tao1776

a day in the life Unemployed due to company downsizing, writing a book, planning to get back into shape starting tomorrow. I have been drinking too much since the permanant lay off on January 7th, and the morning meditation has become almost non existant. A web associate stated that this time has been selected as the "reinvention of Tao". I hope to use this space to vent, speak of my sucess, hear from some of you comments and perspectives that will allow a deeper personal insight into what it means to be a human being. This was my first post to Google Blogger - February 14, 2005. Much has happened since then. My book, a labor of love and solace, as well as being the source of my "going Hemingway" for a season, was lost due to my faulty backing up practices. A lengthy novel lost forever and no strength to repeat the story. What tale to be told is next?   My marriage has come to an end. Enough said.  I'm working now, but at 60% less the p...

My picture now adorns the gallery located at  beards.org  My face however has adorned facial hair in it's myriad form since the age of fifteen. Sideburns, mustaches, full beards, partial beards; my face has played with them all. Around ten years ago I turned my short and trimmed  beard into a goatee and began to let it grow. Shortly thereafter I began to shave my head. (go figure?) I have cut my beard in the name of conformity several times and I have at times excessively trimmed it trying to find a little more fullness. When my two daughters were under the age of ten, all those many years ago, I shaved my entire face wiping away any hint of burns or stache or beard. They wept. Why is it that there are those of us who feel compelled to sprout facial hair while there are perhaps an equal number of men (?) who shave chests, faces and their pubes? WTF?  In homage, in some weird way, I can hear the C S N & Y song beckoning to me. I thin...

I once read about the grouping of stars that we call the "Big Dipper". Throughout history this grouping of stars has been recognized throughout Eastern Asia, India, and England to the Americas. It has taken on many names such as the plough, the ladle, a cart, and sometimes it has been recognized as a bear or the home to the "immortals". This grouping of stars has been shaped and defined by culture and imagination. It's all a matter of perception. And to my mind's way of seeing things the chickens appeared quite celebratory on Christmas morning. My imagination perhaps. I know that I was anticipating Gaia Girls arrival and that I had a very sick chicken sitting in my kitchen. But it truly did not seem as though I were projecting. They looked like they were going to break out into song! I thought that they might miss the absent hen now being nursed in the chicken hospital but they went on without skipping a beat. A little while after Gaia Girl made her tri...

One of the casualties of divorce is the sometimes violent disruption cast upon the children of divorce, be it the adult children or the grand-kids, the whole world is forever changed. While attending the deployment ceremonies for my son in law, my grand-daughter looked up at me and asked, "When are you going to watch me again?" Her presence was once a staple in this house and it had been more than a year since we've been able to spend more than a few minutes alone together. This weekend she will be coming to TaoSpring and this seven year old girl couldn't be any more excited. Of course, my plans are to spoil her and to let her know just how much she is loved. I know that she has many questions and I plan to answer each one as tactfully as I am able. It's really not all that complicated While people can seem oh so complicated, it all boils down to this;   all we want is to be happy. Ignorance leads us away from happiness. Ignorance has us breaking the most ...

White Broilers are shipped in a little box and arrive filled with a whole lot of peep. The little fur balls are always a hit, melting the heart of even the hardest of the New England curmudgeons. Everyone wants to hold one. Anyone standing in the wings will soon make their way forward like paupers in a soup line waiting their turn to hold one. And in the end the same can also be said of these tasty plump morsels. Weighing on average 8 Lbs, after just nine weeks, organically fed and raised, they                            are happy and playful. And come next Sunday they will be in the freezer. Shortly thereafter one will grace the table where it will be received with thanks.

My lifetime has witnessed approximately 700 full moons. Come the year 2012, my birth month will hold two full moons, with the first full moon of that month falling on the day of my birth. He shook my hand insincerely and walked back up the hill and back into the shadows. And the thing that I remember most is the way that the light of the full moon made his grimace look more like a smile. But I felt that his eyes told the truth. He held nothing but contempt for me. Tonight's moon lit the landscape and made the cold December night as inviting as a midsummer campfire. I walked the perimeter drawing on my pipe watching the mix of heat and smoke rise up high and disappear into the night sky. Peeking in on the chickens always draws a smile from me and tonight was no different. The light of the moon faded their colors to shades of light and dark, white and gray, making only my familiarity distinguish one hen from the other. A bucket left in a corner of the coop startled me f...

"Our party cannot be all things to all people. It can't be. Our loudest opponents on the left are never going to like us so let's stop trying to curry favor with them." Rick Perry Jefferson penned the opening words in the Declaration of Independence to inspire opposition to the political belief of the era: The Divine Right of Kings;   We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness - ...and it would appear that a certain faction would like for us to return to a time when the populace will be once again governed by the government  (A Christian government) Will the President of a Christian Nation rule by and through divine right? When a man such as Rick Perry states that "as President, I will end Obama's war on religion," I am frightend. His message was openly anti...

It is said, or maybe I should say that it has been said, that "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach". And quite surprisingly so, I find that statement to be well, true? Okay? I admit it. Or at least to a portion of it. I am not saying that it's the solid foundation for a good homesteading relationship but man, it sure makes for some damned good mortar holding everything together. Last evening Gaia Girl made for me four of the finest pork chop marinades, with leek fritters and an incredibly delicious aromatic rice. (and she does not eat them) I ate one chop for dinner. One for breakfast with fresh eggs. One at lunch with the most heavenly carrot and butternut squash bisque. The last I had for dinner again with rice and added a sprinkle of Frank's Louisiana hot sauce. And lest I seem to make light of the bisque, it was Food Inc. front cover material. Beautiful in color.Texture was picture perfect. Smell was heaven made. The taste, liquid Proz...

Working retail. The new world. Not that I'm complaining, because I'm not. It's just how things are. There's a host of gems available to me now that I would have surely missed out on had I not been directed down this pathway. Gaia Girl works on Christmas eve and a portion of Christmas day too. She is greatly needed in her profession and excellent in what she does. Being in retail, I too will be working on Christmas eve. The store has to be open after all. This is how retail works. In order to do better than break even, you must take the good with the bad. Even if the employee wages and the electricity aren't covered by the sales of the day. Sunday, Christmas day, we have off. Come Monday, it's back to the same old grind. Ahh! Working retail. The new world. Not that I'm complaining, because I'm not. But you know, I review that past and count many more stress filled and unhappy Christmas days than I do days of comfort and joy. I'm glad...

An old friend from blogger days past has sent me this video from You Tube. She is an amazing gal and I am proud of and for her. Please watch and comment and I hope this finds you all well and puts a smile on your face.

Okay. Enough of the soapbox exhalations about what a mess we're all in. The warm days have been celebrated by even the grumpiest of the New England curmudgeons that wander into the store each day. They can't help themselves though and often feel inspired to leave a benediction behind asking the powers that be to give us a winter that will shine with mercy upon us. Have mercy. On me. If it wasn't for the few perky people still out there shopping in these dismal economic times, I don't think that I could make it through the day. We are far from the days of the great depression. No one likes that they have to tighten their belt. And this frustration is magnified while the "top" grows fatter and the rest of us focus on getting lean. But I digress. (again!) The chickens are still laying plentiful and the afternoon sun has them playing like kids in a schoolyard. The nights do get cold though and leave their water bucket coated with a half inch of ice by mornin...