Even were I to be skeptical, this is still marvelous:

February, 2005 So much lovely quiet this morning. Even the raindrops have quieted. It is a good space to gather my thoughts. I woke early, with a dream of Laura. Julia, also, had a dream of Laura a couple of days ago. We are counting them as Valentine visits. Not only that, a couple of days before these dreams, I looked at Laura's picture and thought of her as Josh Groban sang the following lyrics to me. Laura's spirit beheld me from behind that picture and she used Groban to sing to ME: Remember, I will still be here As long as you hold me, in your memory Remember me I am the one voice in the cold wind, that whispers And if you listen, you'll hear me call across the sky As long as I still can reach out, and touch you Then I will never die... I think she came through to us in dreams to tell us this. Here's mine: It was a cold and gray February day. I was driving the car, some vague passengers were in the back. Then we reached a forest with bare trees. I stopped there to pick up Laura. She got in the car and I let one of the others drive. Both of them had German accents. So I was in the back to the left and Laura was to the right. She looked especially peaceful and happy. The driver, a thin German in a black turtleneck, lit up a cigarette in the car and announced, "I'm not going to worry if this offends Laura." The other dude, also in a black turtleneck, but shorter, did the same and announced the same statement. I was shocked. The air had not yet begun to get smoky and nasty, but it soon would. I looked at Laura, but she was not reacting. Normally she would have gotten combative at the thoughtless people so little concerned with bothering Laura's health. But she looked peaceful and calm. It's like she was saying, "I don't have a real sick body now that is so easily threatened by such things." End of dream Still, in real life, if someone threatens my personal space environment thusly, I won't remain silent. However, that sense of immediate and grave danger that always plagued Laura, yes, where ever she is, she's not in that any more. Julia's dream two days ago had much the same message: Laura was showing Julia the city of Phoenix data processing, where she used to work. Laura was in good spirits as she told Julia funny stories regarding her work place. Much time seemed to elapse in this pleasant dream. Laura was definitely happy, at peace, and not hurting. Julia woke feeling good. I think the German reference came up because I was looking at a German site yesterday. I'd ordered a cool stainless steel small platter through amazon.com and it arrived. The 'Tavola' brand is made by WMF, which is based in Germany. Before I decided to add /english to the URL, I was viewing the pages in German, looking at various lovely 'Rostfrei' items, 'rustfree'. nice tray It is heavy, has nice rolled under edges and is quite aesthetically pleasing. Speaking of aesthetic experiences, last night we watched two lovely videos from the library, one about the National Geographics photographers and the other about the sights in Turkey. The engaging young girl charmed as she showed us all the neat stuff there. I had no idea they had so many ancient Greco-Roman ruins. Well, that video is as close as I'll ever get to that country, so it was good to have peeksies. The photographers, oh, I shall remember them. One says he is never without his camera, for fear he'll miss something. And the things they do for their art! One couple lives out in the wilds of Africa in a tent, so they can capture the critters. They admitted maybe they get a really cool picture only every other week, and how that is so worth all the waiting and frustration. I am not there in the wilderness, with such a challenge, but how much I relate to that with my own creative impatience. I wait and wait, curse the blank page, feel stalled, and then sometimes I get something that awes me. But I would not do otherwise. It's the only way to feel truly alive on all fronts. Always, it is good to see what other creative people are doing. For instance, I found this quote in an e-mail from a fellow mandala artist: “It became increasingly plain to me that the mandala is the centre. It is the exponent of all paths. It is the path to the centre, to individuation. [...] I knew that in finding the mandala as an expression of the self I had attained what was for me the ultimate.” - C. G. Jung. That may inspire me to a new mandala. I haven't done one in a while. Oh yes, there are so many possibilities.

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