Slow down, travel plans, do you want to host?

I have this nice little ongoing
sermon in
this blog:
slow down
and be present.

And I have,
Sometimes,
or even often,
hurried through whatever I was going
to write,
not being present as the words
were being typed along.

Now,
I'm here.

I invite you
to whatever your present is right now.

This is my idea for
a good life:
to live and assist others
in Awakened Gardening
Awakened Movement
Awakened Relationship
Awakened and Ecological Living

Being present is a kick
and a great place to be of use
to myself, others and the planet.

Plans,
alas, are not in the present,
and they do present
a chance to the present
in some other "place"
at some other "time."

I'm interested
in additional hosts,
interested in allowing me to
assist them
as they assist me with a place to stay,
and an "in" to the local plant, nature and people world,
one month at a time.

During that time, I would be delighted to
assist
in all the Awakened pathways
mentioned above,
including either giving
or trading Neurological Upgrading Lessons.

Giving one a day if you have a child
with Special Needs,
or someone recovering from a Stroke or Accident,
or if you are someone
wanting to radically improve your golf,
tennis, feeling inside yourself,
connection to pleasure
and skill,
anti-aging, vitality,
grace and ease of thinking, moving and feeling.

Trading if another practitioner of
the Feldenkrais Method
or the
Anat Baniel Method is my host.
To give and receive daily lessons:
imagine the heaven of that.

Anyway:
as I write about this as yet non-existent world,
the plan world,
I was
slipping out
of the
present,
and here I am again,
back
home,
now

and you are whatever and however and wherever
you are.

So far, these places seem to be part
of my path:
Tucson, Arizona
Atlanta, Georgia
Orcas Island, Washington,
Amish rural Ohio
Chicago

Will keep filling in cities and places
as the pathways get more clear.

Thanks,

Chris

Thanks Eight, and hey: use hay (leaves, junk mail, anything organic),

quiet thanks, to food, Earth, solitude, sweetness of Being




Could every day
be
thanks
day?

Sure
why not?

And after
feed
feed
feeding ourselves.

Let's take today:
and start
to feed
the Earth:

Make the soil
to feed
you later:


start with anything

add
leaves,
old plants,
junk mail,
old newspapers



even junk mail and stuff




leaves and old zuchini plant

Go buy some
hay,
not straw
oat hay,
alfalfa,
whatever the local feed store has,
get some different kinds,

put them on the ground,
over newspaper and junk mail,
over manure if you've got any
you can get to,
over kitchen stuff
and old plants,

pile on the hay,
make yourself
a nice mound

let it rot
and
you
are making soil

feeding
the Earth

soon:
this soil
could be
feeding you.

TGITG

THANKS
for

this very day

this very moment

these very click click
fingers

this breath

this light into my eyes

evolution
brain to take the shapes
and turn them into writing reading

the breath that tells me,
now
now
now

I am alive


you, too


thanks

Thanksgiving Six: Coming Home to Stillness

Dock leaf, supreme food in the spring, or the false spring of California fall

Life is always
here
as long as "I"
am

and what that "I"
is,
is most easily
felt if I return
to a quiet
awareness of almost anything
in the present

without the words
tagging along

this experience:
ease
aliveness
now
awaring
being

can be called anything

and the
word

is never the experience

and the experience
is always

just right
and just
what it is

So,
thanks various teachers,
experiences,
efforts,
learnings,
realizations

that may
made my life one
where this
coming home

becomes more and more

the center
of
everything

for me

ciao,
happy stillness
or
feasting
or
both:

to you

Chris

Thanks Five, Being Alive

thanks to Mom
and Dad,

for getting together,
in love
lust
whatever it was

and bringing
me
along to this miracle
and crazy
learning that is
sometimes called life


thanks to Earth
and Nature
for evolving me
us
humans
plants
edibles

movement to get the edibles
and to make the next generation


and thanks to
those who
figured reading and
speaking
and clothes
and shelter

some minor
details
we take for granted

running
drinkable water

we've really
got it
made


and thanks for the realization:
time to wake up
get enlightened
stay and increase ecology:

be of service
to Earth
and others
and our
own joy

what a sweet
task,
eh?

Thanks four all the learning and amazement

rounding and arching in Tai Chi, some hints in Saturday's piece over at Brain Plasticity and Learning Blog



life is pretty fun

especially once I get the hang
of realizing that my
own shortcomings,
often seen in other people first,
and then,
when I "duh" into awakeness
and realize:

hey:

that's me,
2


also thanks to
Yes Magazine

a great issue
on saving the Earth
by
slowing down
and
by
being mindful
and
by
happiness


if you read this blog
you might see why I'd like that

a nice idea
in there,
which was why no blog yesterday:

taking one day a week
and doing:
no car, no computer, no phone

(from idea of Secular Sabbath,
mentioned in this issue of Yes!)

just going simple

nice idea

thanks
for
good ideas
out
and about
in the world

Thanksgiving Three: the Miracle of Brain/ Body/ Self Learning

I had heard of the Feldenkrais work for a long
time,
since the 70's.

In my twenties I used it to be
more fluid and happy in my body.

In my thirties and forties
I used it to undo aching back and shoulder
stuff.

For years I told people with "back stuff"
go do some Feldenkrais work.

In my fifties I went to a weekend workshop
where we did three lessons of called
Awareness Through Movement
each day.

I felt like I was ten years old again.

A training was starting.
I decided I'd be the guy I sent people to.


This is one of my great thanks:
to Moshe Feldenkrais for inventing this
amazing brain work
that pretends to be
body work
as it heals and enlivens
brain, body and spirits.

So:
now I'm getting interested in
teaching adults who've had strokes
and children with "learning issues"
to read with what I'll call Whole Body Reading.

Here's a fun Movement Lesson
to make you feel better,
no matter what your level of competence in reading, thinking,
moving
or
anything is.


THE LESSON.

1. Sit in a chair. Near the front edge.
Be comfortable. Move slowly.

2. Make a figure eight with your nose.
See how slowly and deliciously you can do this.

3. Now turn the figure eight on its side
and make an infinity sign with your nose.
How slow, big, easy, comfortable can you do this?
How much of yourself can you feel as you do this.
Slow, easy, pleasure.

Rest between the numbers. Close eyes. Breathe. Notice yourself.

4. Now make an infinity sign with your eyes.

Rest.

5.Now, and go really slowly: this
is a lesson,
not a "do it right away" thing:
have eyes and nose pointed to the middle,
and have the eyes (closed is easier) go up and to the left
as the nose goes down and to the right

From there, figure out how,
and continue to make infinity signs
with the eyes and the nose going opposite of each other.

Slow.

Breathe.

If you "can't get it," just do the original eyes up left nose down right
part and back to the middle.

Rest.

6. Sit with your right hand behind your neck
if you can. Other wise on your head.
If your hand goes behind your head, have your fingers
pointing down.
Maybe let your head turn a little to the left.
Put your left hand on the chair to your left, or slightly behind you.


a. Bend over like this, elbow toward ground .

Don't tilt, but fold in the middle, belly in,
pelvis rocking back,
shoulders staying roughly over the hips.


Do this a number of times.

Rest. Let hand undo. Then, before the next movement
come back to this position.

b. Arch up.
Let your elbow come up, your belly forward,
your pelvis forward, your chest forward
so this time your shoulders move forward, too.


Do this easily.

Rest.

c. Combine going down, belly in, elbow down
and arching up, belly out, elbow forward and up.

Rest.

d. Now make, with hand behind your head,
infinity signs,
where on the down side of the infinity signs
you round your back and bring your belly in
and on the up sides of the infinity sign
you arch your back and let your belly go out.

Rest.



7. Now, go back to just the nose going in
an infinity sigh.
Add knowing about the eyes,
letting your eyes and nose do the shape together.
And maybe let the back get a little involved.
See if it feels smoother and clearer.


This is a shape. Reading is recognizing shapes.

How to best know shapes?
Learn deeply
and pleasurably:
A shape in mind and body.

Ease and learning in the body.

Reading can come from knowing shapes,
and feeling them in the body..

Do this easily and have
learning
fun.

Thanking Two

the sun
our source
of free energy

the amazing explosion
93 million miles away
and a tiny sliver of this huge
being's energy (a million times the size of
Earth)
comes to us

grows the grass that feeds
the cows
that graze down near Fresno
and are milked in the pastures
and then the milk
raw milk
sent to stores all over California

thankful to
sun
and raw milk
and the magic of bacteria
to make
Keffir
from the last batch of keffir

thanks to sun

for drying towels





for drying dishes



for giving Marlie a warm
morning in which
to plant some spinach seeds


thankful
that the night is dark
and sleep comes

and then the day
the sun,


sometimes bright,
sometimes hidden

but always there
keeping life going
on this beautiful, amazing planet

Earth

Thanksgiving One

why just one day of thanks

let me start now:

the blue sky

the rains

the green growing Earth

my breathing

the sweet sound of my friend's voice

the wind in the leaves, golden turning

the ability to know
now
that
I am alive

and the amazing peace
in silence of observing
Self, Life, Earth
from a no word, silent
place

Peace



hmmm
that's a good start

Slow down, work the soil, breathe, soothe your soul

as winter
winds its way here
taking its globally warmed time

we have extra
"time"...
warmish
non rainy days

to make the soil
sweet for the spring

this is a good thing

to breathe
the fresh air

to move our bodies
as we move
the soil

even sweeter
to move our bodies
in any easy rhythm:
rounding and loading the nervous system as it were,
breathing in and ready to move
out into the world

push out
arching our backs,
breathing out,
lengthening,
powering into the soil
with our feet back self
powering out into the world
with shovel, mind, happiness
and
anything else
everything else

not strain
lots of gain

ease
pleasure
nowing


good

the friendship boat

what can be said
from the place
of waking?

two people
are lucky
to be friends
and to make each other's lives
sweeter

for a day
for a year
for eight years


it's all good

and
forever after
isn't better than
not forever after
in spite of what
the fairy tales say

and the wish for something permanent
is deep
deep

and there is something permanent
the good old Universe

and even that
may fade away
and or blow up
some day

oh, well

while we're here,
let's enjoy it

there is only one
forever after:
now

ah
good

listen, don't interrupt, don't comment, and taste the miracles

how get clearer with someone you love:

they talk,
you listen
no interruption
four minutes
listen, really listen, don't "plan" what to say

they stop
a timer goes off say

a minute or so:
silence

next talk,
you talk,
they listen,
you talk about you're important
places,
your loves and likes
and anything
but about what they said
anything
but about them

two people,
in their own business

building love

The Secret Life of Bees

a great book,
read it
if you like/ love/ enjoy
reading

a great movie,
here locally at
The Sebastiani Theater,
if you like/ love/ enjoy
movies

Feeding the Earth, nourishing our Soul/ Soil

a lot of people
sweet wonderful people to be
sure
think gardening
is about planting plants
and watering and growing them

that's a lot,
lot
lot
better than not growing
anything

and is on the way
to what gardening is
really about:

feeding the Earth
so the rich wonderful
soil
can feed the plants

Marlie
and I plugged away today
and converted some old falling apart plants
and bare ground
to a living mound of composting
soil
in
which just about anything will
grow fabulously

and
if you are in mild climate areas:
now's great time for
getting beds ready for winter vegies
and
in other areas,
getting soil ready for spring veggies

how to get soil ready:
like nature does,
drop leaves and grass and anything
organic on top,
stir around,
let the micro orgamisms be your rototillers

enjoy
the
work
the motion of your body
the breathing of the air
the creation of a new soil place

it's all pointed in the
fine direction:
slow down
feed ourselves
stay out of cars
feed the Earth
come back to the slow sweetness

of
Now

Is it safe to be smart, yet?

Ah yes,
the question no one is asking:

Is it safe to be smart, yet?

Remember in the song,
My Funny Valentine,
there's a line to the effect
that one of the gal's problems
is that when she opens her mouth
to speak,
she's smart.

And, until recently, in Presidential
elections,
having intelligence
was scorned as elitism,

which actually,
it often was.

And then Barack Obama comes
along,
and raise discourse to the level
of intelligent people looking
at things in a broader
and more fair way

He's speech in response to the Rev Wright
imbroglio
was a model of treating people as if
they were adults, who could think
and reason

no sound bites

intelligence
I actually posted the whole thing back
then
at
Barack's Speech on Race and America
and dream's deferred

And then the question:

is it safe to be smart, yet?

Not quite

but it's almost safe to be intelligent,
especially if you can be
calm
and intelligent
the way our new President elect is

wow, what a miracle

We Did it

we,
the American people

elected a black man
to the Presidency

some voted for him
millions

some voted for the other
guy
a once honorable man
who imploded to his lowest
level

that's fine
we most of us
do that sometimes

and the other other guy
the black man
stayed calm
smart
focused:
how can we break
through into
new possibilities

many, many wanted
that shift

he is black and that wasn't the point
he is smart and that's part of the point

the point:
to use that intelligence and calm
and the organized focus of millions
of people
to create
something better
for us all

we the
people

did something amazing:
good for us

War and Peace

Originally, November 11,
and more exactly,
the 11th hour of the 11th day or the 11th month,
was
Armistice Day

the day wars were going
to end
the day World War I
was officially over,
"the war to end all wars,"

and then the vindictive
"peace" sowed the seeds
for one of the most necessary of all
wars,
World War II

and those Veterans
include many of our fathers and grandfathers
and most of them are
dead,
but to them,
who fought in a war to stop a mad
and crazy man
with a mad and crazy idea:
we now offer thanks

Veterans Day

And of course,
to any of our soldiers, in any war,
just doing their duty,
trying their best to serve and protect
their country,
we offer our gratitude.


In the local paper,
the Sonoma Index Tribune,
in one of his many fine editorials
David Bolling praises Veterans,
and looks at the overall picture of
a country whose wars are always
"over there"
and the dangers
of this separation of the men and women
doing to amazing and awful work
of war,
and the civilians back home.

Here's one part of the editorial:
President Eisenhower understood this clearly when he said, "I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, as only one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity."

You can read the rest
at
David Bolling's Veteran's Day editorial


And now,
amazingly we have a President-elect who stood up
a while back and bravely made these
distinctions:
wars that were necessary: Revolutionary War, Civil War, World War II
and
those that perhaps were not.

He wasn't against all wars,
he said, Barack Obama
on October 2, 2002:
I don’t oppose all wars. And I know that in this crowd today, there is no shortage of patriots, or of patriotism. What I am opposed to is a dumb war.


the whole of his speech is
at Wikipedia on Barack Obama's Iraq Speech of October 2002

And what can I add to
that?

Very little.

Except to admit
that while not serving in the military
I have partaken in the emotional equivalent
of "dumb wars."

Now is always a good time
to stop
that sort of nonsense.

Good
old
Now.

the failure of arguing

ah
la, la, la, la:

the failure of arguing:

arguing is dumb and brutal
and
most of us
know that
and most of us fall for it
now and then

or often

who knows,
sometimes some
of us
are slow learners

anyway:

here's how an argument goes

each Side thinks:
"I am right, the other is wrong."

each Side believes,
fervently:
"I am reasonable, the other is unreasonable."

each Side almost always
interrupts the other
when they are speaking and doesn't notice
and
is deeply offended when the interrupting
goes the other way

each Side likes to paint
the other as psychologically wounded,
depraved, weird childhood, lousy heart,
bad patterns
whatever:
you know the drift:
"The other one is unreasonable and wrong
because they are f....d up."

each Side likes to forget
their own unreasonableness and
patterns of misusing themselves and others

each Side wants the other
to
"Listen"
which means, really
to
agree

and doesn't want to "Listen/ agree" with the other

both sides emerge
from the fracas
weary
and sure
that "If the other would just..."
then this weariness, annoyance, sadness, anger
would
not exist in the world

which is to say:
when we argue
we get to be at our worst
as far as making others
the cause of our inner suffering

la,
la

what
a mess

I got into one
of these
recently:

not proud of me


oh, yeah, one
more grim
cost/ habit in the arguing game:

the usual post argument route
is this:
find so-called Friends
to agree with the
fundamental premise of the
argument,
the "I am right and the other is wrong."

Get friends to chime along,
"Oh, yes, you were soooo right,
the other is soooo wrong."

Feel righteous.

Get nowhere.


And: can the human race
be saved.

If we can lift above this level.
Somehow.

So, my part:
see how I blew it.
Let the other side be right
instead of wrong.

Love the other side
rather than the usual demean, find flaws,
find people to agree with me,
be Right,
blah, blah, blah.

Can I do that?

Yes.

Can we all do that?

Yes, we can.

What are we here for?

(half assed, literally as far a chair goes,
side bend,
wrists behind head so all back (not just neck)
comes along,
pelvis wakes up,
go both ways and one way pelvis can sink way
down,
fun...

you might enjoy this)


What are we here for?

to live
to learn

to heal the Earth
learn the Earth
feed ourselves and the Earth well

care for each other

be happy
help others be happy

be creative
help others be creative

love
help others to love

discover
what's this world
life
learning
awakening

all
about

something
like
that

Undoing, Loving, Learning

New name for the

108 Days Blog


No longer: Undoing a Wonderful Relationship


Now this:

Out of a Ruins,
a Treasure is Being Discovered, Recovered and Loved

Death, love, learning, Jesus, children

books

full of words

pointing

if we are lucky

to some richness in life
some reminder
of how splendid
this world is

how amazing we are

what fools we be when we wallow
in words
that tell us
how we are some deprived
or lacking


the jewels
of life
the light in the darkness

Jesus jumping off the page
of a recent book
Three Gospels, by Reynolds Price

and then
children's books
by William Steig
full of the whimsical glory
of life

and the darkness coming
earlier

and death of the summer
and of the day's past
and
of
maybe, sweet, Life, maybe
some of my/ our illusions

and on the other side
of

"In the beginning was the Word"

what was before the beginning

what is the kiss
the sunlight
the fingers touching the tree bark
the feet brushing the ground
the bird or frog or wind calling

and no word
to tell

just
the thing itself

and we
maybe
luckily

there,
becoming lost
one with
entranced
entuned with

the Whole Deal

Feed the Earth/ How to be Unhappy

Feed the Earth:

here's some garden I'm preparing for the spring
tearing up junk mail, old newspapers, old jottings
putting on the hill
already made of weeds and plant debris
to be covered with dying tomatoes
weeds and
then
compost

feed the Earth
and the worms
and micro organisms will
do your rototilling for you

---

how to be unhappy:

want
wish
demand
wait for
count on
think you need
feel bad until you get

another person to
be different
than they are



ah,
what
hell to go with that insanity

and I did
that yesterday

what a pity

hours wasted
in
unnecessary
suffering

la,
la

hope I learned
my slow learner
dumb me
lesson

!!!!

We Can

Wake up to Now

Be happier and kinder people

Heal the Earth


Probably,
this will take
a bit of work.


We Can:
Learn to be patient
and happy
while
we work

Yes, we can

Okay, we can breathe
again

We can be proud to be
Americans
again

We can almost have hope
that
the world
can be turned around
before the human race destroys
itself.

Almost.

Ah, and with many "too good to be
true"
happenings:
the temptation:

go into a sleep of contentment,
now
it's going to be
"happy ever after."

With or without
this fabulous man as President
I am either awake in the moment
or
a high functioning robot
or
a low functioning
robot
With or without this
fabulous intelligent
ground breaking
politician,
and I do mean gooooood politician,
at our Presidency:
the whole system,
from education,
to finance,
to how we feed ourselves,
to living in and for our cars,
to rushing and cell phoning
and being out of
our lives
and out
of touch with nature,
most of the time,

probably
could do well to change.

if the planet is to survive.
if the insane degradation
of much of modern life
is to stop.

change
inner change
outer change.

and can we do
it
and be present
at the same time

we'll see

and now's
always the greatest
sweetest
surest
time to being
experiencing
the present
of the present

This choice
is there
here
now.

Good.


Sweet stories
on reactions to this via
APP story on Tears and Celebration at Obama's victory

rains, birthdays, elections

much of beauty and amazement
happening

rains


Marlie's amazing party


tomorrow:
a chance for an breath forward
or a slide back more or less into barbarism
what will it be?

Five lines, happiness and death

Once we were born
Someday we die

long time
in skeleton-land

skeleton:

spine holds up head
arms off shoulder things

legs off pelvis thing,
at hip joints

if sitting:
we are sitting on the pelvis thing

sense that
now

enjoy,
move and
learn
and love
from there:

grab someone cute
and have some fun:

now we are alive

someday
we'll be dead

good

(for waking up)

I shouldn't be such an idiot: Is that true?

I was an idiot the other day,
oh well.

I went to the Sukhawat party
looking for people to be unconscious,
asleep, blah, blah. Blah.

They were.
La, la.
What's new.

And I made myself unhappy
with the story that:
People should be awake.

What silliness:

People should be awake
if they are awake.

People should be asleep
if they are asleep.

Their business.

One person to keep
awake
if I can
and want to:

me