We are weak and on our knees simply trying to comprehend the accelerating suffering from coast to coast and country to country which, as we have known has been simmering for centuries and now reaches the boiling point.
Since I was a little yout, I never got the "why" part. Why beat down the downtrodden? Why create circumstances to deliberately divide us? Why make hard that which is naturally easy, what was it, what is it, they can't see? It follows, of course, that those early years would not have been smooth. But still, they formed me and were imbedded more deeply every single day in one way or another. My crime was holding ideals that differed radically from too many others' ideals, that is, if they held any genuine ideals at all.
I can't say I've changed much in that category. Truth always mattered more, although it commonly comes at a high price. One must be able to convince the medium from which truth comes to you that you will accept it with no repercussions, an impossible feat. The first repercussion is your normal curiosity for truth. And curiosity makes you think which makes you feel a way. It can not be helped.I am sure anyone reading here already knew the repulsive truth about torture many years back. They thought we would forget it with the passing of time, our attention long diverted with school shootings, cyber hackings, privacy leaks and abject consumerism as if "all that was so then" in the same way Bill Cosby might think about his past behaviors. Only now we are presented with a damning report years after the fact and already its being run through the dairy queen dispener. Yes, its Christmas under the tree for the damage control industry which are as you know, ruthless professionals in Timing is Everything whose hands are permanently stained with the stigmata of global misery. Instead of apology they race to deny. They threw this report at us to get those criminal, lippy protestors to knock it off by shifting the spotlight. We're in Present Shock, remember? Where everything happens at once?
I can't breathe.
I want to speak to them directly and let them know WE can't breathe. We can't eat, we can't speak. We can't live, we can't weep because we know their stock in trade and brace ourselves while inside our tortured hearts we are praying they get hip.
But you know, they don't see it that way. They have a vision that they are untouchable, a uniquely superior example of our species, a more perfect person. So remarkably special, revered and powerful, so right, so clean in conscience, communication of any sort with the slightest potential truth might accidentally slip out is not allowed. It appears truth was made illegal and the ruling kept secret because damage management was on vacation in some private blackjack suite high above the golden avenues of Fat City.
The divide is wider than the distance between Mother Earth and Uranus which means it is extremely unlikely we will see any of these white face Ken dolls fess up and get with the program.
The program, (you know the program, you are the program) is and always has been DO NO HARM. There are a million, billion, trillion subheads under that title, including all sizes and manner of beautiful, truly Godly acts of compassion and seva.
I will make it simple for them by saying truthfully, all they have to do is recognize we are all one. Yes! Pan Species Diversity. Without the game, we're all the same. We breathe as one.
There is nothing, NOTHING, less than absolute ZERO, ever to be gained by allowing ignorant prejudice, vanity and testosterone fueled anguish to dictate action.
Raining in My Heart:
Post title from The Best of Slim Harpo
Excello Records, recorded: Crowley, Louisiana,
November 1960
Photo c. Yahoo/Pinterest
51 comments:
Hello Nina....the two scenarios that offer up the most variables of anything on the planet are human nature and Mother nature......and survival is never guaranteed.....
To be able to maintain and hold a harmonious attitude in the face of all things chaotic is true mastery.....Cody Lundin
Yes......encouraging harmony. ...do no harm!
Thank you Terrance, I agree with Lundin. This should be a staple of education beginning from exiting the womb.
Heh, if wishes grew on trees ...
Everybody wants mastery, but most aren't willing to do the work nor would they choose to maintain a harmonious attitude as something that should be mastered. Even now, when chaos is daily life.
But it really isn't difficult if you want to do it. A lot of it is being able to "see yourself" and make improvements to the overall effort.
Rain rain windowpane sizzling round a burning brain
Through the mist a voice i hear words coalesce into a tear
From the tear its all too clear, this is what i need to hear
Be calm, observe, act consciously
Rain Waters
Righteous RW.
It is obvious now it needs to be explained as you and as Terrance have. It is because the variety of ways you interpret what is happening addresses the variety of human minds.
Also, your poetry is impressive. I especially appreciate it when what I have observed and posted inspires such creativity.
Loving the lightkeepers' quarters so much - a true sanctuary.
The lippy protesters haven't "knocked it off", as they'd hoped.
We CAN breathe, and we must, for those who can't.
Each breath filled with protection and power.
We were made to feel powerless, but we aren't and never were. Major un-truth.
We endure through tears and tribulations. Compassion and seva is what the LoveTribe does.
We are right 'on time'.
They are out of time. Ultimately zero gained.
>onelove<>onebreath<
First, I apologize for not replying yesterday, computer fried and so I am starting over here.
Your comment is twenty posts in a few words.
Just because the appearance of zero gain pervades, gain exists and we will continue to see more and weirder distorted concealments and twists. An example of this would be in Cheney's response to the media, Saturday's quote was the torture report was crap, Sunday's quote was it was a crock. This tells us more will be hidden from the public eye the deeper and more horrific it becomes. And as usual, as we know from all of our own experiences, the numbers of protestors and protests dramatically downplayed.
Praise Jah for the Breathers. And Praises for all of us who carry our brothers.
>Respects<
-
wouldn't you know
as i read this, i got
charlie rose on the t v
[my friend is watching it]
he is interviewing a
former ass..cia director
even my bud turns and says
'he's full of shit'
i had to laugh as he is
usually not amenable
can we change the world ? oh yeah
but first we change ourselves
at night sometimes
[i stay up very late]
it is so quiet and peaceful
i can actually think
and feel the world breathing
it breathes into my lungs and i let it go
at the top and bottom of each breathe
there is a space/place
where everything stops
much like when you toss a ball, straight up
gravity stops it and brings it back to your hand
this is where thought is born, sustains and recedes
so happy to have friends,such as you all
-
Esteban, you too are a PBS watcher, as selective as I am no doubt. Surely you enjoyed the Springsteen tribute, John Legend's version of Dancing in the Dark or you are fond of Nature Wednesdays and Wild Africa Thursdays?
I picture you making poetry in a late night whiteout, broken by the occasional fence post and snow boughs bending.
How should we change ourselves? Maybe by wearing earmuffs...
-
hi nina,
yes, i did enjoy john legend - great show
and nature, also
how can we fix/change ourselves ?
by letting go of most of what we've been told
then searching and embracing the truth
and sharing it freely
once we find it, within
-
Thank you Est.
These comments are looking like a thought manual for getting around, stepping over, moving beyond the illusion's burning volcano of pain.
XO
Anybody heard from Scrap?
Another lesson along the Way.......
"It may be that your soul purpose in life is simply to be kind to others."
Merry Christmas!........
I love that one Terrance, our truth condensed to sixteen words.
May everyone who gives a gift in these holidays come to embrace this truth. The more introspective the giver, the more possible it becomes that this could happen.
~HH, HK, MC & HNY~
-
sometimes the gift
is one of forgiveness
this can be the
hardest gift to give
but the most necessary
as far as i am concerned
-
I don't need to say this: Kindness and forgiving go hand in hand.
You can't really have one without the other.
Wouldn't that be, Est, what you mean by changing ourselves first?
-
my dear sweet nina,
i only meant, once we search for
and discern the truth, within
and truly connect with it
on a more consistent basis
all are interactions will be peaceful
especially with - in our own 'selves'
and the calm we cultivate will propagate
out into the wilds and beyond, perhaps unseen
-
If life's journey be endless where is its goal? The answer is, it is everywhere. We are in a palace which has no end, but which we have reached. By exploring it and extending our relationship with it we are ever making it more and more our own. The i Quote Right
That is very beautiful!
(But what is this?
"The i Quote Right")
Thank you ever so much.
"If life's journey be endless where is its goal? The answer is, it is everywhere. We are in a palace which has no end, but which we have reached. By exploring it and extending our relationship with it we are ever making it more and more our own. The i" — Rabindranath Tagore -
What came before we reached the endless palace?
Sorry to check into your site so late, Nina. As always, you write so beautifully. I feel like the cow who enters the antique shop.
"I can't breathe" has become a sort of mournful mantra of our times, hasn't it?
So much suffering all over the world. I just watched two movies that were about human rights workers and their overwhelming challenges working with refugees, exploited workers, and illegal aliens. "I Witness," "Beyond Borders," and "Frontera." You know me, I think in movies. I included the third movie, Frontera, because it was such a thoughtful treatment of the border conundrum and also included intractable suffering.
But, with suffering comes courage and loyalty,commitment and sacrifice. (Unless you are human slime like Darth Chaney. Then it's just about power and money-mind manipulation.) Human beings have been playing out these dramas forever. "When things are the worst, you are at your best," as was observed in "Star Man."
I pray that things will get better next year, while I believe that they will get worse. For all of us, I hope it will bring out the best.
aho
Not verses. Not breathing, just all in the pool.
Of course, that is not exactly from here, except in the truth.
I cannot do anything but wonder how breathing has become so relevant. I mean, the world unmade and unbroken is full of shiny stuff that does not blink.
Lack of steady state being relevant to life imagined is a hell of a thing. I do not know why humans make a deal of it. Of course, the part where big stuff gets repaired is not all about you. Sometimes, just one little thing, not breathing. Even just the ground.
FA, HNY, HK and hope your holidays have been free of suffering. You, Murph and the animals, birds and nature have been blessed, blessed to SEE and blessed in renewal and continuance. May that continue in the new year and all the years following.
Beyond your sun and moon in the forest, the Illusion just digs themselves into deeper and deeper holes. Its the eternal Yin/Yang of existence, real history has shown us that much. However, this time, the difference between past and present, the damage being done is beyond repair.
It is a true conundrum, a riddle without an answer. Nobody really knows how this scene is going to play out.
You can stop by anytime. Any time you feel like it is the right time.
A hailup from Jamrock.
One Love.
turey
Too sweet! Another of the truly blessed, with timing of his own making. May your new year be smooth Dreddie.
ITES
Bismillah, we begin again, as done by all each dawning. I bow in gratitude to the Love Tribe, and this Life Sanctuary where holy beings gather.
This one be engaged in a mighty struggle, watching the heart-weather storm clouds and their movements, close.
Today drumming posse will appeal to all great ones for divine intervention and grace for the beloved and I-self.
Humbly asking the Tribes to throw down some powerful prayers this way.
I am with you, all.
Thank you,
-Bho
You need blessings now, I hear real urgency. Casting the Net of Light all around you. There will be no letting up until we hear she is in the safe zone again. All your good works over the lifetimes were not for nothing, we appeal to the Creator for healing.
Blessing to the family on this day.
Reminder to self - you are here to see the beauty and to be holy - do not get sidetracked.
One can't see the beauty and be in awe if looking at the human condition. I spend my time watching footage of space and microscopic images of cells.
The only way I am keeping a remnant of sanity.
so great to stop in and find all the love light and wisdom. Nina, your paintings are stellar. I can't believe what precision you achieve with watercolor.
I stopped all the anxiety, the reading of reams of proof of impending doom. all the horrors done to the earth, the daily report on what the bad guys are doing....
I checked out - or maybe checked in. Just love what I can in my own small universe. spoil my husband and animals. be kind to all. keep quiet and listen more. stop thinking past the moment. all pat and obvious coping mechanisms, I know.
I wish you guys would get on Instagram so I could see your worlds, your landscapes and loves.
peace be with you all in 2015.
chickory
Su-San. No sidetracking here. Thank you for joining us. You possess great love and loyalty.
Empty yourself of everything.
Let the mind become still.
The ten thousand things rise and fall
while the self watches their return.
They grow and flourish and then return to the source.
Returning to the source is stillness,
which is the way of nature.
The way of nature is unchanging.
Knowing constancy is insight.
Not knowing constancy leads to disaster.
Knowing constancy, the mind is open.
With an open mind, you will be openhearted.
Being openhearted, you will act royally.
Being royal, you will attain the divine.
Being divine, you will be at one with the Tao.
Being at one with the Tao is eternal.
And though the body dies, the Tao will never pass away.
-Tao Te Ching, Chapter Sixteen
>respect to the I<
You are a true Southern Lady, Chickory. Only, that is just the beginning. I hung the garland on the staircase this holiday season. AS I write this, The Night Garden is to the right, over my shoulder. Thank you for Pescadero. If you had not posted about Harley Farms, I might never have gone there and that would be a tragedy.
I join you in your tuning out. It has reached the coercive, purely robotic level.
May your weather be perfect for planting this coming year and always.
Hymnus Ad Patrem Sinensis, by Philip Whalen
Hymnus Ad Patrem Sinensis
I praise those ancient Chinamen
Who left me a few words,
Usually a pointless joke or a silly question
A line of poetry drunkenly scrawled on the margin of a quick
splashed picture- bug, leaf,
caricature of Teacher
on paper held together now by little more than ink
& their own strength brushed momentarily over it
Their world & several others since
Gone to hell in a handbasket, they knew it-
Cheered as it whizzed by-
& conked out among the busted spring rain cherryblossom winejars
Happy to have saved us all.
And it happens so quickly, faster than the human mind or eye can detect. When we speak about saving something for posterity, take it very seriously.
Who knows, 10,000 years from now there could be a Divine species here who would worship carved and painted miniature wooden cattle.
Anything worth making, anything worth doing, should be done to last at least that long and longer. That, of course, includes love and compassion.
If we just rid ourselves of wrong or erroneous views, then right view, the view that allows us to process the information we receive through our sense and thoughts in a way that leaves us patient, compassionate and generous, would arise on their own. So our practice is, simply put, to refute wrong views.
What are the erroneous views? There are essentially four:
Believing there are beginning and endings as we perceive them, prior and posterior events. This is an wrong view.
Believing that the way I see myself, as permanent, as somehow persisting through time as a unique continuous being, is erroneous.
Believing that I am separate and distinct from the external world is erronenous.
Believing that things arise and cease in the way I perceive them, and that they are real in that way, is erroneous.
That's it. Refute those and your are home free.
http://www.animacenter.org/wolfwritings.html
January 9, 2015 at 11:38 am
Yall have a great weekend!!!
A little girl had been shopping with her Mom in Wal-Mart. She must have been 6 years old, this beautiful red haired, freckle faced image of innocence.
It was pouring outside. The kind of rain that gushes over the top of rain gutters, so much in a hurry to hit the earth it has no time to flow down the spout.. We all stood there, under the awning, just inside the door of the Wal-Mart.
We waited, some patiently, others irritated because nature messed up their hurried day.
I am always mesmerized by rainfall. I got lost in the sound and sight of the heavens washing away the dirt and dust of the world. Memories of running, splashing so carefree as a child came pouring in as a welcome reprieve from the worries of my day.
Her little voice was so sweet as it broke the hypnotic trance we were all caught in, ‘Mom let’s run through the rain,’
She said.
‘What?’ Mom asked.
‘Let’s run through the rain!’ She repeated.
‘No, honey. We’ll wait until it slows down a bit,’ Mom replied.
This young child waited a minute and repeated: ‘Mom, let’s run through the rain..’
‘We’ll get soaked if we do,’ Mom said.
‘No, we won’t, Mom. That’s not what you said this morning,’ the young girl said as she tugged at her Mom’s arm.
‘This morning? When did I say we could run through the rain and not get wet? ‘
‘Don’t you remember? When you were talking to Daddy about his cancer, you said, ‘ If God can get us through this, He can get us through anything!
The entire crowd stopped dead silent.. I swear you couldn’t hear anything but the rain.. We all stood silently. No one left. Mom paused and thought for a moment about what she would say.
Now some would laugh it off and scold her for being silly. Some might even ignore what was said. But this was a moment of affirmation in a young child’s life. A time when innocent trust can be nurtured so that it will bloom into faith.
‘Honey, you are absolutely right. Let’s run through the rain. If GOD lets us get wet, well maybe we just need washing,’ Mom said.
Then off they ran. We all stood watching, smiling and laughing as they darted past the cars and yes, through the puddles. They got soaked.
They were followed by a few who screamed and laughed like children all the way to their cars. And yes, I did.
I ran. I got wet. I needed washing.
Circumstances or people can take away your material possessions, they can take away your money, and they can take away your health. But no one can ever take away your precious memories…So, don’t forget to make time and take the opportunities to make memories every day.
To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven.
I HOPE YOU STILL TAKE THE TIME TO RUN THROUGH THE RAIN.
They say it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them, but then an entire life to forget them.
Send this to the people you’ll never forget and remember to also send it to the person who sent it to you. It’s a short message to let them know that you’ll never forget them.
If you don’t send it to anyone, it means you’re in a hurry.
Take the time to live!!!
Keep in touch with your friends , you never know when you’ll nee d each other —
And don’t forget to run in the rain!
261
REPLY
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now that is a sweet story
best i've heard, in awhile
there is nothing like letting
a little one, take your hand
and showing you, all you've forgotten
how soon we forget the true joy, we've been given
-
Hello Nina :} I will be staying in Las Vegas for three days in mid February, and while there I am thinking I would like to hike to Gold Strike Hot Springs, and/or Arizona Hot Springs, both of them just below the Hoover dam a ways in canyons off of the Colorado River. I don't know if you have ever checked those out, and was wondering if you might want to join me for the adventure/s :) I was also thinking of one day hiking in the Red Rocks Park in its magical landscape, which if I remember correctly you have been there before. I saw one of your header pics was taken from within that park. If interested just email me and we can coordinate:
hotspringswizard@hotmail.com
Glad to know you are still around, doing well, and watching all the great changes like the rest of us, take care :) HSW
This is an excerpt of some writing by the Taoist sage Chuang Tzu. It was written about 2500 years ago, and interpreted into English in 1965 by the Trappist monk Thomas Merton. Plus Ƨa change, plus c’est la mĆŖme chose.
Cracking the Safe
For security against robbers who snatch purses, rifle luggage, and crack safes,
One must fasten all property with ropes, lock it up with locks, bolt it with bolts.
This (for property owners) is elementary good sense.
But when a strong thief comes along he picks up the whole lot,
Puts it on his back, and goes away with only one fear:
That ropes, locks, and bolts may give way.
Thus what the world calls good business is only a way
To gather up the loot, pack it, make it secure
In one convenient load for the more enterprising thieves.
Who is there, among those called smart,
Who does not spend his time amassing loot
For a bigger robber than himself?
In the land of Khi, from village to village,
You could hear cocks crowing, dogs barking.
Fishermen cast their nets,
Ploughmen ploughed their wide fields,
Everything was neatly marked out
By boundary lines. For five hundred square miles
There were temples for ancestors, altars
For field-gods and corn-spirits.
Every canton, county, and district
Was run according to the laws and statutes—
Until one morning the Attorney General, Tien Khang Tzu,
Did away with the King and took over the whole state.
Was he content to steal the land? No,
He also took over the laws and statutes at the same time,
And all the lawyers with them, not to mention the police.
They all formed part of the same package.
The invention
Of weights and measures
Makes robbery easier.
Signing contracts, setting seals,
Makes robbery more sure.
Teaching love and duty
Provides a fitting language
With which to prove that robbery
Is really for the general good.
A poor man must swing
For stealing a belt buckle
But if a rich man steals a whole state
He is acclaimed
As statesman of the year.
rereading Thomas Merton Asian Journals and came across this. I thought this was a good place to post, "I stand among you as one who offers a small message of hope, that first, there are always people who dare to seek on the margin of society, who are not dependent on social acceptance, not dependent on social routine, and prefer a kind of free-floating existence under a state of risk. And among these people, if they are faithful to their own calling, to their own vocation, and to their own message from God, communication on the deepest level is possible. And the deepest level of communication is not communication, but communion. It is wordless. It is beyond words, and it is beyond speech and beyond concept."
Scrap
Yes! Yes and yes! I've seen them. We recognize one another and for me at least, it changes everything, I suspect it does for them too. There really are no strangers at that deep level and there need be no words, the vibes say it all.
Thank you sincerely, Scrap, for highlighting this crucial quote.
They are not killing you, they are trying to kill you.
Not the same thing.
Would you care to expand on that comment Anonymous?
Hello Nina......time is short, fragmentation on all levels is increasing.....mental instability is rampant.......protect your inner light! We have some rough roading ahead, as if life isn't ruff enough!
onelove......
Thank you Terrance! I have a new post ready to go as we speak. But on a new computer, so its still rather a learning curve.
Indeed, its all speeding up.
The great mass of breath is the wind, yet there are times
when the wind does not move. When it does move,
a myriad of orifices and appendages are aroused to make sounds.
Have you never listened to the sound of the wind in the cavities,
mountains and among the branches of trees?
The wind blows in a thousand different ways,
but each sound is produced in its own way.
What is it that excites all this, and makes each way be itself,
and all these things be self-produced?”
Chuang Tzu
Chuang Tzu knew of the sentience among all of Nature. Here he seems to be of TAO, but yet pure Zen. He answers his own questions with awareness.
That is beautiful state.
Pure and worthy.
New post:
http://deepintoartlifewest.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-way-out.html
Wizzy, would you like me to delete or modify your last comment?
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