I haven't written anything on this site since January ... is that pathetic or what! I evidently go through seasons of sort wherein I work on my websites and other seasons where I find absolutely no motivation to mess around with them at all. My Keep Nepal Free website has been horribly neglected by me. I got this email describable as arrogant from someone stating that there is no comparison between what is happening in Nepal to what happened with the communist take over in Tibet ... I concluded it was written by a communist. Granted you don't see the Chinese army over running Nepal, but you do see a real ongoing attempt to force communism down the throats of those in Nepal. I got another email from someone who does live in Nepal complimenting me on this Nepal news blog and urged me to continue making posts ... so I have once again began trying to keep the Nepal news current.

And spring is trying to spring even though the temperatures are now once again cold ... at least by the middle of March one realizes that winter is now behind ... as I have frequently said, I can now make another "winter count" - meaning I have lived through another Nebraska winter ... actually an accomplishment.

It's been awhile since I've sat and actually written something in my Coffee Notes blog! But then, it has also been some time since I've really got into posting any photographs on my other sites or working on any writings. I have been busy attempting to learn Hebrew ... a real undertaking for someone like myself who is now pushing 56 ... learning a new language! Studies reveal that an old rat's brain actually increases in size with learning ... so, as an old rat, maybe I'm attempting to increase my brain size or perhaps accommodate for the small strokes which I can tell have left my brain with some real disruption in normal cranial processing. There are parts of my memory that I know once used to be connected and now seem to be out there somewhere but I can seem to hook it into my consciousness ... like knowing I know yet not being able to grasp it whether it be a name or a past situation, etc. Frustrating at times ... plus, I feel as if my concentration has also been affected. At any rate, it has left me quite contented on a whole ... think I'm missing those old memories that used to be mainly annoying memories anyway!! I do feel quite at peace any more. Am enjoying my decision to began practicing Judaism. The synagogue is actually the first place I've ever felt like I can actually worship the Creator without personalities butting into the picture as was the case in Christianity that seems to focus on "me, me, me". The 'ol concern about getting the personality to heaven ... decided being a follower of Paul-Saul was not my bag since he's the guy responsible for most of the "New" testament. I honestly can say I believe that Jesus of Nazareth DID NOT want a whole new religious system built about him!! Jesus was a Jew and do believe that is the way I am going to be walking the rest of my walking days. I do believe ... as the Jews that the soul is pure ... this whole original sin of Adam and Eve is the doctrine of Christianity, not Judaism.

So be it.

Recluse-and when you look up that word in images all you seem to find are pictures of recluse spiders ... hum. Do believe reclusive is more accurate to how I feel during the cold months than is the word hibernation which usually only provides one with images of sleeping, rather than the finer meaning having to do with how bears actually give birth frequently during their hibernation and providing one with the similarity to how we give birth to "new ideas" during the time we as humans seek a hibernation period.

I have spent too much of lifetime being way too busy and active .... much like the treadmill where one really has to question where all their outpouring of energy has really taken them. The 'ol leaving at "point A" and arriving at the same place you started rather than at a new and different location. Sometimes I truly believe that the cavemen had it easier when it came to providing for their food, shelter and water than I have had in this age of technology when one needs money to exchange for shelter, food, and running water ... not alot of free caves, berries or fresh water available without the greenbacks. Plus we end up being so isolated from the natural world which essentially feeds our souls ... concrete doesn't really do a good job of feeding one's eternal soul!

Plus how does one really ingest a true feeling of reverence and awe at one's actual place in the cosmos without actually viewing the night sky and the millions of stars? Personal egos ... that which seems to flow from having a brain in one's skull ... seems to like to live in the delusion that we are the center of the universe! It continues to amaze me how humans like to define "intelligence" by human standards .... Divine Intelligence definitely saturates even the cosmos that we view with our central nervous system via our optic nerve. Ah ... miraculous is this Universe. As Einstein spoke either one sees everything as a miracle or no miracles and he chose to see a "Miraculous Universe" ... there is alot to be said for Einstein!

My curiosity is getting to me ... who is the person on Roadrunner from Lincoln that always visits my sites? Just leave a message or email me at bunik@yahoo.com. Thanks!! Linda

Have been busy working on my latest study site ... take a look:

My Gateway to Jewish Study

The process of self-discovery involves asking a series of questions, always probing deeper until the underlying truth emerges. Ask yourself 10 questions that you would ask an intimate friend. Then wait for answers. Don't worry, no one is going to poke fun at you.

1. What is the purpose of life?
2. What is my goal in life?
3. Why did I choose this career?
4. How do I spend my spare time?
5. What is my motivation for doing what I do?
6. What really makes me happy?
7. Am I as happy as I want to be?
8. Is it more important to be rich or to be happy?
9. What are my future plans? Why?
10. What are my secret dreams and ambitions?

Don't be surprised if the answers aren't immediate. This process can take many months. Stick with it and find out what makes you tick. The answers are hiding in there. After all, you have a fascinating partner.

Finally, the most important question to ask is:

"What am I living for?"

It sounds like a simple question, but many are embarrassed to ask it. A voice inside us says, "Nah, why ask such a basic question?" We're resistant because we know this requires a lot of difficult soul-searching. And when you thoroughly know yourself, then you have changed. You've changed your relationship with yourself and the world.

10 Most Important Things I've Learned So Far

This morning I made a list of the 10 most important things I’ve learned in life:

1. Choose Divine Authorities to lead your life, not human authorities

2. Love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, and always hopes, always preservers. I Corinthians 13:4-7

3. Childhood is such a brief time period and adolescence is the time a person should learn self-accountability and cease the childishness of shaming and blaming others for decisions you act upon.

4. Self-pity and anger is only an ocean you can drown within. I cannot make unhappy people happy and likewise other people cannot make me happy when I have chosen to wade around in self-pity and anger.

5. “To know your self” essentially means to identify the fear-stimuli that activates your own flight-fight mechanism.

6. Never forget real gratitude for air, water, food and shelter and recognize real needs from self-absorbed wants.

7. Family with their multiplicities of shortcomings will be the people that remain after friends and others come and go. There exists a mystical soul attachment to family members with deep soul lessons for all those involved.

8. All we really have is today, yesterday is but a memory and tomorrow is a fantasy. There is such wisdom is the Buddhist-like remembrance that by evening you may find yourself in a morgue and not live as a sleepwalker lost in either memories or fantasies and not remain conscious of the precious gift of now.

9. Our time and energy are our most precious gifts and how we choose to use them will determine our spiritual evolution in this particular lifetime.

10. Don’t wait until your Life-Review after physical death to experience remorse and loose the opportunity to exhibit real change of heart and glean the wisdom from past mistakes and wrong choices.

Tibetan Buddhism

'Buddhism has the characteristics of what would be expected in the cosmic religion for the future: It trancends a personal God, avoids dogma and theology; it covers both the natural and the spiritual, and it is based on a religious sense aspiring from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity.'

—Albert Einstein