What I've been up to...

So it's been more than a year since I've written in here, but I'm thinking it's time to get back at it. What has the last year been about for me?  Well, for starters:

• I've lost nearly 60 pounds on Medifast.  I'm not being paid by them, and it is not the cheapest diet, but it is so worth it.  Never been a size six before.
• Work, work, and more work.
• Travel.  Plan to do more of that.
• Gardening (of course).  Since I am prepping myself to make a move, I am focusing my gardening efforts on houseplants for now.  Having fun with African violets (Saintpaulia ionantha) among others.
• Pinterest.  If you haven't checked it out yet, I highly recommend you do so.
• I did LOTS of canning, freezing, and preserving this past summer, and was pleased with the result.  I even tried my hand at this.  
• Stumbleupon.  Perhaps you have been under a rock, or dead, or have been in a vampiric sleep.  Otherwise, you've probably heard of this one already, but it is a ton of fun.  
• A semi-serious project that I hope to share with you soon regarding Healthcare Reform.  I am trying to break down the act into manageable  bite-sized pieces for the end consumer.  Lots of work left to do on that one yet.

Regardless, it's time for me to spend a little more effort on this blog, even though probably no one reads it.  I'd like to start writing in it daily, if at all possible.  Remember LiveJournal?  It's probably still around, but I'd like to use this blog just like that, a place to empty out my head every day.  We will see what 2013 bring us, then, as we document.

Apocolypse Flower

In the end of days there is no role for a flower, even a religious one.  Perhaps that is why the cultivation of said blossoms seems an irrelevant past time for a culture caught up in a waiting game for the end that doesn’t know about the beginning or the middle, the other parts.

If the principle is:  we are all connected, then I argue that the flower does matter, as does the stem and the root.  And certainly, the earth beneath is of grave importance, even though it is forgotten by many and seen as background for a life led unconsciously.  Houses are bought and sold, cars driven off cliffs of desperation all carried out on the earth that is always grinding, working, responding with the grace of a lover to the ministrations of few.  But, but…what about me? cries humanity.  What about you?

Do you matter, do you exist?  From the persepective of a bee or flower or brilliantly speckeled bug chewing a leaf in the sacred light of morning, you only matter in that you interact with the slim white spire of the lily.  You are not good or evil, you merely are—mindless.  How can we feel connected to one another when we can’t feel connected to the soil, or the leaf, or the flower?

And in the background of the world nature continues to shape, strive, leap, clinging to the next branch in calm contemplation of the current state.