1. As I write this post at 9:30 on Monday morning, I just read an update on the Gold Run Fire, between Elizabeth Park and Big Creek. The fire is 100% contained. The operation is winding down and many crew members along with equipment can return to their home units. Monitoring will continue and Avista crews can now enter the burn site and repair damaged poles and wires.
2. Now, about Sunday.
I took a break from the moon today. I did, however, continue to think about emptiness and how necessary it is. I thought about how when we empty ourselves of ego, fixed ideas, the intrusions of the past, and other ways we fill our inner life, then we can be receptive to what the present moment brings us.
I agree with Hugh's comment to me that my life is full of friends, family, acquaintances, and blessings, but, paradoxically this cup of mine that runneth over must also be emptied to make room for the blessings, experiences, new things to learn, new ideas, and so on that will, no doubt, come my way today.
It's a paradox for sure. We don't want our lives to feel empty, but, as the Tao de Ching calls to our attention, we need the emptiness of the cup or of the newly built house in order to fill our cups (mine is filled with a latte right now!) or bring our houses to life.
By the way, we have common ways of talking about the perils of fullness when we say someone is "full of crap" or another is so "full of herself (or himself)".
Right?
3. Our family dinner this evening definitely had our cups running over with delicious food and lively conversation.
Christy hosted and created tonight's dinner. She asked Paul what he'd like as a Father's Day dinner. He requested a seafood pasta dinner and so Christy fixed a superb linguine with shrimp, clams, and scallops main course accompanied with Italian garlic bread and I brought a leafless, pastaless Italian salad blending zucchini noodles, marinated artichoke hearts, Kalamata olives, cherry tomatoes, green onion, both red and orange sweet peppers, cilantro, and Parmesan cheese. I dressed the salad with the artichoke marinade and olive brine. (That worked for me -- hope it worked for the others!)
Carol baked an apple crisp for dessert and I got to recommend ice cream to go with it. Carol, understandably, didn't find any turtle ice cream in town, but I recommended caramel swirl as a Plan B and she brought both a salted caramel swirl and a cold brew coffee and caramel ice cream.
Christy assigned us to each bring a song or a track from a movie soundtrack that we like and to explain how the music connects with the movie. Here's what each of us played for the others:
I played the theme from the 1988 Italian movie Cinema Paradiso.
Carol played Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" from Wayne's World.
Paul played Cat Stevens singing "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out" from Harold and Maude.
Christy played the wedding version of the nuns singing, with orchestral accompaniment, "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria" from The Sound of Music.
It was fun talking about movies and music in addition to other topics (yes, including the moon!).
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