"O, my luve's like a red, red rose" Robert Burns

Sunday morning Gypsy and I noticed a beautiful, large red rose blooming on the Don Juan rose bush located on the corner of her five foot high, cedar post rabbit fence. We thought it might need to be watered since our frequent rains have ceased. First, we watered our small Angel Patch flower garden, which is close to the back porch of the cabin. Gypsy's fence is seventy feet by fifty feet and attaches to the cabin, hence, completely surrounding the garden. When we go to water the rose bush, we always watch for Teddy, our resident tarantula. He lives somewhere in a dark hole, under the beautiful grass that is near the roses. We can't reach the bush with the hose,so,we water it with our old, green sprinkling can. When we were slowly pouring the water around the base of the bush, we remembered how roses you purchase from the the florist seldom have the sweet fragrance of the ones we grow at home. So, I reached for the large, red Don Juan rose to check and see if this was true. Well, guess what happened? A teeny, tiny white spider dropped out of the rose clinging to it's four inch long web. Gypsy and I said hello and welcomed it to our woods. We proceeded to try to get our nose close enough to the rose to smell it's by now much anticipated fragrance, when another teeny, tiny spider appeared. They watched us closely. So far, we have not partaken of the rose's aroma. We welcomed this spider as well and finally got to smell the rose. The scent was heavenly. Like nothing else. We smelled it again. As the sweet aroma filled our senses, we began to focus on the spiders.
Perhaps, this rose is home to Rose and Robert spider. Perhaps, they met on the fence near the Don Juan rose bush and fell in love. As they looked for a place to set to house keeping, they found this beautiful rose. The petals were soft and they smelled good. And someone was keeping it watered. Perfect! They were content in their home until Gypsy and I showed up to water. We were sorry we disturbed them. We finished watering and quietly watched Rose and Robert crawl back into their perfect red rose. We wondered if they would live like a gypsy moving from rose to rose. Whatever their decision, for now they are happy living in and loving their red, red rose. Gypsy and I have found our red, red rose in the cabin here in the woods. We count our many blessings.

Webs and Spiders

As the sun came through the webs that had woven themselves between the tree branches during the night, it looked like shimmering, silver, silk threads had found their way from tree branch to tree branch. It looked like rivers of liquid, silver, light connecting the woods to itself. As the breeze moved through the trees it looked like floodlights moving the light in all directions. It was beautiful.
As Gypsy and I were enjoying this spectacle, the ugliest spider we have ever seen came to visit. We have named him Fred. He and several other spiders live on our back porch. As I was sitting on my rocking chair enjoying my expresso, he dropped down, attached to his web and stopped next to my left ear. He can make six feet of web in three sceonds. Amazing. Gypsy and I wondered what he was going to do. Well guess what? He whispered a message into my left ear. He revealed to me the meaning of life. Everyone wants to know this. People have speculated about it since the beginning of time. No one seems to be perfectly satisfied with the explanations so far. What do you think Fred said? "Weave the threads of your life like the webs of the woods connecting them with love. Even us ugly spiders deserve to be loved. It is not the outside of us that is important, it is what is on the inside." Take time to go alone to yourself and see if you can discover what is there. Or come to the cabin and see if an ugly spider named Fred will drop down by your left ear and tell you. Time to go and see what the day will bring. It looks like it will be a beautiful day here at the cabin.
The cats on the front porch brought me a gecko today. Dead of course. They need to listen to the ugly spider. Cara and Gypsy

Fog and Clouds

The ground fog came quietly to the hills around the cabin, as the first rays of sun light found their way to the floor of the woods. Eventually, Gypsy and I saw only the tops of the woods covered hills that surround our cabin. As we watched the fog silently move closer and closer to the little gravel road that winds around the front of the cabin, we were reminded how many things in our lives come to us in the same way. The good, the bad and the ugly drift into our lives so quietly, that sometimes we don't notice. This is the traffic of our lives, moving to engulf us even as we sleep. If we don't keep focused on our blessings, we can get lost in the briars and brambles of the interstate highways.
During the few minutes I have been writing, I observed through the window by my desk, the day completely changing. We had to go back outside to discover exactly what had taken place. The sun had disappeared behind a layer of clouds taking all the fog with it. The woods and it's critters were silent. The clouds seemed to have soaked up all the sounds of the hills. We listened and watched to be sure. Finally, I came back inside to continue to write, while Gypsy stayed on the back porch to chew on a bone.
Life is like walking through the thick brush of the woods. As your feet move forward with every step, now and then you stumble when a vine catches the toe of your boot. You catch yourself just before you fall. Sometimes you get turned around and find yourself lost. There is a path through the woods and you eventually see it. The woods has a plan and so does your life. When the quiet time comes to you again and you are left with just yourself, you will see your plan. The blueprints will be all the blessings of your entire life and the reward will be the joy, peace and love of the rest of your life living in the rays of God's grace. Love is the most important, for without it the soul will not flourish. It is when your mind is still that your soul gets going.
Most of us have found our homes here on Earth, and realize they must be a haven of peace and happiness. They must be a blessing. As we lay claim to them, we realize as vital as they are, they aren't ours. They are worldly and temporary, but, necessary for this part of the plan. They are just on loan to us as we pass through. There is more to come. We have only seen the previews. The fog and clouds will part and disappear, and your path will be clear. If you are lucky it already is.
Gypsy is calling me from the porch. She is recreating one of her rare barking episodes. She is desperate. She wants in to take her morning nap on the navy, leather sofa that she has entirely taken as hers.
We will continue our search for all that life has, and be happy in the fog and clouds that sometimes surround us.
Today, we pray that the lost, male, cardinal that mistakenly found his way into our garage, will find his way out to the woods and freedom. Life goes on at the cabin. Praise God for His Blessings.

Steven

Steven built his large, round web on the chain of my swing on the back porch last night. Steven is a rather large Argiope Garden Spider from Houston. He is welcome here at the cabin. He is magnificent, and so is his web. I am running out of places to sit and meditate in the mornings on the back porch. The critters are comming to meditate with me. They are all God,s creatures as are we. From the cabin

Visitors

There was a Praying Mantis on my chair on the back porch this morning, so, I sat somewhere else.

Stillness

There is stillness to be found. This morning we found it in our woods. As Gypsy and I greeted the first light of the day, we observed the stillness was everwhere we looked and listened in the woods. There was not a breath of air moving even the smallest leaf or blade of grass. No birds could be heard singing. No whispers of the wind in the tree found our ears. The stillness crept over the back porch and surrounded us. We waited and listened. We knew it could not last.
Gypsy focused on the feeding area, knowing some creature would eventually appear. I pondered all aspects of this mysterious, elusive stillness. I wondered if I could transfer this peacefulness into my mind and body and let it come to rest in my soul? I focused on the first golden, orange, pinkish rays of the sun as they speckled their light over the grass and trees. The clouds caught the rays and turned a beautiful, soft pink color. The trees provided an intricate, black, lacey pattern to look through at the beautiful morning sky. There is a calming, peaceful feeling that comes with this stillness. It is surely food for the soul.
A hummimgbird and a butterfly just came to the morning glories outside the window where I write. The hummimgbird stopped to say hello. A breeze has come, making the morning glories dance. We are reminded the day is changing and we are lucky to have had this chance to feel the stillness. It just comes like the fog on a misty morning and leaves on the wings of a hummimgbird.
The black, brown and yellow butterflies we saw on our walk this morning were beautiful. We stopped several times, just to watch them eat some delightful morsel provided for them by a small, mud puddle on our gravel road. Gypsy walked in the spring where it crosses our road and got a drink. She always shakes when she is standing in the spring. We dont't know why, because only her feet get wet. We watched minnows swim. We thought the sun was promising us a hot day as we walked back up the hill to the cabin. All in all a good morning. We are grateful for mornings like these. The cabin gang.

Tsunami or Earthquake?

September 2,2007 at 7:15am a strange bird landed in a tree near the cabin while I was on my swing on the back porch meditating. What bird was this? It was the color of extra creamy, homemade vanilla ice cream, with a black ring around it's neck. It was beautiful. After much contemplating, I decided it was some kind of dove. I thought it strange that after hunting doves in South Texas for some twenty years, I had never seen a dove like this. After a finale observation with my binoculars, I looked it up in my bird book. Low and behold it was a dove, a Ringed Turtle Dove. Reading further, I discovered it's an escapee who's habitat is Los Angeles, California. I must admit, I thought it looked tired as it nestled it's head in it's breast and took a nap. Well now, what was this dove doing here in the Texas Hill Country? Perhaps an omen, or was it just following all the other californians who are relocating in Texas. My daughter Sarah was here for the Labor Day weekend, so we discussed the significance of the bird's arrival. Why had a Ringed Necked Dove migrated with some haste to our cabin? Why was this bird forced to make a fast get-away? Obviously, the only conclusion to be reached was that as animals leave the area where they normally live, disasters arrive. California being on the Pacific Ocean makes it vunerable to Tsunamis. We also all know they have had many earthquakes. Hence our conclusion. If the fires have not moved the birds, perhaps a tsunami or earthquake is imminent. We know animals leave as fast as they can before these catastrophic events. We called my son Dan in California and related this story to him. We also told him about our conclusions. All was quiet in Californis at this time except for the fires. Sarah remained at the cabin while had breakfast with a friend at the Bowling Club at a nearby town. Much to my surprise when I got home, Sarah said Dan had called and had just felt the unusual movement of his house during yet another earthquake! Oh My! What now? The arrival of a dove means many things here at the cabin. The dove that flew into my front window, broke it's neck and died was comsumed for dinner that evening. Yum. Yum. What will tomarrow bring here at tha cabin? I can hardly wait? Such is life at the cabin. Cara and Cabin Gang minus one dove.

Pursue Your Passion

Pursue your passion and you will run into your purpose. We are not necessarily discontent with our situation in life, but, we know there is more. Something keeps probing our thoughts and pushing us on. But on to what? We meditate, listen, watch and read continuing our search. Is our purpose to be on a small everyday level or are we to move our purpose into the world? We know we do not want to be part of the problem that takes the spiritual side of people further away from them. We want people to spend time meditating to search themselves for the their spiritual side which will provide them with answers. They know there is more in this life and they are missing it. Even though they know they are successful in the eyes of the world, they know there is more. If you are in a tailspin all the time, you will have problems finding time to develope your spirit. Do you race away your days running with no let up in sight? Take a breath and look at what you are doing. Are you running as fast as you can? Do you feel you are so stressed out you are not really affective with your accompolishments? We have all been there and if we are fortunate have moved on to a better plan. The Bible says to find a quiet place to commune with God. The place is important. God created the place before he created us. If going home for you is only more stress, change circumstances to make home a haven. Take time to be quiet with yourself and feed your spirit with your blessings. Let your family join you in becomming a searcher. Let them do their oun searching. Their plan may be different than yours. Searchers are tolerant, helpful, and full of mercy, peace and love. They celebrate our differences pertaining to all things. They are not judgmental. They leave this to a greater power. They know that love is the single most important ingredient for the spirit. They try to break the hold of the need for worldly ideas and things. The material world is hard to leave. What we need physically and spiritually are very different things. Our minds continue to be involved it the world of wordly things. When we die these worldly things will all be left behind. They are all temporary. We come to the world with nothing material and we leave the world with nothing material. Why then do we spend our lives acquiring material goods? I did because I didn"t know any better. I did not see the bigger picture of life. I did not see the plan for my life. I had to come to the cabin, to take the time to see. I was instructed to go someplace remote and quiet. The Bible says, find a quiet place to commune. It was not easy. Several times I almost ended up closed in by civilization, but, it never worked out. I decided to do what God told me and it has made all the difference. Having come to this remote cabin, I have seen my life's plan. I know my entire life has prepared me for this place. I was always too busy with the worldly things to see it. Now, I am searching for where I am to go from here. I am looking for plans in others lives. I sit on my swing on the back porch each morning and meditate. During this time I commune with the woods and all of God's creatures. Where is my place here? Take time to listen. Take time to respond. Take Time. As my spiritual soul grows rich with faith, my worldly mind diminishes the need for what it offers. Search to be truely content to the very end of yourself. You will know if you aren't where God wants you. Love yourself and all others. I love God for this beautiful place He created for us. He surely wants us to be joyful and content here. See beyond the gridlock of the world He did not create. Give thanks for your blessings, don't be afraid and don't worry. Be patient. Expect a miracle. Live in the rays of God's grace. My search continues. The Cabin Angels