Tag Archives: dance party

Not Too Taxing

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Posted by on in collaborating, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

March 4, 2024- Four years ago, the retired IRS inspector was ready to haul me before a few of her successor agents, for an infraction that was really a disagreement between the agency and my employer at the time. It was resolved by a few phone calls that were above my pay grade.

Today, this same former inspector couldn’t have been nicer. My financial situation is certainly much more cut and dried, so the process this time took less than an hour. The American Association of Retired Persons has redeemed itself, in my eyes, and I, in its. Besides that, I have a five-year membership.

Most everything, these days, from the most discrete of my friendships to the online dance party that lets me limber up, is on a smooth track. The key to it all is keeping a sense of constancy, of self-assurance that is closely linked with faith in the Divine. Baha’is between the ages of 15-70 are fasting now, as I did, not so many years ago. My prayers go out on their behalf-and that has some effect on what transpires on this end, as well-paying both backward and forward.

So, from the coffee klatsch this morning to the the dance party that just ended, this day was not at all taxing.

Honouring

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Posted by on in children, collaborating, Education, Family, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

February 3, 2019, Paulden, AZ-

Whilst many of my fellow humans were watching what started out as a Stupour Bowl, I chose a different route for a fine Sunday afternoon:  Revisiting friends at Dharma Farm, an unassuming, but loving little settlement, on the west side of this unincorporated community in northern Yavapai County.

The family’s older child decided I was a fun companion, so we built, and dismantled, several mud villages. This child is a true Shiva, great at building and destroying  items of wood and mud, alike.  When the digging got old, and child decided it was “cold”, we went inside and she regaled the lot of us with a very expressive series of dances, in her best party dress.  Then it was time for me to make a blanket fort, which she occupied very happily, for forty-five minutes. Finally, I became a blanket-covered creature, called Swaug-as the only sound it makes is a low, guttural “Swaug!”   This went on for another hour or so.

Such is the world of a bright, imaginative three-year-old.  The family lives, and the children are being raised on, a system of honouring: Honour each other’s space; each other’s work; each other’s presence; each other’s dignity and worth.  If time were taken, by anyone, to practice this code, how much higher would the state of peace be?

Life at Dharma is not letter perfect- The above-mentioned child has her life lessons to learn and there were fatigue-caused meltdowns, from both children.  The honour system will help address these concerns, as will the violence-free regimen of their parents.  The couple’s commitment to Permaculture, a work in progress, will also contribute greatly to the little farm’s thriving.

A review of an astrological concept:  The north node, its notion of “past lives” aside, did explain to me the basis for some difficulties and conflicts I’ve had in my actual past.  It is, in many ways, a spot-on psychological analysis.  It basically notes, in a largely accurate manner, that the Infinite, as the author refers to the Universe, will unfold life as it is intended to unfold, and that how one reacts to both challenges and triumphs alike, determines the degree of one’s happiness and feeling of satisfaction, or the lack thereof.  This gave rise to a discussion of just what the nature of successive lives might be.  I do not believe in continuous rebirths as human beings, and it turns out, neither do my friends.  We concur that there are different beings, or levels of being, which follow this one.

It was an interesting day, capped by roasted vegetables and a green/beet salad. I learned, soon enough, that the Super Bowl was a low-key affair, with a predictable ending.  On our lives go, as, for the most part, intended.