tao1776

1) The true test of whether a pizza is a good pizza is that it tastes even better cold the next day. 2) When you need your sleep it will elude you. 3) On you're most blissful days there will a substantial increase in the amount of people who will want to disturb you. 4) America likes their beer cold and coming fast so finding a perfect pint of Guinness is similar to chasing rainbows. 5) The harder you seek the further away you are from that which you seek. 6) The older you get the quicker the seasons appear to pass you by. Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall....here we go again. 7) The more you pay in taxes the less you receive in services. 8) The more that you make friends with the present moment the more the present moment will be friendly. Surprising things happen when you are more a reed and less a towering oak. 9) There will always be war: there will always be conflict. And there will always be those that seek to beat plowshares into swords. 10) Bein...

We have gloriously passed through a traditional New England Spring before being led into the depths of an equally spectacular summer season. For more than a decade it has not been our experience that, "April showers bring May flowers" nor has there been for us the "Dogs days of August". The seasons have been unseasonably Willey nilly! I'm not complaining about 2010, the Chinese year of the Tiger!. However, it does seem that the Autumn is closing in fast and we're all trying to scratch what we can out of the summer season while it is still with us. It has been a time of fortuitous change for me. The garden was in early and yard chores were quickly completed. I found myself back upon the bicycle and I managed to lose 15Lbs. I am able to stretch in several ways that these old legs have not seen for some time. The Karmann Ghia is in top form and I have been on several long cruises about the New England countryside with the accompaniment of a wise, funny an...

I have been trying to work up the courage to post my tribute to Phillip "Chick" Stowell; my friend, my brother, who died unexpectedly(?) on Saturday August 14th, 2010 at the age of 75. Chick was always in the periphery of things as he was one of the original wild ones . He rode hard, drank hard, fought hard, womanized, and finally settled down to marry a former Vietnam army nurse 16 years his junior. There have many stories afloat regarding Chick. There were those that liked him and those that didn't. When questioned about him, I could only speak from what I knew and that was, "He has a big heart". We have been friends for less than a decade. We got to know each other at the local cruise nights as he drove a 1965 Mustang while I, the 1973 Karmann Ghia. We were quickly absorbed into each other's life and we spoke most every day. My kids and grandkids adopted him as another grandfather. We acknowledged each other as, "Brother" and worked diligent...

  ‎ "Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves - slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future. Smile, breathe and go slowly. The kingdom of God is available to you in the here and the now. But the question is whether you are available to the kingdom. Our practice is t o make ourselves ready for the kingdom so that it can manifest in the here and the now. You don't need to die in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. In fact, you have to be truly alive in order to do so."  Thich Nhat Hanh  

  By day I praised you and never knew it. By night I stayed with you and never knew it. I always thought that I was me--but no, I was you and never knew it. -Rumi

A murder of Crows it is oft said; foretell of sad stories and harbingers of death. One of their own tonight it did die, and tonight we mourn with those that  now lie. We laid him in death in mock of a nest: Not in gladness nor mark of a jest. No. No, we mourn  his sad pass  and we lay him to rest. and thank him for his warning....

,, When I was young I used to say philosophy is an inquiry for ultimate answers. Now I cannot say it. It is an inquiry for endless questions............... Bertrand Russel at age 80 A dear friend of mine recently spoke of her sense of wonder as she prepared to sit in with a group of   UU  elders that were going to conduct a "Bible study". She is unfamiliar with the Bible and with going to church. In our discourse she presented this experience with a mixture of awe and angst sensing that there was a whole wide world of Christendom that she was totally unfamiliar with. It was one more reminder for her that her spiritual life was not outlined in books or something that could be easily shared with others. If pressed, she will describe her spiritual practice as something that is little defined. She is meditative, contemplative and honors the universe with gratitude. And I state, "What more is there"? Within the world of spiritual and phi...