Lucky "Billie" for the New Year from Mail Art Martha

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

So this is "Billiken" or "Billy",

who looks like our friendly Teddy Bear, too,

bringing much good luck to the New Year.

Martha sends a song:

Thank you, Martha! xxx

[Mail Art Martha]

Jan, Billy is very happy to be compared to a Zen master and says thanks.

[Jan Hodgman]

Another approach to the "Do not try to be Perfect...just muddle through" edict comes from Dzogchen, a form of (usually) Tibetan Buddhism:   "Already perfect." That's my motto.

[Mail Art Martha]

Yes sometimes I found it difficult to follow my own advice. Oops! Billy's advice...

Thank you for reminding me, Katerina.

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

"Do not try to be Perfect...

just muddle through" :-)

[Mail Art Martha]

I was doing less ( missing the yoga and meditation ) and yet ending my day at 9.30 in the evening, waking up early 5 or 6 worrying about what I had to do and feeling exhausted all the time. Now it is better, much better. I hope I can keep it up, I could not do it if my husband did not do his share, cooking the morning meal and the shopping. He always have. Of course there will be days in which I will go out or do something else or reschedule to do something else. I will tell you if it works, ha ha!

[Toni Hanner -- tonipoet]

Martha, your schedule sounds amazingly ambitious to me!

[Mail Art Martha]

Thank you for displaying the card in your blog, how do you get the time to do so much? I have great problems with Time, I have organized myself this year, general computer and active things in the morning, a rest of 20 minutes after lunch, which John cooks, and then creative stuff and writing. I am in chapter 7 of the new  novel. Tea at five and then yoga and meditation before I prepare the evening meal. Then reading or TV, when I fall asleep on the sofa I crawl to bed. I managed to keep it up this week, we will see if I can make it stick. I had to cut down lots of my Mail Art activities, which pains me. I hope that if this system works I may be able to do more in the future.  

[Mail Art Martha]

I don't think they are related. Giles is very peculiar, I have never seen another quite as funny. His nose is hairy, very odd. 

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

Not exactly like the Teddy Bear on your card,

but I had a few of these ArGOODaki from a burger place here in Greece.

Now they have been packaged up and donated to the children in the refugees camps.

[Mail Art Martha]

Thank you Katerina; I made a mistake the poem was written in 1896 not 1986, sorry.

Did I understand that you have a Teddy Bear similar to Giles? is it make Ross? I am very interested because I could never find any history for him.