tao1776

  O n Saturday my granddaughter, the daughter of my oldest daughter, turned seven years old; Oh !The apple of my eye. And on Sunday I attended the wedding my good friend's son. Many years ago I went to this same friend's wedding while four years ago I  also attended his wife's funeral. Ob La Di - Ob La Da......... How often do we find ourselves seeing people that we really like and have truly missed only to see them at birthdays, weddings, and funerals? Busy, busy, we are. And spread out too. Family, friends, community. They really are precious resources. And much of my weekend had me thinking about how important family is and about how my experience of family has changed. Family can be a true example of grace. Gaia Girl shed tears as we watched the father and the bride dance while for me, I felt a little anger at having been forced to keep away from my daughter's recent wedding. Life is so short. Tears and anger should be short lived.

 I know that it sounds derogatory but I assure you, we love Little Fattie . She is loud, brash and full of personality. Just like those girls from Jersey. We're up to a dozen eggs a day now. The two Barnevelders that we introduced about six weeks ago? They segregate themselves like they're too good for the rest of the hen house. They strut about like a pair of aristocrats and stay so close to the coop and roost that they get top bunk most nights. They really threw the pecking order into a spin by their arrival. They're supposed to be great birds to have but I'm not sure I even like them! I imagine them wearing fancy coats and powdered wigs expecting preferential treatment.  We harvested the last of the peppers and potatoes. The eggs and the V-dub bus sat quietly watching the scrub and dry process. Last night we went to the local pub and joined in for a night of trivia. First timers, me and Pants were. I think it was the beards that did it. And damn! Does my fac

I was a man of prayer. In time, as my "beliefs" became less concrete, I knew that I did not know. The more knowledge that I gained the more I realized that I really knew nothing at all. And I also began to realize that I was not alone in this realization. I found it to be a very universal rung on the well traveled spiritual ladder. As Lewis Carroll once quipped, "If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there." Prayer began to cease as I found that I no longer knew who or what to pray to. Almighty God, Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus? It felt so woefully inadequate. My view of God became more like that of the experience of Tao: The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao The name that can be named is not the eternal name The nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth The named is the mother of myriad things Thus, constantly without desire, one observes its essence Constantly with desire, one observes its manifestations These

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Here they are!!! Our Jumbo Cornish birds arrived via the post today. We received the call this morning and within minutes they were here. Cute as buttons and closely examined by our two cats, they quickly settled down to eating, drinking and taking comfort under the heat lamp. A week or so before Christmas they will be sitting pretty in the freezer. Recently this little ditty was found in a news paper: Outside, our brood is fairing well and we're up to ten eggs a day with fifteen birds. The Fort Seuss/TaoSpring/ Pallet coop withstood the wind and the rain of hurricane Irene and methinks a good old fashioned New England winter will be just what the Dr. ordered to break in the coop sufficiently.  I am planning a hive in the future. I have a natural affinity for bees and with my planned expansion of raised bed gardens it will be advantageous. While this has been a good autumn weather wise, wood needs to be stockpiled in anticipation of whatever the winter may bring. Mean

I've spoken before about having an undetermined mind; A mind focused and aware: that understands and experiences life like a person climbing a staircase in the dark. Where each stair lights when you step on it and not before. No looking up at the top stair or looking two stairs ahead. It's one stair at a time. It is a state determined not by desire or aversion but through the clear force of equanimity. But to get there I determined, (no pun intended) arrival at having an undetermined mind, or awareness, comes via a very determined awareness. An awareness with intention. Tools such as meditation are often used as an aid to help increase our level of awareness. Martial arts, dance, playing music, acts that produce a forgetting of the self, can help us to experience the now in its fullness. With practice, we slowly empty the cup of self focused mind and there is just, "Look". That is why we practice. For those times when life can get messy. Our suffering is lessened

The Love of money is the root of all evil - The Bible