Lettie Luella Newman, 10 Feb 1915 - 25 Nov 2006

A photo of all the cousins (grandchildren) together for the first time in years to celebrate the life of a remarkable woman, our grandma, ViLettie Luella.

This piece was written by my sister, Penny Bruce, for the Hutchinson, KS, Times. I wanted to share this with my friends. I will forever miss this generous, loving woman who modeled grace, elegance, and a fierce love of the divine over and over again throughout the years we were together. She passed quickly, with little suffering, and was cracking jokes up until the end. Sweet dreams grandma...

Lettie Luella Newman
91 Years Old

Lettie Newman was born on a wheat farm in Nickerson, KS, on February 10, 1915, and passed away on November 25, 2006, in Santa Clara, CA. Lettie was a loving, generous and spirited wife, mother, sister, grandmother, great-grandmother and friend. She will be greatly missed by all those who were touched by her kindness, warmth and wonderful sense of humor. While born and raised in Kansas, Lettie spent more than 60 years in theCalifornia Bay Area. She was married for 24 years to Leroy Turner and is survived by Ross Turner of Wellington, NV, and Janet Bruce Skelton of San Jose, CA, along with their spouses, four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. In 1968, Lettie married Richard Newman, who she considered to be the love of her life. Lettie and Dick shared 11 years together filled with love, joy, laughter and adventure.

An advocate for children's education, Lettie taught school for 35 years-- first in a one-room schoolhouse in Kansas and later in California Bay Area public schools. She received her undergraduate degree from San Francisco State College and was among the first women to receive a graduate degree from the California State University at Hayward. She was a lifetime member of the California Teachers' Association.

Lettie dearly loved her family and friends, was devoted to God and her church and was proud to be one of the Oakland A's greatest fans. Lettie's memory will remain vivid in ourhearts and thoughts.

My dad Stan asked me to add this:

In one of Lettie's journals, she wrote about having been delivered by a veterinarian who was hard of hearing. When asked the baby's name, he was told Lettie. Lettie's parents were named Reed, and on the birth certificate, the vet wrote "Little Reed." Lettie didn't discover that until she was an adult. I think she was applying for a passport.

chaos

"The moment you come to trust chaos, you see God clearly. Chaos is
divine order, versus human order. Change is divine order, versus human
order. When the chaos becomes safety to you, then you know you're
seeing God clearly."

Caroline Myss, *Spiritual Madness: The Necessity of Meeting God in
Darkness*

LOST

today a woman on mission street approached me. she handed me a prayer card with a tibetan mantra. she looked deep into my eyes and told me everything would be okay and to chant as much as i could. i came home and found this:

A Spell to Commit Pronoia, by psychotherapist Jennifer Welwood:

Willing to experience aloneness,
I discover connection everywhere;
Turning to face my fear,
I meet the warrior who lives within;

Opening to my loss,
I am given unimaginable gifts;
Surrendering into emptiness,
I find fullness without end.

Each condition I flee from pursues me.
Each condition I welcome transforms me
And becomes itself transformed
Into its radiant jewel-like essence.

I bow to the one who has made it so,
Who has crafted this Master Game;
To play it is pure delight,
To honor it is true devotion.

i've never been more afaid in my life...

love

"It is very easy to think about love. It is very difficult to love. It is very easy to love the whole world. The real difficulty is to love a single human being."

OSHO

on the move

LA decompression, sat 10/14/2006- better than burningman, now, off to mendicino....

more to come -

secret agent sunrise ruby is spreading love and truth all over california, what a killer job!

art

"What is possible in art becomes thinkable in life."

Brian Eno

the work...

"If you desire to know where your spiritual work lies, look to your
emotional pain."

Alan Cohen, "Wisdom of The Heart"

a perfect poem

the progress of our soul is like a perfect poem. it has an infinite idea which once realized makes all movements full of meaning and joy. but if we detach its movements from that ultimate idea, if we do not see the infinite rest and only see the infinite motion, then existence appears to us a monstrous evil, impetuously rushing towards an unending aimlessness.

i thought that my voyage had come to its end at the last limit of my power, - that the path before me was closed, that provisions were exhausted and the time come to take shelter in a silent obscurity.

but i find that thy will knows no end in me. and when old words die out on the tongue, new melodies break forth from the heart; and where the old tracks are lost, new country is revealed with its wonders.

TAGORE

i wish i could speak like music

i wish i could speak like music.

i wish i could put the swaying splendor
of the fields into words

so that you could hold truth
against your body
and dance

i am trying the best i can
with this crude brush, the tongue

to cover you with light

i wish i could speak like divine music

i want to give you the sublime rhythms
of this earth and the sky's limbs

as they joyously spin and surrender
surrender
against god's luminous breath

hafiz wants you to hold me
against your precious
body

and dance,
dance

HAFIZ

beloved anna purna

the mountains, the nature, my anna, my beloved...i am running towards you in every moment. i am coming home soon. sub kuch melega! mera achi dhosti hai, mera geevan sathi...mera dil hindustani hai!