Monday Morning This and That

The pure air and dazzling snow belong to things beyond the reach of all personal feeling, almost beyond the reach of life. Yet such things are a part of our life, neither the least noble nor the most terrible.

Frederick Soddy

And a happy Monday morning to all of you. Happy it is, indeed. The huge snowstorm they had predicted last week was a flop. We did get some snow during the night, but it could have been much worse.  I am up to my ears in snow this year. Spring will be enthusiastically welcomed this year.

On Saturday I took a walk to the fruit stand.  Bought myself a magnificent pineapple.  That is my new addiction.  Every night after dinner I have to have about four or five pieces.  Also bought some strawberries, grapes, and the ingredients for a nice, healthy salad.  It was a pretty treacherous walk, but the shopping cart actually helped to keep me steady on the ice.  Wish they would start ticketing people who don't shovel, especially businesses.  Until they do, people will just keep doing it.

There is a lady in the neighborhood who feeds the birds.  Hundreds of pigeons, seagulls, and little birds appear when she comes around. Sometimes there are so many that they block out the sun.   I just caught the tail end of it as I was returning home.  Pretty much the seagulls were all that was left.  It really is quite a sight.  Here we are in the dead of winter, ice all over the ground, and the birds of summer hovering over your head. 

Anyone catch the Beatles special last night?  I would have preferred a documentary with the Beatles singing their own songs, but I enjoyed it, especially when they showed their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan show.  That immediately brought a smile to my face and opened the door to a fond memory.  I remember that night clearly.  Mom and I were glued to the television, eagerly awaiting their arrival.  We were so excited.  What really made it special for me was that it was one of the few times in my life that I remember mom and I being close.

I started re-reading the entire 'Mists of Avalon' series.  It has been several years now.  This time I am starting at the beginning with 'The Fall of Atlantis'.  The last time I was so fascinated with the the karmic tie which linked together the of characters  from one book to the other in a time span which starting from the fall of Atlantis to the time of King Arthur. Totally love these books. Here are a few of my favorite quotes that I had jotted down in my quote notebook.... 

“They have not forgotten the Mysteries,' she said, ‘they have found them too difficult. They want a God who will care for them, who will not demand that they struggle for enlightenment, but who will accept them just as they are, with all their sins, and take away their sins with repentance. It is not so, it will never be so, but perhaps it is the only way the unenlightened can bear to think of their Gods.'

 Lancelot smiled bitterly. ‘Perhaps a religion which demands that every man must work though lifetime after lifetime for his own salvation is too much for mankind. They want not to wait for God's justice but to see it now. And that is the lure which this new breed of priests has promised them.'

Morgaine knew that he spoke truth, and bowed her head in anguish. ‘And since their view of a God is what shapes their reality, so it shall be–the Goddess was real while mankind still paid homage to her, and created her form for themselves. Now they will make for themselves the kind of God they think they want–the kind of God they deserve, perhaps.'

Well, so it must be, for as man saw reality, so it became.” 

from 'The Mists of Avalon'

 Of all things we mortals are called upon to do, the most difficult is forgiveness; in order to truly do it, you will probably have to behave as if you already have forgiven for quite a while before you have actually done so.” 

from 'Ancestors of Avalon'

“Remain true to yourself, child. If you know your own heart, you will always have one friend who does not lie.” 

from  'The Forest House'

 “I never left you; I never will leave you. While life lasts, and beyond, I am here.” 

  from 'Lady of Avalon'