Astrologist and all around positive dude Rob Brezsny came up with the Mirabilia Report. I think it’s a great idea, and every day lately I’ve been attempting to come up with at least one observation worthy of being reported as such. I suggest you give it a try too.

Here’s Rob’s report:

Mirabilia is a word that refers to events that inspire wonder, marvelous phenomena, small miracles; it’s from the Latin mirabilia, “marvels.” Here’s your mirabilia report for the coming week:

• The average river requires a million years to move a grain of sand 100 miles.
• Kind people are more likely than mean people to yawn when someone near them does.
• There are always so many fragments of spider legs floating in the air that you are constantly inhaling them wherever you go.
• Gregorian chants can cure dyslexia.
• Bob Hope donated half a million jokes to the Library of Congress.
• Bees perform a valuable service for the flowers from which they steal.
• The moon smells like exploded firecrackers.
• Physicists in Tennessee coaxed electric signals to travel through coaxial cable at four times the speed of light, even though the equipment they used was cheap stuff from Radio Shack.
• Revlon makes 177 different shades of lipstick.

(From the book, PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings. It’s available at Amazon or Barnes & Noble.)

“You can think of the groundlessness and openness of insecurity as a

chance that we’re given over and over to choose a fresh alternative.

Things happen to us all the time that open up the space. This

spaciousness, this wide?open, unbiased, unprejudiced space is

inexpressible and fundamentally good and sound. It’s like the sky.”- Pema Chodron, *Practicing Peace in Times of War*

A friend is going through a divorce and I sent that quote to her today. I believe that empathy and commiseration are serious tools for dealing with a broken heart and so I had been trying to describe to my friend a feeling I’ve had when everything has fallen apart and I am suddenly peeled like an onion and left out in the strong wind – my emotions utterly bare. I think Pema Chodron has found the right words for this sensation, and so I used hers.

My little sister was so excited about this recent Free Tibet protest that she and my mom jumped in the car and drove the five minutes it takes from their house to the Golden Gate bridge to show their support. They drove really slow across the bridge and hooted and hollared and honked their horns. Oddly, they were only two of a very few that were in support of the activists. Most people were angry that they were going to be late for opening day of the SF Giants. My thought about that is, let’s try a little large picture thinking people! I feel that the Tibetans need our help to preserve their very culture and way of life. The Dalai Lama has strong opinions about all of the protests of late. For some insight into his perspective, click here.

(Side thought: Do protests work? Are they effective? Would it have been a better use of resources for people like my mom and sis to donate to the Tibetan cause the gas and toll money they used to support the bridge protesters?)

Pro-Tibet activists scale Golden Gate Bridge

By Jim Christie

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Three pro-Tibet activists scaled the vertical cables of San Francisco’s famed Golden Gate Bridge and hung banners on Monday to protest the arrival of the Olympic torch in the city on Wednesday.

“This is a nonviolent global protest,” one of the three protesters, Laurel Sutherlin, 31, told KCBS radio by cell phone while suspended from the bridge.

“Unfortunately, in a non violent movement this is the only way we can get the word out.”

Wearing helmets and safety gloves, Sutherlin and two other experienced climbers hung the banners between three parallel red cables after a careful ascent on a sunny, cloudless day.

They remained on the cables for more than three hours before bridge workers cut the banners and they came down. Authorities quickly arrested Sutherlin and the other two climbers, Duane Martinez and Hannah Strange.

Mary Ziegenbein, an officer with the California Highway Patrol, said they and four others who assisted the climbers from the bridge would be charged with felony conspiracy.

“One World, One Dream: Free Tibet,” read one of two banners, protesting China’s recent crackdown on Tibet. A second sign read “Free Tibet 08.” Several smaller Tibetan flags fluttered in the wind.

“They are doing it at all the landmarks in the cities that are hosting the Olympic torch,” said Tenzing Dasang, a member of Students for a Free Tibet, an activist group leading the action.

For the rest of the article, click here.

What Is Free Tibet Campaign? Click here to find out.