Category: TAO

Lost in the Beauty Full Mysteries of Attraction

How many billions of leaves lay on the forest floor?
I’m attracted to one of them. Why?
I pick it up. Gingerly. It’s dry and fragile. I put it in my pocket.
And hope that it does not turn to dust there.
It joins other found objects brought home to ponder.
Bones, bark, stones… attracted to their hue, texture, form, hidden stories…
Over days, weeks, months, years, I watch them.
They seem to my eyes as songs to my ears.
We change together. I see them differently. As I hear songs differently.
As the light changes, or the point of view changes.
As I change.
Do they continue to attract my attention? Why? Just me? or You too?
Universally attractive?


(click images for larger view)

Been a Long Time Coming…

A whole lot of sand
has poured through the hourglass of my life
since last I posted here

I’ve lost people, places and things
over the past many years
and now find myself alone

Near the western shores
of the Great Lake Michigan
“home of the good spirit”

In the days before settlement,
our area was named Manitowoc
by the Native Americans
who called this area their home.
Manitowoc, meaning home of the good spirit,
was regarded as a magical place
for the mixed bands of Ottowa,
Potawatomi, Menominee and Ojibwa people.

And from here, and now,
I hope to renew my self
as well as this imagist/blog

image: Mariner Trail, Manitowoc, WI, iPhone 6s Plus

being… with bees… and flies…

Raghu Rai suggested, “A photograph has picked up a fact of life, and that fact will live forever.” I’m not sure about the forever part. Yet an un-retouched photograph does seem to make a note of tiny factual fragments clipped out of the time and space continuum. But what do these facts mean? What was this large bee doing to or with the little bee? This was the third day that I witnessed this behavior. I’m not sure if they were the same two bees. Are they couple? Just friends? Mortal enemies? Working together on the job? I have no idea – all I have is these few “facts.”
Well what do you know? Or more correctly what do I know? Not much apparently. This large fellow is not a “Bumble Bee” but ’tis a “Robber Fly.” Live and learn on the “internet.” Oh – and only the poor little one is actually a “bee.”

(click photograph for larger view)


Leica R8/DMR, 100 mm Apo Macro Elmarit with 2 X Apo Extender

Back to the wabi-sabi of it all…

Here are two passages from Juniper that summarize wabi-sabi:

The term wabi-sabi suggests such qualities as impermanence, humility, asymmetry, and imperfection. These underlying principles are diametrically opposed to those of their Western counterparts, whose values are rooted in the Hellenic worldview that values permanence, grandeur, symmetry, and perfection. …

Wabi-sabi is an intuitive appreciation of a transient beauty in the physical world that reflects the irreversible flow of life in the spiritual world. It is an understated beauty that exists in the modest, rustic, imperfect, or even decayed, an aesthetic sensibility that finds a melancholic beauty in the impermanence of all things.

(click photograph for larger view)

in the corner of my garden

on my porch

in my little town

Leica M8, 50 mm Summilux Asph

In touch with my body

For the last 4 months I’ve “gotten in touch with my body.” Better late than never I guess. Up until 4 months ago I really just took my body for granted. It more or less did what I asked it to do (up until the last few years – when the back aches and knee pain became chronic daily events – and the March 10th heart attack said loudly and clearly, “Whoa! Dude! What the hell?”

So over a period of 4 months I’ve lost 22 pounds and gone from an inability to walk a half mile without excruciating pain to walking 2 miles in 32 minutes – without pain. I owe much of this to simply focusing my attention on listening to what my body had to say – for the first time in my life. I also have to put a good word in for a few tools that also come in very handy.

First and perhaps formost a great little online app called My Fitness Pal. This tool allows you to very easily count every calorie in and every calorie burned; thereby allowing you to truly shed excess weight. It also allows you to monitor fats, protein, sodium, sugar, etc; so you’re aware of your nutritional intake.

While talking about dietary, nutritional and caloric needs I must also mention a wonderful little book titled, One Bowl, A guide to eating for body and spirit. While the book does not mention Zen Buddhism it certainly speaks to the Zen spirit. Don Gerrard, the author, suggests letting go of the math and experts and simply tune in and listen to what our body has to say to us through some simple, powerful little exercises which honor the food, the body and the very process of eating.

I very much appreciate and enjoy “one bowl” eating (whenever possible).

Though I also appreciate and enjoy the caloric math; and the science of nutrition. My inexpensive Timex heart monitor allows me to track the actual calorie burn of my daily aerobic walks and bicycle rides.


(whether on my pack mule or the stationery bike).

I also give credit to my old Leki nordic trekking poles (which had gone unused for over a decade) and a pair of minimalist “barefoot” shoes for aiding me in walking ever greater distances and increased speeds without pain. A friend has suggested that losing the weight is the reason; except that when I was working out the right shoes I hadn’t lost the weight yet. The shoes, along with the poles, made a significant difference in lessoning knee pain — as steady weight loss also helped increase strength and endurance. One thing I’ve learned — it all matters.

I also have to thank Humana (along with other insurance plans) and the Silver Sneakers Program. Together they offer wonderful programs in cooperation with the YMCA (and other participating gyms). My local YMCA and their staff are just super and  membership with Silver Sneakers is free (or rather it’s a service you can take advantage of at no additional cost – depending on your insurance company’s participation).

Finally: I have to acknowledge the importance of maintaining attitude — to truly honor thoughts like, “… don’t drive if I can walk or pedal. … don’t eat if not hungary. …get to yoga class because it makes me feel good. … I don’t need more than a cup or cup and half of food at any given time.”

EnJOY!

Friday’s flower – interbeing

Thich Nhat Hanh wrote, “‘Looking deeply’ means observing something or someone with so much concentration that the distinction between observer and observed disappears. The result is insight into the true nature of the object. When we look into the heart of a flower, we see clouds, sunshine, minerals, time, the earth, and everything else in the cosmos in it. Without clouds there could be no rain, and there would be no flower. Without time, the flower could not bloom. In fact, the flower is made entirely of non-flower elements; it has no independent, individual existence. It “inter-is” with everything else in the universe.” …INTERBEING

This “looking deeply” implies “being with” — looking beyond our “ordinary” views.

(click photograph for larger view)

an attempt at visualizing interbeing

compared to our “ordinary” isolated view

Leica R8/DMR, 100 mm Apo Macro Elmarit

Porch cave meditation

the beautiful way:
weather and time returning
the cedar to earth

(click photograph for larger view)

A seed in the earth grows into a cedar tree which men harvest and fabricate into lumber. I fashion the boards into my porch; which serves me for 25 years; only to be reclaimed by the atmosphere; due, in part, to my own design flaws. Though the process will reclaim all no matter how perfect the design.

Leica R8/DMR, 135 mm Zeiss S-Planar T•, on Cambo Ultima, using tilt