"the vast current of life"

From Fathers and Sons
by Turgenev:

About Katya,
a good woman who lives in the country:

"Here, in the midst of the shade and coolness, she used to read and work,
or to give herself up to that sensation,
known, doubtless, to each of us,
the charm of which consists in the half-unconscious,
silent listening
to the vast current of life
that flows forever both around us and within us."


book's at the library
quote at page 203

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today's essay
is at taichiyoghealthweightloss.blogspot.com
a little ditty
about rain
and the story of discomfort
and the present based
reality
of just
experiencing
what is

Easter, Rebirth, Many Chances

Say it's a moment
and we've forgotten
to be here
now

we're in some story
or in some pattern
just floating along

and then we realize
'hey, wait,
this is my life,
this is my breath
this is the beautiful sky,
beautiful Earth,
these are my feet
on this ground
Right Now,"

We wake up
to Knowing

"these are my eyes,
seeings this glory
Right Now"

We delight in

"these are my bones,
holding my up
in Gravity
Right Now"

We blissfully
remember

"this is my breathing
breathing me
my Life
Living Me
Right Now"

We sigh in the understanding
the inner awakening

We know
again
and again
and again

"This is Life
and I am.......
Alive
Aware
Awake"

And we know, sweetly
beneath words:

"Ah,
this is the resurrection."

And here:
with my step daughter
wearing a wig
for the fun of it
is the preparation
for our
Marlie, Chris,
Sarah, Rose, and Adam,
Easter picnic
in a field of buttercups
near Vallejo house

on an Easter afternoon
in the year of 2007
and much of it
was spend eating without the
state of being awake

oh, well:
there is always now
to wake back up
in
and the
again
and
again

Now

---

PLEASE BE WELL:


Pleasure
Ease
Awareness
Sensitive Strength
Enlightenment

BE

Waking up to now.
Embracing Change.
Learning to learn.
Loving to move, improve and transform.

A few good questions: And a Department of Peace

What can we do to help make this world a better place? This is a question that has come to us all. Working to understand our own abilities to change and transform is the most effective step. And also: creating change, real and healing change, out in the world: this is another wonderful challenge.


Last night at the library a wonderful start took place, a meeting of the evolving Sonoma chapter of a movement to create a Department of Peace as a cabinet level department in the U.S. government. This department would be charged with promoting peace locally, reducing gang violence and spousal abuse and the whole mess of frustrated lives spilling out into guns and knives and the wounding and maiming of other human beings. The department would also work throughout the world to bring peaceful solutions to issues that have been endlessly leading to war and conflict.

How it would do the international thing, I have no clear idea. But just the idea of the word
and the actuality of a
Department of Peace,
out in the world,
could be a very positive force.

That it could be of huge use in internal violence, I have no doubt.

For that reason alone I think this is a fine idea.

As I think about what it would take to create world peace I think of two things: happiness and a social system the was set up for equality and basic human dignity, so that clawing one's way to the top, and having more stuff, and getting more profit for the corporation, and having more goodies in one's life were no longer driving forces in the world.

How can that shift take place?

I don't know.

Does that mean that it isn't worth the effort?

No.

As we say in the Feldenkrais work, the real satisfactions in life often come in making the impossible possible ( a frozen shoulder that can move), the possible easy ( now the shoulder moves well), and the easy elegant ( and now the formerly "frozen" shoulder moves better than it ever did).

World Peace is "obviously" Impossible, which means, we have an idea that it's impossible. And as we learn to ask in the Byron Katie Work: Is it true? Is it true that this is impossible?

I don't know.

It better not be.

We don’t have room for the global warming that war is creating, for one thing.

But: we have too many people on the planet.

What if Gurdjieff's creepy idea that some cosmic force eats dead people if not enough people are living lives of consciousness, and so all these wars are the sucking in of the cosmic need for food from a humanity that can't wake up. Can't wake up to the moment. Can't wake up to love.

Can't wake up to being good to the Earth.

And in a way: this is the root of war, this unconsciousness, this lure of the Enemy, that if we just kill enough of The Enemy then The Problem will go away.

Sigh.

This isn't so easy an issue is it?


We have almost every economic system in the world pegged to survive and thrive only by expanding, which is a drive for more stuff and more people, and more potential conflict over land and resources to get and control and use all this stuff.

We have armies and covert operations designed to help corporations keep the goods flowing. We have a whole new system of World Trade agreements that don't even let local farmers grow the kind of food that need for a local people to feed themselves. How can there be peace in this sort of world.

I don't know.

Is this impossible?

I don't know.

I believe, have a hunch, a feeling that humanity is pressing up to the edge of eliminating itself, and that waking up, and learning a new way to live, a way that doesn't demand so much from the planet, will be necessary for us all the survive.

Can people learn growing their own food instead of going to the mall?

Can people learn to be happy with a walk to a neighbors and not have to roar off somewhere in their car?

Can we have kids that are allowed once again to play in and lose themselves in and find comfort and learning in nature?

Can we come to enjoy sharing, and helping others, in real, life shifting ways, not just charity?

Can we learn to do the simple things again: walk, dance, sing, read, make music, make plays, make love?

Can we peacefully create a Department of Peace?

Sure.

And how?

I don't know.

How do we make that shift?

I don't know.

Does that mean we shouldn't try?

Hell no.

---

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Meet the good local people (Terry and Melissa and soon more to sit at the booth, I'm sure) who are starting up our small group to help
this
Department of Peace
at the local at the Farmers' Market on Friday mornings.

Some nice quotes

When the power of love is stronger than
the love of power
then the world will know peace.
Bumper sticker


When all your desires are distilled down
you will cast just two votes
to love more
and to be happy
Hafiz


I believe that the very purpose of life is to be happy. From the very core of our being, we desire contentment. In my own limited experience I have found that the more we care for the happiness of others, the greater is our own sense of well-being. Cultivating a close, warmhearted feeling for others automatically puts the mind at ease. It helps remove whatever fears or insecurities we may have and gives us the strength to cope with any obstacles we encounter. It is the principal source of success in life. Since we are not solely material creatures, it is a mistake to place all our hopes for happiness on external development alone. The key is to develop inner peace.
Dali Lama


All happiness occurs when we are in the present, slowing down to walk, to listen, to breathe fresh air, to enjoy the taste of our food, to enjoy our friends and children. Quality of life arises from everyday happiness.
Chris Elms



What do you think of Western Civilization?

I think that that would be a very good idea.
Gandhi


The rivers are our brothers. They quench our thirst. They carry our canoes and feed our children. So you must give the rivers the kindness that you would give any brother.
Chief Seattle


Ecology is about connecting to Earth. It's about reversing the upside down world where life is planned around the automobile, where we are forgetting the miracle of having feet and being able to walk. It is about using the resources of nature, the sun and wind and rain, and being in harmony with them. It is about getting out of our car boxes, and our house and office boxes, and out into the fresh world from which all humanity came.

It is about building the soil more than we are using up, creating a relationship where soil and soul build on and nourish each other. It's about living in harmony with trees and soil and other life forms. It is about sleeping outdoors sometimes, and having creeks that we can get to and enjoy and that are alive and full of happy fish. And so on. Your heart knows all this.

Slowing down brings us back to the pace of nature, back to the present, back to a pace where we can know we are alive, and know the ones we love are important, and know how much we cherish and value nature.
Chris Elms

“We all need to see other people. We need to see green. Wealthy people can do that at clubs and private facilities. But most people can only do it in public squares, parks, libraries, sidewalks, greenways, public transit.”

“The least a democratic society should do is to offer people wonderful public spaces. Public spaces are not a frivolity. They are just as important as hospitals and schools. They create a sense of belonging. This creates a different type of society—a society where people of all income levels meet in public space is a more integrated, socially healthier one.”

“In Bogotá, our goal was to make a city for all the children. The measure of a good city is one where a child on a tricycle or bicycle can safely go anywhere. If a city is good for children, it will be good for everybody else. Over the last 80 years we have been making cities much more for cars mobility than for children’s happiness.”

Enrique Peñalosa,

Former mayor of Bogotá, Columbia, quoted in an article in the current (October) ode magazine. You can find the whole article at odemagazine.com > in this issue> the article is Cities of Joy.


The ultimate end to a growth economy is the same as an analogous growth: cancer. But for national economies, the victims are nature, soils, forests, people, water and quality of life. There is one, and only one, solution, and we have almost no time to try it. WE MUST TURN ALL OUR RESOURCES TO REPAIRING THE NATURAL WORLD AND TRAIN ALL OUR YOUNG PEOPLE TO HELP. The want to; we need to give them this last chance to create forests, soils, clean waters, clean energies, secure communities, stable regions, and to know how to do it from hands-on experience.
Bill Mollison, co-founder of Permaculture