IT'S WINTER

The Sun has returned. It looks beautiful, looking out from my window in the North room. It is nice but cool 21.9 F. The chickens won't come out. I have had chickens that would brave almost any kind of weather, but this group is not very adventurous. If I threw some kitchen waste outside their door they may hop out, but without a good reason they choose not to explore the outside world. They enjoy their cozy coop.

The sheep are enjoying their large hay bales and it brings peace to me. Now when they baa at me, which they do whenever they see me, I can be sure it is just a greeting and not a distress call. It is sometimes more than a greeting however, I throw out the kitchen garbage for the chickens, the sheep have come to expect it. Why sheep would like egg shells, coffee grounds and scraps of this and that I don't know. They are so greedy the chickens don't get anything. Over the years I have noted much variation in the behavior of sheep i.e. kitchen garbage. In years past I have had sheep nose around to see if their was a bit of lettuce or carrot but they turned up their noses at the rest. These particular sheep like it all and think it is a spectacular smorgasbord. They know in the afternoon when I am going to bring it out and they are waiting.

The local tax people are weighing whether we are a farm or not and are threatening to raise our taxes. I think we will prevail. We have just twenty acres but we have always raised some kind of livestock. Their issue seems to be whether we are making money or not. If you are renting out your pasture for a farmer to use you are automatically included. If you just have a few animals, you may be a hobby farm and not eligible. It is neither a farm, in the commercial sense, or a hobby, it is our way of life. I am not sure they have a classification for that. It won't change anything if they do raise our taxes, but there is a principle involved.

The snow came in dribs and drabs and finally covered everything. It must be four or five inches deep. So Winter is here, indisputably. It kind of snuck up on us with that roller coaster of above average and then below average temperatures.

I can't believe Christmas is only ten days away. Time flies when your an old codger. I am going to devote a blog to the curiosity of aging. Not today. I just want to wish everybody a Happy Friday!

I hope we can all keep our minds away from the world's craziness and find pleasant companionship with each other. It is so nice to have loving kindness for yourself and envelope all others in it.

Love and Peace, Gregg

WE WILL BE FINE

 

It is a good day! The news out of Alabama is great sigh of relief. My hay man is coming this afternoon. It is cloudy out, but not too cold, 24.8 F.

I shouldn't say what I am going to blog about. I said Monday that I would talk about the economy today. I don't want to. I don't know anything. The people I rely on for economic news state logically why we are on the edge of a precipice. When and if we tip over is the question.

Economist are all over the map on that question and even more over the map on the best way to deal with it. They vary from the uber-logical to the hysterical. They generally tout there past success at prediction. One needs to have a good BS detector. Some say get out of cash. Some say invest in cash. Some say real estate is the best investment, others say to be shy of real estate. Some say gold is where it is at, others say its a no no. If you follow their reasoning, they are all right according to how they see the situation playing out. The problem is we have only the past to predict how the scenario will play out.

My best guess is we are going to experience crash of the current global monetary system and a re-issuance of a currency based on gold. To get a picture of our current fragile situation. I would recommend you read James Howard Kunstler's blog, “Clusterfuck Nation.” It will give you a good perspective of what is happening. Don't expect to agree with everything he thinks. He blogs on Mondays and Fridays. His last couple have been focused on the economy.

I would like to be able to give people a timely heads up. I can't. I don't think things will be the same a year from now, but I thought that before. Kunstler will help you see the bigger picture.

I think the consciousness of the common person has raised to the point where no calamity will bring us down. We know how to care for each other. I think there are forces at all levels of society who have felt something coming and are ready to step in as our current institutions crumble.

If we keep in mind that this is always a choice between love and fear, oneness or separation and always keep our faces turned to the light, we will be the benefactors of a crumbling world not the victims. All that is required is that we make all our decisions with love. Is that so hard?

We have explored separation to the nth degree. It is time for it to end. We see the collapse everywhere. We can help by not being seduced by ideas that cause division and promote judgement. Be careful of causes. They may sound right up our alley, but do they invite judgement? Do they cause us to look down on others? Beware of feeling righteous, that is a sure sign we are contributing to separation. In these uncertain times we are all wrong much of the time. Some of us are more in error than others. Error just points out that we haven't discovered how lovable and loving we can be.

Let's keep shining our light. We will get through this. We are remarkable beings.

Love and Peace, Gregg

FRED FLINTSTONE

I noticed that the weather prognosticators were predicting snow for last night. I checked a couple times during the day and they said there was a 90% chance of two to three inches. I was hoping we would miss it because they also predicted it would be over freezing and we could get rid of some we got. Well after midnight I looked outside, not a flake. Ah...... checked the forecast again and they raised the probability to 100% but lowered the expected amount to less than an inch.

When I got up this Morning we had over two inches. It was warm though, it is 35 F now. I like the snow but I was hoping the sheep could get more use out of the pasture. I called my hay man, he was on his way home from Texas where he bought some goats. He said it was 63 degrees there. He will put me first on his list. The sheep are okay, I got several bales of that poor quality hay. The hay is fresh and what they can eat is nutritious, but it is full of sticks and stalks they wouldn't eat. I bought it for another purpose.

We still didn't get our remote. I have difficulty watching TV without a mute. Two days ago we tried to escape into Netflix. Netflix was having some kind of promotion where we had to sign in. We couldn't figure it out. We tried to put our name in etc. got nowhere. We figured we would have to wait for one of our tech savvy children to visit.

The next night I tried again. Oh, in much smaller letters at the bottom of the screen, there were instructions to put in our pass word. We had no idea what our pass word was. Our daughter, Naomi, helped set it up. I thought she might know. Then I noticed a 'forget password' message and was able to click on it and set up a new password. Works fine.

Yes, neither Jamie or I are tech masters or anything close. On Thanksgiving I was trying to take some pictures with an iPhone. I was having some minor difficulty. My older daughter [Laura] looked over to my younger daughter [Naomi] and said, “Fred Flintstone.” Humph........ I felt the love in it so I didn't protest. And how could I protest. I was at a store not too long ago and I was having trouble with my car. I asked a clerk if I could use the phone. He handed me his cell phone. I looked at it. I had no idea how to use it. I had to hand it back to him so he could dial the number. Note that I wrote dial. That was automatic.

Naomi gave us an iPhone as a gift. I think she might be worried about us having an emergency and being away from our land line. There was a tutorial available to teach one how to use the phone. It was quite long, perhaps an hour, it went on in detail about all the great attributes of this instrument. I don't remember it saying anything about how to use the phone. The assumption must be that every idiot knows how to use a cell phone. Well there are some old idiots out here that are just learning. I can do it but I haven't had much experience. I call Jamie once in a while and pretend I am a robocall.

There is growing older and there is the world leaving you behind, two different things. I am as tech savvy as I need to be and a little more knowledgeable than these writings probably indicate. I don't mind growing old. At least most of the time. There are advantages. I have been meaning to write a blog about growing old. I will soon.

Wednesday I want to write more about the economy and what may be on the horizon.

I need to wash dishes and go to town with Jamie.

Love and Peace, Gregg

PARADISE BECKONS

We have a break from the frigid weather. It has been windy and cold the last three days, today the breeze is moderate and it is warmer 30 F, which is even higher than the forecast.

The chickens came out for the first time since Monday. I saw them out a couple hours ago and then just a few minutes ago I was looking for them, I couldn't see them, I thought they went back inside. I walked around the house looking out all the windows and I spotted them on the edge of the shelter belt. Chickens don't like snow especially if it comes up to their shanks. Despite the blizzard conditions Monday Night, it was brief, and there wasn't much accumulation. It was probably the cold and wind as well as the snow that kept them in the last three days.

I just saw the sheep wending their way across the North pasture. They pause now and then where a clump of grass emerges from the snow and paw and eat a bit. I need to put a fire under my hay man, what I am feeding them isn't top grade. They would actually find enough digging through the snow in the pasture. They have made it clear, however, they prefer me to feed them.

We don't care very much for the newer television shows but we do like to listen to some oldies in the Evening. However, we hate the commercials! About a week ago, it seems longer, the remote that controls the sound [mute and volume] went on the fritz.

We are too old to jump up and down every time a commercial comes on, besides the buttons on the sound bar are recessed and we need a flashlight to see them. Gone are the days when we had a child that could be trained to be a mobile remote, besides those rascals need to be in bed too early and the older kids tend to get rebellious when it quits being fun.

So we have been have been learning much more than we wanted to about prescription drugs besides a whole lot more. Those drugs, wow, I can't believe people actually pester their doctors for them. They must somehow blank out the side effects. Some say, “sudden death may occur.” That would discourage me. Are there people that are not active mute pushers? I can't imagine people listening to these commercials. Some of the none drug commercials are funny and some very clever. Before my remote broke we listened to some we knew were well written and well acted.

Those drug commercials though, all that I can say is wow again, they appear to be the dark side of medicine.

We wait everyday for the new remote that will come by mail, UPS, Fedex or whatever.

I don't know how to talk about the world. Everything we see in the media seems to be a smokescreen hiding what is really happening. We discover that and then we discover what we thought might be some truth and it is more cover. The real scenario will come out bit by bit. I think it will be shocking.

What is happening in the financial world may be a little easier to access. There is no real financial news in the main stream media. The economy has not been improving. The real wealth of the working and middle class has steadily declined since the 70s and has taken a steeper decline since 2008. The stock market rise does not reflect the economy, even of the Corporate World. Corporate profits are way up, but that is all due to the free money available through the Fed. Quantitive Easing they call it, the Fed quit doing it a couple years ago, but other World Banks took over. This is money that is only a number on a computer. It creates giant IOUs that some miracle will take care of. The only thing that can save it is for real wealth to grow, real production. It isn't happening. The stock market going up is not healthy. The only thing that could save us is for all that extra Wall Street money to be divided up and given to the poorest 70% of the population. In our present consciousness that is not likely to happen. Historically the world looks a lot like 1929 only worse. Then too, the top 1% were hogging all the money.

We are just spectators watching the empire crumble. It is not a bad thing. It all has to go. We know what a sane world look like. We know how to help it emerge.

It all starts in our minds, “Are we choosing love or fear?”

The world that is passing was created out of fear, that is what separation is, fear and all its children.

We know how to Love. Paradise beckons!

Have a Great Friday! Celebrate!

Love and Peace, Gregg

THE NEWS FROM LAUGHING WATER FARM

I just heard my wall clock strike eleven, it is abut time I began hitting the keyboard. I haven't quite recovered from the dramatic change in the weather. It was fiftyish on Monday Morning and 15 F Tuesday Morning and Monday Night we had a blizzard.

I mentioned on Monday that we had a function to attend to that Evening and the forecast was not favorable. I wanted to keep an eye on the weather while we were there as not to get caught in the snow storm. Well we were having way too good a time to pay much attention. We were being reacquainted with some old friends and meeting new ones. When I noticed it snowing I decided to leave. We only had twenty-five miles to drive, but I am an old codger.

It was snowing briskly when we left Cambridge and it appeared to get more ferocious as we went North. The wind was driving the snow in a way that was blinding. We couldn't see much with the lights on dim, but on bright they were worse, as the snow reflected the light back in our face. Jamie serving as my guide and navigator warned me more than a couple times that I was turning into a driveway and not a roadway. Twice I turned into driveways by mistake far enough to back out. We had to drive so slow, that it seemed a long time from when I would see the sign for the road we wanted to turn on, to actually come to the turn. I didn't record the time, but I think it took us over an hour to drive the twenty plus miles. I was very happy to turn on the dirt road that led to home. By the time we got home the snow had abated and if we would have waited another half hour to leave we might have had an easier time.

It was all good. It was a remarkable adventure. It was good to discover the old guy could still do it.

On the domestic front, we caught our first mouse of the season. They usually invade the house earlier in the Fall. It has been a relatively mild Autumn. It is also possible that Jamie has been catching them all along and I am too out of it to know it.

My sheep are disappointed in me because I am not giving them the kind of hay they prefer. My hay man is late in delivering me the big bales they like. It didn't matter until yesterday as the pasture was still good, but now with the snow cover, they will need hay. I have some old hay that will get them by, but they know how to complain when they are not completely happy.

It was only 13 F when I got up, but the Sun has been shining off and on and it is now a balmy 22.1.

This is not a day to report on the big world. As one of my departed brothers would say, “Be good to yourself”. Love your neighbor.

And that is the news from Laughing Water Farm.

Love and Peace, Gregg

TO THE END OF OUR SEPARATION

 

We are on the high side of the weather roller coaster. It is over 50 F and it is supposed to begin raining this Evening, turn to snow, and drop down to 15 degrees. We have a function to attend to this Evening, I hope the worst happens after we are back home.

Wow! Could the polarization in the world be greater? The division and the retreat to various camps is phenomenal.

At the same time and quietly, folks are seeing this is all nuts. We don't want any part of it. Many of the folks who can't take the nuttiness are people, who all along felt that we were all one, and separation from each other was the source of all the craziness.

Can we imagine a world of separation that has become so extreme that folks on one side of this beautiful Earth plot the annihilation of folks on the other side? How about separation so extreme that one group decides that another group should not be cared for in terms of health, education and welfare? What if that same group decides to raise the taxes on all but the wealthiest? How could we believe that? Wow! That is way too extreme!

Those of us who realize that separation is an illusion will be able to find peace, love and joy in the comfortable presence of each other. No we don't need to be part of that illusion. We are realizing that only love is real, and all made from the idea of separation, will pass.

Humankind has been on a great journey to discover if separation is possible. We have carried out separation to the nth degree. Most of us are ready to give up the idea and some of us have awakened to the point where we see only love is real and are beginning to see a new world emerge.

Many of us who are seeing this truth are too shy to have this conversation with their neighbors or even family members. They don't want to be seen as kooks. By opening the conversation they will discover that many are kindred souls. The awakening has proceeded at a much greater pace than they thought. We have a lot of company. In fact most people realize we are 'One'. They may not know how to express it, but they know in their heart it is true.

We know we cannot judge those who still embrace separation. Judgement is what causes the problem in the first place. We will develop compassion for them regardless of the destruction they have caused. They are the ones in the most pain because they have been pursuing substitutes for love. Those substitutes, usually power and money, will always leave one empty and the demand for more, insatiable.

As we learn to give up all our substitutes for love, a new world will open up to us.

Love melts all illusion. Love knows no separation.

Let's have a toast: To the end of this illusion; to the end of our separation; to our awakening to our Oneness; to our awakening to who we are; to our awakening to Unconditional Love; to the realization we are in Paradise.

Skoal!

Love and Peace, Gregg

WELL.......

 

I have the worse case of writers block I have ever had. I don't know if I am really a writer. I record my musings in a blog. I really don't want to write about the craziness in the world and I have made my recommendations for how we should deal with it many times.

I awoke this Morning happy to greet the day, I was at peace with myself and with the world. I did the crossword puzzle. I let my chickens out and gave the sheep some water. Filled my sink up with hot water to let my dishes soak, I am sure the water is getting cold by now.

I have three things I read on the internet every Friday Morning. I have been sitting here dozing off and occasionally getting up to do this or that.

Any inspiration..................no, the only thing that comes into my mind is, why are dogs so heavy when they are laying on your blankets? Our dog Xena, a Yorkie-poo, sleeps with me. I usually can get up and back in bed without incident. This Morning I got up about 5:00 and when I came back to bed I couldn't get the sheet back on me. I pulled on it and pulled on it. She can't weigh more than 7 pounds. How is she able to defy the law of physics and pin down the sheet? I suppose I could have really yanked it from under her. Instead I slept with only a quilt covering the rest of the Night.

I don't have any more fascinating stories. There is so much I could comment on but I would like to see things play out a little more. The proposed tax bill appears to be national suicide, undercutting the working and middle class, who are the very people who need to purchase things to survive. Without there participation the economy doesn't have a chance. Well, it looks like it [the economy] is in the dumper anyway. It is teetering and a crash is coming soon. We are losing control of the petrodollar and our dominance as the World Reserve Currency. It is almost as if the top 1% is trying to suck up as much as they can before the excrement hits the fan.

Let's keep our noses out of the idiot box and celebrate this marvelous Friday. There is life outside of the main stream media and the alternative media too; they are both just different thermometers measuring a very sick, fevered world.

Let's dream of our new world. A world where people actually love and take care of each other.

Love and Peace, Gregg