AFTER THE STORM

It is only 8:01 AM and I am beginning to write my blog. During my usual blog time I will be digging paths out to the chicken coop and the sheep watering spot.

Yes, I was wrong about the snowstorm missing us and the forecasters were wrong. Friday they predicted a 60% chance of snow and only a few inches of accumulation; they changed the forecast to 100% and several inches on Saturday. I don't know how much we got. Yesterday, I was going to dig out to the chicken coop and I was stopped by a drift that just seemed too much at the time [I knew the chickens were okay in terms of survival. They had plenty of food]. After coming in and contemplating waiting for today, I decided just to bull my way through the drift so I could get the eggs and check on them. The drift wasn't too bad, about knee deep. They were low on water but otherwise okay. I tossed in some snow so they would be okay until today. They like pecking at snow.

I can see the sheep from the house, they are lounging around their watering place hoping I will come out. I won't be able to get to them for a few hours, I will do the chickens first. The chickens need water. The sheep can get by eating snow for awhile. I have had sheep that preferred eating snow and never drank water but these sheep are spoiled by my routine of bringing them water about this time every Morning.

I have a Weather Guide calendar that has the normal highs and lows for each day plus some little saying or remark. Yesterday it said, “the beginning of the lawn mowing season” was that adding insult to injury? By the way, the normal high for today is 58 degrees F. We will miss that by close to 30 degrees. The record high is 88. Hard to believe looking out on this sea of snow.

I have been rather cheery through this storm, an occasional moment of depression perhaps, but only a moment. It has been a spectacular event for April. In my 84 Aprils on planet Earth we have had many April snowstorms, this is the first one I remember that followed a Winter without a break. We usually have a couple weeks of Spring like weather in late March or early April. This year we have had continuous snow cover. We may have had a day or two where the temps went close to fifty but not in a string.

Well I love Mother Nature and I am enthralled by weather and other aspects of our natural surroundings. I hope all the birds are okay. I am sure they have ways of survival. It isn't that cold. It is 29.8 F right now. I wonder what the herons eat? They usually persist on frogs and other water creatures. The robins and bluebirds will be okay, they often arrive before Spring gets a firm grip.

I will keep my mood up through the shoveling. I have to shovel because my snowblower isn't available; that is a long story, I won't go into it now.

I am going to muscle my way out to the sheep before I shovel a path. I can't take their moping around their water bucket. Anyway, I am going to love this adventure. [What else can we do but love it] It is good exercise for this old body and it will make a good story come July.

Love and Peace, Gregg

P.S. I just got back from traipsing out to the sheep. It was much worse than I anticipated and I was lucky I didn't take a header into a snowdrift. I can't judge how much snow we got but the drifts are over two feet deep. 

DON'T BE DISCOURAGED

Another snowstorm is brewing. We could get several inches by Sunday. Yet it is somewhat iffy as the chances of precipitation is around 60%. A forty percent chance of getting nothing is great! We got to look at the bright side!

Quite a bit of melt took place in the last three days. We have so much snow it is hard to see the progress, but there are patches of bare ground opened up along the fence rows and my paths to the chicken coop and to the sheep watering place are now free from ice.

I got a big square bale of hay yesterday and had it placed where I fed the sheep the big round bales. They haven't found it yet. I hope they do before the snow hits if it is going to.

Most of us find the delayed Spring quite discouraging. I was depressed about it too. However, today I feel encouraged. The little melting we have had is great and I saw Red Wing Blackbirds in a cattail swamp yesterday. They looked a little out of place clinging unto dead stalks of cattails over a sea of white, but they are a promise.

[I just noticed that the sheep found the big square bail – I am very pleased at that.]

The persistence of Winter is disheartening as is the continuing craziness in the world. Our spiritual mentors reassure us and tell us the light is increasing and the power of the dark is decreasing. Sometimes we have to take it on faith as it is hard to see. One of the problems is, we look in the wrong place. We won't find it on the evening news. Actually there is some breaking down of the war message and there is some light shining through occasionally. However, if you want to see the increase in light look around to your friends and acquaintances.

In my observation, and of course there is unevenness, I see folks opening their eyes. The awakening is definitely happening. Folks are refusing to swallow whole the crap that the media feeds them. People are rejecting fear based ideas and are embracing the idea we can live in peace. I know that Facebook and other social media shows us what we want to see, but even considering this, the number of love engendered messages is quite gratifying.

We have to remember that change and enlightenment comes from the bottom and migrates up. We can't wait for leaders. It isn't that we don't have leaders that are also seeing differently, it is that the pressure on them to keep the status quo is enormous. They feel the full pressure of the darkness created by power and money. The cabal finds ways of immobilizing those who promote positive change. If they don't fall in line something worse happens.

We are our own leaders we know that love is the only meaningful energy there is. We know that humankind can live in peace. We demonstrate it everyday in our lives. We know that a smile brings a smile. That kindness produces kindness. That caring induces compassion. Likewise we experience how our negative energy can come back to us. We have all experienced spoiling a moment because we were behaving like jerks.

We know we can have the world we want. We will get through this temporary craziness, yes it is temporary, and it is passing like this stubborn Winter is passing. We need to have patience and stick to the basics. We need to love ourselves and extend that love all around us. We can, we will.

Celebrate! It is Friday!

Love and Peace, Gregg

HEALING/LEARNING CENTERS I

It looks like we might get some melting today! It is just a little after ten and it is already 39.7 F. It is supposed to rain this afternoon and that should further reduce the snow. Today might be the last day I have to walk on that slippery path.

I was gazing out the window a moment ago and I saw a flock of wild turkeys on the far side of the pasture fence. The Toms were courting. They were fully fanned out and their waddles were bright red. It must be close to fifty yards from me, but even at that distance they looked huge, really magnificent birds.

I wanted to talk more about healing/learning centers. I am not sure what to say. I think each one will be different depending on the healers/teachers involved and the needs of that community.

I imagine a place where we could go to find help with what ails us. We could have a physical problem. We could be depressed and confused. We just may want to make sense of the Universe.

We would find a collection of healers/teachers eager to assist. There would be physicians [traditional and alternative], herbalist, energy healers, psychics, perhaps astrologers and tarot readers. Whatever the group thinks would be helpful for the healing of the people in the community.

The individual would be met by a guide to help them choose from a smorgasbord of healers. However, the individual would not give up his autonomy to another. Each person seeking help would be fully involved in decision making according to their condition.

There would be no set fees. Folks would pay what they could afford. Those without funds could help in the gardens that would surround the place, if they wish. Whether a person could pay or not would never be an issue.

This needs to be a learning experience for everyone. We meed to avoid getting locked into thinking we know the truth. We need to accept how far our institutions have migrated away from truth. We are here to learn how to best care and love each other.

We need to ask ourselves big questions: why are we here on this planet, how did we get here, what are we supposed to be learning, have we ever been one with our natural surroundings, how can we be one with Mother Earth now, does the Earth have consciousness, how is that consciousness expressed, what does it mean to evolve, are we mind, body or spirit, are we all three, how do we discover our spiritual essence? Other big questions will occur to the reader.

We have been fooling ourselves that we know something. Actually we have yet to emerge from the darkness. Exploitation of technology is not knowledge. We have pursued separation to the point where we see our mind, body and spirit as separate entities. We have much to learn.

It can be exciting to drop the pretense that we know anything. We can start over and this time assume we are One with the Universe, the Earth and Each Other. We can follow the path of Love. We will learn.

There will be more on this subject.

Love and Peace, Gregg

A LITTLE TANTRUM

I just came in from outside. I saw two flies. Spring can't be far away. I have to admit I am preoccupied with this extended Winter. We still have snow everywhere and in some places it still measures in feet. We have more than a foot of snow on our deck. Our screen porch still functions as a refrigerator. We have leftovers out there from Easter, they're not in danger of spoiling.

I am running out of hay for the second time. I have a telephone call out to my hay man, I hope this will be my last load this year. I have never run out of hay in the Spring before. The frost is not likely to be out of the ground before May, unless we get unusually favorable weather. It could turn around on a dime.

The weather is similar to 1975 when we moved in here, although that year we did have some nice Spring like weather in March. The different thing this year, is that we have not had any Spring break to speak of, it has been unending Winter. We have had a lot of late Springs in my 83 years on planet Earth but this is the first one that has had no break. In 1975 we moved in here on May 1^st. The frost had not been out of the ground long enough to firm the soil up and we got the moving van stuck going across the yard and had to call a tow truck.

I am weary of taking my life in my hands every Morning when I do the chores. The paths melt just enough during the day that they are glazed over in the Morning. I am not afraid of breaking a bone, although at my age perhaps I should be, I don't think I am fragile, but I have a hard time getting up when I tumble. I don't like that waving the arms around to regain balance because my foot slips. I know, I know I saw a fly this Morning. Winter can't last forever.

That could be a segue into how the world can't stay crazy forever either. And it can't, the light is increasing even at the point of our greatest doubt. The cabal is trying desperately to create war. I am sure the poison gas attack in Syria was caused by our side. Assad has no motivation to create that kind of trouble, especially when he is winning. The cabal wants endless war and another failed state in the Middle East. Failed states seem to be all they're capable of. I don't think the American people are going to believe the B.S. that substitutes for news much longer, that is promoted by the war mongers. I don't want to go into this any further. I don't even know who these nutty people are. It certainly isn't everyone in government. It is like a ruling body within the government that is constantly promoting war and discord. The only thing I know for sure is that it makes vast amounts of money for those manufacturers and other suppliers of the war machine. That gives us a hint as to the make up of the cabal. Of course the banking industry has to be involved.

People are not dumb. We are weary of the propaganda and most of us are at a level of survival that we don't pay too much attention to what's going on. We have enough trouble taking care of our own lives; but enough is enough, we don't need more war for reasons we can't understand, besides making some folks richer.

Anyway, we love the people around us! We know wherever we would live, we would love the people around us. We don't have any enemies. Why should we accept a manufactured enemy that is presented to us? We love everybody. Don't we?

Let us stop paying attention to this crap the war mongers spiel out. Hey! We love everybody. That means everybody on this beautiful planet! Everybody!

I will write about healing/learning centers, when I am not having a tantrum. It is not quite a tantrum and I am actually feeling great right now. Thanks for listening.

Love and Peace, Gregg

LIVING IN THE ILLUSION

It is almost 10:30 and it is only 17.7 degrees F. The normal low for April 6 is 33. Wow, not even up to the normal low! It is not forecast to make it to the normal low; however, the Sun is very hot now and it may fool the forecasters and edge above freezing. There is supposed to be a turn around at the middle of the month. We are looking forward to it.

I was going to write about healing/learning centers, but I will postpone that discussion and tell you about my adventures in this illusion we label reality.

It was cleaning lady day yesterday. She is usually here about three hours and we go to Cambridge have brunch and shop. Yesterday we stayed home and tried to stay out of her way. [She is a wonderful woman and has become one of our great friends] We stayed home because I needed to write a letter to the county tax assessor.

Back in December we got a notice concerning taxes for 2018. It appeared that they were changing our classification and we would no longer be a farm for tax purposes. The proposed taxes for 2018 were over $500 more. When the assessor was out here, sometime in the Summer, he seemed to not think we were really a farm and didn't ask any pertinent questions.

I wrote them a letter explaining that we always raised sheep and chickens and frequently raised turkeys for sale. We were also thinking about raising a couple steers. I thought it was a pretty good letter. I emphasized the limits of our income and our dependents on what we raised. We didn't get an answer.

A couple days ago we got our tax notice and it appeared that the worse had happened. We were no longer a farm. I didn't have much time to deal with it as the first half of the taxes is due on May 15. Ever since I got the notice it had been a cloud hanging over my head.

So yesterday Morning I wrote a letter beseeching them to reconsider and enclosed a copy of my original letter. I thought both letters were master pieces and would certainly do the trick. I wanted to get the letters in the mail right away, so I drove to Mora and posted them.

When I got back home I wanted to review my letters and the material from the county. A careful perusal of the property tax statement showed that I was mistaken. They did not change our classification they added some wording [abbreviated] that was not there before. Looking through the statement indicated that the raise in our taxes had to due with increased evaluation. The room I am sitting in now was an addition about, I don't know, four or five years ago? [Time flies when we are having fun]. In any case our taxes have not increased much since building it. My error took away any indignation I might have had about the raised taxes.

I felt like an idiot! I called the assessor and told him I had just mailed him a letter and he should disregard it. He told me that someone was supposed to answer my first letter and that they have had several questions about the added language and knew it was confusing. We had a good discussion. They have no intention of changing our classification. I can't protest the increase in evaluation, I am sure it is justified.

Living in the illusion? Years ago I learned from Don Juan, a Yaqui sorcerer, via Carlos Castaneda, how to live life impeccably in the illusion, accepting it as serious business yet knowing it is unreal. We need to accept life as it comes to us. We need to deal with it, as if it was real, at the same time knowing it is an illusion of our creation. To live impeccably was to live in an unconditionally loving manner. If you haven't read Carlos Castaneda's books, you are in for a real treat.

Happy Friday!

Love and Peace, Gregg

P. S.  It is Noon and only 20 degrees.

AS OUR EMPIRE CRUMBLES

It was only 3.3 degrees F when I got up, but it is gloriously Sunny and it is now 24.2 just three hours later. A beautiful day for January. I don't have to express the cynic in me, it is a beautiful day and everything is all right.

This snowstorm was not quite as disruptive as the last one. I actually am not snowed in. Yesterday I had a few errands to run during the storm, so I drove up and down the driveway while it was snowing. I don't like getting the driveway plowed in April. I have a little shoveling to do and that is okay.

What do we do as the old world crumbles away? All empires rise and fall and ours is in swift decline. Our current administration seems to facilitate the decline but it would happen anyway.

It is our opportunity to envision a new world. We need to learn how to do everything differently. We need to learn how to live on the Earth with respect for Her and respect for each other. Education, medicine, agriculture, science, perhaps everything needs to be rethought. All these disciplines have been corrupted by the profit motive and power. They have actually become more harmful than helpful in some cases.

I keep bringing up the idea of healing/learning centers. All facets of our culture need rethinking, but I think the two things that are in most need of repair are our medical and agricultural systems.

I envision a group of healers of all persuasions coming together to provide services for the people. I imagine a group of folks who know that Mother Nature provides all necessary remedies and the healing herbs can be gathered or grown. The center would have its own gardens that provide food for the group and learning about the best way to farm with respect for our Mother and proper nutrition for ourselves.

I have discussed healing/learning centers before and I may do it again on Friday. I have a boatload of things to do, some of it being removing snow with a shovel and we need to do some shopping. I need to go to a feed store or my chickens will get hungry; so I am going to make this blog short.

Love and Peace, Gregg

STORMY WEATHER

When we awoke Saturday Morning we had about a foot of snow. It turned out that the forecast was an underestimation. Now, I am not so pleased to tell you, it is supposed to snow today, tonight and tomorrow and we could get another ten inches. It is supposed to start snowing about one o'clock, so I want to get my blogging done and get on our way to town and the Amish by noon.

I also have some cleaning up to do after yesterday's celebration. We only had five for dinner so there aren't too many dishes. We had a good time. A good celebration of the Light.

Spring might seem far away, but I did see an insect flying around outside this Morning. At first I thought it must be a speck of dust on an updraft, however on closer observation it turned out to be an insect, smaller than a gnat, flying about a foot above the snow. It was only about 14 F so I was surprised. I have seen snow fleas, but they are bigger and I don't think they fly. I remember then hopping around. I haven't seen a snow flea for several years. Anyway, I took it as a hopeful sign and it somewhat ameliorated the effect of reading the weather forecast.

This delayed spring experience is certainly a lesson for learning patience and it reinforces the knowledge that happiness does not depend on what is going on outside our minds. I can alternate between depression and peace just by what I am paying attention to. I don't need to let my mind be as stormy as the weather. Sometimes I need to remind myself that ALL IS WELL. It is, you know. All is well on Planet Earth. The light is growing stronger. People are awakening. Love, joy and peace are ours. We just need to endure a little more stormy weather. Let us keep the storms out of our minds. The storms will pass.

Let us keep our minds on the Love that is all around us.

I need to get at those dishes so we can get out of here by Noon,

Love and Peace, Gregg