Days

How we spend our days is, of course, 

how we spend our lives.

- Annie Dillard

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Myth

Myth embodies the nearest approach 

to absolute truth that can be stated in words. 

  – Ananda Coomeraswamy

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Truth

Fact is not the truth of myth; 

myth is the truth of fact. 

– Kathleen Raine

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Rain

Some people walk in the rain, 

others just get wet. 

- Roger Miller

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Minds

Minds are like parachutes. 

They only function when they are open.  

 - Sir James Dewar, Scientist

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August 19, 2011 Chautauqua

From the Editor's Computer

   Do you believe in magic?  I don’t mean the parlour tricks 

performed by illusionists, rather the old magic by wizards and sorcerers.

   I can hear many of you saying, “Of course not!  It’s all hocus-pocus!”  Granted, our world and society have come a long way from those dark superstitious days when everyone believed in magic and its effect on everyday life.  Our world and society are much more pragmatic and logical.  Science has explained so much of the previously unexplainable, taking the fear and mystery out of much of life.

   So, we don’t believe in magic.  Really?  Are you sure?

   I think that the vast majority of the world’s citizens still do believe in magic spells and conjuring by sorcerers. 

   I can’t tell you the number of people I speak to who fall for the magic spell called Daylight Savings Time and believe that we literally gain or lose an hour through the year - 24 hours to 25 hours to 24 hours.

   Or, how about the people who are so mesmerized by the wizardry of the Stock Market that they believe it literally determines the outcome of minute details in their daily lives.  I’m not referring to the wizards working in the market, but rather the average citizen who may, or may not, even own stocks or mutual funds.

   Lastly, don’t we all still believe that the magic potion called “Might is Right” will work, even though we have almost an eternity of evidence to the contrary?  The events in Norway and London are examples of the use of this potion, which is also called “Violence is the Only Answer.”

   When you set out to destroy someone because you fear what they represent, or fear that they will destroy you (or your way of life), you don’t make the world a better place...you just make yourself into a destroyer. 

   I freely admit I don’t get along with everyone I encounter, however I don’t wish those people ill or dead.  Rather, I wish them all the happiness and prosperity they can handle...I just prefer they enjoy it somewhere else far away from me!

   The world won’t get better until we start believing in the magic of hope, peace, justice and kindness, and act like we believe it!             

Beth

Read the complete issue of The Chautauqua here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ve23AO3G8eXhEjk8OjA_F1yw1rIQMU6v/view?usp=sharing

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Settle

The biggest human temptation 

is to settle for too little.   

- Thomas Merton

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Exile

Has exile helped you? 

Have you found strength in it? 

Oh yes! Without a doubt,

I can try to tell you why. 

When, at some point in our lives, 

we meet a real tragedy - 

which could happen to any one of us - 

we can react in two ways. 

Obviously we can lose hope, 

let ourselves slip into discouragement, 

into alcohol, drugs, unending sadness. 

Or else we can wake ourselves up; 

discover in ourselves an energy 

that was hidden there, 

and act with more clarity, more force. 

- His Holiness the Dalai Lama

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Busy

Being busy does not always mean real work. 

The object of all work 

is production or accomplishment 

and to either of these ends 

there must be forethought, system, planning, 

intelligence, and honest purpose, 

as well as perspiration. 

Seeming to do is not doing."  

- Thomas Edison

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New

If you want to move to a higher level of life, 

you have to be willing to let go

of some of your old ways of thinking 

and being and adopt new ones.       

- T. Harv Eker

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Cruel

What you think of as being nice to others

(being overly compliant) 

is actually being cruel to yourself. 

  – Mona Lisa Schulz

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August 5, 2011 Chautauqua

From the Editor's Computer 

   Alberta is definitely a resource-rich province.  However, I feel we are missing out on one of our greatest natural resources - a bountiful resource that is literally right under our noses...the many wild grasses/grains and wild flowers (aka dreaded weeds) growing profusely everywhere, including in our gardens, yards, fields and ditches!

   I think we need to start changing our attitude toward the weeds around us.  Any plant that can survive, and consistently return, no matter how hard we fight to eradicate it, obviously is a plant that should be growing here, and thus it must have a purpose and a vital use. 

   Many of the plants we have labelled as weeds are really quite beneficial, to humans and animals, as many of them are edible.  As well, many of them attract the pollinating insects that are necessary to continued plant growth.  This area of Alberta used to be open prairie and marshlands so the plants that grow best here are not plants that need to be cultivated and cared for, but plants that self-seed or self-sow themselves.

   Without any government assistance of any kind, these plants have shown that they truly are “Proven Winners,” growing year after year in all soil types and in all weather conditions - drought to wet years, they grow in the same spot year after year without any threat of developing disease that will threaten other plants around them, they have genetically modified themselves to ensure the highest rate of survival, and they are always high yield without the need for any fertilizers - look how plentiful they are even when we are trying our best to completely annihilate them!  By using the weeds, instead of trying to kill them, we would be able to stop polluting our air, water, and ground which would benefit not only us, but the animal and bird life as well.

   We have a gold mine around us just waiting to be utilized for jams and jellies, dried for seasonings, used for medicinal purposes, made into flours, baled for hay, made into ethanol, or countless other options.

   With some imagination and ingenuity, who knows, maybe Alberta is destined to be famous for it’s wild clover wines or cattail flours!

Beth

Read the complete issue of The Chautauqua here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XFMFEKEeoo8hdAPzhetmh6xz-2cgRu4K/view?usp=sharing

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Alive

When you arise in the morning, 

think of what a precious privilege it is 

to be alive - to breathe, to think, 

to enjoy, to love. 

  - Marcus Aurelius

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Whining

All neuroses are merely adult forms

of whining and pouting. 

- Albert Ellis

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