Another gem, Gail! But don't ask me how your question about where sugar grows reminded me of a song from so very long ago: "Big Rock Candy Mountains." One verse goes, "In the Big Rock Candy Mountains, the cops have wooden legs. The bulldogs all have rubber teeth, and the hens lay soft-boiled eggs." Given that backdrop, it seems quite plausible that sugar could at least grow on those mountains! In my neck of the woods, sugar cane grows in south Florida, much to the detriment of Lake Okeechobee, an area that is just a smidgeon above sea level. Some would suggest the smidgeon is shrinking. ;) Harvesting used to be dangerous, backbreaking work. Machetes were used to hack down the cane stalks, which were then bundled and lugged on the backs of the workers. For me, I'd prefer to think the work is a lot easier on The Big Rock Candy Mountains! Code Red Mountain Dew?! Probably from hell... ;)
I drank my share of MD as a teen...so deliciously sweet over a tall glass of ice—like—dew on a mountaintop? I’m visualizing a marketing presentation with flip charts.😜
Finally, back to walking. In part thanks to your example and my own necessity. . "Solvitur ambulando" as you well know....loosely translated "It is solved by walking". I've found an imaginary walking friend as part of the walking equation for me is "silence" or rather escape from human generated noise. Remember "Wander Society"? Your quote on meditation reminded me of our friend K's view on meditation which comes closest to what it's all about for me. Posting it here rather than directly as I got started here:
"Meditation is total attention to whatever you are doing throughout the day. If you are putting on your tie, attend to it. If you are talking to somebody, pay complete attention. In attention, there is no centre as the ‘me’. Only when there is no attention, there is the formation and the structure of the self, from which all sorrow, pain and division arise. So meditation is this sense of total absence of the self. And when there is that attention, the mind becomes completely quiet, silent, without any pressure. That which is silent has vast space. Only then that which is nameless comes into being. Then life, all life, yours and another’s, all existence, becomes sacred, holy. This is the meaning of life and the meaning of meditation."
How wonderful to see K's quote again, after seeing it this morning in my inbox. (Thanks, Gail.) After reading K, I shared with my wife, saying, "This is a model of meditation that corresponds to my own way of seeing meditation. How well constructed!"
"Living life each moment as a mediation" or in my spiritual tradition "life as a conversation with G_d" and the corollary that we are the "deity's meditation". All of this was conjured up this am thanks to Gail.
The quote you share was a gift in my inbox this morning. No doubt it influenced my presence and writing.;)
When I’m really mindful, I’ve got this thing I do with my shoulders....lift, pull towards one another on the back, and settle them as if they are football padding resting on interior structure. Kind of weird? Sure. Yet it’s a good practice for my posture and my presence.
I read a really thought provoking long quote from Jung yesterday regarding outside chaos being the result of inside chaos. Doing my part to quell chais with mindfulness. Ha!
Glad to hear you are out walking. Hope your weather is less humid than ours.
At dinner last night the family was talking about “up north” in winter. The kid went up ice fishing a few times last winter. He said he’s never heard such silence.
K would agree with Jung....He would use words like "order" and "disorder". My most profound moments in the past several years have been during my periodic silence retreats. Bringing that attention space into daily life without effort is what K is pointing?
Yes, but you/we actually do it all the time... when our attention is drawn toward something essentially w/o effort. Where is your effort when you notice something H does.
Another gem, Gail! But don't ask me how your question about where sugar grows reminded me of a song from so very long ago: "Big Rock Candy Mountains." One verse goes, "In the Big Rock Candy Mountains, the cops have wooden legs. The bulldogs all have rubber teeth, and the hens lay soft-boiled eggs." Given that backdrop, it seems quite plausible that sugar could at least grow on those mountains! In my neck of the woods, sugar cane grows in south Florida, much to the detriment of Lake Okeechobee, an area that is just a smidgeon above sea level. Some would suggest the smidgeon is shrinking. ;) Harvesting used to be dangerous, backbreaking work. Machetes were used to hack down the cane stalks, which were then bundled and lugged on the backs of the workers. For me, I'd prefer to think the work is a lot easier on The Big Rock Candy Mountains! Code Red Mountain Dew?! Probably from hell... ;)
The song was in “Oh brother—where art thou.”
I drank my share of MD as a teen...so deliciously sweet over a tall glass of ice—like—dew on a mountaintop? I’m visualizing a marketing presentation with flip charts.😜
Finally, back to walking. In part thanks to your example and my own necessity. . "Solvitur ambulando" as you well know....loosely translated "It is solved by walking". I've found an imaginary walking friend as part of the walking equation for me is "silence" or rather escape from human generated noise. Remember "Wander Society"? Your quote on meditation reminded me of our friend K's view on meditation which comes closest to what it's all about for me. Posting it here rather than directly as I got started here:
"Meditation is total attention to whatever you are doing throughout the day. If you are putting on your tie, attend to it. If you are talking to somebody, pay complete attention. In attention, there is no centre as the ‘me’. Only when there is no attention, there is the formation and the structure of the self, from which all sorrow, pain and division arise. So meditation is this sense of total absence of the self. And when there is that attention, the mind becomes completely quiet, silent, without any pressure. That which is silent has vast space. Only then that which is nameless comes into being. Then life, all life, yours and another’s, all existence, becomes sacred, holy. This is the meaning of life and the meaning of meditation."
How wonderful to see K's quote again, after seeing it this morning in my inbox. (Thanks, Gail.) After reading K, I shared with my wife, saying, "This is a model of meditation that corresponds to my own way of seeing meditation. How well constructed!"
"Living life each moment as a mediation" or in my spiritual tradition "life as a conversation with G_d" and the corollary that we are the "deity's meditation". All of this was conjured up this am thanks to Gail.
The quote you share was a gift in my inbox this morning. No doubt it influenced my presence and writing.;)
When I’m really mindful, I’ve got this thing I do with my shoulders....lift, pull towards one another on the back, and settle them as if they are football padding resting on interior structure. Kind of weird? Sure. Yet it’s a good practice for my posture and my presence.
I read a really thought provoking long quote from Jung yesterday regarding outside chaos being the result of inside chaos. Doing my part to quell chais with mindfulness. Ha!
Glad to hear you are out walking. Hope your weather is less humid than ours.
At dinner last night the family was talking about “up north” in winter. The kid went up ice fishing a few times last winter. He said he’s never heard such silence.
K would agree with Jung....He would use words like "order" and "disorder". My most profound moments in the past several years have been during my periodic silence retreats. Bringing that attention space into daily life without effort is what K is pointing?
It’s the “without effort” part that’s a challenge!
Yes, but you/we actually do it all the time... when our attention is drawn toward something essentially w/o effort. Where is your effort when you notice something H does.
No effort.😁