|
|
 |
|
...and they lived happily ever after. Smith & Lady: poets, artists, photographers & adventurers.
Our relationship was forged to the soundtrack of Yoko Ono's magic,
frenetic, love-laden song, "Walking On Thin Ice." ( play song )
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Archive for the ‘Philosophy’ Category
Tuesday, May 21st, 2013
Getting through it is what a woman’s period is about—getting through the end of the cycle, bloated, sloughing, cleansing. How the blood blooms, body aches and then svelteness after the sloughing. Like our sight of the moon showing more and more light then sloughing it off.
But a moon when full is like a bright plate, a pendant, something resonant.
A woman when sloughing off her blood? What’s that? Is it just that we do it together? Is it just about cycle?
A woman when sloughing off her blood, a woman when aging through the cycles, she’s not always so keen on it.
The moon, though, the moon is always keen.
A woman is kind of like a tide and a beach and a powerful beachcomber, a powerful self-grooming beach. Not a bitch, a beach.
There are many metaphors for a woman, but I am working on conveying some kind of idea here about grooming and aging and here we have again the thing about the woman and the moon.
Perhaps just the getting full and release and the similar period of time—that’s it? But as far as cleanliness, the moon is always pretty clean and keen.
A woman picking through her mind can be keen. A woman letting herself recognize her framework, her bones, the beauty of her bones and how the tissues hang on them, a woman can love how her tissues hang on her bones. A woman can love how her tissues billow on her bones. A woman can love how her tissues firm and slacken and slacken and firm on her bones. A woman can have so many expectations for herself and make them happen.
The moon takes whatever comes, actually. The moon is slowly battered over and over but what we see from here is bright silver patina.
Women, they are battered as well, we all are. I’m not talking about assault, I’m not talking about violence—there’s been enough of that. What I’m talking about here is the battering of the days and nights. What I’m talking about here is the battering of being through so many cycles. And the upside of the cycles is renewal, there’s that, too.
Let’s have gentle means round these circles, let’s take them tenderly. They seldom ever end.
~ Lady
Posted in Lady, Letters to the Universe, Philosophy, Poetry, spirituality | No Comments »
Saturday, May 18th, 2013
Lately I keep thinking about the movie “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.” In the movie, they find out that in the future they are worshiped and the whole of future society is based on them. The motto of the society is “be excellent to each other.”
I love 80s expressions like “excellent” and “awesome.” I love thinking about the hearty innocence and doggie gusto of Keanu Reeves. Yeah, he’s kind of bland, but he’s still *excellent.*
I am on a quest. My quest is to be as excellent as I can be in all the little nooks and crannies of the Thomas’s english muffin of my life, the big, most excellent, vegan-butter-and-raw-honey-whole-wheat-toasted english muffin of my life, the english muffin of my life that is delectable yet leaves one wanting more life to live!
So for the past two years I’ve been beating myself over the head with activist efforts without letting myself have the teensiest toe-dip in the actual tangible parts of what it is I would affect positively with my activism.
That’s changed recently. I am working on tangible, immediate results in addition to abstract work.
There are two things we’re picking up: volunteering at the APL doing dog-walking and working on protecting the watershed. So rather than only sitting and talking, Smith and I are out there doing fun stuff and getting exercise and being with each other, helping save the world and being and feeling excellent.
Volunteering at the APL is such a joy–to be with the dogs in the field, being so happy, witnessing happiness. Their walks of temporary freedom also temporary respite for me. It is so nice for the dogs to have the walks–they are treated well and they get out quite a bit, but even so the majority of their time is in the little cages.
I have noticed, though, that some of the dogs who are more shy or who have some physical problems (like Dozer, a sweet, blind dog) have been there for probably quite some time. One dog doesn’t like a leash, so I don’t think she gets to go out very much at all unless someone really pushes her. I’ve been working on a relationship with her and have just sat in her cage to work on keeping her social but she won’t even let me pet her yet.
It makes me think that when I adopt a dog, if that happens in the future, I will adopt one that is shy or has some kind of physical issue, because it will help prevent animals with these problems from having to stay too long cooped up.
This morning we’re going for orientation on the new watershed volunteer gig. This is kind of neat because it’s a new project for the Cleveland Metroparks, a new watershed program in Parma. The more I read the more I read about new programs for reclaiming and restoring the health of land, and I am so enthusiastic about being a part of this, putting my hands into the loam of it, seeing stuff grow and be protected and secure.
~ Lady
Posted in activism, Being, couples, dreams, Environment, ethics, Family, Lady, ladymemoir, Letters to the Universe, Philosophy, Relationships, smith & Lady, spirituality | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 9th, 2013
I don’t like the idea of foolishness in the sense that someone would be seen as disempowered, disrespected by virtue of having done something stupid. I feel that some sometimes write people off too quickly. I feel that some–many–want solid exemplars to lead in various domains, yet people are people.
It is interesting that everyone seems to be oriented towards acknowledging that personal and professional and ethical and spiritual growth is good. Yet in order to grow from a less perfect state to a more perfect state, one has to have been in the less perfect state to start with. (This being where the meaning of growth is beneficial progress.)
And certainly we want people to be able to change such that they are making better decisions and doing better things.
Quite often I have seen some politician make a good decision only to be decried by some people for having made bad decisions in the past–the people sometimes say, “Well, he or she is just doing that in order to appear good and for political reasons.”
But what would beneficial change look like, what would beneficial actions look like, what would authenticity look like when it happens? Why have so many decried beneficial happenings just because of the person who has done them?
It’s like there are these little stepping planks, and everyone says, “Look, there’s a river we must cross to get into a better future.”
And so there are all these people complaining about no wire being strung across the river, no posts being put down, no planks being put down.
But then someone does put a post down in the river and many of the people demonstrating on the bank say, “Oh, well, don’t fool yourself. He or she’s just doing that because it looks good.”
There’s got to be some momentum when you put down enough posts in that river. Everyone can see the posts. All you have to do is put down the planks then. And then people can walk over it to the other side. Indeed, this has happened on many social issues, and even some environmental ones.
There’s a spiritual component to this. If you truly take to heart the ramifications of physics, of the observer being part of the system that is being observed, then you have to acknowledge your perception helps create this whole big Thing.
So faith comes into this. Faith is applied perception, applied good will, applied openness toward receiving the good will of others, applied openness toward seeing others improve and be good.
So when we see that politician enabling the post being put in the metaphorical river to build a bridge to the better future, let’s encourage her or him.
~ Lady
Posted in activism, Being, ethics, Letters to the Universe, Peace, Philosophy, Poetry, Politics, Relationships, spirituality | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, March 12th, 2013
One might find rocks in a stream or by the lake, pick them up, turn them over, stack meditatively. One might find thoughts, pick them up, examine, stack them meditatively.
Some of these thought rocks hold uncomfortable ideas. I’d like to see the thoughts when they are there, acknowledge them, transform them. The thoughts have feelings attached. Physical feelings. I think about soothing the physical feelings, think what I’d like to feel instead, and let myself feel that without condemning myself for having uncomfortable thoughts in the first place. I am soothed.
How thankful so many of my thought rocks are gentle. How thankful so many of my thought rocks are ambitious in a good way. How thankful I am I have goals, how thankful I appreciate the goals met, the fun of steps taken in the process of attaining the goals. People call steps milestones; maybe there is something inherently associative with thoughts and rocks.
A guy sent a rock of healing intention over to his friend in Asia. He’d carried that rock in his pocket like a meditation bell, like a singing bowl. Every time he emptied his pocket for the night the rock came out with his keys onto the top of his dresser. Every morning when he put his pants back on, into his pocket the rock went with his keys. Every time he stuck his hand in there, he felt that rock.
The rock was with his keys. What is it about “keystone?”
We’re letting rock remain underground, unbroken, cool. Hot sometimes. How there’s so much loose rock already up in the streams that we can pick up, examine, put in our pockets, put back. About the majesty of mountains, unbroken. About the God of mountains, the gods of the mountains. I call on them to protect themselves. OM.
There’s sand under the boreal forests in Canada, sand everywhere. Sand comes from rock. I’d like that sand to just stand under the stands of trees. I don’t want the stands to be turned over. I call on the stands and the sand to protect itself. I call on the indigenous gods of the sand and the stands to protect themselves. I call on the gods to remember they are infused in our hands. They can keep our hands off the sands, keep keystone keystone without running a pipe through it, without scraping our rakes over it into rubble and cancer.
Without, without, oh, how easy to be *without* pain, without all the scraping and disease.
Without. How easy to be Without so many problems.
Oh, how easy to keep our lungs. How easy to blow our breath into the easy gerbil thrill of wind turbines, those easy tumbling breezes, those easy galloping breezes, those good winds. Those streams through something consonant.
I’m going to put a rock in my pocket, and the thick rock will lie calmly underground. It will be there relatively forever into the future. Sand will be there under stands, relatively forever into the future.
~ Lady
Tags: keystone
Posted in ethics, Lady, Letters to the Universe, Peace, Philosophy, Poetry, Relationships, spirituality, weather | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 20th, 2013
Thich Nhat Hanh keeps coming to mind. I would like to write something fresh and encouraging and good and entertaining for my weekly walkingthinice.com blog. My state of mind is such that I am not sure if I am in the right or wrong by not doing a particular project. Sometimes I think that rightness depends partially on the process one goes through to do the particular thing that is being evaluated as being right or wrong. There’s a kind of hysteresis to many processes.
Another thing that comes to mind is that I am holding a bunch of concepts in my mental hands, my buffer, and sometimes the concepts slide in and around each other when I don’t mean for them to. At least sometimes it produces good and meaningful results anyways.
But I’m holding these concepts in my “hands” and I sigh. How do I explain it? I am a multi-threaded process?
Which reminds me of semaphores. I am not very familiar with the word but have used the concept in programming. The word “semaphore” keeps on occurring to my mind the past two weeks. Wikipedia says “In computer science, a semaphore is a variable or abstract data type that provides a simple but useful abstraction for controlling access by multiple processes to a common resource in a parallel programming or multi user environment.”
Reality is providing me with clues–Thich Nhat Hanh and semaphores.
I have been thinking for a long time about my brain and the knowledge that is made available to me, and wondering how much of it is stored locally in my brain tissue versus how much is encoded on a quantum level elsewhere and can float in to me. I really don’t believe that I am limited by skin anymore.
How much is steeping, and how much can be compartmentalized, made distinct? When I sit in a room it is like steeping in the room, and the attributes of the room become available to me. When I invest in a group of smart people, I become smart in the topic of their specialty, although sometimes this takes time. Or if I watch a violent movie, the movie impresses itself on me and my subsequent reality in a way that I don’t like unless I somehow negotiate the situation well. Thich Nhat Hanh says to consume mindfully and that one benefits by not watching violent media.
I have a toolset, a mental toolset that I use to negotiate and navigate reality. It is still in development, but it works somewhat. I’ve got a mirror in my toolset–that’s for sure. I have my computer–my computer is a good tool for my toolset. And I have my notepad. Oh, I’ve got Spotify. And I’ve got praying, and I’ve got meditation. I have my word.
There’s what I already have, and there’s what I would like to add to the toolset or know that I already have anyways. I would like some capacitors and filters and transformers and transistors. I would like seeds, especially heirloom seeds–I’d like to be an aunt and I would like to make sure that my nieces and nephews and my family (everyone is my family) has good food to eat, and their descendants for as long as the Mother Earth will do it, and that Mother Earth will do this for quite a long time. I would like the future in my toolbox, the good future. I would like Nature and Civilization coexisting wonderfully forever. And the good present. And compassion towards the past.
I would like to plunk parts of the set onto the template with the understanding that the set is very large, and that what I plunk onto it might not always be pithy. I would like to plunk pieces of the puzzle onto it, the n-dimensional puzzle such that reality can interpolate gently, understand with compassion, extrapolate beautifully, and coat irritants in metaphorical pearl to remove any harm without harming that which has irritated. I would like language to be useful but for those who don’t have precise voices to not be limited by lack of technical know-how; I would like for every good impulse to be augmented and every not so good impulse to be transformed or damped.
I am not sure if this relates to your particular threads of reality or not, but it is some helpful stuff for me, and I share it with the caveat that I wish for you to explicitly wish to “do no harm,” but even if this seems silly, I wish for it to not cause harm regardless, and rather, to cause blessings.
~ Lady
Posted in Being, creativity, dreams, Environment, ethics, Lady, ladymemoir, Letters to the Universe, Peace, Philosophy, Relationships, spirituality, writing | No Comments »
|
|
|
 |
|
