Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Southern Gothic

Sophia, me, and the kids are driving down a country road; it's close to sunset. We're going to meet her uncle at his cabin in the woods so we can borrow his pressure washer.
We turn onto a dirt path, heading west, and the reddened sky looms over us, bleeding through tall dark trees.

"This is starting to look like Evil Dead 2," I say.

Sophia says, "Everything in my family looks like Evil Dead 2."

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Why Sophia Is My Shero

Because at 2:00 in the morning, when there's sewage backing up into our house so fast it's outpacing an eight-gallon Shop-Vac and I'm swearing like Harlan Ellison uncovering a copyright violation, she can think of reasons to be grateful.

* * *
Guru, since you say that gratitude is the most beautiful thing on earth, what is the effect of gratitude on man and God?

Sri Chinmoy: When an individual offers gratitude to God, immediately his receptivity increases. His vessel becomes large. Then God is able to pour more of His Blessings into the person or enter more fully into that vessel with His own divine Existence. God is infinite, but only according to our receptivity can He enter into us. God is like sunlight. If I leave this window open, sunlight will come in here. If I keep all the other windows closed, it cannot come in there. The more we offer gratitude, the more we increase our receptivity and capacity. The more windows we open, the more God enters into us with Light, abundant Light, infinite Light. When we offer gratitude, immediately God's Light comes pouring into our being.

from A Galaxy of Beauty's Stars