable glory

Last night. Showed up after 

threatening a thunderstorm 

that does not happen

So I have nothing to say?  

Well, MF Told us our B never made it to Sommerwoche in Deutschland due to a passport problem. What a shock!  As G said, he’s off the pedestal, only human. 

Very hot weather again today and I expect DJ and family will be back in Columbus this evening. We’ll see.  

Spoke to S she would like to have me come up for surgery anticipated  

Jesus help us all I pray in all sincerity. 

I’m ready for my

 

Close-up

Same corn flower

Read a Chabad article by Tzvi Freeman,  “What Is a Yetzer Hara and How Do I Get Rid of It?”  Same ancient advice as GIG, With different emphasis of mind over heart to control our bad behaviors. Actually, that’s GIG 2026; I think he would say align the three centers. I like the article very much and kept it in my notes. Bottom line is persistence

“The Secret Weapon for Long-Term Yetzer Hara Management

Shine a bright light.

We all have that light inside ourselves. We need to dust it off and switch it on.

That light is called “the hidden love.” It’s deeper than the yetzer tov and far more powerful. But it’s hidden, dormant, and awaiting you to awaken it. Once you wake it up, the yetzer hara doesn’t have a chance.6

As the saying goes, “A little light pushes away a whole lot of darkness.”7

The hidden love is the place where your divine soul connects to the Infinite Light (i.e. G‑d). It’s that sense inside that there’s nothing in the world that can disconnect you. The sense that there’s nothing so important, so tempting, or even so threatening, that it can trump holding on to that connection. As far as that love is concerned, cutting the cord is an absolute impossibility.

How do you awaken that love?

The tested and proven method is daily study and contemplation. You take time each day to learn and ponder the teachings of the great masters of the inner Torah….

“ The meeting parlor of the mind is also a good place to discuss what a good life is all about. What sort of pleasures really last? What is it that is so satisfying about a mitzvah? How do I want to feel about my life when I leave this world? In what way is my contribution beyond time?”  TF

What

C in C’s new apt ystrday TNJ

And no matter how much the affairs of men may color this world,

they cannot truly stain or soil or damage the nature of this light, 

which is eternal, 

penetrates everything, 

fills this body with sensation. 

     Lee today substack, The morning five, To sing of being

Sunny today

 

Last week, but rainy all day yesterday

Red have I got caught in a downpour for about 10 minutes

Horns and humor

 

Me and Bee?

Thursday restaurant apotheosis

Just a joke, Lord;  don’t strike me with lightning:) 

We talked about GIG’s take on jokes in webinar yesterday 

Starting with his use of of them to “ throw dust in their eyes” when he was essentially hiding a reaction. I think that might be what joking is about— Distracting and obfuscating. Plus, we like being on the receiving end hearing jokes Because they surprise us and show things in a different way, tip things upside down. Like a kundabuffer I suppose

Lord I think I’m praying more to myself than you:  I want to keep you on my mind all day; make effort then, Not just say the words

Windfall

 

From my favorite tree. I have sampled them already. Tart!

Here’s an idea

 

What if I invite M to stay with us Two or three months With conditions?  Not sure A or S will buy in. Asked him already No positive vibes back. Lord, I need help with this one, deciding. It’s a chance to see a drowning person, but I’m afraid we’ll get pulled under  help us Jesus. I know it wouldn’t even be a question for you. It shouldn’t be for me, but there’s us involved.  Help us in Jesus name