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Living Lightly

Bealtaine Cottage, Ireland

poster bealtaine

It’s amazing how much one can live without.

And how much criticism one gets for daring to leave the accepted standards for today’s society!

I made this poster less than 24 hours ago and posted it on Facebook and Twitter.

 The reasons why people feel the need to denigrate such a poster are very interesting indeed.

www.bealtainecottage.com 067There is an overwhelming need, in most people, to conform to what they imagine to be the accepted normal in society, be that politics, religion, diet, dress…etc.

laying a mosaic floor at Bealtaine CottageStepping outside of this normal can be an uncomfortable experience for most.

Mist and trees in the permaculture gardens at Bealtaine CottageMaking the decision to live outside of it, however, is the opposite!

It is truly liberating!

The Craft room at Bealtaine CottageIf we are to progress in living on this little planet, then stepping outside of the current mainstream and taking the time to look back in, can only be beneficial in planning a way forward.

A way that will…

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Pope Francis Honors Óscar Romero, Salvadoran Archbishop, as Martyr – NYTimes.com

Pope Francis has formally ratified the martyrdom of the Salvadoran archbishop Óscar Romero, who was shot to death at the altar as he was saying Mass in 1980 in an act of “hatred for the faith,” the Vatican said on Tuesday.

The step opens the way for Archbishop Romero to be beatified — a process that had been blocked under Francis’s predecessors, Vatican watchers say, because of the archbishop’s leftist political stances.

via Pope Francis Honors Óscar Romero, Salvadoran Archbishop, as Martyr – NYTimes.com.

This body is not me

Zen Flash

This body is not me.
I am not limited by this body.
I am life without boundaries.
I have never been born,
and I have never died.

Look at the ocean and the sky filled with stars, manifestations from my wondrous true mind.
Since before time, I have been free.
Birth and death are only doors through which we pass, sacred thresholds on our journey.

Birth and death are a game of hide- and seek.
So laugh with me,
hold my hand,
let us say good-bye,
say good-bye, to meet again soon.

We meet today.
We will meet again tomorrow.
We will meet at the source every moment.
We meet each other in all forms of life.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Tao & Zen Community Forum

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Poetry Note #1: Happy Birthday, Mr. Hughes

Petchary's Blog

Today is the first day of Black History Month and also the birthday of Langston Hughes, the African American poet and social activist. Google has given him a doodle today, which is really nice.

Mr. Hughes' Google doodle. Mr. Hughes’ Google doodle. At his famous typewriter.

Also on February 1, 1960, four black students began a sit-in at a segregated lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. But that’s another story.

The sit-in at a Woolworth's store in Greensboro, NC by four freshmen at  North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University sparked a series of non-violent protests. By the end of the week, 1,400 students turned up at the Woolworth's store! They helped to turn the tide against segregation in the South. The sit-in at a Woolworth’s store in Greensboro, NC by four freshmen at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University sparked a series of non-violent protests. By the end of the week, 1,400 students turned up at the Woolworth’s store! They helped to turn the tide against segregation in the South.

Born in 1902 in Joplin, Missouri, Langston Hughes moved around a great deal with his grandmother. He followed his father’s wandering footsteps to Mexico and visited West Africa and Europe, before returning to work…

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