1008: Friday, the 13th, not: Friday before Valentine's day, yes... What is Good?

What is true?

What is good?

What is beautiful?

Somehow I remember these as the (THE) Q's of philosophy.

And what is true?

You are sitting or standing or reclining somewhere, reading this.
You are aware, or are not aware of your breathing.
Same for me.
Okay, so that seems true: two organisms, beings, humans, on this
planet, both knowing language. English.

Is that true?
Well, you are breathing and can sense and feel that, and your head
is held somewhere in space in relation to the rest of you, and you can
feel that, unless you've had a rather severe injury.

What is true?
Words about the "ongoing moment" aren't that glittering
or nourishing,
and the
experience of the ongoing moment is
very peaceful, and nourishing.

To me, anyway.

What's your truth?


MOVING RIGHT ALONG:

WHAT IS GOOD?

Heck if I know.

It's good to be warm, it's good to walk,
it's good to have someone to cuddle with at night,
IF that's what you have,
and it's good to sleep alone and have all the bed to
yourself
your warm and wiggly self
to move and dream and squirm
and experience
all by yourself.

Valentine's Day is for Lovers,
they say,
and is what "they say"
ever true?
Sometimes.
Often not.

So, to heck with "they."

And what is Valentine's Day for?

Marrying yourself.

Kissing yourself in the mirror.

BEing amused by any "my sweetheart sweetest lovey, lovey
stories
you are telling yourself.

And even more amused by the lovie , lovey, loverly lovely stories
that you are your Mate
AGREE ON.

This is so often love's sweet mask:
yes, yes, we both believe the
"we are so wonderful together" story,
the "we are so in love" story,
the "we have such a special thing" story,
that we don't have to wake up
and be present to each
other today

we'll just coast on the story

...
la, la


for some it lasts and lasts, this story,
and some actually use the positive
and grateful framework of that story
to look at
TODAY (as in Now,
as in True, see above)
this mate, friend, partner, stranger,
caretaker of billions and billions of brain
cells that aren't ours,
and experiences that aren't ours,
and thoughts that aren't ours,
and knowledge, learnings and knowings
that aren't ours

They are different

oh, well

on a good day, we love that

on a bad day, we resent that and want them to be
MORE LIKE US

and on really good days,
we see the sameness
the oneness
unity
all that good stuff
beneath the differences which we love

We are all life
or awareness
or someone

we are all ONE

"They" say,

and maybe they are right,
who knows

......

WHAT IS BEAUTIFUL?

A flower
a blue sky
a friend laughing
us laughing
a friend being alive
us being alive
the quiet sweet joy of an empty mind

these are my opinions

I'm not a philosopher
and I'm a lazy person this Friday afternoon,
and Valentine's day is Monday

Good: write yourself a love letter,
if you have a mate
and if
you don't have a mate

If you want to send one to them,
too,
fine

And if you have estranged edges with someone
try this:
write from them to you
a love letter
where they say, you doing the imagining and writing,
EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANT TO HEAR

......

It sounds weird.

It's worked
for me.
"Worked" = ???

Find out if it "Works" for you,
and if there is other sh.. hanging on
in your heart,
then it's in your thoughts
and there's
always the
Work
the Work of Byron Katie
to sweeten your love  for self
for another
for life

play in those fields if you want truth that leads to peace
and beauty

good

happy V love and waking up day

which might as well be them all, eh?


chris

can we love the nonsense

you say
the "bad guys"
want to keep humanity asleep

some evil coterie
enginerring chem trails
and 9-11
and economic meltdowns

okay
okay
focus yourselves around the enemy
if you must

keep talking
talking
talking

and that will
change
.....

nothing


being asleep
is
being asleep

and looking at the mote
in the other's eye
has been an escape from self realization
for at least 2000 years

and so
what to do?

hey:
judge your neighbors

(you hate the bad guys people shouldn't get so worked up)

write it down

(see above)

ask 4 Questions.

1. is it true?
who knows. probably not.

2. can i absolutely know it's true?
nope

3.
when i believe the folks should get all twisted into
worry, yap yap, organizing others to agree with them as pretend action,
feel self righteous,
what happens to me:
i get self righteous, wrapped up in myself, off now
and all that I spout "they" shouldn't do when
concentrating on "them"

4. who would i be without the story:

just a guy getting ready to fly on a plane
with uncertain sleeping arrangements on the other
side

fun

so
it's all good is sloppy

and it's all now
is real
when we experience
that
as experience

like the fingers
my fingers
me
typing now

words appear in front of eyes
and there is a bigger world out there
when i become aware how narrowed in my
eyes
are
on a computer

and that's the "bad guy" game:
to narrow a focus

and that's the Chris knows that right
way
game

too narrow
a focus

and how big glorious and amazing
is life

you feel it realize it for you


good

i'll do it

now
or
never

for me

the kingdom of heaven:
even now and
soon i'll stand up from the computer
and
love
you
and me
and
all
of
life

For the Glory of God and our own Delight, Day Thirty One

For love of God and my own amusement. This is the phrase that comes to me now, and perhaps this would be a sweet way to consider our day.

Bach, supposedly, when asked why he had 22 kids, or whatever it was, and wrote a thousand works of music, or whatever it was, and his answer was:

"For my own amusement and the Glory of God."

What would the day be like today
and tomorrow
to see if both these
could be part and parcel
(whatever that means)
of the great game of life.

Sometimes I see the two aims of being present
and being of good cheer sufficient
to keep my life at a very sweet
and fine level.

And the Glory of God
has a slightly different ring to it
than being present,
though in the present the glory
of being alive
certainly shines through.

This is your game today,
just be delighted with whatever and all that
you do,
and find some deeper glory
to it.

How?

This is your discovery.

Dig in.

Wake up.

Slow down, less effort, more attention.

Learning.

All for you, all for God.

For the glory of God
and
your own amusement.

See where that goes!!!


Good.

Day Thirty: Down and Dirty, or Not: Being Present, Again, and again and...

DAY THIRTY: DOWN AND DIRTY, OR NOT DIRTY
More exploration of the present

We are all real and amazing at our core.

And yet we can go through our days without any realization of that, so wrapped up are we in the details of doing one thing after another, or having one thought after another, or having one conversation after another.

Whatever we are doing, we could be “there” with ourselves as well as attending to our task.

Sometimes we do that.

Sometimes we don’t.


And so, once again, let’s glory in being present, with this addition: one or more times today, let’s go “outside” and walk and see if we can take ourselves in this walk, in the present.
We can follow our breathing as we walk.

We can be aware of seeing what we are seeing as we walk.

We can leave our cell phones behind, so if we are talking it will be either to ourselves and we can notice this, or we can be talking to a real person at our sides.

We can sense our arms and legs and spine and notice just exactly what we are doing with each other them.

We can be listening to the sounds of nature, or our footsteps, maybe even the sounds of our breathing.

This might be a nice way to be all the day, but hey, for a walk, this is a great way to be, and a great start to being awake and aware and present in our lives.

DAY TWENTY-NINE: WHAT TO LEAVE BEHIND Don’t take it personally:

DAY TWENTY-NINE: WHAT TO LEAVE BEHIND
Don’t take it personally:

Things don’t work out sometimes. So be it. We can learn from our mistakes. We can ponder how to “do it better” next time. And we can take it personally, as if there is something “Wrong” with us, that it didn’t work out.

This is an interesting distinction.

Because, much too often, various people around us might be all too willing to point out “what we did wrong” in a tone that there is something “wrong” with us.

Ah, this is their business.

This is their path in life.

This is their way of helping us to love ourselves in the face of something like a hostile attitude.

Oh, well. They think there is something “wrong” with us, and we have performed something that didn’t work out, and we have put some attention and awareness on how we could improve next time.

And now: we can let go and not take it personally.

We did our best, or maybe not even that, but to take it to heart that we are a failure because something outside of us seems a failure is not kind.

Being kind to ourselves is always a great step.

When we get to the Byron Katie work (soon, soon), we’ll explore the Turn Around, in several forms. One of its most useful and amazing forms is like this. The thought/ belief/ opinion/ idea that “so and so should be nicer to me” does a TURN AROUND to “I should be nicer to me.”

(Also in there: “I should be nicer to so and so,” but the “nicer to myself” is the essence of not taking things personally.)

And that’s our gig today: our grand scheme falls apart: don’t take it personally. Someone has an issue with us. Listen, learn, see it from their point of view, and don’t take it personally. Someone can’t get excited about what you wish they’d get excited about, don’t take it personally. Things aren’t going right: don’t take it personally. Or are going right! Don’t…

i'm in love and so what

one of my favorite girlfriends, Bella Bella



what a terrible way
to say it
right:

"i'm in love
and so
what?"

and yet
and yet

what is more normal
than being in
love?

what is more
natural
to our
human
being
status?

our being
is love
and
to
be
"in love"
is
just
(just!)
to wake back
up
to all
we
are

before we
coat
ourselves
with the suggestions
and advice
and misperceptions
of others

life
is
one waking
and
lucky
gift
moment
after
another

to be
in
love
is
the
so what
of being
naturally
back
where
we
always
could
be

yes