The difference between ethics and religion is like the difference between water and tea. Ethics without religious content is water, a critical requirement for health and survival. Ethics grounded in religion is tea, a nutritious and aromatic blend of water, tea leaves, spices, sugar and, in Tibet, a pinch of salt.
"But however the tea is prepared, the primary ingredient is always water," he says. "While we can live without tea, we can't live without water. Likewise, we are born free of religion, but we are not born free of the need for compassion."
What a profound statement from his Holiness the Dali Lama, in a time of political and religious strife in the world caused by our freedom of speech, I have not watched the video sparking such strife, nor do I plan to I live in a safe and quiet corner of the northern reaches of the United States far from violence and civil unrest, but it does impact my thinking. It changes how I relate to the polarizing of our political and religious views and how I treat the person next to me. It changes how I teach my daughters, treat my spouse and the person next to me.
We have several mantras we live by in our home and the first and foremost I say over and over is the three C's (and a K)
Caring, Compassion, Considerate and Kindness. All things we do must fit into this rule. Does it work with a precocious three year old and over achieving eight year old sisters that share a room, not always but we are working on it! It's a work in progress for everyone!
Here is a great article on Cultivating Compassion
Source article
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Yes I'm here....with a quick update
Well it's been a while.... life has been super crazy busy as you can imagine Freyja entered our lives in dramatic King fashion! After being ten days late, and enduring 15 hours of labor with mom (most of it with her sideways), she was finally born on June 2nd at 11pm. It was a wonderful natural birth and we were very blessed to be able to have her at the Juneau Family Birth Center , but quickly realized that she was having difficulty breathing. Within an hour of her birth we were in triage at Bartlett hospital's emergency room. Amber and Freyja were medivaced to Providence Medical Center in Anchorage to the NICU for a week and a half for treatment for pneumonia and Pulmonary Hypertension of the Newborn, or PPHN.
This photo was our first one after she was born and came with us to Anchorage and lived in her little bed so she could be close to her sister.
While being born with pneumonia is very rare when there were no other labor complications, we were very grateful to have such wonderful care in such a professional facility. Freyja received a week of IV antibiotics to treat her pneumonia and her PPHN resolved itself once her lungs were able to function fully. She is now in perfect health and we are all happy to have her home with us.
Due to our delay in coming home it took us most of July to adjust to our new routine, Mary Jane and Michael did lots of steelhead fishing and Mary Jane thankfully had fine arts camp the first week we were in Anchorage which was a blessing in disguise. We scrapped our family vacation to Seattle as we were not in any shape to go trapsing around Washington at the end of June, but will use our tickets some other time when it's more practical. We did take the ferry to Petersburg for the fourth of July which was a great trip with friends, and lots and lots of kids among us and a nice break before I started back to work in July.
I went back full time in September with seven trainings, three trips and a ton to do to finish the fiscal year oh, and MJ was in Kelly and Scott's wedding (meet my mini-bride!! insert shrill drama here), and I was their florist. It was beautiful and I think someday I'd like to work with more flowers again and MJ was adorable and danced for four hours solid and did everything to a T as expected.
So we spent the entire month of October entering data from all my trips and trainings and cleaning (or un-burying my house) from all the travel and wedding debris..
So now here we are in November, still working but now only 30 hours a week, mostly from 4-8am and then during pre-school hours, Freyja's doing well, but she's certainly one of the loudest members of the family and her little blue eyes and strawberry blond hair are quite convincing.
Now we're cooking lots of cupcakes, running to dance class or pre-school, never sleeping and always have plenty to keep us busy... bring on the holidays!
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| From Freyja Nichole King |
While being born with pneumonia is very rare when there were no other labor complications, we were very grateful to have such wonderful care in such a professional facility. Freyja received a week of IV antibiotics to treat her pneumonia and her PPHN resolved itself once her lungs were able to function fully. She is now in perfect health and we are all happy to have her home with us.
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| From Freyja Nichole King |
Due to our delay in coming home it took us most of July to adjust to our new routine, Mary Jane and Michael did lots of steelhead fishing and Mary Jane thankfully had fine arts camp the first week we were in Anchorage which was a blessing in disguise. We scrapped our family vacation to Seattle as we were not in any shape to go trapsing around Washington at the end of June, but will use our tickets some other time when it's more practical. We did take the ferry to Petersburg for the fourth of July which was a great trip with friends, and lots and lots of kids among us and a nice break before I started back to work in July.
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| From Summer/Fall 2010 |
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| From Oct 2010 |
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| From Fall 2010 |
So we spent the entire month of October entering data from all my trips and trainings and cleaning (or un-burying my house) from all the travel and wedding debris..
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| From Oct 2010 |
Now we're cooking lots of cupcakes, running to dance class or pre-school, never sleeping and always have plenty to keep us busy... bring on the holidays!
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
This bird is cooked!
I’ve been telling Mary Jane for some time that when mommy’s belly button sticks out like the cheap turkey timers, that that will be the time her little sister is born. And also when summer starts (which is as big as Christmas in her world) and she’d be 4 and a half. Well due date has come and gone and I’m officially spent! Time is up, body is all sorts of uncomfortable and I’m really not sure I have any control of any major limb or thought process, so I apologize now for the atrocious grammar and complete lack of sentence structure (don’t let my darling English major sweetie read this). I’m also getting really sick of this month of “pre-labor”, who knew? I didn’t even have a Braxton Hicks the first go round and now… just two weeks plus of total teasing. I keep telling everyone that I’m not going to believe it when it happens and will continue on rummaging in my kitchen cupboards (making eBay shopping lists of missing equipment that I will surely need for this summer’s maternity leave festivities) or wandering around the yard not really able to do much about what I see but certainly able to scheme or ask MJ to pick up items below my knees.
If this little girl doesn’t arrive soon I’m going to start charging her rent! I barely survived MJ’s first dance recital (being at full term) and had to rest the cankles in my new deck chairs afterwards and ever since. She was so incredibly excited, I’m not sure about the performance; make up or attention from older girls… must have been all of it.
She’s already talking about the Nutcracker and Fine Arts Camp…. AGGGH! I can tell this isn’t going to be a passing phase. Plus she came home on Saturday from her final performance and was insistent on practicing her hula hoping skills till midnight (or at least until she could do it correctly. (Apparently you need to be 16 and a half to do a good job, in her words) It was too funny, a bit obsessive compulsive but funny to watch until the inevitable bloody lip happened which was followed by a father daughter squirt gun fight inside the house!!
So on my feet lifted to-do list today we have finish Baby shower thank you cards and contact relatives about upcoming and long overdue family trip to Washington and make a music play list for my dear grandmother’s 90th birthday party. Anyone have any standards from the 30’s and 40’s please let me know… so far it’s consisting a lot of me buying the “Boys on the Side” soundtrack on iTunes and mixing in a few 60’s and 70’s classic country western favorites. Then it’s on to initiations, guest list, food lists (I can’t wait to shop at Pike Place and make a spice run at World Spice Merchants!!)
Which is also bringing me back to my little must hit spots in Seattle, so far on the list, Molly Moon’s Ice Cream of course to be combined with a trip to Bottleworks and Archie McPhee since we’ll have the girls with us for a leisurely stroll down 45th to also include the Teahouse Kuan Yin and a short and hopefully not too expensive trip to the Bastyr Clinic I was thinking about trying to see some Sarcoidosis docs while in Seattle but at the moment I’m just waiting for this baby to show and see what happens afterwards, otherwise I’ll make sure to see Dr. Sharma in LA next spring. But we’ll be hoping for the best possible outcomes at this point and hopefully just some great memories with friends and my wonderful family.
Okay off to see what kind of trouble I can get myself into this morning in the kitchen (that be it without two of my missing kitchen aid attachments) I’m in a buttermilk scone kind of mood. Have a great week and I hope I'm posting baby pics soon and telling you all about my amazing water birth!
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Turtles and Charter Fisherman
So last night I was reminded that April is national poetry month and NPR was asking what my favorite poem was. It happens to be this:
Turtle
by Kay Ryan
(Our awesome current Poet Laureate)
Who would be a turtle who could help it?
A barely mobile hard roll, a four-oared helmet,
she can ill afford the chances she must take
in rowing toward the grasses that she eats.
Her track is graceless, like dragging
a packing case places, and almost any slope
defeats her modest hopes. Even being practical,
she's often stuck up to the axle on her way
to something edible. With everything optimal,
she skirts the ditch which would convert
her shell into a serving dish. She lives
below luck-level, never imagining some lottery
will change her load of pottery to wings.
Her only levity is patience,
the sport of truly chastened things.
from The Best of It: New and Selected Poems. © Grove Press, 2010.
It's not just that I love the poem, it's imagery the lyrical twists and turns and that I happen to love reptiles and own two box turtles. The first time I read this poem I was just awe struck, that moment of awakening and read it again and again, realizing that I haven't written poetry since high school.....
So, what is your favorite poem or poet or piece of writing.... and when were you most inspired by it?
I was also struck by this report from another favorite fishing tidbit in the endless fight of SE long liners to protect their costly IFQ quotas I came across this report about the Elfin Cove Lodge. And for my little back story, I used to work for ADF&G Sport Fish division in Juneau and also had a brief and thankfully short tenure as a TSA agent in Juneau and let me tell you these guys were packing in the fish boxes like nothing else... You would have thought they all had little fish shacks and their $4000 sport fishing trip to SE each year supplied their little restaurants to the hilt. It always bothered me greatly and most of us knew that this has been happening for so long now it's about time that they actually did an investigation about it. One tiny step in the right direction for all the IFQ holders, deckhands, families and friends!
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| From sundials in the shade |
Turtle
by Kay Ryan
(Our awesome current Poet Laureate)
Who would be a turtle who could help it?
A barely mobile hard roll, a four-oared helmet,
she can ill afford the chances she must take
in rowing toward the grasses that she eats.
Her track is graceless, like dragging
a packing case places, and almost any slope
defeats her modest hopes. Even being practical,
she's often stuck up to the axle on her way
to something edible. With everything optimal,
she skirts the ditch which would convert
her shell into a serving dish. She lives
below luck-level, never imagining some lottery
will change her load of pottery to wings.
Her only levity is patience,
the sport of truly chastened things.
from The Best of It: New and Selected Poems. © Grove Press, 2010.
It's not just that I love the poem, it's imagery the lyrical twists and turns and that I happen to love reptiles and own two box turtles. The first time I read this poem I was just awe struck, that moment of awakening and read it again and again, realizing that I haven't written poetry since high school.....
So, what is your favorite poem or poet or piece of writing.... and when were you most inspired by it?
I was also struck by this report from another favorite fishing tidbit in the endless fight of SE long liners to protect their costly IFQ quotas I came across this report about the Elfin Cove Lodge. And for my little back story, I used to work for ADF&G Sport Fish division in Juneau and also had a brief and thankfully short tenure as a TSA agent in Juneau and let me tell you these guys were packing in the fish boxes like nothing else... You would have thought they all had little fish shacks and their $4000 sport fishing trip to SE each year supplied their little restaurants to the hilt. It always bothered me greatly and most of us knew that this has been happening for so long now it's about time that they actually did an investigation about it. One tiny step in the right direction for all the IFQ holders, deckhands, families and friends!
Monday, April 19, 2010
out of hibernation
Wow, okay it's been a year since I was "going to blog" and well what the heck, now is as good of time as any to actually start. We'll call this year in web hibernation a soul searching, new job, pregnancy induced research period and now at 35 weeks I'm ready to share very early morning cups of tea and incoherent craft projects, recipes and ramblings with you all. I hope you like Earl Grey!
So I started my weekend with a board retreat where we had quite a few interactive projects and lengthy philosophical discussions which I'm not sure was the quickest way to meeting our goals with a bunch of non-profit, education, outdoor loving women but it sure was fun and I got a lot of color on my hands by the end of the day including silk painting on scarves. I did one hombre style which I took home to "finish" and did one poppy inspired
abstract and can't wait to see it's final results although my colors were a little less vivid than this photo I took last summer at the arboretum.
A little background story to tie this in....is I actually own all the items needed for doing such a fun and creative project but have been buried in my "Office" which can also be called the craft room/office/pseudo garage/guest room for over three years at least and have rarely seen the light of day. I also recently purchased some Lumiere paints on a trip to Ketchikan and painted a little jewelry box for MJ in my early morning spare time, and was certainly feeling the need for more creative outlets in my life. This need is usually filled with cooking but being pregnant and having a husband who arrives home hours before I even think of dinner I loose all creative outlet in cooking to simply fill the food void that becomes a pregnant woman. i.e. I don't care what the hell it is just feed me, I'm starving and exhausted and hope it has a full serving of dark leafy vegetables somewhere in it!
So now renewed in knowing that I'll have some maternity leave coming up what a better time to get back into my fabric paints. Along in my little research I've found this amazing site called Sassy Feet Wow... I'm going to go crazy... and well all those shoes I was going to donate to my girlfriend's breast cancer garage sale... look out they'll be laced, beaded and sparkling in no time. Forget oogling at all the incredibly expensive designer shoes in the windows downtown made famous by Ms. Palin or dealing with my Mini-Emelda Marcos of a four year old fashion diva, watch out mama's gonna bling your next pair of shoes! Just don't be running around pretending to be VP qualified!
So I started my weekend with a board retreat where we had quite a few interactive projects and lengthy philosophical discussions which I'm not sure was the quickest way to meeting our goals with a bunch of non-profit, education, outdoor loving women but it sure was fun and I got a lot of color on my hands by the end of the day including silk painting on scarves. I did one hombre style which I took home to "finish" and did one poppy inspired
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| From Summer 2009 |
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| From Sundials in the Shade |
A little background story to tie this in....is I actually own all the items needed for doing such a fun and creative project but have been buried in my "Office" which can also be called the craft room/office/pseudo garage/guest room for over three years at least and have rarely seen the light of day. I also recently purchased some Lumiere paints on a trip to Ketchikan and painted a little jewelry box for MJ in my early morning spare time, and was certainly feeling the need for more creative outlets in my life. This need is usually filled with cooking but being pregnant and having a husband who arrives home hours before I even think of dinner I loose all creative outlet in cooking to simply fill the food void that becomes a pregnant woman. i.e. I don't care what the hell it is just feed me, I'm starving and exhausted and hope it has a full serving of dark leafy vegetables somewhere in it!
So now renewed in knowing that I'll have some maternity leave coming up what a better time to get back into my fabric paints. Along in my little research I've found this amazing site called Sassy Feet Wow... I'm going to go crazy... and well all those shoes I was going to donate to my girlfriend's breast cancer garage sale... look out they'll be laced, beaded and sparkling in no time. Forget oogling at all the incredibly expensive designer shoes in the windows downtown made famous by Ms. Palin or dealing with my Mini-Emelda Marcos of a four year old fashion diva, watch out mama's gonna bling your next pair of shoes! Just don't be running around pretending to be VP qualified!
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| From Sundials in the Shade |
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
A sense of purpose
So here is my first post and the quote that inspired it. “Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade?” ~Benjamin Franklin
I have always thought that Benjamin Franklin was an amazing and fascinating figure. Coincidentally it was his 302nd birthday last Saturday on the 17th. So I'm also feeling the Capricorn connection as well. So the question is what sense of purpose has recent events in America brought out in your lives?
So calling forth this renewed sense of purpose really made me think yesterday watching the sky turn a brilliant shade of rose` during Obama's inaugural speech at just the perfect moment. It was something that I will never forget for the rest of my life.
