Clear running stream clear running stream Your water is light to my mouth And a light to my dry body your flowing Music, in my ears. free, Flowing free! With you in me. —-Gary Snyder, Water Music II In the words of Dogen: How is it with us who are walking on the mountains…
Torrential rains last night. The weather forecast maps displayed a line of thunder storms portending heavy rain, two to five inches, to fall within the span of a few hours. Persons living near creeks and rivers were warned of flooding. My parents generation did not have this precision of weather forecasting, nor did they…
Our final Philosophy Group discussion was held at Beans & Leaves. It was a full house. Food and drink were consumed to celebrate the work and friendships cultivated around the tables for the past several years. Our final meeting, was a beginning, the fold point for a renewed, vibrant, youthful iteration. For many reasons…
Don commented,–“One of the main problems in discussing reality is that humans have the tendency to separate themselves from the rest of the universe, we feel we are an ‘I’ and everything else is ‘out there”. That word I thought is worth a great deal. Don points to the impossibility of achieving the distance…
Work is a given for most of us. Each day is dedicated to shaping the world, typically in concert with others to derive our sustenance, the necessary energy to feed, clothe, and shelter our organism. That is my basic definition of work. Yet, this essential dimension of life is not nearly so simple. Within…
A good friend recently said to me, “at least there is a chance that the president will put a stop to the ‘politics as usual’ that is no longer working for us.” That is not the first time I’ve heard a similar statement of hope/faith/superstition. This non sequitur is offered dead pan, or with…
I was neither at the hot gates Nor fought in the warm rain Nor knee deep in the salt marsh, heaving a cutlass, Bitten by flies, fought. —-Gerontion by T. S. Eliot No, I did not fight alongside Leonidas. But I read three poems. I was invited to attend an evening of music and…
I woke to an intensely bright day, strong gusts bend the trees. I understand that the central States further west are in the path of dangerous storms today. Life is such a combination of light, life, and hazard. I read several poems this morning, poems that I have chosen to read tomorrow evening at…
I can think of nothing more beneficent, the image of a possible world than that of two foxes that I recently observed. The two animals represent for me a ideal state of being. A full-on tactile awareness of life, one’s own and that of the surrounding environment. Foxes do not use words. Their manner…
I walked across the parking lot at 7AM, a sunlit morning in May. A silver corvette was parked in the center of two parking spaces. As I walked by a young female approached the passengers side of the vehicle with coffee for two. A young male waited in the drivers side, his baseball cap…
