Children and Glowing Things

Why do humans have an inborn innate urge to pick up something that glows?

I mean think about it: most anything that glows isn't something that will be good to grab.

• If it's a glowing mushroom, it's going to be toxic.


• If it's glowing in the sea water: Most likely a poisonous jelly fish or something else with a nasty surprise...


• If it's on the land it's fire or radioactive and going to burn you.. or worse..


• If it's sparkling in mid air.. then it's ball lightening and will zap you.


• If it's a glowing fairy (Think Tinker bell), well it will be pissed off and stab you with a mini pixie spear...


• If it's a electronic item... well then the child will push random buttons till the device blows up...

See what I mean... glowing things are not good to grab. So why do children and infants grab it??

Just wondering this as I watch Brisamina gurgle in joy while grabbing Julie's glowing camera... and then proceeds to reset the whole thing...

Life makes you wonder... and that's good. Answers well they don't matter...As it's more fun to watch Brisamina scramble my partner's electronic gizmo.

Peace

Poetry Secrets

What is poetry?

It's a personal relationship between a poet and life. I can tell you many stories about muses, but here is our secret:

It's not the ex-lover, current lover, friend or anyone else the poet might be talking about.

The muse is the poet.

I danced with my muse a few mornings ago. It was beautiful spinning about in wonder, and a strange conversation as one part of my mind whispered words to my consciousness. Poets are such prismatic shattered crystals of split personalities and all.

God help you once discovering you are a poet, as it means being totally and completely torn asunder...

God bless you in the poetry, it's beyond description: reintegration as something greater.

It's no wonder that poets are at times a spokesperson for the gods. I am thinking about Rumi in this statement. As isn't joining to wholeness: also a definition of God?

Its leaves me trembling, the process, worse than any hangover, fight, even eventually ...the bliss of exploring what I label as A Personal Tao.

Of all that I have done, despite the costs. I am most proud to have been a poet.

Peace

Long Days

Yesterday

My son Kendall fell and broke both of his wrists.

I love you Kendall. With heart, with time we get stronger.

With friends and family we have so many hands to share, and together: will deal with what may come.

Yesterday

I quit my consulting job. I am giving 6 months notice to finish the current services.

To float free, no money, no plans, no savings, no concerns.

What will happen: happens.

Today

I have been a poet for so long now.

I spent this morning in meditation, I was a rose starting to bloom, waiting for potential to be: beautiful.

I wrote this to capture my feelings for a friend:

I am winter tired.
Wanting sleep.
Grey skies pushing me deep,
... under the earth with the bulbs ...
To renew again,
upon next season's
tilling fingers.

I feel the spring.

I have been at this spot too long. As stated in an earlier post: Staying here when finding a cave, a safe quiet place to contemplate. Taking the time to understand what it was to be still...

Now it's time to be a breeze again.

Tommorow

Isn't here yet.

And when it comes: it will be today.

Peace

Taoism and Bulls

I came across this photo from Reuters news yesterday.

I just love it, and what comes to mind.

A Taoist doesn't take a bull by its horns,
A Taoist flows around the bull.

Such perfect imagery for Taoist practice in action.

Peace

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Balancing Memories

Today's Poem:

Past Gone

Thoughts collect,
In the roof's rain gutter.

Remembering Kate, how we chatted, bantering around.
Hell I even asked her to marry me, and...
Now I barely remember much else.
The memories have tumbled down, away.

Like those of another, and...
I can't even remember her name.
While still remembering:
her favorite orange sweater.
her asking me a question that changed my life.
Our eating Thai at lunch, and then...
A farewell hug at the street corner.

I can't even remember her name.

It rains: life moves as a rain.
Slowly washing down, deeper into the grounding past.

I watch others: carcasses eaten alive by memories, by the past.

Instead

Discovery is to wash away.
Letting roots compost memories.
Alive is not being suffocated in amber.
It's the growth of changing, and...

Living now.

Peace

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Manifesting Yourself

I injured my arm a few weeks ago within my Yoga practice. Which is funny as I was specifically working the shoulder joints: to discover the limits of how to properly work the shoulders.

or

Play with fire, get burned, until you learn how to be fully fire yourself.

The same is true in any physical practice.

Unfortunately, Feb is the height of my allergy season for the mold. So the reduced exercise load sets me spinning into a negative energy cycle of depression. It's OK, I just have to be mindful and work at different exercises during this time, to keep my energy levels up, and balance the sense of self. This is one reason I practice so many different techniques, it permits me flexibility to shift to the whims of life.

The deeper lesson being:
Even when healing, rest is important yet it's equally important to maintain a certain level of activity to stimulate the body and mind to be healthy.

---

In other news:

I have started the next edition of the Personal Tao book. If you have any feedback on sections you like the least, please let me know, as I will focus on the sections people find most confusing or seem to need another pass of weaving.

One reader asked me why, since it was already great as is. I related this story from growing up:

My father was a wood worker in his spare time. he would craft amazing pieces of furniture. I would help him as a child and then watch him polish and sand. He would go thru pass after pass with finer sand paper. I would wonder why he would take so long to do this. Why not just skip 10 sanding passes and just do three? I would feel the difference as he show me the flow at each step. Then upon feeling the last step, I understood:

Yes three sandings were enough to make something that was nice. However, when I closed my eyes, when I ran my fingers along the grain of the final piece after the tenth sanding, after the coating of finish. I could go beyond the wood, I could feel the tree when it was living, it was so smooth that I flowed into something deeper.

I have time in my life to continue polishing the Personal Tao. I have gone through seven sandings now, I have three more to go. No rush, it will flow as it evolves.

So I will continue edit a few existing chapters and update two pieces of art and add one new piece of art about breathing. I have a few more passes to make and time to polish. More importantly, I have started writing a new chapter.

The new chapter is called: Manifesting Yourself.

It's an important chapter as it will be an applied chapter to help people new in Taoism, or to those who want a little extra guidance to discover the secrets of Taoism. I have gotten enough emails from readers who love the book, but who want a little more in terms of direct guidance. this chapter will offer an intermediate stepping stone for many people.

Peace

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Wisdom and Secrets of the Universe

Wisdom is an interesting thing,

It's like exercise. just because one might know secrets of the universe and such doesn't change the fact:

You still have to work at living each day.

PS... The universe doesn't have any secrets.


Back to exercising my life out and about...


Peace

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Caves

A story about my staying in a set of caves over the past few years.

Some of the caves were shared with large spiders the size of my fist, others were nicely heated with internet connectivity... go figure.

Anyways last week I realized it was time to come out of the caves I have been musing in and to move about and into a more active life style again.

It should prove interesting to explore the world in this new age of ... well this new age being crafted by our own hands.

I will expand this post out later this week.

Peace

Software

I just wrote this quick article about Knowledge Sharing Strategies and Collaboration Software packages.

For some odd reason I have been getting more requests than normal to help establish knowledge portals of late. So here is a document I produced to help out.

Enjoy.

For myself I can now return back to the poetry :)

Peace

Silence of the Snow

The silence of snow
This morning resting upon
hidden embers of the heart

Peace in your day

:)

A Question of the Tao

In Taoism we say of the Tao. It's not a statement of God or Nature actually, it's a statement beyond that. In fact, I have come to realize the Tao is a concept which the West hasn't duplicated in its own philosophy of terms. Something as a life long Taoist I hadn't considered fully till now.

Now when I say "West" I mean the popular culture within the West. It's possible some very unused definition in Webster exists which conveys a similar meaning as "Tao".

For a moment set aside the translations of "Way" or "Path" and such.

In many aspects two example terms that come to mind from my science background would be infinity which is similar in some respects but also not the same and from database programming the concept of NULL. Neither term describes the Tao, but instead share a similar construct towards their usage. In fact I wonder if the common usage of these terms in Science\Computing is one of the reasons I find so many Programmer\Scientist based Taoist's out there?

Of course from Star Wars we have the term "The Force" which shares some aspects of the Tao.

However now here is the problem. When people have a mystic experience, when in a moment they transcend, and touch upon a larger meaning of their life. This creates a problem: we as rational conscious beings try to categorize it to the constructs we have been taught to think within.

As a Taoist this experience is pretty easy to describe: You embrace the Tao. However, "westerners" don't have that reference point word, so the experience is translated to the best of known terms such as sacred pattern, experiencing nature, touching the cosmos or most often as a "Religious experience" or "experiencing God". Notice how no one yet says: I have touched "the force", perhaps in a few generations that could happen I suppose.

The real point is that this creates a problem. Since everyone has their own idea of what God is or what is sacred. Then the end result is that people argue over the words which are never the point or the experience itself...

In Taoism, the Tao is simply the term to embrace this concept of wholeness and yet undefinable connection and completeness... etc etc. see what I mean as soon as I try to use words.. well it doesn't map. So we say instead the Tao and know not to define it, but to simply instead accept it as the Tao... Taoism gets around the word game problem in this. Since Taoist's know their Tao is the same ,yet different, and not worth debating over how to commonly define.

The word Tao on one level actually has absolutely no meaning other than a placeholder for that larger undefinable completeness (Of course being the Tao, this overall statement is also false).

Its been an interesting day translating Tao to Western thought today for me. I wonder if the West were to embrace the word Tao as that mystical experience pointer, if it would clear up some of that religious fighting going on...

Probably not, but it sure does help make a Taoist a little more peaceful in that it helps to accept other experiences a bit easier in the end.

Peace

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Predictions

And the January rains pour down in Olympia right now. Years drop like rain, eons , ages and lifetimes...

Looking forward this is what comes up and forth in the grey zone of visions:

Build strongly in the year of 2007, as it will seemingly be of peace compared to the storms of 2008.

Personally looking ahead I know this will be a good and pivotal year, So I will move surely to make it so.

Peace

A Question of Self

Free style post, of what I am feeling this moment

Busy

As always life swirls around me and quite a bit happening.

As always ... Hectic feeling and desires.........So many people "ego I" wants to chat with, so much "ego I" wants to write, so much art to flow out of my blood, and the poetry -> to just to take the moment to meld with the poetry of it all. SO MUCH ...

As always... ignoring "ego I" and personally picking a single thing to get done and the rest continues as it may without the attention "ego I" would wish to give... yet with no guilt as it was my choice and "ego I" is merely the notary public to stamp the event as having happened.


Knowing:
looking back it was beautiful and

looking forward something unexpected will bounce me about and

looking to now feeling nothing other than satisfaction. and


:)


Isn't it amazing how we take a breath and then it weaves into a moment of perfect silence and something gets done, you forget the breath, the thought, the self, and everything just as the action taken itself completes...

Thats the silent poem I am feeling right now, and it consists of no words, but is the breath of my action instead.

Peace

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