Six of the Seven

It's possible that there are more than seven, but I've only seen seven at one time. There's one that is particularly spectacular with a band of bright red around its neck. Haven't caught it with my camera yet. They eat about a pint of nectar per day. Am taking a day off from writing, but have 36 pages so far. Remember that you can click on the photo to enlargen it.

Only a Man Living Alone Can Appreciate

Only a man living alone can appreciate taking the time to grill a hamburger to perfection and arranging the the fixin's until it's piled high and then being able to take as big of bite as he wants and not having to care if it drips and stains his shirt.

Only a man living alone can appreciate the disappointment that no one notices he's drinking out of the bottle. It's just not fun any more.


In more interesting news I have at least seven humming birds feeding at my feeder. I'm seen as many as five feeding at one time with another two hovering around. This feeder hangs just above the table on my porch. I often sit there to write/type and they don't seem to mind unless I move suddenly. Am trying to get a picture of them, but you can imagine how difficult that is.

Reality Spirituality

I hesitated to post this as I was afraid it would be misinterpreted.

This Journey of the Heart to Oregon has been unbelievable. I have dreamed of coming here to write and here I am! When I am writing in my notebook, I often wonder if this is real or if I am still dreaming. This experience is the single most satisfying thing I have done in my life. It’s far from easy. The book writing process is harder than I thought it would be. The writing/receiving is as easy as it has ever been. I then have to type it, find and add excerpts, print and edit what I have produced and then do it again, continuing where I left off. This is repeated until the chapter/discussion is completed. In the past I would just write page after page and then type it. Similar—but different.

Every once in awhile reality slips into this dream. Like when I pay bills. I was doing just the day before yesterday. And was looking at my budget. I was a little surprised by what I found. I added up the bills and found I have $2,167 worth of obligations. After taxes, I receive $2,206 per month. Seems perfect, but it doesn’t include gas or food. Now, I guess this would be panicking most people, but I am calm. Truly calm. I continue to marvel at the synchronicity. I was aware I had been living on my savings, until they ran out. And then, my tax return arrived, and I’m living on that. I checked my savings and I think I have three months, four if I really skimp. I realize I might have to stop writing and get a job, which are hard to come by around here. Or maybe move back. I suppose I should worry, but I tell you I just can’t seem to work up the energy to do so. The other thought is I should hurry up and write. And I can’t seem to work up the energy for that either. The words come as they come—perfectly. Everything has worked out so far. I live in the moment and just do what I can do today. Tomorrow is for tomorrow. This is my Journey of the Heart. This IS Reality Spirituality.

Snow Cap

This is Mount McLaughlin. I often see it on my drive into Medford or Eagle Point. I just as often only see glimpses of it. It is often surrounded by clouds or mist. The locals tell me that the snow will be gone by June. This part of Oregon only gets 19" of rain a year and depends on the snow cap for water. It's been 90 here the last couple of days. Summer weather. Suppose to go back to spring like temperatures tomorrow and rest of week.

Sunday Morning

Sunday morning was a gorgeous day here. My landlords were gone, so I was spending time with their dog, Peaches. She kind of mopes when she is alone, so we spent the morning and early afternoon out on the back deck. I was writing and she was snoozing. It was a good day. Prior to coming out I had printed off the final edit of the latest chapter. Forty-eight pages which doubles my output to ninety-two. I imagine that I need 300 or 400 pages, but will not know until it's finished. Meanwhile I am working on the next chapter. Peaches thought it was a good day too -- the landlords returned from their weekend trip.

How Is It?

How is it that I can call myself a messenger of God? How is it that I can call myself a Prophet? How is it that I can call myself a Spiritual Leader? These three statements seem contrary to everything most people know about me. They have long seen me as fun-loving, sarcastic, funny, earthy and singularly generous – but spiritual doesn’t seem to fit with my image. I have lived life fully. I have loved many women. I have had girlfriends while I was married. I have had young girlfriends. I have had an active sex life. I enjoy to gamble – particularly Texas Hold’em Poker. I have openly shared all of this. I don’t seem to understand what the word discreet means. I seem to have reveled in living an unrighteous life.

Now I come along and announce I am retiring to write a book – a spiritual book. Not just any spiritual book but one that I claim I am receiving from God. I openly have declared that I hear the Voice of God. Suddenly I have revealed that I am not just a spiritual person, but a deeply spiritual person. Yet, I have not regularly attended church services in over a decade. How can I expect others to accept this aspect of me? How is it that I can say and do these things?

I want you to know that I have struggled over the last few weeks on how to answer this question. I have decided that about the only way I can do so is to share some of my writings about this subject.

If you have pondered this question then you are not alone. Many of my friends and my family members have asked How is it? Some have asked me directed. Others have asked themselves the question. It is often in the back of everyone's mind. I understand this. And you may be surprised to know that I too have long pondered this question. There is no quick and easy answer. My Journey of the Heart has been long. It has been funny as it has been frustrating. It has been profane as it has been profound. I have questioned my experience, my beliefs and my faith. I understand you questioning it. I have attempted to answer this question in a lengthy article I have posted on From The Barn. If you have seriously pondered this question, I hope you will take the time to read the article.

As always, your comments - good or bad - are welcome. Your comments remind me that all of this is worth while and I should keep on keeping on.


http://journeychapters.blogspot.com/2009/04/how-is-it.html

Dee

Dee.

It was great to hear from you but I no longer have your email address. Check with Dan or Dave and they have my email address.

This is the California Poppy. While these are in the Luther Burbank Gardens, they grow wild along the road. As you drive, you can see hillsides covered with them. Luther Burbank was a famous horticulturalist and was a contemporary of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. If you have Shasta Daisies in your garden, you can thank Luther Burbank. I think this catches me up with posting pics.

OMG!

Spent the weekend in Santa Rosa with some of my favorite cousins. The route takes me on CA-20 which goes around the edge of Clear Lake. It was a gorgeous day. Blue skies, 70's and fluffy clouds -- window down kind of weather. And for the first time my GPS took me on CA-175. I think it was trying to detour around construction. But OMG, that was the windiest road. Switch back after switch back. Down to 10 mph. I actually made myself carsick and had to stop periodically -- and I was going slow and had to pull off to let traffic pass. I took several photos along the way. In one of them you can see the road. Remember you can click on this photo to enlarge it. It was a beautiful drive, but I don't think I'll repeat it if I can help it.

Hey Curtis! You think your cactus take over,
what do you think of this bunch!

Black Tailed Deer

The deer here in Oregon are black tailed.
I took this photo of the place where I like to write in the upper pasture.

A Beautiful Day

I spent four - five hours today working on an article that I hope to soon post. As it was in the 70's I was able to spend most of it out on the porch. I couldn't make it to the pasture as I needed to do a lot of cut and pasting on the computer. I took a short break from the editing to take a walk out into the lower pasture. It is covered in these small yellow wild flowers. I walked out a little farther than I have before and took this shot of the vineyard across the road from the pasture. I ended my walk back at the barn near the flower garden. The daffodils have been in bloom for a couple of weeks here. I understand it was snowing back in Illinois, and just thought you'd like a breath of spring. Snow or not -- and as nice as it is here -- I still miss it.

I have posted this for Broolyn who is crazy about burros,
or as we call them Pablo's -- even if their names are Noah & Murphy.

Not easy

Many of you know that I seem to have a way with the ladies. I have more lady friends than I do men friends. I just seem to be able to charm them and can have them eating out of my hand. Not in this case. This little lady wouldn't warm up to be at first. And I must admit that I resorted to literally having her eat out of my hand. Even with a treat in hand, she still did not immediately warm up to me. She's and older dog, and like many older ladies, she is set in her ways. She has warmed up to enough to take a treat from me. And as I never known when I'm going to see her, I've come to keeping dog treats in my coat pocket. Oh, and her name is Peaches. I'm going to tell the guys back at the plant to control themselves. This one is way too easy and it's beneath you to leave another smartass comment.

Writing Again

On warm days, I go to the upper pasture to write. My landlords are very generous people. About where you see the log in lower left of this picture now sits a table which they moved up from the barn. I set my chair at the table and as they have also set off this portion of the pasture for regrowth I don't have to worry about the burros messing with it. In a month or so, I'll choose a new location.

While I am happy to report that I'm writing again I must say that it has become a balancing act. I am still typing on the 2009 writings and I found 3/4 of a notebook of 2007 that needs typed as well. I write for several hours, then that needs typed up, and then I usually have to research my past writings to add to the writing. I edit the complete text and then use that to once again to write. Progress is being made, but it is slow.

I have writings that I have held with God since 2004. I wrote to the angels for two years before that. Most of these writings were done in small hand held journals. Sometime in 2007 I graduated to using spiral notebooks. Two pages of handwritten text ends up being one page of typed text. In 2004 there were 32 pages. In April of 2005, my writings became dialogues with God -- I have 241 pages from that year. In 2006 there were 380 pages. In 2007 I only wrote through October and while I have more to type there are 274 pages. I did not start to write again until June of 2008 and I have 219 pages. Each writing is filed by the date I received it unless I received the writing over several days. There was a writing in August of 2008 that went on for five days and ended up being 27 pages typed. I share these statistics with you, so you might understand what it entails when I say I have to research my past writings. I soon post an article about my writings and how I have to see myself as God's Messenger.

I Am

From time to time, I am going to offer some explanation as to how I came to follow this path. It has taken great courage to follow this Journey of the Heart. This journey is an expansion of my relationship with God. It has taken great faith to come to Oregon to write a book with God. It has also taken knowing who I am.

I am a Messenger of God.
I am a Prophet.
I am a Spiritual Leader.

Some find that affirmation upsetting. They don't understand how I can say that. In fact they find it pretty gutsy. I would tend to agree with that assessment. These are not statements of my doingness but statements of my beingness. Conversations with God tells us that "the words 'I am' are extremely powerful. They are statements to the universe. Commands."

In last August of last year I held a lengthy dicussion with God about coming to Oregon to write this book. During that discussion I experienced a transformation. A powerful, dramatic, emotional transformation. This book stopped being part of my doingness and became part of my very being. It was here that the words "I am" were affirmed. It was in those moments that I absolutely knew that I was retiring and moving to Oregon. And now I'm here. Writing.

Today, I'm posting an explanation of how I can say: I am a Prophet on the From The Barn pages. Once again I encourage your comments and questions.

http://journeychapters.blogspot.com/2009/03/i-am-prophet.html

Extraordianry

I have an aunt who checks this blog on a regular basis. She carefully read the writing I posted on From The Barn. In that writing God tells me that I need to type all of my writings that I have not entered into my computer. This is no small task and God indicated that it would take diligence. My dear aunt has a way -- has always had a way - of making sure I am doing what I am suppose to be doing. In this case, she is making sure I do so with all due diligence. I am happy to report that I am making great progress and am currently typing writings from December of 2008.

I am afraid that I take this skill for granted far too often. I sometimes forget just how extraordinary it is to have this ability to talk with God. Today I was typing a writing that I found to be extraordinary for the reason of what God wasn't telling as much as for what He was. I share an excerpt of it on From The Barn. And in advance, I will apologize for the over use of the word extraordinary.

I'm also posting a photo of me diligently typing away. And trust me, my aunt won't see it as proof that I am indeed doing so anymore than you do. lol.

http://journeychapters.blogspot.com/2009/03/extraordinary.html

First Day of Spring

On the first day of spring I planted these flowers in the planter just outside my door. I did so for the color but also I am missing the Primrose Poker folks. I miss you guys! Okay, so I miss playing poker but will think of you guys every time I stop to look at these primroses.

Recycling

I have become much more of a environmentalist than when I lived in the Midwest. I have become more conscious of my impact upon the earth. I have begun to recycle. It is much easier to do so on this side of the country.

I recently bought three 4G flash drives at Costco for $35. That was good price. A very good price. When I got home I unwrapped them and that's when it struck me. The packaging. The flash drives were wrapped in 8.5 x 11 inch plastic. It served no purpose other than to keep the drives from ripped off. Two minutes. That was it's usefulness. I had to put it the trash as it was not recyclable.

I have a cousin who teaches about building green. She's quite the environmentalist. She sent me this link about The Story of Stuff. It was both entertaining and educational. It hasn't turned me into a strap-myself-around-a-tree-in-front-of-the-bulldozers kind of environmentalist. It has caused me to be more conscious of my choices. I try to think twice when I go out to get more stuff. I hope you'll watch the story and join me in thinking twice about why you're buying more stuff. Better yet, I hope you'll send the link to other people, so they too can know The Story of Stuff.

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Inside the Barn

Barn Interior

Many of you have been very curious about where I live. I finished unpacked and that completes Item #4 on The List. I didn't want to list all of the photos here on my blog and hoped to find a smoother way to share all this photos. The best I can come up with is a web album on Picasa. Clicking on the above photo will take you to an album entitled Barn Interior. Just click on 4 Slideshow to see photos of my home. Just use the ESC button on your keyboard to leave the slideshow. You may need to click several times on the Back button to return to this screen.