tao1776

Beginning around Memorial day (the end of May) until the first two weeks of October, I will attend approximatley 25 to 50 cruise nights/car shows. I will enter my Ghia in two VW shows. Last year I took first place in one and second in the other. In other "all car" shows, I took cruiser of the week twice, best foreign, and several others. In the majority of shows that I attend, there are mostly muscle cars with a few air cooled vehicles thrown in. I have come up with the idea to start a VW Blog the invites VWs to not be muscled out of the shows and cruise nights. I want to make up some cards that introduce the blog which will focus on VW solidarity....VWs need not be regulated to only showing up for VW and air cooled shows only. I want to take pix and begin to intoduce owners to one another with the possibility of beginning a VW club. But first, I will need a VW name. Volkswebbin is taken. VW blog is lame. I would like some ideas from you....Please?

The season is underway. So many people has commented on the picture with the bagpipes. My twin? Cuz its not me. But if I were to wear full regalia, this would be what I would look like...sans the pipes, o' course. The guy with the stein waving in the air is me - taken from the local newspaper while attending a German Bier fest. (when in Germany, do as the Germans do). This years excursions appear few from where I sit right now. But good news! I am picking up several truck loads of Hemlock, all dried and seasoned. And you know what that means. My famous back yard fires. Good food, conversation, music...a crackling fire. I recently met an older gentleman who used to play with Johnny Cash and several others throughout his career. He loves to socialize and whip out his guitar. He will come and play a wide range of tunes, both electric and non, just for the opportunity to play. He would join in with the good eats and etc....and of course, we'd pass the hat. Sounds like fun. I have a...

“We could say that meditation doesn't have a reason or doesn't have a purpose. In this respect it's unlike almost all other things we do except perhaps making music and dancing. When we make music we don't do it in order to reach a certain point, such as the end of the composition. If that were the purpose of music then obviously the fastest players would be the best. Also, when we are dancing we are not aiming to arrive at a particular place on the floor as in a journey. When we dance, the journey itself is the point, as when we play music the playing itself is the point. And exactly the same thing is true in meditation. Meditation is the discovery that the point of life is always arrived at in the immediate moment.” Watts The coming warmth of the morning sun softly caresses the flower's unopened petals. As the flower expands to engulf the sun's rays, the prior night's dew slowly dissipates. The sun gives freely, neither asking for nor expecting a return. K...

To say that I have S.A.D.D. is an understatement. Not that I don't suffer from more depression than the average Joe, but Holy Bejesus................... When I was young, anxiety would begin to blossom around Veteran's day and bitch slap me until Spring. As I began to age and understand anxiety, its mechanics and how it operates, depression moved in to take its place. Sometimes, when you know something is coming, you can prepare for it. But depression really isn't something you can prepare for. And when you're in it, its hard to get out until its time to get out. Knowing the times and the seasons are important to me. I watch and plan according to the phases of the moon. Likewise, from Beltane to Samhain, I find many more days of equilibriam. One great sign of the glory days of summer is when the "Lil Hottie" is taken out of storage. Did that this morning. Changed the accelerator pump and made few adjustments. Havn't washed her yet. I feel better already.

Sometimes, God shows us a world replete with wisdom and foolishness, daily practice, life and death, saints and sinners. Other times, the clarity and the confusion and the growth and the decay and the saints and the sinners and everything else all vanish into namelessness. The true way naturally transcends such opposites. It joins life with death, wisdom with foolishness, the ordinary with the divine. Be that as it may - the blossoms you adore will wither and fall; the weeds you abhor will flourish and sprawl. The fool bustles around trying to figure out what things are. The wise man lets things move along and tell him what he is. The wise man understands completely how little he understands. The fool completely fails to understand how much he does. Ignorance is self-perpetuating Wisdom is self-reinfprcing The truly wise are not self-consciously so. But their proven wisdom continues to prove itself.

Gods created the blackest night and s ome met the new day, covered with a shroud. Breathing was labored, touch was numbed, and sight was diminished. Itch and scratch, an effort to remove. Worn with holes and evidence of struggle, nothing could remove the shroud of Gods, from the darkest day. One laid down and died. The shroud in time through time decomposed. In death, he moved on. In death, he moved on.

Does anyone know if there are records kept on wind? It seems to me that for the last two years in New England, we have experienced more windy days than I can ever remember. You can always tell when my blood sugar is off when I have many typos in my posts and comments. People are always attracted to people that make them feel comfortable, at ease, and make them laugh. No one likes a curmudgeon....and that's what I feel like. A walking, talking bummer. Buddhism states that life is like riding in a cart with square wheels. The eightfold path is the Buddhist Rx for smoothing out the ride. My current employment and financial status has tried to humble the proud Leo. I feel like getting in a fight. I cry in secret. Two things that I thought I would never have; 1) regrets 2) enemies or people I no longer associate with. My open mat has disappeared There is a new book, "American Gospel : God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation" that I want to read. I loved 1776. My ...

I can recall hearing the story of the trials and tribulations that a man underwent when he decided to "turn his back on God". You see, I was pursuing a position within the Christian ministry. There was a Full Gospel Businessman's Breakfast at a hotel in mid state Vermont. I was present with the Evangelist as I was her principle driver. They covered the usual topics; being a businessman and a Christian. They discussed a new billboard campaign designed to tell people about Jesus. Then they discussed "those people" that have backslidden and are no longer in the fold. There were stories of God's loving discipline; of how people through illness and injury returned to God. A Man lost an arm; another, his family; and another, his business. As one who never kept an aspirin in the house, by the time my forth child was born in 1986, I had severely injured my back and spent the next six years digging myself out of disability and near financial ruin. This injury has mat...

In a city of faces That never look back Where doors never open And eyes never meet Someone behind me was tracing my steps As I ranThrough the fog down a cobblestone street In a city of crossroads That never lead home Where secrets unrave lAnd fates intertwine Someone was calling my name in the night As I ranFrom a voice that was echoing mine The farther you run The more you recall The loss of your innocence After the fall The farther you run The more you recall After the fall In a city of magic That spins out of time Where God has no image And Man finds no grace Something inside me was seeking itself As I ranFrom a shadow who'd stolen my face The farther you run... ...october project

I am attracted to smiles and laughter. When I see your smile, I feel energized. Laughter spreads warmth throughout my body. Perhaps this is why I always found the Inner Smile meditation exercise so healing. Sit upright in a chair with your back away from the back of the chair. Place your feet about a foot apart with you feet flat on the floor. Rotate your body gently from this position until you feel balanced in the chair. Place the palm of your hands face down just above your knees. Place the tip of your tongue just behind your top teeth. Take a deep cleansing breath and exhale fully. Two times. Let your breath follow its normal rhythm. Think a thought that brings a big smile to your face...or just smile until you feel the warmth of it upon your face. Concentrate on the smile; the warmth, the energy upon your face. With your mind, draw this warmth down from your face into your throat. Continue to slowly move this energy down your chest, then into the point just below your navel. Allow...

The wind presses down on the tall grasses, playing with light and with shadow. Wood lay in array; in wait of its fate. Wisdom leaves no visible trace and love melts the most hardened hearts. Her touch reminds me that time can stand still, that it is only a word meant to convey a tool; a form of measurement. It reminds one that the past is only a memory and the future nonexistant.

A woodpecker knocked a hole in search of bugs while a lone goose flew over. The heat of the sun battled the cool of the evening before making a light jacket possible. My only day off, I drove through town and towards the home of an old friend. A young bull moose with velvet spikes meandered through a farmer's field. I stopped and took a picture but the zoom on the camera does not reach beyond thirty yards. We had arranged to meet and burn a pile of brush and stumps, have a few beers and just catch up. I havn't seen Chris or Smitty since last years burn. Chris tells me that he's exploring Buddhist meditation. Things are well with Smitty although his wife was just laid off. Several years ago she battled cancer but has been in remission for over five years now. Roger and Jon and I are good friends. I've known Jon since we were freshman in High school. Jon's wife has been on dialysis for about a year. Roger's wife is the best match for a kidney transplant donor. It ...

A woodpecker knocked a hole in search of bugs while a lone goose flew over. The heat of the sun battled the cool of the evening before making a light jacket possible. My only day off, I drove through town and towards the home of an old friend. A young bull moose with velvet spikes meandered through a farmer's field. I stopped and took a picture but the zoom on the camera does not reach beyond thirty yards. We had arranged to meet and burn a pile of brush and stumps, have a few beers and just catch up. I havn't seen Chris or Smitty since last years burn. Chris tells me that he's exploring Buddhist meditation. Things are well with Smitty although his wife was just laid off. Several years ago she battled cancer but has been in remission for over five years now. Roger and Jon and I are good friends. I've known Jon since we were freshman in High school. Jon's wife has been on dialysis for about a year. Roger's wife is the best match for a kidney transplant donor. It ...

I am the guy who is eternally optimistic to the point of being retarded. Huh? The guy who stood at the crest of the hill with the bullets flying all around who shouted, "Its okay boys! They're going to run out of bullets sooner or later." In spite of all the financial hardship....even without my few so called luxeries, I'm coming up one paycheck short per month...I will survive. But being human, I still want to avoid the hardship, the struggle. The consequence being; a knot, shortened patience, withdrawn emotionally. As a Taoist, one comes to accept even that....knowing that the experience and watchfulness leads to confidence in any hardship, any up or down. AND when I'm meditating regularly, that is my usual experience. So, you know what I've not been doing....

has hit the fan..... I tell you this, NOT because I want you to feel sorry, to feel bad.... Only observe. My experience isn't unique in this religious right, war mongering, rich getting richer society. I lost my job and can't find one to keep pace with a rather modest standard of living. Other than a low mortgage electricity taxes gas insurance heat......all that is mandatory........ My luxuries are; television cable (basic) computer hookup bundled with telephone cell phone.... SO.....I find myself at the end. If you add up just the necessities, I still come up way, way too short. I guess, unless some miracle happens, (lottery - great job??) the cell and computer and television are going. My credit card, can no longer bail me out. My $16,000 balance is maxed out. So, let see what happens. Wish I were optimistic instead of sick to my stomach.

As stated in my last post, I have been working on a book. I have worked fast and furious, hit a few walls, and back to fast and furious....to just plain stuck... I put a few snippets in my blog (Ch 1 & Ch 7) in the hopes that I would receive helpful feedback. Loralee was more helpful than she may ever know with her feedback. So much so, that if I ever publish, she will have to be listed in my list of acknowledments. This is a heartfelt plea for more constructive criticism. A writer needs it to help navigate. Loralee, if you have friends as intelligent and as insightful and as caring as you, please have them leave a comment as well. As for the rest of you, I ask for help...inspiration..... A sincere thanks, Tao1776