I love to buy presents for people, little things, big things . . . and it seems that the more I gift to friends, others, that the more comes my way.  Some people hang onto it and then wonder why there is no flow in their abundance.  I can't tell you how much comes back to me in some greater way.  Just last week, some friends of mine, Bob & Andrew (a couple - Andrew is an interior designer) . . . well, Andrew decided that he wanted to redo my living area - FOR FREE - and even help in the work to accomplish it.  I asked him why he was wanting to do this and he said that it was because I gave so much to them.  Now, I give them very little $$wise but I do give of my time and presence.  Money is just another for of energy you have to keep it flowing IN and OUT.  I love to send my friends beautiful cards and write my own messages of love and affection.

I am presently spending money on my living area to make it as lovely as possible so that I can share it with my friends and loved ones.

I would say Open Spaces.  I like to feel open inside so these open physical spaces resonate with me.  As I grow, I like less - less things, less clutter, less definition . . . and ultimately death will take the part of me that is eternal back to the greatest of open spaces.  From form to emptiness to form to emptiness . . .

I have been, and still am, a seeker.  But I tell you this.  I'm seeking which seems at once necessary and inevitable and built into me, but I'm tired of it.  Is the play of beingness, through duality, that we do this, we are this, this pulse of seeking only to be found, in an eternal cycle?  My beingness in Being does this, or so it seems.  Even while I'm trying to erase the lines, I'm looking for them to erase, walking on the edge of paradox and lost reason.  To be mindful I must lose my mind?  I am crazy here this morning but then so is God.  Anybody with any thoughts on this?  I'm just rambling again, asking questions.

Well, let me just start by saying that I am uncircumsized.  Why?  I don't know and don't really care, but I'm pleased with what has not been taken away from my penis, and that is foreskin.

I have been talking to friends this past week about various aspects of circumcision and just wanted to create an open space in which to talk about all aspects of this topic.

Here goes (and I may miss some important questions so just jump in) -
What is circumsion?  What are the taboos surrounding circumcision?  What does and did it mean in Judea-Christian-Islamic traditions (and other traditions)?  What was/is its purpose?  What are the misconceptions?  What does it mean to be circumsized?  Is it dangerous?  Are we crazy?  Is it more healthy? Is it a harsh and cruel thing to circumsize infants? . . .

You get the picture.  Let's create the Circumcision Bible here, with a wiki-perspective.  I'm curious and want to explore everything possible with the help of you guys and guyettes.  Please also provide any links.  I'll comment perhaps a little later.

And a special thanks to Boogie (Stacy) for being open with me about this topic and posting a brief statement in one of her current blogs.

I'm not sure I allow for it.  I almost sense that it might be built in, the expansion and the contraction, the involution and the evolution.  I am in awe, though, at the great playground that we move in and as.  Yes, there seems to be movement and expansion, as part of the play.  I am also in awe of the space between matter.  We are made up of this space, along with water and other matter.  We are holy, holey, and wholey all at once.  It is my perception that holds back this expression from expanding.  The amount of consciousness is constant, but my perception is that the property just keeps being re-arranged.  Some move from neighborhood to neighborhood while some acquire more property and expand.  So, to me, expansion is no more than a movement and an idea of new difference.  It is not about being better, having more or any of that.  I don't know . . . really I don't.  Just some thoughts.

Why do you ask them?  So that I can ask more questions - there is movement in the questions and not the answers.  Answers are stagnant, final.

Oh yes.  I recently went to a Indian Dance Ritual with my dear online friend Carla.  What a joy.  I have yet to write about my experiece, meeting her and the lovely event that unfolded.  We had decided that she'd fly to Atlanta so that she could meet my groups of friends, most of whom were online GAIA friends as well.  I found and find her delightful and so do my other Church of the Porch friends.

On the drive up to where we were going, Carla and I decided to connect with another fellow GAIA friend, Boogie (Stacy - formerly friendstacy).  It was like we had known each other for many lifetimes.  Stacy even took us to a special and sacred spot near here place in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

I would gladly meet any number of people here on GAIA.  I can name at least 30 people for whom I have a strong desire to meet.  I'm sure I'll meet more.  The list gets longer and longer.

I have been noticing more what's in front of me, seeing things as they arise, feelings, sensations, thoughts, etc.  I've been paying attention to the spaces between my words and the words of others, trying to look at the whole picture.  I've been paying attention to inner space as well as outer space.  I've noticed that there is movement in the stillness and stillness in the vast movement.  I've noticed that I don't always operate with monkey mind going 1,000 mpg, that things happen/get done without it.  I've been paying attention to relationship of things to things, people to things, actions to non-actions, non-actions to things . . .

I've also being paying attention to the abundance in everything that surrounds us, the vastness of the universe.  Part of this is the recognition of it, the recognition of how there is a flow into and out of life that is perfect.  I've noticed that there is so much happening/arising, and when I can witness this more, I see that many miss this abundance.  My joy and happiness have increased is the main thing that I've noticed.

And I notice you coming and going, reading, commenting on blogs.  My attention has also be on truth as I live it, feel it, sense it . . . and direct it into my reality.

Well, I'm not sure I want to do anything (in particular) with others.  I think what's important to me is to try to be as open as possible when meeting them.  Now, I'm not always that way, but that is my goal.  I've noticed that when I am open, not judging, not trying to force any way of how I think things should look or the way they should be, and just meet others in a open space, well . . . that seems to create a sacred place for "right relationship".  An invitation is just that, inviting, usually from the heart, and warm.

What I'm getting at is this - It is not what I prefer to do with others so much as it is how I prefer to be with others.  I strive to be OPEN with them, and then the preference of doing doesn't much matter.  It matters not if I go to the store with them, sit with them, bump into them . . . whatever, when we invite others into relationship with us, and meet them in an open space - well, how 'nother worlds open up for us, the territory expands, our experience is enlarged.

I love to just be in the presence of people, especially if they are open.  Can you just sit without agenda, not speaking, but just glowing from your heart, without movement, and really stay with it?  Can you be real in the fullnes of who you are and allow that in others?  Again, this is what I try to do and my goal for WHAT I BE.  Being & doing - where is the division in the two?

I hope this create some open space for you to meet me here!  Dang, life is so great and I'm happy to have the opportunity to be here with you, and you, and you . . .

This is a favorite poem from a compilation book entitled The Gift: Poems by Hafiz The Great Sufi Master, translated by Daniel Ladinsky.

I'm probably thinking "down" thoughts or being "down" when I am "down."  And as far as being overwhelmed, I sometimes feel that with great joy as well.  I think to reframe my thoughts to recognise that I am more than a feeling or temporary state of being, that I am, at my core, life's essence, that I AM presence.  Does that change anything for me?  Well, sometimes yes and sometimes no.  Usually when I'm down, someone comes along, and poof . . . does something, says something . . . and I RE-member who I AM.  I still forget a lot.

. . . once again, this is okay.  This age, this now, this time . . . this point in beingness . . . ahhhhhhhhh . . . but then it passes, and that's okay too.  I am still coming of age yet ageless.

You know, that which is alive within me is a love teeming with greater possibilities.  It moves and reaches out and always seems to be doing that.  It is moving out to meet itself.  Presently, in this appearance as Satya, I am being joyous with another appearance, Jeff, and coming together in an intimate way, as lovers.  I love being loving, being in love, and being love . . . it is such a wonderful thing.  These possibilities are greater as I recognize, more and more, my awareness about loving. 

Sex, a future with a new lover, living extravagantly, . . . and so much more - living in the moment.

I give myself attention & awareness all the time.  When there is truth around this attention & awareness I can see the real and it becomes "realized" in my experience.  The best gift I can give myself is see myself clearly for who I am and then try to operate as fully as possible in that realm of possible experience.  This is the best gift I can give anyone else as well.  I can only give from my part of self that which I have realized, has been made real.  I can only offer to others that which I have, even in my realization (limited or expanded).

I realize right now that my love is expanding and so I offer the gift of myself, the realization of loves expansiveness . . .

Great question Siona!

I don't know a lot about popular music like many of you do, but I've been interested in hearing things that perhaps I'd not heard before . . .

Please post some of your favorite love song links here this morning and in the coming days.  Tell us what it means to you, offer a story, let us see a part of your love in these songs.

Here are some of mine:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_FklOwMyoE - Where Do I Begin (from Love Story)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBga34W57As - You Raise Me Up (Josh Groban)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK9nt1NF7Nw - Celine dion and Josh groban live - the prayer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZoo4kXOTCg - Keith Sweat I'll give all my love to you

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhm48mp8q98 - Whitney Houston - My Love Is Your Love

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z7oWdp47zI - Taylor Dayne - I'll Always Love You

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4NXLyuutsY - Jim Brickman & Peabo Bryson- My Heart Belongs To You

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pyuDoTfSyA - Jim Brickman - The Love I Found In You

I've been thinking this morning of just what I don't know, what I think I know, and unknowning itself and the arising of knowingness.

Presently, there is an intimate love in my life arising and is a present part of my experience.  I'm finding that I've got some pretty strange ideas of "the way it is supposed to be or look."  Do any of you have these notions?  Do you want to name the experience?

For me it seems to diminish the experience of "what is."  I'm finding that I've spend a lot of time talking about the story instead of the continuing of living the story without label, description . . .

When I am intimately loving I know that I am loving . . . but when I am talking about this intimate loving, then I am projecting from another time, either past or future into the present moment, and then how can I be fully in the moment and presence of this loving arising?

I'm thinking that I want to be so taken by life that I'll not want to talk about either past or future but be so fully living life that there is not time (only now) to do anything but do what I'm doing, what I'm being.  Being doesn't seem to be withing doing, but doing is within being.

Please share your thoughts with me . . . and know that these, my descriptions are only things that I'm pointing to without any definitive answer.