tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11526317040930934612024-03-18T14:47:10.811-06:00the beauty we love Dean Kellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11391614363610258561noreply@blogger.comBlogger3207125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1152631704093093461.post-754906724777962542024-03-18T08:59:00.002-06:002024-03-18T08:59:27.816-06:00prayer happens<div style="text-align: center;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="color: #999999;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw59CIQQYiqGD46m6NuJtEnud-P2KP7wq3LRFtSgJ899px2ZorYXWUBXItzFDBKjO4VQEthFy8CeLHo-Iix1_OXBe32QOZwNOyvbstrdT576_hkrXzzVLfl0KwM15hWuim7vWTlBuh6EGV8hBFLQikRAskx8jseHjyA9mK0PNbcGemf0nfDKsU6qp9QptG/s660/Debra-Nangala-McDonald-DNMG0007.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="660" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw59CIQQYiqGD46m6NuJtEnud-P2KP7wq3LRFtSgJ899px2ZorYXWUBXItzFDBKjO4VQEthFy8CeLHo-Iix1_OXBe32QOZwNOyvbstrdT576_hkrXzzVLfl0KwM15hWuim7vWTlBuh6EGV8hBFLQikRAskx8jseHjyA9mK0PNbcGemf0nfDKsU6qp9QptG/w640-h426/Debra-Nangala-McDonald-DNMG0007.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Prayer is something that happens to you (Romans 8:26-27), </div><div style="text-align: center;">much more than anything you privately do.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"> It is an allowing of the Big Self </div><div style="text-align: center;">more than an assertion of the small self.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"> Eventually you will find yourself preferring to say,</div><div style="text-align: center;"> “Prayer happened, and I was there”</div><div style="text-align: center;"> more than “I prayed today.” </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">All you know is that you are being led, </div><div style="text-align: center;">being guided, being loved, being used,</div><div style="text-align: center;"> being prayed through—</div><div style="text-align: center;">and you are no longer in the driver’s seat.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">God stops being an object of attention</div><div style="text-align: center;"> like any other object in the world,</div><div style="text-align: center;"> and becomes at some level your own “I am.” </div><div style="text-align: center;">You start knowing through,</div><div style="text-align: center;"> with, and in Somebody Else.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Your little “I Am” becomes “We Are.”</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Please trust me on this. </div><div style="text-align: center;">It might be the most important thing I could tell you.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">~ Richard Rohr</div><div style="text-align: center;">from<i> The Naked Now</i></div></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">art by Debra Nangala McDonald</span></div><span style="color: #999999;"><div style="text-align: center;">with thanks to<i> love is a place</i></div></span><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl8bEAX1QfmgN9Bvvykg562xfuEEszK6O_1hg9YSh64z2a-a0XxTRKXnWN76R5VTVh7sU50b7M764_klCvzRn9kp1AHEcjNWqpTiyFaDhNY0MQzSipWOZMgMRQDai5mioZ9umdfAQzAiD84FUjDgZrT3YhMeNCnODweW7GIxvUorP6ne9OHyp9QdnVIQC9/s1994/bugs%208311913.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1418" data-original-width="1994" height="456" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl8bEAX1QfmgN9Bvvykg562xfuEEszK6O_1hg9YSh64z2a-a0XxTRKXnWN76R5VTVh7sU50b7M764_klCvzRn9kp1AHEcjNWqpTiyFaDhNY0MQzSipWOZMgMRQDai5mioZ9umdfAQzAiD84FUjDgZrT3YhMeNCnODweW7GIxvUorP6ne9OHyp9QdnVIQC9/w640-h456/bugs%208311913.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #999999;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">When we look at things in the light of Tao,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Nothing is best, nothing is worst.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Each thing, seen in its own light,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Stands out in its own way.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">It can seem to be "better"</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Than what is compared with it</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">On its own terms.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">But seen in terms of the whole,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">No one thing stands out as "better."</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">If you measure differences,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">What is greater than something else is "great,"</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Therefore there is nothing that is not "great";</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">What is smaller than something else is "small,"</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Therefore there is nothing that is not "small,"</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">So the whole cosmos is a grain of rice,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">And the tip of a hair</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Is as big as a mountain -</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Such is the relative view.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">You can break down walls with battering rams,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">But you cannot stop holes with them.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">All things have different uses.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Fine horses can travel a hundred miles a day,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">But they cannot catch mice</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Like terriers or weasels:</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">All creatures have gifts of their own.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">The white horned owl can catch fleas at midnight</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">And distinguish the tip of a hair,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">But in bright day it stares, helpless,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">And cannot even see a mountain.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">All things have varying capacities.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Consequently: he who wants to have right without wrong,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Order without disorder,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Does not understand the principles</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Of heaven and earth.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">He does not know how</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Things hang together.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Can a man cling only to heaven</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">And know nothing of earth?</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">They are correlative: to know one</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Is to know the other.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">To refuse one</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Is to refuse both.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Can a man cling to the positive</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Without any negative</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">In contrast to which it is seen</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">To be positive?</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">If he claims to do so </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">He is a rogue or a madman.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Thrones pass</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">From dynasty to dynasty,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Now in this way, now in that.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">He who forces his way to power</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Against the grain</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">I called tyrant and usurper.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">He who moves with the stream of events</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Is called a wise statesman.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Kui, the one-legged dragon,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Is jealous of the centipede.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">The centipede is jealous of the snake.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">The snake is jealous of the wind.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">The wind is jealous of the eye.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">The eye is jealous of the mind.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Kui said to the centipede:</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">"I manage my one leg with difficulty:</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">How can you manage a hundred?"</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">The centipede replied:</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">"I do not manage them.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">They land all over the place</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Like drops of spit."</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">The centipede said to the snake:</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">"With all my feet, I cannot move as fast</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">As you do with no feet at all.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">How is this done?"</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">The snake replied:</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">"I have a natural glide</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">That can't be changed. What do I need</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">With feet?"</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">The snake spoke to the wind:</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">"I ripple my backbone and move along</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">In a bodily way. You, without bones,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Without muscles, without method,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Blow from the North Sea to the Southern Ocean.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">How do you get there</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">With nothing?'</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">The wind replied:</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">"True, I rise up in the North Sea</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">And take myself without obstacle to the Southern Ocean.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">But every eye that remarks me,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Every wing that uses me,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Is superior to me, even though </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">I can uproot the biggest trees, or overturn</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Big buildings.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">The true conqueror is he</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Who is not conquered</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">By the multitude of the small.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">The mind is this conqueror -</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">But only the mind</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;"> Of a wise man."</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">~ Chuang Tzu</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">translation by Thomas Merton</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">The sounds of engines leave the air.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">The Sunday morning silence comes</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">at last. At last I know the presence</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">of the world made without hands,</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">the creatures that have come to be </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">out of their absence. Calls</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">of flicker and jay fill the clear</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">air. Titmice and chickadees feed</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">among the green and the dying leaves.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Gratitude for the gifts of all the living </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">and the unliving, gratitude which is</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">the greatest gift, quietest of all,</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">passes to me through the trees.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">~ Wendell Berry</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">from <i>Leavings</i></span></div>
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</script></div>Dean Kellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11391614363610258561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1152631704093093461.post-2143716760186118372024-03-17T13:37:00.006-06:002024-03-17T13:52:14.907-06:00Alex & Me <div style="text-align: center;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="363" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rrX1nrvPbLY" width="513" youtube-src-id="rrX1nrvPbLY"></iframe></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="color: #999999;"><div style="text-align: center;">A new study shows the African grey can perform some cognitive tasks</div><div style="text-align: center;"> at levels beyond that of 5-year-old humans. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The results not only suggest that humans aren’t the only species </div><div style="text-align: center;">capable of making complex inferences, but also point to flaws</div><div style="text-align: center;"> in a widely used test of animal intelligence. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The study is described in a November paper published online in Behaviour.</div></span><div><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwdgnVu2ekJw3HqU2rfaehFpD26NWhegTk46hXCzNZo6gjcpkqYeqtmc8HZudlmHZI6Uwg8nP__VCYnSZGZYgAncRmgw7IawGNibjN7JHi9VJSvHUc4fdxGGJzbbGBHBJRz6T4GkDRwb-8hRMUMBKSPr-0FN0rBynVfGChRGPvur6Tr20pmT2D_2FwDZwu/s1200/how-long-do-african-greys-live.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="1200" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwdgnVu2ekJw3HqU2rfaehFpD26NWhegTk46hXCzNZo6gjcpkqYeqtmc8HZudlmHZI6Uwg8nP__VCYnSZGZYgAncRmgw7IawGNibjN7JHi9VJSvHUc4fdxGGJzbbGBHBJRz6T4GkDRwb-8hRMUMBKSPr-0FN0rBynVfGChRGPvur6Tr20pmT2D_2FwDZwu/w640-h336/how-long-do-african-greys-live.webp" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">African Grey Parrots</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9S0euMp_fGzLhUJbH0IKoVnCpjfjYH6J6IP9iCMNQZSn44MURYxMePEs5W-uDD2rUze0rA4kyFwboNYs5qK-gZ2_hbS9-HI-DZZIoerCISuw-O_oXREIFg9xwCNVf3a4zYT64FdPYKt2lh-RJ29PZufd-G9FS6usxSkoOumNTMYcySvLiLQMOQCKBM60e/s900/704e1b09bb165c06e913e5616310b02d.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="900" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9S0euMp_fGzLhUJbH0IKoVnCpjfjYH6J6IP9iCMNQZSn44MURYxMePEs5W-uDD2rUze0rA4kyFwboNYs5qK-gZ2_hbS9-HI-DZZIoerCISuw-O_oXREIFg9xwCNVf3a4zYT64FdPYKt2lh-RJ29PZufd-G9FS6usxSkoOumNTMYcySvLiLQMOQCKBM60e/w640-h426/704e1b09bb165c06e913e5616310b02d.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="color: #999999;"><div style="text-align: center;">Irene Maxine Pepperberg is an American scientist </div><div style="text-align: center;">noted for her studies in animal cognition,</div><div style="text-align: center;"> particularly in relation to parrots. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">She has been a professor, researcher and/or lecturer at multiple universities,</div><div style="text-align: center;"> and she is currently an Adjunct Research Professor at Boston University.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Movies: Life with Alex</div><div style="text-align: center;">Education: Harvard University (1976), Massachusetts Institute of Technology</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script>
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<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="532" data-original-width="800" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9H8MmL4gL4NLXXMs0PBGEfzB17m4s6yO__BKs9cJ_Go2Il1AshT24_I0Z7-MRh3U4E2O4O8V7pBCcp-0NUpx6Wi2vqq4DPMfuuTZUEY4G4nDS7o_rD0O1tmtDr0fEpb8lOmedTAUH6XzO/w640-h426/chained-door-double-wooden-closed-62413632.jpg" width="640" /></div><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">In Ireland there are many stories of haunted houses. </span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">There may be a room in which one senses a presence </span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">or hears footsteps or a strange voice. Such haunted places </span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">remain uninhabited. People are afraid to go there. </span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> The place is forsaken and left to deepen ever further </span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">into the shadow of itself. </span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> </span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">The way you think about your life can turn your soul into a haunted room. </span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> You are afraid to risk going in there anymore. Your fantasy</span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> peoples this room of the heart with sad presences, </span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> which ultimately become disturbing and sinister. </span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> </span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> The haunted room in the mind installs lonesomeness at the heart of your life.</span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> It would be devastating in the autumn of your life to look back</span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> and recognize that you had created a series of haunted rooms</span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> in your heart. </span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> </span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Fear and negativity are immense forces,</span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> which constantly tussle with us. They long to turn the mansions</span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> of the soul into a totally haunted house. These are the living conditions</span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> for which fear and negativity long, and in which they thrive. </span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> </span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> We were sent here to live life to the full. When you manage to be generous</span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> in your passion and vulnerability, life always comes to bless you.</span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> Had you but the courage to acknowledge the haunted inner room,</span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> turn the key, and enter, you would encounter nothing strange or sinister there. </span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> </span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> You would meet some vital self of yours that you had banished </span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">during a time of pain or difficulty. Sometimes, when life squeezes you</span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> into lonely crevices, you may have to decide between survival or breaking apart.</span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> At such times, you can be harsh with yourself and settle to be someone</span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> other than who you really long to be. At such a time, </span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">you can do nothing else; you have to survive. </span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> </span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> But your soul always remains faithful to your longing</span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> to become who you really are. The banished self from an earlier </span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">time of life remains within you waiting to be released and integrated. </span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> The soul has its own logic of loyalty and concealment.</span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> </span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> Ironically, it is usually in its most awkward rooms that the special blessings </span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">and healing are locked away. </span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> </span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> Your thinking can also freeze and falsify</span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> the flow of your life’s continuity to make you a prisoner</span></div><div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> of routine and judgement.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">~ John O’Donohue, </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">from <i>'Eternal Echoes</i></span></div>
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<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8s2E9pvYsSVFm4LaLFFsQXZBz_Iy25EUkTkBPnlxE8qbuD4mHfRLWN7YxGaoaStwuMkipCTMzrl83XL20ubU08uE-yN7AES219PQ9skKt-3HtMmGeyzXrv-AS8j_szXmuuns0ZLFxqceyc7LX3cfsxwCD0nDCHBx2LGq8FzNAAuCTYs-hCSjSMBSCGKCc/s2048/sbcreativeco-motq-antiquitiesrevealed-ancientrome-2021-12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8s2E9pvYsSVFm4LaLFFsQXZBz_Iy25EUkTkBPnlxE8qbuD4mHfRLWN7YxGaoaStwuMkipCTMzrl83XL20ubU08uE-yN7AES219PQ9skKt-3HtMmGeyzXrv-AS8j_szXmuuns0ZLFxqceyc7LX3cfsxwCD0nDCHBx2LGq8FzNAAuCTYs-hCSjSMBSCGKCc/w640-h426/sbcreativeco-motq-antiquitiesrevealed-ancientrome-2021-12.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
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<span style="color: #999999;"><br />I imagine one of the reasons</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;"> people cling to their hates so stubbornly<br /> is because they sense, once hate is gone, </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999;">they will be forced to deal with pain. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span>
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<span style="color: #999999;">Love takes off the masks</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;"> that we fear we cannot live without </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999;">and know we cannot live within. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #999999;">I use the word “love”</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;"> here not merely in the personal sense</span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999;"> but as a state of being,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;"> or a state of grace –</span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999;"><br /> ~ James Baldwin</span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999;">from </span><i><span style="color: #999999;">The Fire Next Time</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">art by Jumbo Prior </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">from the Museum of Tropical Queensland</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #999999;"> </span> </i></div>
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</script></div>Dean Kellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11391614363610258561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1152631704093093461.post-52973560624124914092024-03-15T09:42:00.001-06:002024-03-15T09:44:34.610-06:00some friends in the sea<div style="text-align: center;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi28caCxOg2ThtnExtBIvZ635Uj4sGv39yXc5kVgtmEjtMsIMzh59uX-4pgpNVy02t76P0-YSaOwLl3A3ylnvQnsAr8clug_HGCVarx9CrZdWnfwoftdQNxNMyHWK8dLjg9lSS747un5SQkXum4WRCmFKWKO8a9Ybd0YkJXIZuiJIUivJw8RAWIxix37_HO/s1160/beluga-whale-at-surface-full-width.jpg.thumb.1160.1160.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="1160" height="332" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi28caCxOg2ThtnExtBIvZ635Uj4sGv39yXc5kVgtmEjtMsIMzh59uX-4pgpNVy02t76P0-YSaOwLl3A3ylnvQnsAr8clug_HGCVarx9CrZdWnfwoftdQNxNMyHWK8dLjg9lSS747un5SQkXum4WRCmFKWKO8a9Ybd0YkJXIZuiJIUivJw8RAWIxix37_HO/w640-h332/beluga-whale-at-surface-full-width.jpg.thumb.1160.1160.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="color: #999999;"><div style="text-align: center;">A white whale called NOC began, spontaneously, to make unusual sounds. </div><div style="text-align: center;">We interpreted the whale’s vocalizations as an attempt to mimic humans. </div><div style="text-align: center;">Whale vocalizations often sounded as if two people were conversing</div><div style="text-align: center;"> in the distance just out of range for our understanding. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">These ‘conversations’ were heard several times before the whale was identified</div><div style="text-align: center;"> as the source. The whale lived among a group of dolphins and socialized</div><div style="text-align: center;"> with two female white whales. The whale was exposed to speech </div><div style="text-align: center;">not only from humans at the surface — it was present at times when divers</div><div style="text-align: center;"> used surface-to-diver communication equipment. The whale was recognized</div><div style="text-align: center;"> as the source of the speech-like sounds when a diver surfaced outside</div><div style="text-align: center;"> this whale’s enclosure and asked “Who told me to get out?” </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Our observations led us to conclude the “out” which was repeated </div><div style="text-align: center;">several times came from NOC.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">As soon as NOC was identified as the source of these sounds, </div><div style="text-align: center;">we recorded his speech-like episodes both in air and underwater.</div><div style="text-align: center;"> Recordings revealed an amplitude rhythm similar to human speech.</div><div style="text-align: center;"> Although there was variation, vocal bursts averaged about three per second .</div><div style="text-align: center;"> The rhythm of vocal bursts also reminded us of human speech.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxlzvPqL1anIlCy0AAYlM8zRaD5IQehootxz8zzvPQ-xOvzEa8qsjLLr5kPBI8YbsI0_GszPvRMvUh3tDtoKw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">~ from <i>Current Biology Vol 22 No 20</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Belugas are well adapted to life in northern waters. </i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>They have a thick skin and a deep layer of blubber to keep them warm</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i> and act as an energy store. This can account for 40% of their weight.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Their stark white colouring also helps camouflage them against the ice.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i> Although beluga whales are predators, feeding on fish, crustaceans,</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i> and molluscs, they are also hunted by polar bears and orcas.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Belugas lack the dorsal fin that stands up from the back of many whales –</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i> think of orcas' tall, upright fin. These fins help to keep whales upright</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i> while swimming. But for belugas, which swim close under ice, </i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>a dorsal fin might have been more of a hindrance. Instead, a dorsal ridge</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i> down their spine and a rotund body may help them to move through</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i> the water more easily. Lacking a dorsal fin may also help them keep warm,</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i> as fins have a large surface areas that can lose heat fast.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>When looking at belugas you can't miss their bulbous heads.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i> The large fatty sack between their blowhole and upper jaw is known as a melon.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i> It helps them focus and project sound, making belugas especially good</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i> at echolocation - using sound to detect prey and communicate.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script>
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<span style="color: #999999;">I am the wind which breathes upon the sea</span><span style="color: #999999;">,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999;">I am the wave of the ocean,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999;">I am the murmur of the billows,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999;">I am the ox of the seven combats,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999;">I am the vulture upon the rocks,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999;">I am a beam of the sun,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999;">I am the fairest of plants,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999;">I am the wild boar in valour,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999;">I am the salmon in the water,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999;">I am a lake in the plain,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999;">I am a world of knowledge,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999;">I am the point of the lance of battle,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999;">I am the God who created the fire in the head.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999;">Who is it who throws light into the meeting on the mountain? </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999;">Who announces the ages of the moon?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999;">Who teaches the place where couches the sun?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999;">(if not I)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999;">~ Amairgen </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999;">(chief poet of the Milesians,)</span></div><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #999999;">from Anam Cara, by John O'Donohue</span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999;"><div style="text-align: center;">This poem is ascribed to Amergin,</div><div style="text-align: center;"> a Milesian prince or druid who settled in Ireland</div><div style="text-align: center;"> hundreds of years before Christ </div><div style="text-align: center;">and is from the Leabhar Gabhala, </div><div style="text-align: center;">or Book of Invasions.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">"The three short pieces of verse ascribed to Amergin are certainly very ancient</div><div style="text-align: center;"> and very strange. But as the whole story of the Milesian Invasion</div><div style="text-align: center;"> is wrapped in mystery and is quite possibly a rationalized account</div><div style="text-align: center;"> of early Irish mythology no faith can be placed in the alleged date</div><div style="text-align: center;"> or genuineness of Amergin's verses. They are of interest, because</div><div style="text-align: center;"> as Irish tradition has them as being the first verses made in Ireland, </div><div style="text-align: center;">so it may very well be they actually do present the oldest surviving</div><div style="text-align: center;"> lines of any vernacular tongue in Europe except Greece."</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"> by Douglas Hyde, <i>The Story of Early Gaelic Literature</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"> © by owner. provided at no charge for educational purposes</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></span>
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<span style="color: #999999;"><br /><br /><br />Learn by little the desire for all things<br />which perhaps is not desire at all<br />but undying love which perhaps<br />is not love at all but gratitude<br />for the being of all things which<br />perhaps is not gratitude at all<br />but the maker's joy in what is made,<br />the joy in which we come to rest.<br /><br /><br /><br />~ Wendell Berry<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
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</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hCO3aWVLpZI/Tfuto4wQKkI/AAAAAAAACLs/zqqY9mvc860/s1600/fullmoon.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="510" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hCO3aWVLpZI/Tfuto4wQKkI/AAAAAAAACLs/zqqY9mvc860/s640/fullmoon.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Young</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">We had not enough respect for the changing moon.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Then the days seemed to pass only to return again.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Now</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Having learned by loss that men’s days part from them forever,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">We eat and drink together beneath the full moon</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Acknowledging and celebrating the power that bereft us</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">And yet sheds over the earth a light that is beautiful.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">~ Wendell Berry</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">after the Painting and Poem by Shen Chou</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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</script></div>Dean Kellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11391614363610258561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1152631704093093461.post-79935005638531769222024-03-13T09:29:00.007-06:002024-03-13T13:07:33.380-06:00about the relationship of consciousness to the mind<div style="text-align: center;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiV3-c9ADUHtD7ttjVNsZWS869XvN8zy795X8NMTyH_jdWyPGbIqmDMMF0OSU6StgBFQFZnhyyB4ZL0ujlP-hsL3YkRQmTWgZ6IP9rZoDgC6vQLOAGOolk4NFXUY32T2bzCgJF17nooSuzD7HdMHndjSOBCF9KuPfGJ2zos_pn7bjiHcfELXCI06o9qBbu/s2933/conceptual-watercolor-artwork-for-meditation-and-a-mindful-lifestyle-that-promotes-spiritual-awareness-mental-and-emotional-well-being-self-care-and-good-habits-ai-generated-photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1960" data-original-width="2933" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiV3-c9ADUHtD7ttjVNsZWS869XvN8zy795X8NMTyH_jdWyPGbIqmDMMF0OSU6StgBFQFZnhyyB4ZL0ujlP-hsL3YkRQmTWgZ6IP9rZoDgC6vQLOAGOolk4NFXUY32T2bzCgJF17nooSuzD7HdMHndjSOBCF9KuPfGJ2zos_pn7bjiHcfELXCI06o9qBbu/w640-h428/conceptual-watercolor-artwork-for-meditation-and-a-mindful-lifestyle-that-promotes-spiritual-awareness-mental-and-emotional-well-being-self-care-and-good-habits-ai-generated-photo.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="color: #999999;"><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Consciousness is aware of the mind: </div><div style="text-align: center;">The activities of the mind are always known by consciousness.</div><div style="text-align: center;">That mind is the <i>object of knowledge and perception</i> by the pure consciousness. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Mind appears to have its own life solely because </div><div style="text-align: center;">of the pure consciousnes which permeates it. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The activities of the mind are always known by the pure consciousness,</div><div style="text-align: center;"> because that consciousness is superior to, </div><div style="text-align: center;">support of, and master over the mind.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Mind is not self illuming because it is made of stuff</div><div style="text-align: center;"> (thoughts, emotions, memories etc.)</div><div style="text-align: center;">just like the photos are made of ink.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Mind is not, in itself, consciousness.</div><div style="text-align: center;">Rather, consciousness operates through the mind.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">When the consciousness operates through the mind, </div><div style="text-align: center;">it is also witness of the mind.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">When consciousness is witnessing the mind, </div><div style="text-align: center;">the mind is the object being witnessed. </div><div style="text-align: center;">This is a key point here, so that this is not mere philosophy, </div><div style="text-align: center;">but a practical part of the subtlest meditation processes. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">At some point, the mind itself is seen as an object of observation</div><div style="text-align: center;"> to be set aside with non-attachment, </div><div style="text-align: center;">just like the many surface level thought patterns</div><div style="text-align: center;"> of daily life are set aside in other stages of meditation.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"> Now, the instrument of thinking itself </div><div style="text-align: center;">is being seen and transcended.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">~ summerized from the</div><div style="text-align: center;"> <i>Yoga Sutras of Patanjali</i> </div><div style="text-align: center;">as presented by</div><div style="text-align: center;">Swami Jnaneshvara Bharati</div><div style="text-align: center;">art genereated by AI</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></span><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script>
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</script></div>Dean Kellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11391614363610258561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1152631704093093461.post-5918050140681789902024-03-11T08:46:00.000-06:002024-03-11T08:46:15.655-06:00elders are bridges<div style="text-align: center;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx7JBxn8r6-NSBVUwAUiOxD1mmyEsgwCAP5tMHWySyjDKlfza6lN_nW2a7o1UB9QPrgwus3KDsMiPfWjmAOua570ekWkQ-Hy6Jjq64jiazVnhSEvB2MgrjQY4QDVWhb_wbKzPg8CZOErVIHa6amMxmj2aVL8QSBVEnkiMB0WkuW3RfxZ6Y9g7mLHigYPEp/s239/download.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="211" data-original-width="239" height="353" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx7JBxn8r6-NSBVUwAUiOxD1mmyEsgwCAP5tMHWySyjDKlfza6lN_nW2a7o1UB9QPrgwus3KDsMiPfWjmAOua570ekWkQ-Hy6Jjq64jiazVnhSEvB2MgrjQY4QDVWhb_wbKzPg8CZOErVIHa6amMxmj2aVL8QSBVEnkiMB0WkuW3RfxZ6Y9g7mLHigYPEp/w400-h353/download.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="color: #999999;"><div style="text-align: center;">In the old wisdom traditions, elders act as a living bridge between the visible, </div><div style="text-align: center;">measurable world and the mostly unseen realms of spirit and soul. </div><div style="text-align: center;">Although more in touch with timeless things, elders would not be out of touch</div><div style="text-align: center;"> with the conflicts and troubles of daily life. In times of great trouble,</div><div style="text-align: center;"> the elders could be seen to have one foot firmly on the ground of survival,</div><div style="text-align: center;"> and the other in the realm of great imagination.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">As the modern world grows increasingly divided, the archetype </div><div style="text-align: center;">of the elder becomes important as a source for imagining ways to bridge</div><div style="text-align: center;"> between unlike energies as well as opposing forces. No matter a person’s</div><div style="text-align: center;"> literal age, each soul is truly ancient; thus each person has the potential</div><div style="text-align: center;"> of awakening to the presence of the “inner elder” </div><div style="text-align: center;">or the sage within the heart.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">In a time when it has become common for the callings of youth</div><div style="text-align: center;"> to go unheard, the idea of trying to awaken the inner elder might seem,</div><div style="text-align: center;"> not just odd, but truly weird. Then again, the calling that comes to elders </div><div style="text-align: center;">has always involved the strange adventure of finding a greater sense of life </div><div style="text-align: center;">while facing the nearness of death. The word weird was originally spelled</div><div style="text-align: center;"> “wyrd” and had a primary sense of having a foot in each world</div><div style="text-align: center;"> and having a greater capacity to hold the tension</div><div style="text-align: center;"> of all the opposites together.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">As used to be well known, old age alone cannot make the elder. </div><div style="text-align: center;">For growing older can lead to a return to infantile attitudes </div><div style="text-align: center;">and exaggerated feelings of neediness and fear. </div><div style="text-align: center;">When it comes to waking the elder the qualities most needed involve </div><div style="text-align: center;">more than physical change. There is something metaphysical involved, </div><div style="text-align: center;">something transcendent and spiritual that is required. Collectively,</div><div style="text-align: center;"> we fail to perceive aging's meaning as well as its hidden beauty </div><div style="text-align: center;">if we look only through the lens of physiology.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Sadly, modern societies seem to produce people who grow older</div><div style="text-align: center;"> and older, but do not become wiser with age. There seems to be</div><div style="text-align: center;"> a collective vacating of the later stages of life when it comes to living</div><div style="text-align: center;"> with meaning and purpose and serving something beyond oneself.</div><div style="text-align: center;"> Due to improved diets, medical and technological advances, many people</div><div style="text-align: center;"> live to a ripe old age. Yet, few seem to ripen into elders, or blossom into wisdom</div><div style="text-align: center;"> and most seem unable to harvest knowledge from life experience</div><div style="text-align: center;"> in order to pass it on to those coming along.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Typically, we put more effort into helping people reach old age </div><div style="text-align: center;">than helping them learn what to do with it. As an old saying warns, </div><div style="text-align: center;">“we grow gray in our spirit long before we grow gray in our hair.”</div><div style="text-align: center;"> The problem is not simply aging, but more the abandonment </div><div style="text-align: center;">of a person's unique character and core calling that dooms the later years</div><div style="text-align: center;"> to a growing sense of loss, a fall into pools of nostalgia</div><div style="text-align: center;"> or a narrow attempt to hold onto material things.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Playing the role of elder and seer, William Blake advised that: </div><div style="text-align: center;">"Wisdom combines insight with experience, and vision with maturity.</div><div style="text-align: center;"> If maturity expands vision, it will lead to wisdom. If not, maturity </div><div style="text-align: center;">becomes degeneration." Either a person wises up to who they are </div><div style="text-align: center;">at the core of their life or else they tend to slip into increasingly narrow</div><div style="text-align: center;"> ways of thinking and evermore egocentric patterns as they age.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Those who do not become as elders simply become the “olders” </div><div style="text-align: center;">who tend to contribute to the divisions in society, whereas the elders</div><div style="text-align: center;"> would foster unity above self-interest and harmony over conflicts. </div><div style="text-align: center;">As long as aging is considered a disease waiting for a cure, as many</div><div style="text-align: center;"> people also consider adolescence, the true value and purpose </div><div style="text-align: center;">of growing older will become more lost.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The elders are those who have found ways to accept the hand</div><div style="text-align: center;"> that fate has dealt to them. By virtue of that, they also find the paths</div><div style="text-align: center;"> of genuine meaning and purpose that make life truly rich </div><div style="text-align: center;">and make death the middle of a long life. It is the elder within us</div><div style="text-align: center;"> that understands that we must </div><div style="text-align: center;">“die before we die” in order to truly live.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">It is our mutual fate to live in a time of great uncertainty </div><div style="text-align: center;">and worldwide upheaval. Increasingly, it seems that we are</div><div style="text-align: center;"> in the exact danger of not having enough wisdom to find our way</div><div style="text-align: center;"> through all the great crises that trouble both nature and human cultures.</div><div style="text-align: center;"> Yet, during times of chaos and change there can be</div><div style="text-align: center;"> an acceleration of calling and </div><div style="text-align: center;">an awakening of the human spirit.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">On one hand, young people are called to seek paths of meaning </div><div style="text-align: center;">and purpose over more common career paths. On the other hand,</div><div style="text-align: center;"> the advent of people living longer and longer can be seen </div><div style="text-align: center;">as nature itself trying to create an awakening of elders that can help</div><div style="text-align: center;"> us all respond more meaningfully to the many crises</div><div style="text-align: center;"> that now plague the entire planet.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Being connected to the sage in the heart, elders become instinctive</div><div style="text-align: center;"> humanitarians who can embody wisdom and </div><div style="text-align: center;">serve the highest ideals of humanity.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>“In mythic tales, the elders act as bridges </i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>that help young people find their way in the world. </i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>They also serve to bridge meaningful traditions of the past </i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>with viable visions of the future</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i> trying to become conscious.”</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Because of their willingness to face death and be truly wyrd, </div><div style="text-align: center;">the elders become the advocates of life and thus the natural allies </div><div style="text-align: center;">of the young as well as the supporters of meaningful changes </div><div style="text-align: center;">that can help realign culture with nature. Whether we are talking </div><div style="text-align: center;">about older people becoming elders, or referring to the inner sage</div><div style="text-align: center;"> in each person’s heart, it is important to know that</div><div style="text-align: center;"> genuine elders are not easily daunted.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Having survived their own troubles, elders are not shocked </div><div style="text-align: center;">or overwhelmed by the crises and conflicts that exist in the world.</div><div style="text-align: center;"> Having repeatedly seen how things fall apart, elders have also witnessed</div><div style="text-align: center;"> the uncanny ways in which both nature and culture can find roots of renewal. </div><div style="text-align: center;">In the darkest times, the archetypal energy of the elders tries to awaken</div><div style="text-align: center;"> and help us find both ways to survive and ways to truly transform our lives.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">~ Michael Meade</div><div style="text-align: center;">with thanks to <i>Mystic Meandering</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span style="color: #7f7f7f;">Somewhere between seeing and speaking, somewhere<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span style="color: #7f7f7f;">Between our soiled and greasy currency of words<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span style="color: #7f7f7f;">And the first star, the great moths fluttering<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span style="color: #7f7f7f;">About the ghosts of flowers,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span style="color: #7f7f7f;">Lies the clear place where I, no longer I,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span style="color: #7f7f7f;">Nevertheless remember<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span style="color: #7f7f7f;">Love’s nightlong wisdom of the other shore…<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7f7f7f;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span style="color: #7f7f7f;"> I no longer I,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span style="color: #7f7f7f;">In this clear place between my thought and silence<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span style="color: #7f7f7f;">See all I had and lost, anguish and joys,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span style="color: #7f7f7f;">Glowing like gentians in the Alpine grass,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span style="color: #7f7f7f;">Blue, unpossessed and open.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span style="color: #7f7f7f;">~ Aldous Huxley</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span style="color: #7f7f7f;">from<i> Island</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</script></div>Dean Kellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11391614363610258561noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1152631704093093461.post-3357501082199014342024-03-10T13:51:00.000-06:002024-03-10T13:51:48.420-06:00Matins<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_mL8gO_5xTRs/TNbyowH2kKI/AAAAAAAABjQ/ho7LXPPtsy0/s1600/sunrise1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/_mL8gO_5xTRs/TNbyowH2kKI/AAAAAAAABjQ/ho7LXPPtsy0/s640/sunrise1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">1</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Somewhere, out at the edges, the night</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Is turning and the waves of darkness</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Begin to brighten on the shore of dawn</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">The heavy dark falls back to earth</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">And the freed air goes wild with light,</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">The heart fills with fresh, bright breath</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">And thoughts stir to give birth to color.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">2</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">I arise today</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">In the name of Silence</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Womb of the Word,</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">In the name of Stillness</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Home of Belonging,</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">In the name of the Solitude</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Of the Soul and the Earth.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">I arise today</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Blessed by all things,</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Wings of breath,</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Delight of eyes,</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Wonder of whisper,</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Intimacy of touch,</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Eternity of soul,</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Urgency of thought,</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Miracle of health,</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Embrace of God.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">May I live this day</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Compassionate of heart,</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Clear of word,</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Gracious in awareness,</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Courageous in thought,</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Generous in love.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">~ John O'Donohue</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">from <i>To Bless the Space Between Us</i></span></div>
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</script></div>Dean Kellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11391614363610258561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1152631704093093461.post-87041510121869821752024-03-10T11:51:00.006-06:002024-03-10T13:26:50.629-06:00a passage<div style="text-align: center;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcvYOQsVnhTr2aN4KHJwYjen6aNeVax_CT7XVlM1U7oVuZPKrXhfRM72Vy-avDcpxdkO7OX4KDxCP-VnmBVHMauA1i70nvFQWh2v1387TtsaQr-J3dFqIpfqyLY1utLky2wzAaSHvQxHVDF834vUqGhCl5EwGC1jphD-t4DQT4Iglj-aq57oT-4TNJ-tW7/s1280/maxresdefault.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcvYOQsVnhTr2aN4KHJwYjen6aNeVax_CT7XVlM1U7oVuZPKrXhfRM72Vy-avDcpxdkO7OX4KDxCP-VnmBVHMauA1i70nvFQWh2v1387TtsaQr-J3dFqIpfqyLY1utLky2wzAaSHvQxHVDF834vUqGhCl5EwGC1jphD-t4DQT4Iglj-aq57oT-4TNJ-tW7/w640-h360/maxresdefault.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="color: #999999;"><div style="text-align: center;">Investigating the awareness and acknowledgement of</div><div style="text-align: center;">the partiality of the lens we were given by family and culture,</div><div style="text-align: center;">and through which we have made our choices</div><div style="text-align: center;">and suffered their consequences,</div><div style="text-align: center;">the following thoughts appear:</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">If we had been born of another time and place, to different parents</div><div style="text-align: center;">who held different values, we would have had an entirely different lens.</div><div style="text-align: center;">The lens we received generated a conditional life, which represents</div><div style="text-align: center;">not who we are but how we were conditioned to see life and make choices…</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">We succumb to the belief that the way we have grown to see the world</div><div style="text-align: center;">is the only way to see it, the right way to see it,</div><div style="text-align: center;">and we seldom suspect the conditioned nature</div><div style="text-align: center;">of our perception.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">We all live out, unconsciously,</div><div style="text-align: center;">reflexes assembled from the past.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The disparity between the inner sense of self and the acquired personality</div><div style="text-align: center;">can become so great that the suffering can no longer be suppressed or compensated…</div><div style="text-align: center;">As the person continues to operate out of the old attitudes and strategies,</div><div style="text-align: center;">a grounded self underneath the acquired personality becomes a powerful</div><div style="text-align: center;">imperative for renewal…</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The first, (the acquired sense of self) must die… Such death</div><div style="text-align: center;">and rebirth is not an end in itself; it is a passage...</div><div style="text-align: center;">a second shot at what was left behind</div><div style="text-align: center;">in the pristine moments of childhood.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">~ James Hollis</div><div style="text-align: center;">edited and summerized from <i>The Middle Passage:</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>A Jungian Field Guide to Finding Meaning</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>and Transformation in Midlife</i></div><div style="text-align: center;">with thanks to <i>The Marginalian</i></div><div style="text-align: center;">by Maria Popova</div></span><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script>
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</script></div>Dean Kellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11391614363610258561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1152631704093093461.post-78306554239381376212024-03-09T09:25:00.001-07:002024-03-09T12:20:57.020-07:00with that moon language<span class="Apple-style-span" face="tahoma, verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-size: 12px;"></span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKDHILrcK2Nvc-_QePe9FjuLJIp4hHmKGKQCdQoZRnldt-ITcQAd7QbTaZ0-myjqJj8IpfYqzmePtjBYut-wnaDiMmYiSK_NVuXVU_MwW0AepXTYWnqmyIGg45jULCQkno6DfKCND8t98ZoCLTQFE44w3t2vo5AWYBtoKyWLtjSaoZTYMViplzTBNDDswB/s1920/baby-fox-pictures-bti1rg4bawnhmlun.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1372" data-original-width="1920" height="458" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKDHILrcK2Nvc-_QePe9FjuLJIp4hHmKGKQCdQoZRnldt-ITcQAd7QbTaZ0-myjqJj8IpfYqzmePtjBYut-wnaDiMmYiSK_NVuXVU_MwW0AepXTYWnqmyIGg45jULCQkno6DfKCND8t98ZoCLTQFE44w3t2vo5AWYBtoKyWLtjSaoZTYMViplzTBNDDswB/w640-h458/baby-fox-pictures-bti1rg4bawnhmlun.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Admit something:</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Everyone you see, you say to them, </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">“Love me.”</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Of course you do not do this out loud, </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Otherwise,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Someone would call the cops.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Still though, think about this, </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">This great pull in us </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">To connect.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Why not become the one </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Who lives with a f</span><span style="color: #999999;">ull moon in each eye</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;"> That is </span><span style="color: #999999;">always saying,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">With that sweet moon </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Language,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">What every other eye in </span><span style="color: #999999;">this world</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;"> Is </span><span style="color: #999999;">dying to</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Hear?</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">~ Hafiz</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">from <i>The Gift</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;"><i>Poems by Hafiz, </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;"><i>the Great Sufi Master</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">translations by Daniel Ladinsky</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script>
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</script></div>Dean Kellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11391614363610258561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1152631704093093461.post-20097922518629543362024-03-08T09:44:00.003-07:002024-03-08T09:44:40.020-07:00the bridge<div style="text-align: center;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGh-KY1j4h7dhYEkorYpkRQb7aHQbq-s4j_xCSpnCu6ribdCU9pTedGmv2Av9chp4TBV5qatY55nBcBwywCzj1ZMplbI2Or0te9buDl7ZkPqyURMW5G8Ty6DzELKRjsVGr-hAWLPHlI_motI9SD4zhGYa2wY31CBlHYUEG9PgkEIXIC28JbZmA6gMs4v_M/s4032/unnamed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGh-KY1j4h7dhYEkorYpkRQb7aHQbq-s4j_xCSpnCu6ribdCU9pTedGmv2Av9chp4TBV5qatY55nBcBwywCzj1ZMplbI2Or0te9buDl7ZkPqyURMW5G8Ty6DzELKRjsVGr-hAWLPHlI_motI9SD4zhGYa2wY31CBlHYUEG9PgkEIXIC28JbZmA6gMs4v_M/w640-h480/unnamed.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="color: #999999;"><div style="text-align: center;">Between now and now</div><div style="text-align: center;">between I am and you are</div><div style="text-align: center;">the word bridge</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Entering it</div><div style="text-align: center;">you enter yourself;</div><div style="text-align: center;">the world connects and closes like a ring.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">From one bank to another</div><div style="text-align: center;">there is always a body stretched:</div><div style="text-align: center;">a rainbow.</div><div style="text-align: center;">I'll sleep between its arches.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">~ Octavio Paz</div><div style="text-align: center;">with thanks to <i>love is a place</i></div><div style="text-align: center;">photo by Paul King</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script>
document.write('<script src="//sharebutton.net/plugin/sharebutton.php?type=horizontal&u=' + encodeURIComponent(document.location.href) + '"></scr' + 'ipt>');
</script></div>Dean Kellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11391614363610258561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1152631704093093461.post-13198604177117824532024-03-08T09:26:00.003-07:002024-03-08T09:26:41.637-07:00simple gifts<div style="text-align: center;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQdiySRf4ER6r-oZSiaBf57idI8XwRvpOLfG4_v5cMsngE3CBbw03sI5kGqszVeh1qlvGkIaHb5odyWH3felfx85DL-6H8JOzQG5nGN1QzLusvQ0xqyOWWlkSme4gn2m9uXWdFAT-3KuuIy4O94ykB-Ztbocf1D_4ocBuwn6G23aoOF1-dO7IZuEQD0Rsi/s4608/flr%2005192012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="4608" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQdiySRf4ER6r-oZSiaBf57idI8XwRvpOLfG4_v5cMsngE3CBbw03sI5kGqszVeh1qlvGkIaHb5odyWH3felfx85DL-6H8JOzQG5nGN1QzLusvQ0xqyOWWlkSme4gn2m9uXWdFAT-3KuuIy4O94ykB-Ztbocf1D_4ocBuwn6G23aoOF1-dO7IZuEQD0Rsi/w640-h480/flr%2005192012.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="color: #999999;"><div style="text-align: center;">Numerous Buddhist traditions consider the four immeasurables—</div><div style="text-align: center;">loving-kindness, compassion, appreciative joy, and equanimity—</div><div style="text-align: center;">an important group of principles and practices.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The practice of the four immeasurables helps ourselves and others, </div><div style="text-align: center;">for only by giving selflessly with our actions, speech, </div><div style="text-align: center;">and thoughts do we truly find joy.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">~ Loving-kindness (metta or maitri) is an attitude </div><div style="text-align: center;">of wishing all beings are well, joyful, and happy,</div><div style="text-align: center;"> now and in the future.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">~ Compassion (karuna) is the wish for all beings to be</div><div style="text-align: center;"> free of suffering, grief, and misery, </div><div style="text-align: center;">now and in the future.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">~ Appreciative joy (mudita) is a state of mind in which</div><div style="text-align: center;"> we rejoice in the joys and qualities of all sentient beings,</div><div style="text-align: center;"> and express gratitude for what we have.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">~ Equanimity (upeksa) is the attitude of recognizing all </div><div style="text-align: center;">sentient beings as equal and seeing</div><div style="text-align: center;"> the oneness in all beings.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">When we adopt such attitudes toward all living things</div><div style="text-align: center;">without distinction or bias— including ourselves, </div><div style="text-align: center;">our family members, friends, acquaintances, strangers, </div><div style="text-align: center;">and even our enemies — they become immeasurable.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">~ Venerable Hui Cheng</div><div style="text-align: center;">monk of the Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Order</div><div style="text-align: center;">with thanks to <i>Lions Roar</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script>
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</script></div>Dean Kellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11391614363610258561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1152631704093093461.post-80468882915204950912024-03-07T08:33:00.001-07:002024-03-07T08:33:40.152-07:00let the spirit move your lips and direct your tongue<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMUQE1fuxoYEwXhviV34OgmhF_-Y5YmseJqCGj2Sdjow7F45Wp9qGNa0rkGPpsgAkA9Uew2qRf_a5YuZoUj97nVZppuRFtSNYbJEiS5RUId142PXehRBOi1Zbw5tfMiuooDJ0Mv_BwRSyNYzHHGzIRQVnN-NBb7-t-Dn83sopTXZhZHi1RzQbguHQs4XGC/s848/unnamed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="848" data-original-width="613" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMUQE1fuxoYEwXhviV34OgmhF_-Y5YmseJqCGj2Sdjow7F45Wp9qGNa0rkGPpsgAkA9Uew2qRf_a5YuZoUj97nVZppuRFtSNYbJEiS5RUId142PXehRBOi1Zbw5tfMiuooDJ0Mv_BwRSyNYzHHGzIRQVnN-NBb7-t-Dn83sopTXZhZHi1RzQbguHQs4XGC/w462-h640/unnamed.jpg" width="462" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="color: #999999;"><div style="text-align: center;">You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts;</div><div style="text-align: center;">And when you can no longer dwell in the solitude of your heart</div><div style="text-align: center;">you live in your lips, and sound is a diversion and a pastime.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">And in much of your talking, thinking is half murdered.</div><div style="text-align: center;">For thought is a bird of space, that in a cage of words</div><div style="text-align: center;">may indeed unfold its wings but cannot fly.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">There are those among you who seek the talkative</div><div style="text-align: center;">through fear of being alone.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The silence of aloneness reveals to their eyes</div><div style="text-align: center;">their naked selves and they would escape.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">And there are those who talk, and without knowledge</div><div style="text-align: center;">or forethought reveal a truth which they themselves do not understand.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">And there are those who have the truth within them,</div><div style="text-align: center;">but they tell it not in words.</div><div style="text-align: center;">In the bosom of such as these</div><div style="text-align: center;">the spirit dwells in rhythmic silence.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">~ Kahlil Gibran</div><div style="text-align: center;">from <i>The Prophet</i></div></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">art by Andrea Dezsö</span></div><span style="color: #999999;"><div style="text-align: center;">with thanks to <i>The Marginalian</i> </div><div style="text-align: center;">by Maria Popova</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script>
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</script></div>Dean Kellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11391614363610258561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1152631704093093461.post-75596423609335733472024-03-06T09:19:00.000-07:002024-03-06T09:19:06.867-07:00have you considered<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT2ewgIpzq400vhbze_-Pl5ZJCL_APThtz6ue6AsKL2V-TGtyrHcEktXkkUps-uoA1xJ7dIFlce2cxrjY6WLSwrVpdrWS1VYxcqAKqFvEVQ70bV-62yqzK43zL1RlwAxihD2Bl3PSye0GPoPL0Ucr6bCpW6-kBRtsKONoPO33bndh6yYMWUe2DdKWa95zQ/s1024/B35DB7DB-1BB5-4450-B6B4-3B72700C0BB81530805520610.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT2ewgIpzq400vhbze_-Pl5ZJCL_APThtz6ue6AsKL2V-TGtyrHcEktXkkUps-uoA1xJ7dIFlce2cxrjY6WLSwrVpdrWS1VYxcqAKqFvEVQ70bV-62yqzK43zL1RlwAxihD2Bl3PSye0GPoPL0Ucr6bCpW6-kBRtsKONoPO33bndh6yYMWUe2DdKWa95zQ/w640-h640/B35DB7DB-1BB5-4450-B6B4-3B72700C0BB81530805520610.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">Have you considered the possibility</span><br /><span style="color: #999999;"> that everything you believe is wrong,</span><br /><span style="color: #999999;"> not merely off a bit, but totally wrong,</span><br /><span style="color: #999999;"> nothing like things as they really are?</span><br /><span style="color: #999999;"> </span><br /><span style="color: #999999;"> If you've done this, you know how durably fragile</span><br /><span style="color: #999999;"> those phantoms we hold in our heads are,</span><br /><span style="color: #999999;"> those wisps of thought that people die and kill for,</span><br /><span style="color: #999999;"> betray lovers for, give up lifelong friendships for.</span><br /><span style="color: #999999;"> </span><br /><span style="color: #999999;"> If you've not done this, you probably don't understand this poem,</span><br /><span style="color: #999999;"> or think it's not even a poem, but a bit of opaque nonsense,</span><br /><span style="color: #999999;"> occupying too much of your day's time,</span><br /><span style="color: #999999;"> so you probably should stop reading it here, now.</span><br /><span style="color: #999999;"> </span><br /><span style="color: #999999;"> But if you've arrived at this line,</span><br /><span style="color: #999999;"> maybe, just maybe, you're open to that possibility,</span><br /><span style="color: #999999;"> the possibility of being absolutely completely wrong,</span><br /><span style="color: #999999;"> about everything that matters.</span><br /><span style="color: #999999;"> </span><br /><span style="color: #999999;"> How different the world seems then:</span><br /><span style="color: #999999;"> everyone who was your enemy is your friend,</span><br /><span style="color: #999999;"> everything you hated, you now love,</span><br /><span style="color: #999999;"> and everything you love </span><br /><span style="color: #999999;">slips through your fingers like sand.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: dimgrey; font-family: serif, 'times new roman', arial; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: dimgrey; font-family: serif, 'times new roman', arial; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: dimgrey; font-family: serif, 'times new roman', arial; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: dimgrey; font-family: serif, 'times new roman', arial; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br />
</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">~ Federico Moramarco</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">One Hundred and Eighty Degrees</span></span></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">from<i> The City of Eden: Poems from a Life<br /></i></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script>
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg4hwGMWKerkk8dhV7YYLMq0yqlVyymOJTaPnXD8a3IOXRqT5p2UkIYok565_ZoQRP0rV1ZJUh97bMNcnqhqGPazbFSv8DrihNcZOLAwGLcphMu__oCJQbLOUgeUevdICtzFlv0PDchtW5HjAOpFysKaVw9bo5kLUkl9Nhya8H6g_IuulYa2Qx6M37YHsu/s891/flr%2005311910.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="891" height="502" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg4hwGMWKerkk8dhV7YYLMq0yqlVyymOJTaPnXD8a3IOXRqT5p2UkIYok565_ZoQRP0rV1ZJUh97bMNcnqhqGPazbFSv8DrihNcZOLAwGLcphMu__oCJQbLOUgeUevdICtzFlv0PDchtW5HjAOpFysKaVw9bo5kLUkl9Nhya8H6g_IuulYa2Qx6M37YHsu/w640-h502/flr%2005311910.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Allow your judgments their own undisturbed development, </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">which, like any unfolding, must come from within </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">and can by nothing be forced or hastened. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Everything is gestation and then birth. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">To allow each impression and each embryo of a feeling</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> to complete itself in the dark, in the unsayable, the not-knowing,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> beyond the reach of one's own understanding, </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">and humbly and patiently to await the dawning of a new clarity: </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">that alone is the way of the artist -</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">in understanding as in creating.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">...<br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">and try to love the questions themselves...</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Do not now seek the answers, </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">which cannot be given to you because you will not be able to live them.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">And the point is, to live everything.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Live the questions now.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Perhaps you will then gradually,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">without noticing it,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">live along some distant day into the answer.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> </span><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">~ Rainer Maria Rilke</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">from <i>Letters to a Young Poet, </i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><i>April 23, 1903</i></span><br /><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><br />
</span></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script>
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</script></div>Dean Kellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11391614363610258561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1152631704093093461.post-24255165206346777602024-03-06T08:19:00.000-07:002024-03-06T08:19:05.641-07:00 its life is one<div style="text-align: center;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg-7NgqjlGlhguAQxx00CmA2JzJkm711R3idjtlh1GE3gRbWzH2RWwOU_auR6nijo5ZeGTYsd-4f6Y9V5ciXEB29D5qlcYELba7P8NgV4lvY31NZvGD78M-UC7oA0A8b2ON1ZpgZZWeI2kohwMwcgpSGKpwFF6oiBTZ3DyjGpghq6TcWpmmFLr3nSTHLg=s500" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="333" data-original-width="500" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg-7NgqjlGlhguAQxx00CmA2JzJkm711R3idjtlh1GE3gRbWzH2RWwOU_auR6nijo5ZeGTYsd-4f6Y9V5ciXEB29D5qlcYELba7P8NgV4lvY31NZvGD78M-UC7oA0A8b2ON1ZpgZZWeI2kohwMwcgpSGKpwFF6oiBTZ3DyjGpghq6TcWpmmFLr3nSTHLg=w640-h426" width="640" /></a></div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"> <br /><br /><br /><span style="color: #999999;">The body<br />is a single creature, whole,<br />its life is one, never less than one, or more,<br />so is its world, and so <br />are two bodies in their love for one another. <br />In ignorance of this<br />we talk ourselves to death.<br /><br /><br /> <br /><br />~ Wendell Berry<br />Sabbaths, XIV<br /><br /></span><br /> </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script>
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<span style="color: #999999;"><br /><br /> We clasp the hands of those who go before us,<br />and the hands of those who come after us;<br />we enter the little circle of each other's arms,<br />and the larger circle of lovers<br />whose hands are joined in a dance,<br />and the larger circle of all creatures,<br />passing in and out of life,<br />who move also in a dance,<br />to a music so subtle and vast<br />that no one hears it except in fragments.</span><br /><br />
<span style="color: #999999;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #999999;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #999999;">~ Wendell Berry</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #999999;">photo Jane Goodall with a </span><br />
<span style="color: #999999;">chimpanzee at the Tchimpounga </span><br />
<span style="color: #999999;">Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Centre, </span><br />
<span style="color: #999999;">Congo (Brazzaville).</span><br /><br /></div>
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</script></div>Dean Kellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11391614363610258561noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1152631704093093461.post-5958411494422166392024-03-04T08:25:00.003-07:002024-03-04T09:48:39.905-07:00some backward perspective<div style="text-align: center;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfvlP5gXwsKJw8guKZqADNS1FrWvm78SmZloxchHNkkk8Di9U-3C3UXaAizeV9KxwsVwfkz08drFYbNGL4_cx7IJpYw2pARfTwHkPig_a10t8FDl-cvxFQPpB5pnjC7WwosZ2RLhEs0biC2ybDvKP-ZRhdrnw09JFu1zBBz9zE2zZHQq3ZBH2v6wLZA3bi/s960/PhotoofdevastatedDresden%20-%20Jason%20Dawsey.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="960" height="466" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfvlP5gXwsKJw8guKZqADNS1FrWvm78SmZloxchHNkkk8Di9U-3C3UXaAizeV9KxwsVwfkz08drFYbNGL4_cx7IJpYw2pARfTwHkPig_a10t8FDl-cvxFQPpB5pnjC7WwosZ2RLhEs0biC2ybDvKP-ZRhdrnw09JFu1zBBz9zE2zZHQq3ZBH2v6wLZA3bi/w640-h466/PhotoofdevastatedDresden%20-%20Jason%20Dawsey.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="color: #999999;"><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Billy looked at the clock on the gas stove. </div><div style="text-align: center;">He had an hour to kill before the saucer came. </div><div style="text-align: center;">He went into the living room, swinging the bottle like a dinner bell, </div><div style="text-align: center;">turned on the television. He came slightly unstuck in time, </div><div style="text-align: center;">saw the late movie backwards, then forwards again. </div><div style="text-align: center;">It was a movie about American bombers in the Second World War</div><div style="text-align: center;"> and the gallant men who flew them. </div><div style="text-align: center;">Seen backwards by Billy, the story went like this:</div></span><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="color: #999999;"><div style="text-align: center;">American planes, full of holes and wounded men and corpses, </div><div style="text-align: center;">took off backwards from an airfield in England. Over France, </div><div style="text-align: center;">a few German fighter planes flew at them backwards, </div><div style="text-align: center;">sucked bullets and shell fragments </div><div style="text-align: center;">from some of the planes and crewmen.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The bombers opened their bomb-bay doors, </div><div style="text-align: center;">exerted a miraculous magnetism which shrunk the fires, </div><div style="text-align: center;">gathered them into cylindrical steel containers, </div><div style="text-align: center;">and lifted the containers into the bellies of the planes.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The Germans below had miraculous devices of their own,</div><div style="text-align: center;"> which were long steel tubes. They used them to suck</div><div style="text-align: center;"> more fragments from the crewmen and planes.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">When the bombers got back to their base,</div><div style="text-align: center;"> the steel cylinders were taken from the racks</div><div style="text-align: center;"> and shipped back to the United States of America, </div><div style="text-align: center;">where factories were operating night and day, </div><div style="text-align: center;">dismantling the cylinders, </div><div style="text-align: center;">separating the dangerous contents into minerals.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Touchingly, it was mainly women who did this work.</div><div style="text-align: center;">The minerals were then shipped to specialists in remote areas.</div><div style="text-align: center;"> It was their business to put them into the ground, </div><div style="text-align: center;">to hide them cleverly,</div><div style="text-align: center;"> so they would never hurt anybody ever again.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The American fliers turned in their uniforms, </div><div style="text-align: center;">became high school kids. And Hitler turned into a baby, </div><div style="text-align: center;">Billy Pilgrim supposed. </div><div style="text-align: center;">That wasn't in the movie. Billy was extrapolating. </div><div style="text-align: center;">Everybody turned into a baby, and all humanity, </div><div style="text-align: center;">without exception, conspired biologically </div><div style="text-align: center;">to produce two perfect people named Adam and Eve,</div><div style="text-align: center;"> he supposed.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></span><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="color: #999999;"><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">~ Kurt Vonnegut</div><div style="text-align: center;">from <i>Slaughterhouse Five</i></div><div style="text-align: center;">photo: Dresden after WWII bombing</div><div style="text-align: center;">with thanks to love is a place</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script>
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</script></div>Dean Kellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11391614363610258561noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1152631704093093461.post-32101335228929691942024-03-04T08:20:00.004-07:002024-03-04T08:20:49.522-07:00poem of one world<div style="text-align: center;"> </div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIwg47_y_nWgCXZ2LkmIxOA0z0HWWSotHEjfnqv5R-9PGuKuUURPrlxXhNi0ch2SndRPlYspm_KsbGZ1NOnbjfgbGF5iE92vWNuBYydGP9XAENShc57HUIfm01EVL9NnL1oXc917tW96EOzwlWh_q_O1e5nBGIKOiX9iJAoUCraC3CeGT1djYWGsW_dlrn/s4363/P5839160.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2909" data-original-width="4363" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIwg47_y_nWgCXZ2LkmIxOA0z0HWWSotHEjfnqv5R-9PGuKuUURPrlxXhNi0ch2SndRPlYspm_KsbGZ1NOnbjfgbGF5iE92vWNuBYydGP9XAENShc57HUIfm01EVL9NnL1oXc917tW96EOzwlWh_q_O1e5nBGIKOiX9iJAoUCraC3CeGT1djYWGsW_dlrn/w640-h426/P5839160.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="color: #999999;"><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">This morning</div><div style="text-align: center;">the beautiful white heron</div><div style="text-align: center;">was floating along above the water</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">and then into the sky of this</div><div style="text-align: center;">the one world</div><div style="text-align: center;">we all belong to</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">where everything</div><div style="text-align: center;">sooner or later</div><div style="text-align: center;">is part of everything else</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">which thought made me feel</div><div style="text-align: center;">for a little while</div><div style="text-align: center;">quite beautiful myself.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">~ Mary Oliver</div><div style="text-align: center;">from <i>A Thousand Mornings: Poems</i></div></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #999999;">photo by<i> </i> Ilan Horn</span></div><span style="color: #999999;"><div style="text-align: center;">with thanks to <i>Intrinsic Heart</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script>
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