Freedom – Art Star Journal

Ridding the World of Evil

Where DOES evil come from? You can’t look anywhere in our society today and not feel the palpable, boiling, nasty, disgusting, horrendous, obnoxious EVIL that has overtaken it. When did human decency disappear? Why? I spend most of my time ignoring this world-confusion. I see it as an optical illusion, a chimera, not at all…

Centering

I keep asking myself this question: Is life difficult because it’s difficult or am I making it difficult? I’ve always believed that we all create our own reality by what we think. I still believe this with my whole being – if I manage to think about it ………………… and not just react habitually. One…

Inheritance

Genes are fascinating. Some time ago, I noticed that DNA mavins can now tell what you inherited from which parent. What you inherited, that is, as far as locational DNA. Like I have Scottish genes through both my parents, but English through only my father. Genes are fascinating, but more fascinating to me are the…

Self-Sufficient and Self-Efficient

Today, I’m hiding. It’s like 400 degrees in the shade up here! I’m inside, which will probably not improve my container garden, but there’s no way I’m leaving the air conditioning. We seldom, if ever, have a heat index over 100 degrees. We’re almost as far north as you can get. Not much farm work…

When I Was Called Rachael

In 1987, I graduated from university. Finally, 18 years after I started. I thought that having a degree would help me get a job that was more of a career. You know, less direction and more directing? Well, that was a laugh. I got nothing after college, except disillusioned. I had intended on going to…

Harvest Moon ……………

My garden has been beautiful this year. Last year I couldn’t do any gardening at all – NOTHING. This year my knee is AWESOME and I can walk and bend and run, if I wanted to. I don’t want to. We had our first frost warnings Monday night. I’m okay with frost at this point….

Just Being Here Now

Being where I am, and not being where I’m not – that’s my recipe for living. You could call it mindfulness, total meditation or Zen. Whatever you call it, for me it is the only way I can function. And it isn’t easy, paying attention. It doesn’t matter whether I’m depressed, angry, ecstatically happy or…

Exodus Chapter 1

It’s been four years ……….. four years since the girls who are leaving us today, first arrived at Happy Shepherd Farm. It was called Poor Shepherd Farm back then. There was a lot of work, a dang lot of work, but there wasn’t a whole lot of green stuff, except for grass and weeds. Curious…

The Man of My Dreams

This man, this lovely, happy man, is my father. The man of my dreams, except that he certainly wasn’t a dream, but real. I can hardly describe my father, today, 20 years and some odd months after his death. I only know that each day that comes, I think of something my dad would say…

Soul Despair

I wrote this post 3.5 years ago. It is even truer now. We have gone from being the hated deplorables to domestic terrorists …………….. although the ones terrorizing us are the ones pointing their fingers. For once in my life, I am not reacting to what I am seeing on the news or the internet….