The children had the whole week off school, enjoying the snowy weather a week before their christmas break. Here is some footage shot on Friday, during a light snow fall.
Soft winter snow, december 19, 2008. Portland, OR from maryellen on Vimeo.

We love the snow because it slows all of us down for a day or so. Anticipating several days will be interesting, so I’m just trying to pay attention to the beauty and not get too worried because my son is caught over at a friend’s for a sleepover for the next 3 days.

Here’s some footage posted on youtube.

Here’s the video on Vimeo. Noticing a difference?

Blizzard in Portland, Oregon, Dec 14, 2008 from maryellen on Vimeo.

Sometimes a good book can offer a lens through which to view the world. If you want to rock your world, look through the lens of The Disappearance of the universe by Gary Renard.  This book has a pretty radical world view that provides a sharply directed lens for living according to its ideals. There are a few ideas in the book that capture my imagination:

1. Nothing is real. This planet could not have possibly been created by a perfect god. only god is real, therefore, this planet, our bodies, the table is not real.
2. Getting to reality is possible. We can be with god after this life, we just have to face the non-reality of the planet thing.
3. Getting to reality requires the assumption of innocence of every individual, ergo constant forgiveness, and unconditional love.

A head swimmer, no? How does a person take these ideas into day-to-day living? How about if I just focus on idea #3, and then see whether I can climb the ladder up to understanding idea #1.

What better place to practice these ideas, to view the world through this lens, than a visit with extended family?  Here is a group of people toward whom I feel lots of love in the first place!

If I spent a few days surrounded by loving family members and old friends, I felt sure that I could truly experience idea #3 from Renard’s book: love unconditionally.  Perhaps I could also springboard to more experiences of unconditional love in my daily life.

Off to visit the family I went. I figured I could listen to my family and learn about their lives during the course of the visit, and that was my mantra in meditation. Listen. Learn. Love.

It didn’t hurt to be accompanied by my buddha boyfriend, who seems to be able to love everybody pretty unconditionally. Visiting with 2 lovely children also helps, especially when they are pretty well behaved and open to new experiences. Focusing on them helped me slow down and so I could listen more.

This was my second visit in 3 years, going cross country with the kids and sort of re-introducing myself as an adult with children to my extended relatives.

My aunts and uncles are amazingly close to each other, both geographically and relationally.  The cousins are scattered, some staying close, some, like me, moving far and not connecting so much with the core group of aunts and uncles.

The 3 brothers and 4 sisters range in age from mid-50s to late 70s.