Here and Now

Lettie Luella Newman, 10 Feb 1915 - 25 Nov 2006

sunriseruby — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 18:56:05 GMT

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

sunriseruby — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 00:18:22 GMT

"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

sunriseruby — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 00:04:51 GMT

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

sunriseruby — Sun, 22 Oct 2006 16:55:59 GMT

"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

sunriseruby — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 15:52:38 GMT

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

sunriseruby — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 14:06:37 GMT

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

the work...

sunriseruby — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 04:13:41 GMT

"If you desire to know where your spiritual work lies, look to your emotional pain." Alan Cohen, "Wisdom of The Heart"

a perfect poem

sunriseruby — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 03:26:00 GMT

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

sunriseruby — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 21:08:25 GMT

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

sunriseruby — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 15:02:05 GMT

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!

Notes from my Mother's journal, Janet Luella Bruce

sunriseruby — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 14:29:16 GMT

09 Feb 1968 Tomorrow Jennifer will be 3 months. Within the last couple of weeks, she has made some drastic changes. She holds her head up erect with no effort, and stays awake most of the afternoon and evening. Jennifer is very predictable, she sleeps all morning and stays awake all afternoon. She takes 2 cat naps from 35-45 minutes each day. She particularly enjoys being propped on the kitchen table. She stares at the wallpaper for several minutes on end, fascinated by the small designs. She also laughs out loud and smiles and coos constantly.

Be Courageous

sunriseruby — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 13:36:25 GMT

"You cannot be truthful if you are not courageous. You cannot be loving if you are not courageous. You cannot be trusting if you are not courageous. You cannot inquire into reality if you are not courageous. Hence courage comes first and everything else follows." OSHO Courage, The Joy of Living Dangerously "Suffering is not holding you. You are holding suffering. When you become good at the art of letting sufferings go, then you'll come to realize how unnecessary it was for you to drag those burdens around with you. You'll see that no one else other than you was responsible. The truth is that existence wants your life to become a festival."

quotes from damiano, luigi behave!

sunriseruby — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 06:48:47 GMT

my friend and neighbor damiano, from silcily, and his beautiful dog, luigi, take a moment, from time to time, to share with me some deeply personal, inner most thoughts. here are the cliff notes of our last meeting, we had a beautiful lunch together... "That which terrifies the mind charms the heart" "When I woke up on the sidewalk and didn't know if someone had peed on me or I had peed on myself, I knew it was time to change my ways" "Enjoy yourself, he's not coming back"

wings, wings, wings...

sunriseruby — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 06:43:21 GMT

"Run, my dear, from anything that may not strengthen your precious budding wings." "This sky where we live is no place to lose your wings, so love, love, love." Hafiz, translated by Daniel Ladinsky

the origins of my email address

sunriseruby — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 06:36:54 GMT

way back when, maybe 1999, i made the leap to communication through the internet, i'm always slow about keeping the pace with technology. i logged onto hotmail and attempted to create the address, sunriseruby@hotmail.com. to my dismay, it was already taken. i was inspired by a friend in NYC, dj spun, who had attemped the same and found someone had already taken the name. hence, to his friends, he became therealdjspun@hotmail.com. i followed in his wise footsteps and became therealsunriseruby. the name was free and i claimed it as my own. later, i would begin writing an on-line, email journal with a friend in the east bay. we entitled it, wild truth. we started with only a few friends as our audience. we asked our readers to select a favorite poem and to create an email address based on the title of the poem. within a matter of weeks, we were bombarded with requests to join our newsletter and our network. i wrote about my travels in india and my partner wrote astrology horoscopes and posted personal poems. it was our collective goal to inspire creativity and playfulness amongst our readers. sadly, we had a falling out that resulted in my departure from the newsletter. i never saved any of the text that i wrote, which was most of the time, cumbersome and time-consuming, utilizing indian internet cafes - one email could take up to an hour to send. it was a time in my life when i felt most alive and creative, but i also had to come to a point where i questioned the fundamental intent of the newsletter and i did not agree with the direction we were moving. as it became more and more feminist, i realized that my orientation was humanist, i had no interest in blaming or judging anyone, especially men, with regards to where we were moving as a society. everything happens for a reason and i am sad she and i are no longer in touch, but the relevance of the experience out weighs the sadness and loss. this is how and why i became a humble servant to my audience. and i will always remain, to those who know me and my mission on this earth, yours...therealsunriseruby... more to come.

The Sunrise Ruby by Rumi

sunriseruby — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 15:28:34 GMT

In the early morning hour, just before dawn, lover and beloved wake and take a drink of water. She asks, "Do you love me or yourself more? Really, tell the absolute truth." He says, "There’s nothing left of me. I’m like a ruby held up to the sunrise. Is it still a stone, or a world made of redness? It has no resistance to sunlight." This is how Hallaj said, I am God, and told the truth! The ruby and the sunrise are one. Be courageous and discipline yourself. Completely become hearing and ear, and wear this sun-ruby as an earring. Work. Keep digging your well. Don’t think about getting off from work. Water is there somewhere. Submit to a daily practice. Your loyalty to that is a ring on the door. Keep knocking, and the joy inside will eventually open a window and look out to see who’s there.

the mind is a liar and a whore

sunriseruby — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 10:37:41 GMT

"dogma and authority have ever been the curse of humanity, the great extinguishers of light and truth". h.p. blavatsky the secret doctrine, volume 5 dare to question everything you know as true... http://www.verticalpool.com/themindisaliarandawhore.html