Everyone Needs an Altar!

My Brother Dan gave this to me...you ask just what is it besides a picture of Jerry with two cheesy skull stickers, some glass pebbles, two plastic babies and a rose in a bottle cap?!! Well, let's just say my brother was NOT a fan of the Phat Man...but he knew I loved Garcia/Grateful Dead...and he used to joke that it was my religion. And with every religion he'd say "you have to have an altar" so he made this little sculpture for me...not really so much a sculpture, eh? Rather a kitsch of sweetness. And I'm sure if he heard me call it a sculpture he'd promptly "correct" me and say "It's an ALTAR not a sculpture cb!" Anyway, Jerry/Altar/It glows in the dark and as Dan(or Lord Snott as he legally changed his name to)  said..."every altar's purpose is to bring light" (mind you he said this with a snicker and an eye roll towards the sky all the while mocking me and those "dirty hippies", a group of which I was included (me of course being "different" he'd say because I like perfume and makeup). Dan was about as religious as a stone and as a professed atheist he wasn't big on altars. Nevertheless, as he said, Jerry seemed 'harmless if dirty enough'. 'And I suppose if you're gonna pray at any altar music is the "right" altar to pray at!'  Ah Dan...beautiful, arrogant, intelligent, quirky, delightful brother...Ain't no doubt he has soul and spirit. Atheist or no, my brother is full of Light and Love. Perhaps it comes out a bit like sandpaper..."just enough to smooth off any rough edges" he might say...hey, he built me my own altar!! And a guy with a good sense of humor is a treasure! Especially if he's your brother!! And this gift made up of bits and pieces that add to no monetary value is perhaps one of my favorite gifts and possessions! A gift I treasure! 

This work by Celia Benavidez is licensed under the Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this
license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to
Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California, 94041, USA.
Copyright (c) 2012 by Celia Ann Benavidez. This work is made available under the terms
of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license,
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/Permissions beyond the scope of this
license may be available at www.ramblinrose.info

The Pathway Finally Opened

When my heart came to rule 

in the world of love, 

it was freed

from both belief 

and from disbelief.

On this journey, 

I found the problem

to be myself.

When I went beyond myself 

the pathway finally opened.

Mahsati Ganjavi 

12th Century

English version by David and Sabrineh Fideler 

Copyright (c) 2012 by Celia Ann Benavidez registered under the creative commons attribution...
save it, copy it, modify it but you have to credit me for the original photoand you can not
make a buck off it without asking me ;-)

Sunset 2012 January 28

Copyright (c) 2012 by Celia Ann Benavidez. This work is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/."
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at www.ramblinrose.info

We Must Go On - PrettyLights Music

Emotionally Yours ~ Bob Dylan as done by the O'Jays

Come baby, find me, come baby, remind me of where I once begun
Come baby, show me, show me you know me, tell me you’re the one
I could be learning, you could be yearning to see behind closed doors
But I will always be emotionally yours

Come baby, rock me, come baby, lock me into the shadows of your heart
Come baby, teach me, come baby, reach me, let the music start
I could be dreaming but I keep believing you’re the one I’m livin’ for
And I will always be emotionally yours

It’s like my whole life never happened
When I see you, it’s as if I never had a thought
I know this dream, it might be crazy
But it’s the only one I’ve got

Come baby, shake me, come baby, take me, I would be satisfied
Come baby, hold me, come baby, help me, my arms are open wide
I could be unraveling wherever I’m traveling, even to foreign shores
But I will always be emotionally yours

Bob Dylan copyright 1985 Special Rider

Our Art, Our Lives, Our Lives, Our Art...

A writer -- and, I believe, generally all persons -- must think that whatever happens to him or her is a resource. All things have been given to us for a purpose, and an artist must feel this more intensely. All that happens to us, including our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments, all is given to us as raw material, as clay, so that we may shape our art. 

--From "Twenty Conversations with Borges, Including a Selection of Poems: Interviews by Roberto Alifano, 1981-1983."

Copyright (c) 2011 by Celia Ann Benavidez registered under 

the creative commons attribution...
save it, copy it, modify it but you have to credit me for the original photo
 and you can not make a buck off it without asking me ;-)

Strawberry Fields Forever

Let me take you down
'cos I'm going to Strawberry Fields
Nothing is real
And nothing to get hungabout
Strawberry Fields forever
Living is easy with eyes closed
Misunderstanding all you see
It's getting hard to be someone
But it all works out
It doesn't matter much to me
Let me take you down
'cos I'm going to Strawberry Fields
Nothing is real
And nothing to get hungabout
Strawberry Fields forever
No one I think is in my tree
I mean it must be high or low
That is you can't you know tune in
But it's all right
That is I think it's not too bad
Let me take you down
'cos I'm going to Strawberry Fields
Nothing is real
And nothing to get hungabout
Strawberry Fields forever
Always, no sometimes, I think it's me
But you know I know when it's a dream
I think I know I mean a "Yes"
But it's all wrong
That is I think I disagree
Let me take you down
'cos I'm going to Strawberry Fields
Nothing is real
And nothing to get hungabout
Strawberry Fields forever.

Each Sunrise Sees A New Year Born."

"Each morn is New Year's morn come true,
Morn of a festival to keep.
All nights are sacred nights to make
Confession and resolve and prayer;
All days are sacred days to wake
New gladness in the sunny air.
Only a night from old to  new;
Only a sleep from night to morn.
The new is but the old come true;
Each sunrise sees a new year born."
Helen Hunt Jackson

Copyright (c) 2011 by Celia Ann Benavidez registered under the creative commons attribution...
save it, copy it, modify it but you have to credit me for the original photo and you can not make a buck off it without asking me...