My Recent News

My little dog Cinnamin died yesterday. She had been doing so well, and then one day she somehow poked her eye - probably on some stiff field grass - and had to have eye surgery for a corneal abrasion. It was just too much for her to handle... the underlying issues of cancer, kidney disease, and arthritis.... the pain of the surgery, not being able to see while her eye was healing, the stress of the surgery itself, the anesthesia, and the nausea caused by the antibiotics.

She hung around for almost a week, saying her goodby, and then she was gone...

I cannot believe that the sun had the gall to come up this morning, that the leaves and the grasses sparkle in the afternoon light, that birds still sing, or that life will march relentlessly on... and yet it is so.

If I were not surrounded by friends and family who love me and are taking care of me, I might not have the courage to be here now today. So, be kind... be kind to everyone you meet, we all suffer... we all lose those we love... if not sooner - than later... we are all fighting a great fight. The little kindesses make all the difference. And it's good to have friends, even in hell!

Here is a picture of her little sweet self... and an awesome poem to go with it.
Blessings,
Shirley



For what is it to die but to stand naked in the
wind and to melt into the sun?

And what is to cease breathing, but to free the
breath from its restless tides, that it may rise

and expand and seek God unencumbered?
Only when you drink from the river of silence

shall you indeed sing.
And when you have reached the mountaintop,

then you shall begin to climb.
And when the earth shall claim your limbs,

then shall you truly dance.

~Kahlil Gibran
From The Prophet on Death

Being Unhappy

"According to Buddhism, your unhappiness is never really caused by circumstances. The real cause of unhappiness is your belief that your happiness is caused by circumstances.

You do not have to accomplish or acquire or earn anything to experience peace, love, and joy now. You do not have to "make" your own happiness all you have to do is to stop making yourself unhappy and to remember your own deepest truth as a being of Spirit.

Does this mean that we simply give up all of our desires and dreams? No, because it's not the goals and dreams that are the problem, but rather how we understand and live toward them. Going for your dreams can be an intrinsic part of the joy and passion of your life and can be how you concretely express the love and joy that are your truth. But as soon as you (choose to) believe that your happiness is dependent on a certain outcome, or that "things" have to change for you to be happy, then you are living in fear. You are no longer expressing your joy, but are desperately trying to achieve or earn it."

~ William R. Yoder Ph.D., D.C. ~

I am a lonely painter

"I am a lonely painter. I live in a box of paints. I'm frightened by the Devil And I am drawn to those who a'int..."

~Joni Mitchell

Monkey Mind

"In this age of skepticism, we are skeptical about everything except the skepticism itself. We have put all our faith in skepticism and doubt all else. Is it a wise course of action? Is there a truth out there? Our mind doubts everything except its own capability to find the truth. We have put all our faith in our limited and doubting mind and doubt that there is anything greater than our limited power of intellect.

Are we than any better than a common beast of burden? Even a dog has put its full faith in its limited mind and in its ignorance; it thinks it’s a top of creation. That’s why it remains to be a dog!

In India, they catch monkeys by putting few seeds in a pitcher with a narrow neck, while monkey is watching. As soon as no one is around, monkey darts and grabs the seeds in a pitcher but now with a clenched fist it cannot get hand out of a pitcher. It will not let go because its mind will not let him.

This is what mind does – it plants the seed of doubt through its endless analyzing, fragmenting and splintering of the simple truth, while in all its wisdom it remains completely oblivious of its own limitations. It’s a great mistake to think that mind is the top of evolution because it is not. The soul is! Without soul, the mind would be a dead piece of matter."

~ Daniel Srsa

Invisiblility - It is possible!

Belive it or not, there is a lizard on the trunk of this tree.
Can you see him?
He really is there!
Don't believe me?


Here's a picture of him in profile - on that same tree.
Give up?
Need a hint? Click here to see the lizard marked out in the bark.

Here's more about this intriguing little lizard.


These small lizards live in trees and are masters of Camouflage. If they are sitting on a bark without moving, its almost impossible to find them. On land they are clumsy and easy victims for predators. When scared, they run up a tree.


When threatened, they leap off the tree. With their "wings" stretched out, these long-tailed, lightly built lizards glide gracefully. The wings act like parachutes. They gently land on another tree, head up. When they land, they run up the tree, getting ready for their next flight.

During mating season, male flying lizards defend their territories. They court females by displaying their bright yellow throat flap as shown in the photograph above. They have to, as they are well camouflaged otherwise.

Pretty cool, huh? Just goes to show that it IS possible to be invisible - and that just because you can't see something doesn't mean it isn't there!

Do You Believe in Fairies?

I posted the folowing question about a year ago over at question of the day. And I thought it would be fun to revisit it...

Fairies
Do you believe in fairies? If so, have you ever seen one? Why do you believe in them? If not, why not? And if there is no such thing as fairies, why are there so many stories about them?

We had 2 Comments:

Cindy H said...
Yes, I do believe in fairies! I don't think they are quite as common here in the midwest US, but there are some here. I haven't ever seen one up close and personal, but maybe someday I will! I think fairies are distant cousins, so to speak, of angels, leprachauns, and other magical beings. September 1, 2007 12:48 AM

shirley said...
I believe in fairies too. I have never seen one with my physical eyes - but I have talked to them... and they have talked to me... and I almost knew what they looked like.I had a friend who had fairies on her property and in her house. I spent a long afternoon there once, painting her woodwork. And they would come and talk to me... it was pretty cool. I didn't hear their voices with my ears - I heard them in my mind... the same way that you hear when you are remembering a conversation with someone... like that. They were very curious ... it was pretty cool. And I know how crazy this sounds!
September 1, 2007 2:48 AM

So here we are - a year later... what do YOU think? Have you ever seen a fairy? Are they for real? What do they look like? Are they big? or little? Do they have wings and fly around? Or are fairies a totally made up story? A complete fantasy? Come on guys... talk to me...

SEED Conference Sketchnotes

SEED Conference: Sketchnotes 17
Originally uploaded by Mike Rohde

Ok... so I found this really cool series of sketch notes... I uploaded the latest set at My Work at Home Job. If you are interested in stuff like this - go check it out.!

The Truth About Brutus

The K9 Above is Brutus, a military K9 at McChord. He's huge - part Boxer and part British Bull Mastiff and tops the scales at 200 lbs. His handler took the picture. Brutus is running toward me because he knows I have some Milk Bone treats, so he's slobbering away! I had to duck around a tree just before he got to me in case he couldn't stop, but he did.

Brutus won the Congressional Medal of Honor last year from his tour in Iraq . His handler and four other soldiers were taken hostage by insurgents. Brutus and his handler communicate by sign language and he gave Brutus the signal that meant 'go away but come back and find me'. The Iraqis paid no attention to Brutus. He came back later and quietly tore the throat out of one guard at one door and another guard at another door. He then jumped against one of the doors repeatedly (the guys were being held in an old warehouse) until it opened. He went in and untied his handler and they all escaped. He's the first K9 to receive this honor.

If he knows you're ok, he's a big old lug and wants to sit in your lap. Enjoys the company of cats.

So that's the story that came with the picture. And I like that story! Too bad it isn't true. Here's the real story:

The dog's name is not Brutus; in fact, his name is 'Spike," and he was never a military working dog. Spike is a retired Police Service Dog who served honorably during the years 2001 to 2007 with the Scottsdale Police Department's K-9 Unit in Scottsdale, Arizona, under his handler, Officer Scott DiIullo (who is still with the K-9 Unit and working with a new K-9 partner).

Spike is a Belgian Malinois imported from Europe and weighs less than 100 pounds. Furthermore, police and military working dogs are NOT trained to fatally attack a subject they are deployed upon. Dogs used for handler protection are trained to bite and hold the subject until the subject is taken into custody. There is also no training method to teach a working dog to understand a hand signal to command the dog to leave the area, come back later, and then attack.

Did this really happen?

Ok... so in three days I aged considerably!! One day I was 23 years old, and next thing you know I'm 400!! Yowsers! How does shit like that happen?? All I did was walk through this door:



Then I took a dip in this pool:



Later, I put this thingy together:



And then, I played chess on this chess board:



Geez! No wonder I'm tired!

Ok... This is how old I am... Really!

How old are you? You are over 400 years old! You are from the highlands of Scotland. You are immortal. Accept your destiny. Click Here to Take This Quiz

Quizzes and Personality Tests

So... This is how old I am today!!

You Act Like You Are 23 Years Old

You are a twenty-something at heart. You feel like an adult, and you're optimistic about life. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. You're still figuring out your place in the world and how you want your life to shape up. The world is full of possibilities, and you can't wait to explore many of them.

What Age Do You Act?

A Dalmatian On A Tricycle

That’s right, it is exactly what the title post indicates, a dalmatian operating a tricycle. How fun is that?

Update on my dog Cinnamin

My little dog is doing so much better - it's almost unbelievable. When she got sick - which was on Aug 23, she was dehydrated, disoriented, wobbly, weak, refusing food or water, and if you looked at her sideways she was likely to fall down.

Today she went for a swim in the pond, rolled on the grass to dry off, trecked into some pretty high grass trying to sniff out a rabbit, barked at and almost chased the sheep (she couldn't work up to an actual run), ate almost 2 cups of food, and didn't fall down once. We have been spending hours outside, walking around probably a total of 7 or 8 times a day.

I don't have the money to have her re-xrayed to see if the cancer is in remission, and I don't know if she is "cured" or just feeling good. I can tell you that she does not look at all like a sick dog. Yes, you can tell that she's elderly - she is 14 years old - and her knees do bother her some (two knee replacements), so there is a bit of stiffness - but all in all - she looks pretty darn good.

So, to what do I attribute her remarkable recovery? Here is a listing of her "treatment" program:

• Reiki - pretty much all day long
• Genesis Tuning Fork - I had to cut back on it because it really knocked her out when I used it, so I'm down to every 4 or 5 days or so. When I use it, I run it over her about 5 or 6 times. That thing is powerful!!
• Radionics - I have a friend who does this cool thing using a piece of her hair. The day he started up on her I noticed a significant improvement in her energy level. I had never heard of it before, and it really does seem to work.
• Angels and Devas - I have asked for assistance from her guardian angels, and the overlighting Deva of animal healing.
• Shamanic Journey Work - I have journeyed with her more than once.
• Animal Communication - Several people (I'm lucky to have such good friends) have talked to her about how she can be healthy if that's what she wants.
• Prayer - Yes... she has been prayed for - a lot.
• Love - very important, I've also practiced Ho' oponopono on her.
• Time and Attention - spending quality time with her, giving her my full attention (but not in a worried hovering way) also seems to make a difference in how "with it" she is.
• Releasing the outcome - she hovered at death's door until I managed to actually do this. The day that I told her she could go if she wanted to, that I would be fine if she did, and that it was entirely up to her.... that was the day she started to get better.
• A Good Diet - she eats better than I do... seriously!
• Pond Water - that first few days when she was barely eating a teaspoon of food at a time, the pond water was the only thing that kept her going. I have this (possibly superstitious) idea that there is healing life in that pond water.
• The Will to Live - without this, she wouldn't be here now.
• Prednisone - OK... well there's that too...

So, I'll keep you all posted. I do feel really encouraged, and am thinking that she is planning to stay with me at least for another several months. I'm going to try to get some video of her tomorrow - if I succeed, I'll upload it to YouTube and post it here. If the video idea falls apart, I'll at least try to get a picture uploaded soon.

Political Candidates I Support

Ok... I guess if I'm going to "get political" here at shirleytwofeathers, I might as well go all the way! What follows is a complete listing of all the candidates I am supporting wholeheartedly this election. LOL!!

Obama and the Palin Effect

This is what Deepak Chopra had to say about Obama and the Palin Effect. I thought it was really interesting! What do you think?

Sometimes politics has the uncanny effect of mirroring the national psyche even when nobody intended to do that. This is perfectly illustrated by the rousing effect that Gov. Sarah Palin had on the Republican convention in Minneapolis this week. On the surface, she outdoes former Vice President Dan Quayle as an unlikely choice, given her negligent parochial expertise in the complex affairs of governing. Her state of Alaska has less than 700,000 residents, which reduces the job of governor to the scale of running one-tenth of New York City. By comparison, Rudy Giuliani is a towering international figure. Palin's pluck has been admired, and her forthrightness, but her real appeal goes deeper.

She is the reverse of Barack Obama, in essence his shadow, deriding his idealism and exhorting people to obey their worst impulses. In psychological terms the shadow is that part of the psyche that hides out of sight, countering our aspirations, virtue, and vision with qualities we are ashamed to face: anger, fear, revenge, violence, selfishness, and suspicion of "the other." For millions of Americans, Obama triggers those feelings, but they don't want to express them. He is calling for us to reach for our higher selves, and frankly, that stirs up hidden reactions of an unsavory kind. (Just to be perfectly clear, I am not making a verbal play out of the fact that Sen. Obama is black. The shadow is a metaphor widely in use before his arrival on the scene.) I recognize that psychological analysis of politics is usually not welcome by the public, but I believe such a perspective can be helpful here to understand Palin's message. In her acceptance speech Gov. Palin sent a rousing call to those who want to celebrate their resistance to change and a higher vision.

Look at what she stands for:

• Small town values -- a denial of America's global role, a return to petty, small-minded parochialism.


• Ignorance of world affairs -- a repudiation of the need to repair America's image abroad


• Family values -- a code for walling out anybody who makes a claim for social justice. Such strangers, being outside the family, don't need to be heeded.


• Rigid stands on guns and abortion -- a scornful repudiation that these issues can be negotiated with those who disagree.


• Patriotism -- the usual fallback in a failed war.


• "Reform" -- an italicized term, since in addition to cleaning out corruption and excessive spending, one also throws out anyone who doesn't fit your ideology.

Palin reinforces the overall message of the reactionary right, which has been in play since 1980, that social justice is liberal-radical, that minorities and immigrants, being different from "us" pure American types, can be ignored, that progressivism takes too much effort and globalism is a foreign threat. The radical right marches under the banners of "I'm all right, Jack," and "Why change? Everything's OK as it is."

The irony, of course, is that Gov. Palin is a woman and a reactionary at the same time. She can add mom to apple pie on her resume, while blithely reversing forty years of feminist progress. The irony is superficial; there are millions of women who stand on the side of conservatism, however obviously they are voting against their own good. The Republicans have won multiple national elections by raising shadow issues based on fear, rejection, hostility to change, and narrow-mindedness.

Obama's call for higher ideals in politics can't be seen in a vacuum. The shadow is real; it was bound to respond. Not just conservatives possess a shadow -- we all do. So what comes next is a contest between the two forces of progress and inertia. Will the shadow win again, or has its furtive appeal become exhausted? No one can predict. The best thing about Gov. Palin is that she brought this conflict to light, which makes the upcoming debate honest. It would be a shame to elect another Reagan, whose smiling persona was a stalking horse for the reactionary forces that have brought us to the demoralized state we are in. We deserve to see what we are getting, without disguise.

Source: DeepakChopra.com

She may die

The following quote is from that cool book, Notes to Myself by Hugh Prather. It really hit home for me. Enjoy!



She may die before morning. But I have
been with her for four years. Four years.
There is no way I could feel cheated if
I didn't have her for another day. I didn't
deserve her for one minute, God knows.

And I may die before morning.

What I must do is die now. I must
accept the justice of death and the
injustice of life. I have lived a good life-
longer than many, better than most. Tony
died when he was twenty, I have had
thirty-two years. I couldn't ask for
another day. What did I do to deserve
birth? It was a gift. I am me - that is a
miracle. I had no right to a single minute.
Some are given a single hour. And yet I
have had thirty-two years.

Few can choose when they will die. I
choose to accept death now. As of this
moment I give up my "right" to live.
And I give up my "right" to her life.

But it's morning. I have been given
another day. Another day to hear and read
and smell and walk and love and glory.
I am alive for another day.

I think of those who aren't.

~Hugh Prather

Home Made Dog Food

I've been making dog food for my little dog Cinnamin, and it occured to me that the recipe that I've been using might be helpful. I don't know that what I'm feeding her right now would be good for all dogs - but it got a thumbs up from my vet, and she looks pretty good (all things considered), so I'm going to stick my neck out and say that I do think this diet would be fine for any dog with renal disease and cancer.

Ingredients:

• 1 can white meat chicken (no salt added)
• 2 tablespoons condensed canned goat milk (I poured the entire can into an ice cube tray and froze it - then I dumped the cubes into a freezer bag. I'm assuming that 1/2 cube is equal to 2 tablespoons)
• 1 tablespoon wheat germ
• 3 heaping tbsp rice cereal for babies - more if needed

Here's how I put it together. I empty the can of chicken (including the liquid) into a 10 oz jar. I add the cube of goat milk, the wheat germ, and the rice cereal. Then I add just enough water to moisten the cereal but not so much that it's too soupy. If I happen to put too much water, I just add more cereal until it's the right consistency.

And that's it! She loves it. My dog weighs about 18 lbs and doesn't have much of an appetite, so if she eats the whole thing in one day - I'm really happy. This diet is high in protein, which isn't usually recommended for dogs with chronic kidney disease, but since she is in "hospice" the vet felt that it didn't matter.

Variations - substitutions - additions:

• Substitute a can of salmon for the can of chicken.
• Add cooked oatmeal, couscous, rice, or baked potato if you want to add bulk or carbs.
• Add pieces of hard boiled egg.
• My dog also really likes those little chicken sticks that you can find in the baby food section - they come in a bottle and look like little hot dogs.

Disclaimer:

I am not a vet - nor am I an expert in dog nutrition. This was the only thing I could get my dog to eat, and it's bad enough that she's dying of cancer. I didn't want her to starve to death at the same time. So, for those of you who want dog food recipes designed by a vet - specifically for dogs with chronic renal failure - stay tuned... there's more.

Beef and Potato Diet

(Low-protein, low-phosphorus, high-potassium, normal sodium)

• 2 oz lean ground beef (raw weight), cooked
• 3 cups potato, boiled with skin
• 2 tablespoons chicken fat
• 1 1/2 calcium carbonate tablets (600 milligrams calcium)
• 1/2 multiple vitamin-mineral tablet

Provides 737 kilocalories, 18.6 grams protein, 32.5 grams fat.
Supplies caloric needs of a 23 to 24 lb dog.
Provides phosphorus at 43 %, potassium at 293 %, sodium at 54 % of dog's daily needs. To feed this diet with a normal amount of phosphorus, substitute 4 bone meal tables for the 1 1/2 calcium carbonate tablets.

Chicken and Potato Diet

(Low-protein, low-phosphorus, high-potassium, normal sodium)

• 1/4 cup cooked chicken breast
• 3 cups potato, boiled with skin
• 2 tablespoons chicken fat
• 1 1/2 calcium carbonate tablets (600 milligrams calcium)
• 1/2 multiple vitamin-mineral tablet

Provides 689 kilocalories, 18.9 grams protein, 26.8 grams fat.
Supports caloric needs of a 21 - 22 lb dog.
Provides phosphorus at 45%, potassium at 301%, sodium at 54% of dog's daily needs. To feed this diet with a normal amount of phosphorus, substitute 4 bone meal tables for the 1 1/2 calcium carbonate tablets.

Beef and Tapioca Diet

(Low-protein, low-phosphorus, high-potassium, normal sodium)

• 4 oz lean ground beef (raw weight) cooked
• 2 cups tapioca, cooked (125 grams dry before cooking)
• 2 tablespoons chicken fat
• 1 1/2 calcium carbonate tablets (600 milligrams calcium)
• 1/2 multiple vitamin-mineral tablet

Provides 845 kilocalories, 19.9 grams protein, 37.2 grams fat.
Supports caloric needs of a 28 lb dog.
Provides phosphorus at 18 %, potassium at 29 %, sodium at 55 % of dog's daily needs. To feed this diet with a normal amount of phosphorus, substitute 5 to 6 bone meal tables for the 1 1/2 calcium carbonate tablets.