Time

"How do you find the time...?"

"By not being in a hurry,"..."That's how you find the time."

-From "The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place" by E.L. Konigsburg

Shantyboat

Things great and small.

Harry Bryan's Shantyboat from the cover of WoodenBoat Magazine.

"Shantyboat is an account of life amid the elements; the backlands, and backwaters, weathers and currents that require human skill to be great, because human control is so small."-from the introduction by Wendall Berry to the book "Shantyboat, A River Way of Life" by Harlan Hubbard, the University Press of Kentucky, 1977.

Some of the joy of living close to nature, as some might call it, comes from the developing of ones mind and body and awareness.  As this quote from the book states, human control, in reality is so very small and to stand any chance at avoiding the tragedy that is waiting just around the corner, in every aspect of our lives, great attention and skill are required.

It is our great fortune that the greatest joy and fulfillment is also had by the developing of those skills and thru their direct application in attaining our daily sustenance and comforts.

Merry Christmas

A few seconds of the Cathedral Christmas concert that is held each year just for me.  Well it feels as though it is just for me, even though there are several hundred others in the great room.
I wish I could give everyone a chance to hear the beauty that is the voice of many in unison singing songs of praise, love, and peace.  In that special room, hearing those voices, one could almost be convinced that compassion, charity, peace and love might all win out over the challenges of our times.
Upon leaving that concert, and that place, and being thrust back out into the hustle and grit that is the larger city, the realization that if those qualities are to prevail, then dedication, perseverance, and unceasing work are going to be needed.  But those things to could be considered qualities, enlightened states of being rather than, just occupations to be endured.
So, for the New year, and with the return of the sun to warm our days and our hearts, I wish us all peace of heart, compassion for all living things, gratitude at the chance to know life, and the strength to endure it's trials and hardships.

Thanks for the chance to live and feel and to know.

Life could always be harder, but, it could never be better.

Respect for all Life

In the ancient Hindu Text, the Upanishads, it is written that

As water becomes water,

As fire joins fire,

As air blends with air,

So shall the mind become one with the infinite mind. 

earth & sky are one

And like the fire of the sun

can be found in the sea,

and the line between water

and sky can be lost,

so to can all living things,

be seen as one.

Tis the season

December Morning

December morning looking west

Rain, rain, rain.  Yesterday and last night rain, at least down at the house.  Up on top of the hill it snowed last night.  Only a dusting, but the north side of the trees still wore the white powder where it blew in hard and had not yet been melted by the morning sun.

The winter is coming in slowly, but steady.  The wood stoves, the rugs on the floor, the thick curtains on the walls make the little house a haven.

A news show on finance, yesterday, asked, "How much money do you need to feel rich?"
I ask the question, "What does money have to do with it?"

The scientists are talking about water on other planets, and other planets that are like ours, mean while, industry is poisoning our water supplies and polluting this planet.

Some people will never have enough.  Some have nothing and it is more than they require.  Some look at their place with gratitude and awe.  Some can't bother to stop for a moment and appreciate what they have, but only look at what else they can get.

Thank you for this morning, for this sunshine, for this cold wind, and for the body that carried me up to this look out.  I know I won't always have these things, but I am grateful for what is mine to live and love, while I am here.