We’re about to start a meditate-your-butt-off retreat here in the temple, so I’ll be offline (officially) until Sunday. Do try to behave. Please feel free to discuss whatever atrocities are going on.
54 thoughts on “Out Until Sunday”
Let’s get ready to…
To…
POTTY!
.. ?
Whoops…
Gettin’ old…
Let’s try this again:
GET READY PAAAAAAAAAAAAAARTY!!!!
“Where da white women at?”
*crickets*
Ah…
Ok…
Never mind “Blazing Saddles” – gettin’ too old to be choosy:
‘Where any o’ da any women at?’
*More crickets………..*
Oh, crap.
Never mind.
I’m too old to do… anything…
Anything fun, anyway
Let’s get ready to………
Sleep!
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzZzzzzZZZZZzzzzz…
Oh, and screw the “Rolling Stones!”
I’m on my ‘10,019th Nervous Breakdown!’
And it gets worse!
“What a drag it is…
Getting oldER!!!
Oh, look at the time!
It’s time to take a pill!!!
(When isn’t it, anymore…?).
Have fun, maha! 🙂
And da res’ o’ yuz, two… too…!
Aaaaaaaah…
Guys – If we take power naps and don’t get drunk or misbehave Maha will be crushed. One more time – for old times sake..
toga
Toga
Toga…
Way to go, animals…..
Who’s gonna get me out of the twit filter?
It’s curious, or maybe not curious at all, that the conversation so quickly turned toward a pretty dark subject. At a certain age, the world really does start to “smell of mortality.” We start to face it with a joke or two, which seems to work pretty well.
A few years back I was buying some fenceposts. You can’t get the good locust wood ones anymore. The pressure treated ones are the cores left over from making veneer for plywood, comparatively, they are junk. “They’ll last about thirty years,” or at least that’s what our farm supply man said. I remember thinking, maybe for the first time, “That’s good enough, I’ll be dead by then.” The fence would be someone else’s problem.
But, that’s not really the way we think, is it? Somehow, towards the end of the picnic in the park, we want to straighten things up, put the rubbish in the trash can leave the place a little nicer for the folks coming tomorrow. That seems simple enough, but, it’s not always easy to do, especially in our current political climate. So, at some point, you really do have to let go, “relax and float downstream.” (H/T to moonbat)
Sorry for being so sappy, guys. This should cheer you up.
Hmmm….contemplating one’s own end…been there done that…I died for two minutes, of post surgery blood clots…I remember it being a comfortable feeling…there was no sound…it was warm and inviting….there, before me, was the face of my deceased daughter…I was drifting, softly and steadily towards her….I felt her hands on my shoulders, and I heard her speak to me within my mind, as to what she wanted me to do…She, gently pushed me away and I woke up to the frantic nurses trying get machines hooked up to me, and the flurry of activity was confusing me….I didn’t realize that I had died…So, two minutes, seemed a lifetime…human mortality is a constant…we all die in the end….it is what we do in the meantime, that will define our souls and our lives that we have lived…I think we will have to answer to those loved ones who have gone before us…and as maha delves into her innerself, we must do so ourselves, in our own way….and Cund, it is so good to read your comments…thanks….
My two comments that I just added under “Bad Hair” may be in the twit filter all weekend.
I shall meditate on what I wrote to deserve it.
“That’s good enough, I’ll be dead by then.â€
Goatherd,
Have you been reading the GOP strategy playbook again? That seems to be their reason for not addressing climate change as well as a host of other issues. See when you don’t feel a responsibility beyond your own existence life becomes so much simpler…………………. as long as you don’t have a conscious!
Uncledad, you have to read the paragraph following that. But, I see your point. It is ambiguous, due to my bad writing. Sorry. You’ve summed up the Republican’s position on so many issues. (By the way I can’t bring myself to call them the “GOP,” there is nothing “grand” about them.)
Is a Boy Scout thing, “always leave a place better than you found it?” At my age, it seems like a Buddhist teaching, maybe just due to an aging brain. But, as we get a whiff of the pine suit, it seems like we want to put everything right, give away the things that we’ve acquired, and hope that someone puts them to good use. I think these are good and natural impulses, but, they are also a new set of desires. Some part of it may be tangled up with wanting to go beyond this life. Whatever it is doesn’t matter to me, as long as some good comes of it. Of all the things that we do in life, few, if any of them are ever entirely good, or entirely bad. But, if on balance, we did a little more good and a little less harm, that’s not too shabby.
What I attempted to bring into the conversation was “attachment,” the primary cause of suffering in the world. But, I can be kind of ham handed when it comes to words. It really is important to try to feel for others and to search for some definition of what it means to be human, in both a subjective and objective sense. One gift is that with age the subjective and objective seem to blend together, or so it seems.
————–
Wow, Robert, that must have been an overwhelming experience. It recalls the time just after my father died, and my mother was convinced that he visited her in the form of a small light that would appear in her bedroom. Years later, I sat with her on her last day. “I talked with your father this morning. He’s been coming around for a couple of days.”
“Really?” I said.
“Yeah, he’s sitting right next to you now.”
On the farm, I’ve seen a lot of birth and death, sometimes far too close together. I’ve come to feel that a being or creature entering or leaving the world gives you a gift, a sense of the depth of existence. It’s a kind of communion, though, that sounds odd, doesn’t it?
Aww Hell, I’m just an old codger spouting nonsense. Take it for what it’s worth, and that’s probably nothing at all.
Wow! A lot of deep thinking. I will be short and sweet.
“Dying is easy, it’s living that’s hard.”
Dying is easy.
Comedy is hard…
But, I can be kind of ham handed when it comes to words.
Au contraire!
Dying is easy …
I don’t know, I’ll have to try it a couple of times before I can render an opinion.
Muy bondadoso, Swami, como siempre.
Goatherd: Dying is easy….I’m sure you have already tried it at least a few hundred times. I am convinced that all of us have had many lifetimes on this planet. We keep coming back for some strange reason.
Well, the experience of death is the same experience you had before you were born. Simply put, it’s just lights out. And chances are you won’t know you’re dead or even remember ever being alive.
today is an auspicious day for me…today, 34 years ago, my Light was born, Monica Faith…Such a beautiful little person, one who would shine brightly until her death, on this day eight years ago, my Light was extinguished…and with it my love for life…I am but a shell of a father….a shell of a man who loved and cherished this vibrant woman, mother, and daughter….it was my baby girl who made me promise to raise and care for her baby boy…I cannot continue…………..
That’s what they say, grannyeagle. Samsara. Sometimes, I think it is possible in the literal sense, other times I think that it’s a metaphor, that we are reborn in each instant and “new” in a sense. Most of the time I don’t think of it at all.
Without going into too much detail, I am familiar with events like the one Robert wrote about, but, I should make it clear, NOT from personal experience. It seems that it is one of those things that words fail and that must be experienced. People often describe a feeling of peace and well being. I was with my mother when she died and she seemed at peace, and in some strange way, she seemed “happy” to have run the whole race.
I haven’t seen it in quite a while, but, I like the film “Groundhog Day.” It’s an obvious metaphor for reincarnation and the quality of samsara that keeps us coming back, until we get it right.
But, for me, science and spirituality seem blended together. I don’t have a particular talent for either one. But, some of the conjectures floating around in science seem right on the edge of spirituality. Although, I have to admit, I am talking about popularized science, watered down, specifically for people like me to consume, to provide us with the illusion that we “have a clue” about the world.
Quantum physics is baffling to say the least, but, some current thought about the nature of the mind is that it is epiphenomenal to the physical apparatus of the brain. We have enough understanding of the brain to do surgeries and minor repairs and diagnoses. But, the mind stops us short, except that we are beginning to suspect that it is a quantum phenomenon. As for me, I have to approach it in a spiritual way, although I a grateful to have an occasional excuse to use words like “epiphenomenal,” I don’t want to deceive myself into thinking that I understand. Quantum physics has shed light on some mysteries, like how birds navigate or how plants photosynthesize so efficiently. It’s beautiful and to most of us more mysterious than the mysteries it replaced.
Julian Barber promoted a theory a few years back, that the four essential forces could be unified. But, there was a catch, there was no such thing as time. I heard him interviewed, and he was asked, “Do you mean ‘no such thing as time’ in the way some strains of Buddhism view time?” He said that was precisely what he meant.
One of the tragedies of our time is that so many of us are stuck on a Bronze Age view of the world, like being stuck on a piece of mental flypaper. The world is almost ready to give us a few more secrets. Think of all the work being done explaining the surprising intelligence of animals and plants. There is an astounding range of consciousness and we are just prying the door open. That’s why addressing climate change is so important, the world can’t reveal her secrets if we let her die.
Swami: How do you know?
Robert,
You can carry on, because you must.
You promised Monica Faith!
If not you, then who?…
Goatherd,
The world won’t die – we will.
The world will carry on.
And, given enough time, may come up with a more sentient, less hate/fear/bigotry filled species, than we humans.
Oy…
My comments are in moderation…
Check out Darth Trump. I’m not very familiar with Trump’s comments, and so the video/mix is all the more unnerving. I hate to say this, but I think he will win in a landslide. I thumbed through a copy of Crippled America while wandering around a CostCo last night.
Goatherd, you mentioned “GroundHog Day”,a favorite film of mine on many levels. You might also enjoy Cloud Atlas.
My boss was a physics major, who repeatedly insists that time doesn’t exist. He makes the point that you can factor it out of physics equations and they still hold.
Experientially it’s not hard to see that the past is nothing but memories and the future is nothing but imagination. There is only now.
Robert, I very much enjoy your comments. I haven’t yet “died” in this lifetime (although going to sleep each night is practice), but I know from first hand experience that people continue on past their physical death, simply because I’ve connected with a few close relatives shortly after their passing. I didn’t ask for this, it just happened.
I’m not special, I think anybody can have these experiences, but you have to develop an attunement for the other dimensions to life – meditation is a key practice – and this is difficult in a culture such as ours which is almost completely materialistic and is so totally outer focused.
grannyeagle.. I deduced it. 🙂
gulag…It’s the fear of moderation that makes me reluctant to dispense my pearls of wisdom.
At least for this weekend the motto of moderation will be…Abandon all hope ye comments that enter here.
Swami
On the plus side, my word-turds weren’t earth-shattering – one was supportive of Robert, and the other one reminding goatherd that this planet will keep spinning, regardless of whether we humans are on it, or not.
grannyeagle…I didn’t mean to be flippant with that comment to you above. In answer to your question.. I don’t know what the experience of death is..My belief about death is that it is simply lights out. I find the most comfort in that belief. I think that to hold on to anything more than that is a conceit or non acceptance of the idea that something so magnificent as a human being can just revert back into a form energy and matter that has no semblance to its previous state.
Swami: I took no offense to your remark. I realize that we humans have no conscious idea what happens when the body dies. But that is my point. There is more to this life than the brain and what it is aware of. After all, it operates by electro impulses and chemical reactions. But what controls the brain? What is thought? And who is the thinker? Reincarnation is a fact. You do not have the same body you did yesterday. Cells are constantly dying and new ones replacing the old ones. And no atom in the body is touching another atom. There is a lot of space there. So even though the body appears solid, it is not. What is it that keeps the body alive? As for lights outs, that happens whenever you go to sleep. That is simply the conscious mind resting and the unconscious taking over.
Of course, these are questions humans have been pondering since the beginning. You believe what gives you comfort and that is as it should be. You have mentioned before that you are all about love. That is all that matters. Just ask my dog.
My comments to Swami are in moderation so I will just say to you Swami, I’m not offended.
To Goatherd: Groundhog Day is one of my favorite movies and you’re right, I think that is the purpose of reincarnation. We get to do it over and over and over until we get it right. As for science and spirituality, I see no conflict. There is a great mystery out there, down here and everywhere. I like what Carl Sagan said about the Cosmos: ” It is all there is, all there ever was and all there ever will be.” That is a very spiritual concept. When it comes right down to it, all we have is our experience of the world and we have the free will to decide what it means to us. As I said in my response to Swami: Love is all that matters.
My last two comments to Swami and Goatherd are in moderation. I didn’t use any bad words.
“It is ambiguous, due to my bad writing”
Goatherd, No understood your intent, I simply took one sentence and used it out of context for my own purposes!
Cund, I hadn’t forgotten that the world, in the broadest sense of the term, will go on without us. But, the loss of mankind, and of “might have been,” still strikes me as tragic. I am not a great student of anything, more like a yard wide and a millimeter deep. So, I have some superficial contact with history, literature, music and science, but, really just enough to develop a fondness for the human race and its place in the incredible circus of events. Although, I have to admit, if I were a better student, I might have less admiration for our role in the great scheme.
Maybe I am projecting my own shortcomings on the rest of humanity, but, as a race, we can tend towards the sentimental. I remember watching Dr. Brian Cox in a documentary about the life of the universe. He projected current theory in a scenario in which the universe will keep expanding and gradually deplete its energy until there are only very rarefied quanta of energy remaining, and eventually, they will disappear. This process will require a time period of hundreds of trillions of years. I find it curious that this sort of scenario, although entirely conjectural, makes me feel kind of sad. I am obviously inclined towards the maudlin, but, I also think that most humans are constructed in such a way that the metaphorical significance of the darkness and loneliness resonates, despite there being inconceivable differences in the scale of time and distance. For better or worse, we use the universe as a mirror, and it’s only with a lot of effort that we step outside of this limitation. We can gain insight looking into the mirror or beyond it, but, we have to have some handle on which of these techniques we are using.
The universe doesn’t have a meaning, because it doesn’t refer to anything, it simply IS. We try to make it mean something, and to speak in a language that we understand. In some ways that’s a fool’s errand, in others it’s our whole reason for being.
Thanks, Uncle, but, I think it is painfully obvious that I need a good editor, probably one armed with a taser.
By the way, I’ve shortened commenter’s names. I think the twit filter picks them out to guard against personal attacks. We’ll see.
It’s ironic, isn’t it? Maha is in extended meditation, and we make so much monkey chatter. I have to be the worst offender. I’m complete rubbish at meditation, but, I need to begin with the basics and give it another try.
Good day, all.
all the “monkey chatter” helps me gain insights into my own little world…all you folks who comment here are very much appreciated by me…Maha is a soothing soul…and cund, comedy is difficult…
Well, I’m out of moderation, so maha must be home.
Welcome back!
All rested, relaxed and meditated, I hope.
I ought to try meditation.
All my life, when I heard that word, I thought people were telling me to try mediCation!
And so I did.
Whooooooooooops!
Neeeeeeeeeeeever mind…
Wow, it does look like a lot we lost a lot in “moderation.” But, at least we got it back in the end.
Moonbat, I don’t see many films, but I did like “Cloud Atlas” a lot. I bet it might be better on a large screen.
“When it comes right down to it, all we have is our experience.” Yeah, I’ll go along with that.
Next time we have an open thread maybe we should try the old conversation filler, “Read any good books lately?” I bet that would take us to some interesting places.
We get to do it over and over and over until we get it right.
grannyeagle
grannyeagle …. Can you elaborate on what that means? To me it’s saying that there is a God, a sentient being, who has set a standard which must be attained in order to achieve some sort of fulfillment of purpose?
I just don’t get what get it right means..Pure love?
grannyeagle …. Can you elaborate on what that means? To me it’s saying that there is a God, a sentient being, who has set a standard which must be attained in order to achieve some sort of fulfillment of purpose?
I just don’t get what get it right means..Pure love?
Interesting that the gang waits til Maya is gone to indulge in deep thinking. IMO, mankind will survive. Pre industrial we inhabited the globe from the rain forest to frozen tundra. Civilization as we call it is at risk. I agree with comments on reincarnation. Some people seem incredibly stuck in a rut and one wonders how destiny will free them. I’m determined to do one thing this time around – get the money out of politics and hope it’s enough and in time to avert a crash.
Maybe we’re all just cells in one great being ? I like this video by Melody sheep featuring George Carlin and Hicks called “the big electron” GOOGLE knows where to find it.
Swami: I will do my best to put into words what “getting it right” means. At least from my perspective. I will use the word “God” just for simplicity even though it does carry a lot of baggage. And a lot of what I say is stuff I have heard from others, not my original ideas. I like the idea of the Tao. It is said that the Tao that can be spoken of is not the Tao. This means that when we start to describe or define the Tao, we lose it. The Tao just is. So if we substitute the word God for Tao, perhaps it is easier to understand. God just is. God just naturally creates and it has been said that humans and their experience is a way for God to experience itself. The problem is that humans have lost their sense that they are a part of God. That we are children of God. We feel separated but it is impossible to be separated because God is all that is. This is what I believe the story of the fall of man is all about. As spirits began to take material bodies on earth, they became too attached and lost their ability to express their “divine” nature. This is what Jesus was trying to tell everyone. That our real nature is of God and therefore divine. Those that heard his message couldn’t accept it so they made a hero of him and wanted him to save them. The reality is nobody needs saving and if they do they have to save themselves. We just need to realize our nature is love because that is what God is. God does not set standards. There is no need. We humans need to realize that love is all that matters. We don’t get sent to hell if we mess up and make mistakes. We get to try again and again until we realize what we are doing wrong. God is always there to support us. That is the story in Groundhog Day. The main character was egotistic, selfish and tried to get what he wanted by doing all the wrong things. He wasn’t really bad, just misguided. When he finally got tired of having to repeat the same day over and over, he gave up and decided to just be unselfish and loving. That worked. Yes, getting it right is pure love.
Meditation is recommended because the mind is quieted and the spirit (our real self) can “do its thing”. The Bible says: “Be still and know that I am God”.
These are ancient ideas and not mine. When our time on this earth is over, the spirit withdraws. The body returns to the dust of the earth. Where the spirit goes, I don’t know but it does not die. It cannot die because it is part of God which is eternal. There are those that speak of the Akashic Records which is the Book of Life. Everything is recorded there. The spirit reviews its life, and after a rest returns to the earth sphere to continue its journey. Edgar Cayce says that the soul also has experiences on the other planets in the solar system. But not in a physical form. There is so much we do not know and as far as I’m concerned, it is all very interesting but to keep it simple, I just try to remember: Love is all that matters.
I hope this helps explain what I meant. But remember you are the one to make sense of your own experiences and believe what you choose.
I just can’t seem to stop. I agree with Doug. Mankind will survive. However, I think mankind is not the ultimate in evolution. We are still evolving. The idea out there is that we are on the verge of a huge evolutionary leap. For those aware of the 7 chakras, there will soon be 12. And even Michio Kaku says we humans have a long way to go. Eternity is a long time.
“I just can’t seem to stop.”
That’s the fun of it, and who knows, maybe we’ll come up with something worthwhile.
Maybe I’m bogged down in Bertie Wooster, one of my role models, but, sometimes the comments can be like a nice cocktail party. This has an enhanced meaning to me, because I live in a place where cocktail parties a la Jeeves and Wooster, simply do not occur, and it’s a hundred mile round trip just to get a decent sherry. Still, going into the woods had its advantages. Although sometimes they don’t come to mind so easily.
Lately, I’ve begun to lose patience with the fundamentalists that lie so think on the ground here. Occasionally, one approaches me in a public place handing out childish tracts about the end of the world or something. They think its going to happen as described in Revelations, and I think it’s going to happen because of greenhouse gases. If we were honest, we’d both end up pointing the finger at each other. But, most of us were socialized to be polite and tolerant. Maybe it would be better if we weren’t, maybe it’s better as it is.
We’ve all talked about beliefs, but, I try not to have any beliefs. I find that if I hold a belief, my confirmation bias comes forward. Unfortunately, it’s difficult not to believe something, comforting or otherwise. It’s difficult not to construct a comforting metaphor or model for what we seem to be discovering. Gradually the universe is becoming conscious of itself, and maybe we are part of that. For the moment, that’s my story, but instead of sticking to it, I’ll jump ship when the moment comes.
I remember a joke that my favorite philosophy professor told about Heraclitus. “Heraclitus said that ‘you can’t step into the same river twice, whereas the Buddhists say you can’t step into the same river once.’ ”
I suppose that’s an old chestnut of some sort, but, it’s about the only thing I remember from his classes.
By the way, Granny, I like Michio Kaku too.
Goatherd: It seems we think alike in a lot of ways. I also try not to have any beliefs because beliefs are limiting. But, as you say, it is difficult not to believe in something. That’s why it is important to be open and willing to change one’s mind. It’s not that there is anything new in the universe, it’s just that we are evolving and discovering the truth. I see Jesus and the Buddha as having realized the truth. It is said that someone once asked Buddha if he was enlightened and he answered, “No, I am awake”. Maybe if we all could meditate under a Bodhi tree, it could happen to us. But we all have our own path to travel. It really doesn’t matter what we believe, it only matters how we live our life and how we treat others and also all of God’s creation. It is summarized in the first 2 commandments. 1. Love the Lord thy God with all your heart. 2. Love your neighbor as yourself. I interpret the second one not as love your neighbor as much as you love yourself but love your neighbor as if he were yourself. Because we all are one under God. There is no separation. I always get amazed and a little irritated with myself when I start quoting the Bible because I am not a Christian but the truth is where we find it. So I will just follow my heart.
I am envious of you living away from civilization. I have always wanted to live in a little cabin in the woods away from people and the world. But I know I could not survive that way and since I had my heart attack, I feel the need to be close to emergency services. But it doesn’t really matter where one lives, it only matters how one lives.
,
Yes, Granny, we think alike in a lot of ways. In fact, at least in this series of comments, we’re all on the same page, both literally and figuratively.
“I always get amazed and a little irritated with myself when I start quoting the Bible because I am not a Christian but the truth is where we find it. So I will just follow my heart.” That’s how I feel too. I had a couple of years of theology courses back in junior high school and that has stayed with me. I used to be irritated when people would insist that I could only approach Buddhism through what I had assimilated of Christianity. But, now, I think they had a point. I still like to read about Christianity and its history, but, I look at it from a Buddhist perspective. Essentially, Jesus was a teacher who had found his Buddha nature.
Country life has been good to us. We were intent on moving to the EU for the last few years and we’re still strongly considering it, although I will have to get moving on selling off the various things I’ve collected over the years. –So, we’re fixing up the house either to sell it, or to do the repairs that we won’t be able to do when I am a doddering old man, which could happen at any time.
The catch is that as we fix it up, we get attached to it again. I remember walking through the house and determining that I could sell everything except two things, a marble bust that I still think of as the most beautiful thing in our house, and an antique cheese grater that works like a charm. Everything else was expendable. But, the list has grown. I mentioned before, the thought of surrendering my horses to the whims of the world breaks my heart. This muddy little place is their home as much as it is ours.
Maybe that’s just an excuse or maybe it isn’t. I am probably just masking my own attachment by projecting it on the goats and horses. On top of that, I love working with my hands, restoring old junk of one kind or another. So the various projects bind me here more and more. “Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.”
The funny part is that if we do sell and move on, the new owners will gut everything, repaint, remodel and give the antique fixtures that I have restored to Goodwill, and replace them with flashy junk from Home Depot. There won’t be an ounce of wabi sabi left. That’s got to be analogous to something.
I might find a new adventure in life, simple and downsized, free at last, or very nearly. Culture and civilization have their siren calls, but so does the familiar peace of the farm. Apres tout, je suis un plouc. The little Appaloosa filly foal that I helped to her feet when she was thirty minutes old is an old horse now. Her mother “died in my arms” a few years back. I think I’d like her to do the same.
Goatherd: What a beautiful story you tell. Your relation to the land, nature, your animals. How could one not get attached to that? Our little planet is so amazing and beautiful, no wonder we keep coming back. It is hard to let go. It reminds me of Neil Diamond’s song “Done Too Soon”. However, we do have to move on at some point. The nature of life is change. Having recently sold my house and getting rid of a lot of my belongings, I am going through a grieving process. There were some items I refused to give up: my books, an old console radio from my childhood and a library table that my dad made. I kept a few pieces of furniture for comfort but not for sentimental reasons. Oh yes, I refused to give up my dog. He is my soulmate and I could never abandon him. He would never abandon me. That made it harder to find a place to rent but I did my best in searching and left the rest up to the higher forces.
Being disappointed with the condition of the U.S., I have felt the urge to move somewhere else. My fantasy is a little fishing village in Ireland. But this country is home and I’m used to it. Besides, I couldn’t move that far from my son and daughter. I would be alone there and that doesn’t appeal to me. I do not make friends easily. So for now Walla Walla is home, it is a very nice little town. And there are like minded people here who are my friends. Who knows where my journey will lead me? As the guy in Castaway said: You never know what the tide will bring in.
I really dislike it when Maha goes on vacation but all these comments have been inspirational for me. Remember, you can take the guy/gal out of the country but you can’t take the country out of the guy/gal.
Grannyeagle and goatherd,
I live the dialogue you’re carrying on – beautiful & enlightening.
I bet maha does too.
Well, I suppose it’s time to say goodbye, although I never know when to shut up.
Thanks to Granny and to everyone else as well. That fishing village in Ireland sounds great, but so does Walla Walla. As we get ready for the long nap, the two main choices seem to be a cozy fire or one last adventure, at least to the degree that we have a choice at all about where life takes us. It’s when you make a wrong turn that you find something new. I ought to know after so many wrong turns and bad decisions, but so far dumb luck has pulled me through and I’m still on my feet.
If wishes were fishes the last part of my life would be like this clip from a film. But, instead this is my mini-vacation video, five minutes of refreshment without having to go through airport security. …and I love the music.
Let’s get ready to…
To…
POTTY!
.. ?
Whoops…
Gettin’ old…
Let’s try this again:
GET READY PAAAAAAAAAAAAAARTY!!!!
“Where da white women at?”
*crickets*
Ah…
Ok…
Never mind “Blazing Saddles” – gettin’ too old to be choosy:
‘Where any o’ da any women at?’
*More crickets………..*
Oh, crap.
Never mind.
I’m too old to do… anything…
Anything fun, anyway
Let’s get ready to………
Sleep!
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzZzzzzZZZZZzzzzz…
Oh, and screw the “Rolling Stones!”
I’m on my ‘10,019th Nervous Breakdown!’
And it gets worse!
“What a drag it is…
Getting oldER!!!
Oh, look at the time!
It’s time to take a pill!!!
(When isn’t it, anymore…?).
Have fun, maha! 🙂
And da res’ o’ yuz, two… too…!
Aaaaaaaah…
Turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream – it is not dying, it is not dying…
Guys – If we take power naps and don’t get drunk or misbehave Maha will be crushed. One more time – for old times sake..
toga
Toga
Toga…
Way to go, animals…..
Who’s gonna get me out of the twit filter?
It’s curious, or maybe not curious at all, that the conversation so quickly turned toward a pretty dark subject. At a certain age, the world really does start to “smell of mortality.” We start to face it with a joke or two, which seems to work pretty well.
A few years back I was buying some fenceposts. You can’t get the good locust wood ones anymore. The pressure treated ones are the cores left over from making veneer for plywood, comparatively, they are junk. “They’ll last about thirty years,” or at least that’s what our farm supply man said. I remember thinking, maybe for the first time, “That’s good enough, I’ll be dead by then.” The fence would be someone else’s problem.
But, that’s not really the way we think, is it? Somehow, towards the end of the picnic in the park, we want to straighten things up, put the rubbish in the trash can leave the place a little nicer for the folks coming tomorrow. That seems simple enough, but, it’s not always easy to do, especially in our current political climate. So, at some point, you really do have to let go, “relax and float downstream.” (H/T to moonbat)
Sorry for being so sappy, guys. This should cheer you up.
https://youtu.be/BKcYGOIJhqo
Hmmm….contemplating one’s own end…been there done that…I died for two minutes, of post surgery blood clots…I remember it being a comfortable feeling…there was no sound…it was warm and inviting….there, before me, was the face of my deceased daughter…I was drifting, softly and steadily towards her….I felt her hands on my shoulders, and I heard her speak to me within my mind, as to what she wanted me to do…She, gently pushed me away and I woke up to the frantic nurses trying get machines hooked up to me, and the flurry of activity was confusing me….I didn’t realize that I had died…So, two minutes, seemed a lifetime…human mortality is a constant…we all die in the end….it is what we do in the meantime, that will define our souls and our lives that we have lived…I think we will have to answer to those loved ones who have gone before us…and as maha delves into her innerself, we must do so ourselves, in our own way….and Cund, it is so good to read your comments…thanks….
My two comments that I just added under “Bad Hair” may be in the twit filter all weekend.
I shall meditate on what I wrote to deserve it.
“That’s good enough, I’ll be dead by then.â€
Goatherd,
Have you been reading the GOP strategy playbook again? That seems to be their reason for not addressing climate change as well as a host of other issues. See when you don’t feel a responsibility beyond your own existence life becomes so much simpler…………………. as long as you don’t have a conscious!
Uncledad, you have to read the paragraph following that. But, I see your point. It is ambiguous, due to my bad writing. Sorry. You’ve summed up the Republican’s position on so many issues. (By the way I can’t bring myself to call them the “GOP,” there is nothing “grand” about them.)
Is a Boy Scout thing, “always leave a place better than you found it?” At my age, it seems like a Buddhist teaching, maybe just due to an aging brain. But, as we get a whiff of the pine suit, it seems like we want to put everything right, give away the things that we’ve acquired, and hope that someone puts them to good use. I think these are good and natural impulses, but, they are also a new set of desires. Some part of it may be tangled up with wanting to go beyond this life. Whatever it is doesn’t matter to me, as long as some good comes of it. Of all the things that we do in life, few, if any of them are ever entirely good, or entirely bad. But, if on balance, we did a little more good and a little less harm, that’s not too shabby.
What I attempted to bring into the conversation was “attachment,” the primary cause of suffering in the world. But, I can be kind of ham handed when it comes to words. It really is important to try to feel for others and to search for some definition of what it means to be human, in both a subjective and objective sense. One gift is that with age the subjective and objective seem to blend together, or so it seems.
————–
Wow, Robert, that must have been an overwhelming experience. It recalls the time just after my father died, and my mother was convinced that he visited her in the form of a small light that would appear in her bedroom. Years later, I sat with her on her last day. “I talked with your father this morning. He’s been coming around for a couple of days.”
“Really?” I said.
“Yeah, he’s sitting right next to you now.”
On the farm, I’ve seen a lot of birth and death, sometimes far too close together. I’ve come to feel that a being or creature entering or leaving the world gives you a gift, a sense of the depth of existence. It’s a kind of communion, though, that sounds odd, doesn’t it?
Aww Hell, I’m just an old codger spouting nonsense. Take it for what it’s worth, and that’s probably nothing at all.
Wow! A lot of deep thinking. I will be short and sweet.
“Dying is easy, it’s living that’s hard.”
Dying is easy.
Comedy is hard…
But, I can be kind of ham handed when it comes to words.
Au contraire!
Dying is easy …
I don’t know, I’ll have to try it a couple of times before I can render an opinion.
Muy bondadoso, Swami, como siempre.
Goatherd: Dying is easy….I’m sure you have already tried it at least a few hundred times. I am convinced that all of us have had many lifetimes on this planet. We keep coming back for some strange reason.
Well, the experience of death is the same experience you had before you were born. Simply put, it’s just lights out. And chances are you won’t know you’re dead or even remember ever being alive.
today is an auspicious day for me…today, 34 years ago, my Light was born, Monica Faith…Such a beautiful little person, one who would shine brightly until her death, on this day eight years ago, my Light was extinguished…and with it my love for life…I am but a shell of a father….a shell of a man who loved and cherished this vibrant woman, mother, and daughter….it was my baby girl who made me promise to raise and care for her baby boy…I cannot continue…………..
That’s what they say, grannyeagle. Samsara. Sometimes, I think it is possible in the literal sense, other times I think that it’s a metaphor, that we are reborn in each instant and “new” in a sense. Most of the time I don’t think of it at all.
Without going into too much detail, I am familiar with events like the one Robert wrote about, but, I should make it clear, NOT from personal experience. It seems that it is one of those things that words fail and that must be experienced. People often describe a feeling of peace and well being. I was with my mother when she died and she seemed at peace, and in some strange way, she seemed “happy” to have run the whole race.
I haven’t seen it in quite a while, but, I like the film “Groundhog Day.” It’s an obvious metaphor for reincarnation and the quality of samsara that keeps us coming back, until we get it right.
But, for me, science and spirituality seem blended together. I don’t have a particular talent for either one. But, some of the conjectures floating around in science seem right on the edge of spirituality. Although, I have to admit, I am talking about popularized science, watered down, specifically for people like me to consume, to provide us with the illusion that we “have a clue” about the world.
Quantum physics is baffling to say the least, but, some current thought about the nature of the mind is that it is epiphenomenal to the physical apparatus of the brain. We have enough understanding of the brain to do surgeries and minor repairs and diagnoses. But, the mind stops us short, except that we are beginning to suspect that it is a quantum phenomenon. As for me, I have to approach it in a spiritual way, although I a grateful to have an occasional excuse to use words like “epiphenomenal,” I don’t want to deceive myself into thinking that I understand. Quantum physics has shed light on some mysteries, like how birds navigate or how plants photosynthesize so efficiently. It’s beautiful and to most of us more mysterious than the mysteries it replaced.
Julian Barber promoted a theory a few years back, that the four essential forces could be unified. But, there was a catch, there was no such thing as time. I heard him interviewed, and he was asked, “Do you mean ‘no such thing as time’ in the way some strains of Buddhism view time?” He said that was precisely what he meant.
One of the tragedies of our time is that so many of us are stuck on a Bronze Age view of the world, like being stuck on a piece of mental flypaper. The world is almost ready to give us a few more secrets. Think of all the work being done explaining the surprising intelligence of animals and plants. There is an astounding range of consciousness and we are just prying the door open. That’s why addressing climate change is so important, the world can’t reveal her secrets if we let her die.
Swami: How do you know?
Robert,
You can carry on, because you must.
You promised Monica Faith!
If not you, then who?…
Goatherd,
The world won’t die – we will.
The world will carry on.
And, given enough time, may come up with a more sentient, less hate/fear/bigotry filled species, than we humans.
Oy…
My comments are in moderation…
Check out Darth Trump. I’m not very familiar with Trump’s comments, and so the video/mix is all the more unnerving. I hate to say this, but I think he will win in a landslide. I thumbed through a copy of Crippled America while wandering around a CostCo last night.
Goatherd, you mentioned “GroundHog Day”,a favorite film of mine on many levels. You might also enjoy Cloud Atlas.
My boss was a physics major, who repeatedly insists that time doesn’t exist. He makes the point that you can factor it out of physics equations and they still hold.
Experientially it’s not hard to see that the past is nothing but memories and the future is nothing but imagination. There is only now.
Robert, I very much enjoy your comments. I haven’t yet “died” in this lifetime (although going to sleep each night is practice), but I know from first hand experience that people continue on past their physical death, simply because I’ve connected with a few close relatives shortly after their passing. I didn’t ask for this, it just happened.
I’m not special, I think anybody can have these experiences, but you have to develop an attunement for the other dimensions to life – meditation is a key practice – and this is difficult in a culture such as ours which is almost completely materialistic and is so totally outer focused.
grannyeagle.. I deduced it. 🙂
gulag…It’s the fear of moderation that makes me reluctant to dispense my pearls of wisdom.
At least for this weekend the motto of moderation will be…Abandon all hope ye comments that enter here.
Swami
On the plus side, my word-turds weren’t earth-shattering – one was supportive of Robert, and the other one reminding goatherd that this planet will keep spinning, regardless of whether we humans are on it, or not.
grannyeagle…I didn’t mean to be flippant with that comment to you above. In answer to your question.. I don’t know what the experience of death is..My belief about death is that it is simply lights out. I find the most comfort in that belief. I think that to hold on to anything more than that is a conceit or non acceptance of the idea that something so magnificent as a human being can just revert back into a form energy and matter that has no semblance to its previous state.
Swami: I took no offense to your remark. I realize that we humans have no conscious idea what happens when the body dies. But that is my point. There is more to this life than the brain and what it is aware of. After all, it operates by electro impulses and chemical reactions. But what controls the brain? What is thought? And who is the thinker? Reincarnation is a fact. You do not have the same body you did yesterday. Cells are constantly dying and new ones replacing the old ones. And no atom in the body is touching another atom. There is a lot of space there. So even though the body appears solid, it is not. What is it that keeps the body alive? As for lights outs, that happens whenever you go to sleep. That is simply the conscious mind resting and the unconscious taking over.
Of course, these are questions humans have been pondering since the beginning. You believe what gives you comfort and that is as it should be. You have mentioned before that you are all about love. That is all that matters. Just ask my dog.
My comments to Swami are in moderation so I will just say to you Swami, I’m not offended.
To Goatherd: Groundhog Day is one of my favorite movies and you’re right, I think that is the purpose of reincarnation. We get to do it over and over and over until we get it right. As for science and spirituality, I see no conflict. There is a great mystery out there, down here and everywhere. I like what Carl Sagan said about the Cosmos: ” It is all there is, all there ever was and all there ever will be.” That is a very spiritual concept. When it comes right down to it, all we have is our experience of the world and we have the free will to decide what it means to us. As I said in my response to Swami: Love is all that matters.
My last two comments to Swami and Goatherd are in moderation. I didn’t use any bad words.
“It is ambiguous, due to my bad writing”
Goatherd, No understood your intent, I simply took one sentence and used it out of context for my own purposes!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBmUX74aME0
Cund, I hadn’t forgotten that the world, in the broadest sense of the term, will go on without us. But, the loss of mankind, and of “might have been,” still strikes me as tragic. I am not a great student of anything, more like a yard wide and a millimeter deep. So, I have some superficial contact with history, literature, music and science, but, really just enough to develop a fondness for the human race and its place in the incredible circus of events. Although, I have to admit, if I were a better student, I might have less admiration for our role in the great scheme.
Maybe I am projecting my own shortcomings on the rest of humanity, but, as a race, we can tend towards the sentimental. I remember watching Dr. Brian Cox in a documentary about the life of the universe. He projected current theory in a scenario in which the universe will keep expanding and gradually deplete its energy until there are only very rarefied quanta of energy remaining, and eventually, they will disappear. This process will require a time period of hundreds of trillions of years. I find it curious that this sort of scenario, although entirely conjectural, makes me feel kind of sad. I am obviously inclined towards the maudlin, but, I also think that most humans are constructed in such a way that the metaphorical significance of the darkness and loneliness resonates, despite there being inconceivable differences in the scale of time and distance. For better or worse, we use the universe as a mirror, and it’s only with a lot of effort that we step outside of this limitation. We can gain insight looking into the mirror or beyond it, but, we have to have some handle on which of these techniques we are using.
The universe doesn’t have a meaning, because it doesn’t refer to anything, it simply IS. We try to make it mean something, and to speak in a language that we understand. In some ways that’s a fool’s errand, in others it’s our whole reason for being.
Thanks, Uncle, but, I think it is painfully obvious that I need a good editor, probably one armed with a taser.
By the way, I’ve shortened commenter’s names. I think the twit filter picks them out to guard against personal attacks. We’ll see.
It’s ironic, isn’t it? Maha is in extended meditation, and we make so much monkey chatter. I have to be the worst offender. I’m complete rubbish at meditation, but, I need to begin with the basics and give it another try.
Good day, all.
all the “monkey chatter” helps me gain insights into my own little world…all you folks who comment here are very much appreciated by me…Maha is a soothing soul…and cund, comedy is difficult…
Well, I’m out of moderation, so maha must be home.
Welcome back!
All rested, relaxed and meditated, I hope.
I ought to try meditation.
All my life, when I heard that word, I thought people were telling me to try mediCation!
And so I did.
Whooooooooooops!
Neeeeeeeeeeeever mind…
Wow, it does look like a lot we lost a lot in “moderation.” But, at least we got it back in the end.
Moonbat, I don’t see many films, but I did like “Cloud Atlas” a lot. I bet it might be better on a large screen.
“When it comes right down to it, all we have is our experience.” Yeah, I’ll go along with that.
Next time we have an open thread maybe we should try the old conversation filler, “Read any good books lately?” I bet that would take us to some interesting places.
We get to do it over and over and over until we get it right.
grannyeagle
grannyeagle …. Can you elaborate on what that means? To me it’s saying that there is a God, a sentient being, who has set a standard which must be attained in order to achieve some sort of fulfillment of purpose?
I just don’t get what get it right means..Pure love?
grannyeagle …. Can you elaborate on what that means? To me it’s saying that there is a God, a sentient being, who has set a standard which must be attained in order to achieve some sort of fulfillment of purpose?
I just don’t get what get it right means..Pure love?
Interesting that the gang waits til Maya is gone to indulge in deep thinking. IMO, mankind will survive. Pre industrial we inhabited the globe from the rain forest to frozen tundra. Civilization as we call it is at risk. I agree with comments on reincarnation. Some people seem incredibly stuck in a rut and one wonders how destiny will free them. I’m determined to do one thing this time around – get the money out of politics and hope it’s enough and in time to avert a crash.
Maybe we’re all just cells in one great being ? I like this video by Melody sheep featuring George Carlin and Hicks called “the big electron” GOOGLE knows where to find it.
Swami: I will do my best to put into words what “getting it right” means. At least from my perspective. I will use the word “God” just for simplicity even though it does carry a lot of baggage. And a lot of what I say is stuff I have heard from others, not my original ideas. I like the idea of the Tao. It is said that the Tao that can be spoken of is not the Tao. This means that when we start to describe or define the Tao, we lose it. The Tao just is. So if we substitute the word God for Tao, perhaps it is easier to understand. God just is. God just naturally creates and it has been said that humans and their experience is a way for God to experience itself. The problem is that humans have lost their sense that they are a part of God. That we are children of God. We feel separated but it is impossible to be separated because God is all that is. This is what I believe the story of the fall of man is all about. As spirits began to take material bodies on earth, they became too attached and lost their ability to express their “divine” nature. This is what Jesus was trying to tell everyone. That our real nature is of God and therefore divine. Those that heard his message couldn’t accept it so they made a hero of him and wanted him to save them. The reality is nobody needs saving and if they do they have to save themselves. We just need to realize our nature is love because that is what God is. God does not set standards. There is no need. We humans need to realize that love is all that matters. We don’t get sent to hell if we mess up and make mistakes. We get to try again and again until we realize what we are doing wrong. God is always there to support us. That is the story in Groundhog Day. The main character was egotistic, selfish and tried to get what he wanted by doing all the wrong things. He wasn’t really bad, just misguided. When he finally got tired of having to repeat the same day over and over, he gave up and decided to just be unselfish and loving. That worked. Yes, getting it right is pure love.
Meditation is recommended because the mind is quieted and the spirit (our real self) can “do its thing”. The Bible says: “Be still and know that I am God”.
These are ancient ideas and not mine. When our time on this earth is over, the spirit withdraws. The body returns to the dust of the earth. Where the spirit goes, I don’t know but it does not die. It cannot die because it is part of God which is eternal. There are those that speak of the Akashic Records which is the Book of Life. Everything is recorded there. The spirit reviews its life, and after a rest returns to the earth sphere to continue its journey. Edgar Cayce says that the soul also has experiences on the other planets in the solar system. But not in a physical form. There is so much we do not know and as far as I’m concerned, it is all very interesting but to keep it simple, I just try to remember: Love is all that matters.
I hope this helps explain what I meant. But remember you are the one to make sense of your own experiences and believe what you choose.
I just can’t seem to stop. I agree with Doug. Mankind will survive. However, I think mankind is not the ultimate in evolution. We are still evolving. The idea out there is that we are on the verge of a huge evolutionary leap. For those aware of the 7 chakras, there will soon be 12. And even Michio Kaku says we humans have a long way to go. Eternity is a long time.
“I just can’t seem to stop.”
That’s the fun of it, and who knows, maybe we’ll come up with something worthwhile.
Maybe I’m bogged down in Bertie Wooster, one of my role models, but, sometimes the comments can be like a nice cocktail party. This has an enhanced meaning to me, because I live in a place where cocktail parties a la Jeeves and Wooster, simply do not occur, and it’s a hundred mile round trip just to get a decent sherry. Still, going into the woods had its advantages. Although sometimes they don’t come to mind so easily.
Lately, I’ve begun to lose patience with the fundamentalists that lie so think on the ground here. Occasionally, one approaches me in a public place handing out childish tracts about the end of the world or something. They think its going to happen as described in Revelations, and I think it’s going to happen because of greenhouse gases. If we were honest, we’d both end up pointing the finger at each other. But, most of us were socialized to be polite and tolerant. Maybe it would be better if we weren’t, maybe it’s better as it is.
We’ve all talked about beliefs, but, I try not to have any beliefs. I find that if I hold a belief, my confirmation bias comes forward. Unfortunately, it’s difficult not to believe something, comforting or otherwise. It’s difficult not to construct a comforting metaphor or model for what we seem to be discovering. Gradually the universe is becoming conscious of itself, and maybe we are part of that. For the moment, that’s my story, but instead of sticking to it, I’ll jump ship when the moment comes.
I remember a joke that my favorite philosophy professor told about Heraclitus. “Heraclitus said that ‘you can’t step into the same river twice, whereas the Buddhists say you can’t step into the same river once.’ ”
I suppose that’s an old chestnut of some sort, but, it’s about the only thing I remember from his classes.
By the way, Granny, I like Michio Kaku too.
Goatherd: It seems we think alike in a lot of ways. I also try not to have any beliefs because beliefs are limiting. But, as you say, it is difficult not to believe in something. That’s why it is important to be open and willing to change one’s mind. It’s not that there is anything new in the universe, it’s just that we are evolving and discovering the truth. I see Jesus and the Buddha as having realized the truth. It is said that someone once asked Buddha if he was enlightened and he answered, “No, I am awake”. Maybe if we all could meditate under a Bodhi tree, it could happen to us. But we all have our own path to travel. It really doesn’t matter what we believe, it only matters how we live our life and how we treat others and also all of God’s creation. It is summarized in the first 2 commandments. 1. Love the Lord thy God with all your heart. 2. Love your neighbor as yourself. I interpret the second one not as love your neighbor as much as you love yourself but love your neighbor as if he were yourself. Because we all are one under God. There is no separation. I always get amazed and a little irritated with myself when I start quoting the Bible because I am not a Christian but the truth is where we find it. So I will just follow my heart.
I am envious of you living away from civilization. I have always wanted to live in a little cabin in the woods away from people and the world. But I know I could not survive that way and since I had my heart attack, I feel the need to be close to emergency services. But it doesn’t really matter where one lives, it only matters how one lives.
,
Yes, Granny, we think alike in a lot of ways. In fact, at least in this series of comments, we’re all on the same page, both literally and figuratively.
“I always get amazed and a little irritated with myself when I start quoting the Bible because I am not a Christian but the truth is where we find it. So I will just follow my heart.” That’s how I feel too. I had a couple of years of theology courses back in junior high school and that has stayed with me. I used to be irritated when people would insist that I could only approach Buddhism through what I had assimilated of Christianity. But, now, I think they had a point. I still like to read about Christianity and its history, but, I look at it from a Buddhist perspective. Essentially, Jesus was a teacher who had found his Buddha nature.
Country life has been good to us. We were intent on moving to the EU for the last few years and we’re still strongly considering it, although I will have to get moving on selling off the various things I’ve collected over the years. –So, we’re fixing up the house either to sell it, or to do the repairs that we won’t be able to do when I am a doddering old man, which could happen at any time.
The catch is that as we fix it up, we get attached to it again. I remember walking through the house and determining that I could sell everything except two things, a marble bust that I still think of as the most beautiful thing in our house, and an antique cheese grater that works like a charm. Everything else was expendable. But, the list has grown. I mentioned before, the thought of surrendering my horses to the whims of the world breaks my heart. This muddy little place is their home as much as it is ours.
Maybe that’s just an excuse or maybe it isn’t. I am probably just masking my own attachment by projecting it on the goats and horses. On top of that, I love working with my hands, restoring old junk of one kind or another. So the various projects bind me here more and more. “Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.”
The funny part is that if we do sell and move on, the new owners will gut everything, repaint, remodel and give the antique fixtures that I have restored to Goodwill, and replace them with flashy junk from Home Depot. There won’t be an ounce of wabi sabi left. That’s got to be analogous to something.
I might find a new adventure in life, simple and downsized, free at last, or very nearly. Culture and civilization have their siren calls, but so does the familiar peace of the farm. Apres tout, je suis un plouc. The little Appaloosa filly foal that I helped to her feet when she was thirty minutes old is an old horse now. Her mother “died in my arms” a few years back. I think I’d like her to do the same.
Goatherd: What a beautiful story you tell. Your relation to the land, nature, your animals. How could one not get attached to that? Our little planet is so amazing and beautiful, no wonder we keep coming back. It is hard to let go. It reminds me of Neil Diamond’s song “Done Too Soon”. However, we do have to move on at some point. The nature of life is change. Having recently sold my house and getting rid of a lot of my belongings, I am going through a grieving process. There were some items I refused to give up: my books, an old console radio from my childhood and a library table that my dad made. I kept a few pieces of furniture for comfort but not for sentimental reasons. Oh yes, I refused to give up my dog. He is my soulmate and I could never abandon him. He would never abandon me. That made it harder to find a place to rent but I did my best in searching and left the rest up to the higher forces.
Being disappointed with the condition of the U.S., I have felt the urge to move somewhere else. My fantasy is a little fishing village in Ireland. But this country is home and I’m used to it. Besides, I couldn’t move that far from my son and daughter. I would be alone there and that doesn’t appeal to me. I do not make friends easily. So for now Walla Walla is home, it is a very nice little town. And there are like minded people here who are my friends. Who knows where my journey will lead me? As the guy in Castaway said: You never know what the tide will bring in.
I really dislike it when Maha goes on vacation but all these comments have been inspirational for me. Remember, you can take the guy/gal out of the country but you can’t take the country out of the guy/gal.
Grannyeagle and goatherd,
I live the dialogue you’re carrying on – beautiful & enlightening.
I bet maha does too.
Well, I suppose it’s time to say goodbye, although I never know when to shut up.
Thanks to Granny and to everyone else as well. That fishing village in Ireland sounds great, but so does Walla Walla. As we get ready for the long nap, the two main choices seem to be a cozy fire or one last adventure, at least to the degree that we have a choice at all about where life takes us. It’s when you make a wrong turn that you find something new. I ought to know after so many wrong turns and bad decisions, but so far dumb luck has pulled me through and I’m still on my feet.
If wishes were fishes the last part of my life would be like this clip from a film. But, instead this is my mini-vacation video, five minutes of refreshment without having to go through airport security. …and I love the music.
https://youtu.be/bmVTnLR02Nc
Let’s pick up the mood around here.. Are we slipping into melancholia?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXmsLe8t_gg