Deadlines

It is I who must begin....

Once I begin, once I try -

here and now,

right where I am,

not excusing myself

by saying that things

would be easier elsewhere,

without grand speeches and

ostentatious gestures,

but all the more persistently

-to live in harmony

with the "voice of Being," as I

understand it within myself

-as soon as I begin that,

I suddenly discover,

to my surprise, that

I am neither the only one,

nor the first,

nor the most important one

to have set out

upon that road....

Whether all is really lost

or not depends entirely on

where or not I am lost....

-Vaclav Havel

from Life Prayers

I've got a couple of big work deadlines on the same day. Thankfully July 12th will come and go. That gives me some peace and surrendering to working a little more between now and then instead of fighting it. There's a few nice things scattered in these next two weeks too. I'm officiating a wedding for a friend this weekend, R's birthday is coming up and I'm taking the day off work, and we've got a joint garden party birthday bash at a dear friend's house soon.

I've been working on my Working Sabbath protocol and plan to invoke for July and August as a start. So far that means no jail for the next couple of months and taking a break from a couple of monthly commitments. I'll continue to develop that after my deadlines pass.

Continuing to pray for those looking for meaningful, living wage work and those trying to get well and the communities surrounding them. Praying for those who appear to have given up trying and those of us who witness and grieve that apparent reality. Praying also for people working in places where there's not enough people left to do the work that needs to be done. Praying as R. does for matched needs. That the people that need each other gifts, talents, and resources will find each other in a timely, mutual fashion.

Praying for my friends as they enter into marriage later this week.

I saw this slug a week ago at a sweet outdoor wedding for some friends of R's. When I saw it I did an elf stop and sigh. So happy to see another friend. R. says "don't you have enough slug pictures?" and then sweetly moves it out of the pedestrian pathway after the photo shoot. It's funny to me how I'm seeing slugs in the city this year. I didn't notice them before.