Stop Making Sense

It is that which is beyond our 5 senses that we value most, love, peace, security.  If we have these things, we tend to disregard the things which are measured by our sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste.  Yet, we spend most of our lives involved in attaining only that which can be sensed, that which we can measure.


It seems the common mis-perception that the attainment of those things we can measure, money, material possession, sensual stimulation will result in the attainment of that which we can not measure.  All around are examples of the false nature of this concept.


Yet, we continue to feed our 5 senses which are never to be sated.




".........mathematical science after all has to do only with what is quantitative; where the qualitative begins, there its domain ends." - Rudolph Steiner, Mathematics and Occultism, A lecture, Amsterdam, June 21, 1904

Maintaining my mind, and the pond

morning on the pond.

As I walk along the shore of the small pond I recognize the many different sounds. I hear the bird calls.  I hear the croak/grunt of the frogs.  I catch the splash of a fish as it jumps.  I hear the plop, plop of the turtles as they dive off their sunny logs to hide from me as I approach.  I hear the wind as it pushes the leaves in the tree tops.  Even the sound of my own shoes crunching the twigs or squishing in the mud seems to have a place here that fits with the rest.

But I hear more.

The sound of combustion engines in cars, in lawn mowers or digging machines.  A helicopter as it passes miles away along the river.  None of these sounds makes me happy, or makes me smile, or seems to fit in a way that seems to add to the larger picture, the larger thing.

It is a strange thing to try to understand, this love for my life, my gratitude for this moment to be a human being.  Because I am a human being I can know how wonderful the rest of the world is.

Because I am a human being I can also know how ugly, how unlike the rest of creation, and how unpleasant I can make the world.

Why has man seemingly turned his back to the gift that is this situation we find ourselves in.  As if ungrateful, even vengeful, humanity seems to put itself upon the world as if to destroy it.  The very systems and cycles and relationships that give us life are constantly and increasingly threatened by our dissatisfaction with our place and our industrious genius as it is put to rape and destruction.

How many times will we destroy a existing relationship, entity, and then make an inferior and problematic means to replace it.  How many times will we hunt the buffalo to extinction, and then create feed lots full of hormone laden cows that live in horrible conditions and cause pollution rather than contribute to the larger cycle of living and dying?

Ships driven by wind and tide once carried us to the far reaches of the planet, extending our range for exchange and experience.  That wasn't enough, so we make great tankers that pollute the atmosphere and spill poisons upon the sea and require us to dig and drill and rape the planet of it's oil that has been locked up for thousands of years.  What highly destructive thing will we replace these things with when they are no longer enough?

My path, the one I am trying to discern thru all the noise and blurred vision of this speed inhuman,  is one of acceptance and gratitude and vision of things greater than my own self interests.

As I walk the path around this pond and pick up the broken glass, the shot gun shells, the plastic bottles, I am inspired to leave none of that behind myself.  Leave no wake, like a sailboat, use what is already here and leave no trail behind me so that another, many others can come and discover on their own, and recognize the beauty that will out last each of us.

It's not easy in this modern world to leave no ugly trail behind. To leave nothing behind that can't be reabsorbed easily into the world and is not toxic to another being.  But I have it in mind.  I keep it in the front of my mind.  Time spent near the pond helps me to keep it in mind.

We as human beings seem to have an amazingly large amount of access to power, but we also seem to lack the wisdom to use it reasonably.

A twisting circular path

I woke with a feeling of purpose.
Some how during my night of rest a part of me was thinking, pondering, planing.
On the motorcycle and off  I went, with a path in mind, but not sure about how the going would be, if it would be, but allowing it to unfold in front of me.

On this part of the path I learned that when the goal is not for my benefit, it is more likely to benefit others.  Seems simple enough, right?

I learned that most of us know just what are own biggest challenges are and we have ways of managing them, but we don't always choose to use those means.  That choice can only come from within.
I learned that the phrase "an inch is as good as a mile" can be used to decrease the distance between us, or to ignore the fact of that distance, especially in this modern time when we have such extreme means of communication and transportation, and thus we can find the community that we seek in with people we may never actually stand in front of because they are so many miles away, and with those down the road with whom we don't seem to be able to find the time to share a meal with, for our busy schedules.

"into every life a little rain must fall"  was once said, and I have found that "on every motorcycle ride, a little rain usually falls" is accurate.  Planning for it, embracing it, and sometimes stopping and watching it rather than trying to push on can make the difference between a great time and an epic misery.

Returning to home after a ride is a wonderful moment.  I'd fully intended not to leave home all day but instead made a big circle just so I could come back and really appreciate the place, and people (and dog) I'd left earlier.  The big circle trip allowed me to extend and strengthen the circle of that is my community.

Traveling with, Living with, "AN ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE."  Thanks for the day.