Goodbye Buddha, hello smiling universe - Tuna Salad de luxe

His Holiness The Dalai Lama. Sarah covered his recent appearance in DC.

Was just outside in the Inferno watering the crops. As a defense I watered my head and arms, which really helped.

The object is to get out there as early as possible. My back hurt too much to see how the shiny round green tomatoes are doing, or the eggplant and peppers.

Only three more weeks until back surgery. Can't wait! I'll meet w/surgeon Dr Guy Lee on Friday and he'll tell me what to expect.

How come I'm engaging in minor 'nesting' behavior, organizing my house and throwing things away?

Altho today the neighborhood gets a new mailman, I said goodbye to my old one, the great Tommy, on Friday. His wife Cecilia works for Guy Lee. Everyone loves the guy. He plays in a rock n roll band.

I spose after August 3 I'll have to get a new T-shirt: Ask me who did my microdiscectomy?

What I really wanted to talk about was this great quote from Sarah's last post about the Dalai Lama in the Huff Post.

He tells me that the monk in the seat in front of us is the Venerable Palden Gyatso, subject of the documentary Fire Under the Snow. Palden Gyatso spent 33 years in a Chinese prison, where he was tortured daily.

"Come on," he says, "wanna meet him?"

I kneel in front of the great monk, who puts his warm hands around mine. He is eighty now, but there is strength in his thin frame and brilliance in his eyes. His translator tells him I am a writer. Palden Gyatso nods and gives me a huge, white smile.

The third of the Kalachakra's wheels is Alternative Time. This is the time that frees you from bondage.

In one of the evening dharma talks, Sophia Stril-Rever explained, "Buddha perceives every moment of time simultaneously for all beings. They're all immediate. He looks at us and he can see our timeline and how long it will take each of us to escape samsara. Through Kalachakra, the Buddha shows that he'll be here with us, through all of it, helping us realize our potential."

I don't understand how anyone could survive 33 years of torture and smile the way Palden Gyatso smiles. There are wheels within wheels.

Let's sing Hallelujah for Palden Gyatso's smiling intact spirit.

Everyone has their own favorite version of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. Nicole, my dtr/law, likes Jeff Buckley, a singer-songwriter, who died at age 30 of drowning.

I prefer k.d.lang. Click for her video.

I love the way k.d. looks:

When I changed my hairstyle recently, dyou think I was unconsciously copying her?

Lemme tell you something I recently learned.

This Blog Post is finite. The blogger has only so much space. I think I've used about half the gigs or gogs or bits or bites allotted me. Which is only fair. It's free. Few things are free in life except social security payments, for a life of hard work, mostly from a 13-yr career as a psychotherapist.

I rented the video Social Network about the founder of Facebook. I have no idea how to spell Zuker's last name, but I will tell you this. The guy may be a genius but he also seems to be a sociopath. I'm sure he's not really one, but you just cringe at his behavior. I had to turn the movie off after 40 minutes cuz I couldn't tolerate his behavior. The movie is so well done it's as if he's in the same room with you, insulting you.

His mind takes everything in, sizes a person up quickly, sorta like the Buddha Sarah writes about.

What's this?

Well, the pic didn't come out but the tuna salad sure did. "I'm very impressed," said Scott when we ate it outside on our new lawn furniture.

Your 'healthy plate' should consist of half veggies (except non-starchy foods like corn), one quarter protein, and one quarter starch (rice, noodles, potatoes).

If you have diabetes like me, it's esp. important to eat right.

So, here are the ingredients:

two dry pouches of tuna fish
chopped up chunks of jalapena pepper cheese
onions - red peppers - green peppers
cooked green beans

season w/mixture of

mayo, moutarde, chipotle relish, garlic, basil from the garden

Serve cold and swoon.