tao1776

A moment not measured in time. The kind of warm day when you forget about the weather. A breeze only noticed by the caress of her hand. The prayer flags mimic her movement. Slow, without purpose; but purpose abounds. Climbing the hill for the first time, slightly out of breath, anticipation and a call to exercise find the lungs in labor as the trail slowly clears.  The temple not yet complete, the Buddhist monks found one more lesson in impermanence. A large portion of the temple had burned. And judging by the date of the fire and that of today, progress was slow. While on the ascent down the trail, we noticed the rocks for the first time. Laughingly we joked that our eyes were, "opened." Some years later I explored the hill with my love Gaia Girl while on the road with my other love, the Ghia. As I was saying, the weather was as perfect as the Tao. One rode the day as a baby in a stroller. I remember the sync and the laughter. She is earth. I am sun. Tea leav...

Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill. Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt. Chase after money and security and your heart will never unclench. Care about people's approval and you will be their prisoner. Tao Te Ching We see him sitting on the back stairs or hanging over the railing with either a cigarette or a "forty" in his hand. His body emancipated, eyes protruding and his sockets are sunken into his skull like craters on the moon. The large house in which he now resides hosts twenty single rooms, a shared kitchen and a few shared privies. It lies at the edge of a small shopping center looming large as a Steamboat lodged on a sandbar just twenty paces from the alcohol store operated by a jovial man from India. It all seems surreal. This house was the place that I warned him about when he was a boy. Jokingly I would tell him and his younger brother that we should go uptown and trace out a spot so that they would know where to stand ...

The Tao would teach that our responsibility is not to mother or father people, or to supervise their behavior or learning process, but simply follow what is high and good in one self. The pathway became more and more difficult to follow and he stumbled several times over tree roots left exposed by the erosion of travelers who passed through here before. Walking deliberately, studying where each foot set down, he noted the subtle zig-zag of the journey.  He learned over time to never question the sudden veer in direction and sought to studiously follow where direction appeared to lay. On a most peculiar day he lost sight of the trail. He ignored what he knew to be true. The wisdom of stillness became replaced by a quickened pace. The terrain grew steep and the fast pace was soon replaced by a full out run. The ascent felt good. Lungs filled and the heart beat loudly. Speed was replaced by imbalance. As he ran and tumbled he felt the thud of his heels beating his backside with a...

I recently purchased a traditional felt Pork Pie . (half price on clearance) I've been a hat man all of my life. I've worn berets and fedoras, Irish caps and a Glengarry bonnet. Years of wearing baseball caps doesn't count. I wasn't sure if liked this departure from my usual leather cap. But I'm finding that it's beginning to grow me.  It's an amusing thing about how this hat is worn. It puts the center bowl if I may, lightly touching the crown of the head while the inside rim cradles the circumference of the head like a halo;  making it feel rather kingly or heavenly in some way. It being that I'm a Leo and that the clan who's motto, "Royal is my race" lurks somewhere in my veins, I guess it's only natural. True, I often feel that way without the hat. But.... the hat helps to bring my angelic nobility out. You're supposed to laugh... I'm different. I know that. I myself have called it by many things, yet in spite of my...

New England winters can turn on a dime. Warm, cold, snow, rain, ice, sun. Changes can occur within a span of hours. Our latest storm dropped a fluffy twenty nine inches with Monday calling for temperatures in the forties accompanied by rain. Oh-oh. We will have a mess on our hands. But I think the biggest challenge facing our girls is boredom - not the weather. They are a hearty lot but they are still prone to frostbite and temperatures even too cold for good New England stock. So one does need to keep an eye out. Katie was found in a ball and most unresponsive but a few weeks ago. She enjoys coming to the "big house" but it was apparent that she was not pulling a fast one. Not this time anyway. Once inside it took hours to bring her around. But within a day, she was singing the blues like Mamie Smith. They will pick through straw for hours. Especially when littered with corn. A head of cabbage hung like soap on a rope. Treats and warm water laced with molasses....

February 10th will be the start of the Chinese New Year. The year of the snake. As memory serves, the day before was traditionally a day to clean and set things in order. The evening was a time of reunion. It sounded to me that it resembled our thanksgiving. Feast and family and all that it entails. Dynamics. History. The circle of life in a full view, yet not often understood or valued until the circle has turned closer to our own 365. Since my divorce, that which I miss most is when my four children came home with their friends, husband and boyfriends, girlfriends and children. Overlooking the "human pigeon" behavior of my heroin addicted son and the drunken behavior of my now ex wife, it was almost perfect in it's family imperfection. Simplicity and movement within the cycle of life has become almost unknown; and I too am at present, among the masses. I will however roll along to find that which is down will be once again be, up" like the hands of time. A...

Normally, we do not so much look at things as overlook them - Watts Simple. Simple is good. Not the kind of simple as in Uncle Stan who was once arrested for simply trying to buy a burrito at midnight, with no money, in his underwear, with a beer in his hand. No, I mean simple. As in possessing "all of your needs and some of your wants." I never take for granted the shoes on my feet. A hot shower. A laugh with friends or family. Wake up. It IS the simple things in life that give life it's meaning...........