He Says, She Says… Resistance: Grace under Fire

Hello Dear Ones!

If you follow our posts regularly, our entries this week: Mike’s -  Being Green – Literally & Marcia’s -  Marcia’s Meanderings – A Crisis of Spirit, you will already know that both of us have had our share of interesting challenges in the past seven days.

Then the following quote came through an e-mail from Eckhart Tolle:

One could say that going through loss is the great awakener. It is a potential opening if you don’t run away from it. What is usually condemned as ‘bad’ by the mind and the mind-made self is actually grace coming into your life.

We thought to use this as the foundation for this week’s He Says, She Says… post – “Resistance: Grace under Fire“.

Normally our Sunday posts present a ‘He Says’ and a ‘She Says’ view; sometimes contradictory, sometimes complementary, always unique.  However, Mike is dealing with a rather large headache at the moment, so this week’s post is going to be a ‘She Says’ only.

Hugs,
M&M

Follow these links to read what She Says: Marcia’s View

He Says, She Says… A Recap

Hello, Dear Reader:

We were trying to decide on a topic for this week’s ‘He Says, She Says…‘ post and were both surprised to realize that we’ve already written 31 posts in this category (plus one announcing the birth of our newest grandson).  Therefore, rather than adding to the list this week we thought we’d provide an index to the topics we’ve already covered (in alphabetical order, no less).  Enjoy!

Continue Reading →

He Says, She Says… Synthesis

Hello, Dear Reader:

It’s getting rather late in the day, but we didn’t want to let a Sunday pass without including something in the ‘He Says, She Says…‘ section of our blog.  As it happened we invested much of our day today at the ‘Organic Islands Festival and Sustainability Expo‘, billed as Canada’s Largest Outdoor Green Festival.  The festival was held this weekend at Glendale Gardens & Woodland, itself a beautiful collection of gardens at Victoria’s north end.  In a way our being there today was a coming together of things for us, and we wanted to take a moment or two to mention some of them. Continue Reading →

He Says, She Says… the True Nature of a Gift?

Hello, Dear Reader:

Well, we’re back from our self-imposed hiatus from ‘He Says, She Says…‘ posts; we’re awaiting the proof copy of Marcia’s new book from the printer.  Last night we were going through previous posts to determine what we’ve covered and realized that this is our 30th post in this category!

Every morning before we get out of bed we take a moment to ask each other about remembered dreams from the night before, and often one or the other of us will have a sequence to share or sometimes an idea or a thought that arose out of our nightly wanderings.  Here’s an example from a week ago: “Old fears make perfect soil in which to plant new dreams.“  This morning Mike awoke with the thought: “Understand the true nature of a gift.“  It reminded us of a blog post done by Seth Godin a couple of weeks ago titled, “Gifts, misunderstood.“  It’s well worth reading, in our opinion, as are all of Seth’s posts.  In his post Seth mentions O. Henry’s book ‘The Gift of the Magi‘, a Christmas story.  Although unmentioned, the movie ‘Pay it Forward‘ would also fit into this genre of gifting.

So, with that in mind we thought we’d make the topic of this week’s He Says, She Says… post, “The True Nature of a Gift?”

Hugs,
M&M

Follow these links to read what He Says/She Says: Marcia’s View / Mike’s View

He Says, She Says… Sunday Cinema

Hi Folks:

Sunday has wound its way around again, and that usually means our ‘He Says, She Says…‘ post, but Marcia’s still happily ensconced in editing her book of poetry and mostly all I get is an occasional nod or a “What’s that, dear?”   For that reason, this week’s post will be strictly a ‘He Says’.

However, since yesterday marked our 92nd Monthaversary of being married, we did take some time off this afternoon to go to the movies.  We wanted to see ‘Letters to Juliet‘, and while I don’t want to spoil the movie for you, I will say that it’s a wonderful movie and Vanessa Redgrave was stunning as always.  It’s a little slow in places, but it’s also hopelessly romantic and features some wonderful scenes of the Tuscan countryside.  I’ll admit it; I cry in movies, and this one warrants a few happy tears. Continue Reading →

He Says, She Says… Book?

He Says: “So, how’s the book coming along?”

She Says: “Pretty well.  Coming down to the crunch though.”

He Says: “So, what’s our topic for this week?”

She Says: “Hmmm?  Sorry, honey, but this is taking all of my time right now.”

He Says: “Until next week then?”

She Says: “That would probably be best.”

Have a great week, folks!

Hugs,
M&M

He Says, She Says… Being or Doing?

Hello, Dear Reader:

There’s a saying:

“There are only 168 hours in a week, no matter your age, how much money you make, what you’ve invested, how attractive you are, or how much information you can access on the Internet. No exemptions. Your quality of life is a function of how you chose to spend that time.” ~ Bill Bachrach, in “Values-based Financial Planning”.

Time is a funny thing. We can’t make time, lose time, or really, even waste time.  What we ‘do’ with those 168 hours each week is a matter of choice that each of us makes, as much as some seem to want to try to squeeze more time out of the clock.  A ‘few’ years ago, a coworker had a sign in his office that read, “We are becoming human doings, rather than human beings.” We’re certainly not the first to deal with this idea, as we’re joining the ranks of people like Neale Donald Walsch and Eckhart Tolle.

With that in mind we thought we’d make the topic of this week’s He Says, She Says… post, “Being or Doing?”

Hugs,
M&M

Follow these links to read what He Says/She Says: Marcia’s View / Mike’s View

He Says, She Says… Free?

Hello, Dear Reader:

What does the word ‘free’ mean to you?  Is it a word that implies value, such as ‘freedom’, or ‘free will’, or is it something that denotes no value, as in ‘Free to Good Home’?  The word freedom itself can mean freedom from something like oppression, or it can mean having freedom of expression.  Or, as in the immortal words of Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster, is ‘Freedom just another word for nothing left to lose’?  The word ‘free’ seems to have many contradictions, and so for this week’s ‘He Says, She Says…‘ post we thought we’d address when something is ‘Free?

Hugs,
M&M

Follow these links to read what He Says/She Says: Marcia’s View / Mike’s View

He Says, She Says… Embracing Perfection

Hello, Dear Reader:

What does it mean to be ‘perfect’?  To some this appellation implies a ‘best possible’, whether it be a perfect day, a perfect moment, a perfect meal…  To others perfection can only be a goal, something that can never be achieved or attained.  As such there are those who would suggest we not even try.  In his book ‘The Bridge Across Forever‘, author Richard Bach described his search and failure to find what he considered to be the ‘perfect woman’.  He eventually came to realize that his goal was an impossible dream, that his perfect woman was, in his words, ‘a peacock’.  When he surrendered this dream he found instead the love of his life, Leslie Parrish. Continue Reading →

He Says, She Says… Intrinsic or Extrinsic?

Hello, Dear Reader:

How do we measure the true value of something – is it intrinsic or extrinsic?  According to Wikipedia:

Intrinsic value is an ethical and philosophic property. It is the ethical or philosophic value that an object has “in itself” or “for its own sake”, as an intrinsic property. An object with intrinsic value may be regarded as an end or end-in-itself.

Extrinsic value is the idea that something has value only because of outside factors. It is an end to a means.  Work is, by many, considered to have extrinsic value. We work because we need money in order to survive.

With that in mind we thought we’d take on ‘value’ as the subject of this week’s ‘He Says, She Says…‘ post.

Hugs,
M&M

Follow these links to read what He Says/She Says: Marcia’s View / Mike’s View