Reality

Reality is ugly and messy, often overwhelming and frought with confusion and contradictions. Nothing is clear and everything is a meld from the most sublime to the most profane. Nothing is separate from anything else and everything is part of the whole of reality, connected, related and intermixed with everything else.

It's far easier to forget it and live in a simple fantasy where everything is neat and clean. It allows us to sleep, deceived by our own intentional blindness of the vast richness of reality. It is easier to avoid understanding than to attempt to understand with the possibility of becoming a greater person.

Simplicity is always the easier choice and fantasy the safer place because it frees us of the reality of the world.

The Zen of a Small Tree

I bought a Grand Fir seedling last fall and put it in its own pot until next spring where I would repot it somewhere else or keep it there if it hadn't grown enough. This morning after the Puget Sound got 8-12" of snow overnight, if you got close you could hear the sound of Zen meditation, "I am a tree. I am a tree. I really am a tree." and then you heard the faint sound of the song "To everything turn, turn, turn, there is a season..."

Taoism teaches you to be open to the many small things in life, which give you an opportunity to see the world differently and anew. Even a seedling can teach us the power of being.

Never Confuse the Two

From The New Oxford American Dictionary

Disinterest -

1.-- noun, the state of not being influenced by personal involvement in something; impartiality: I do not claim any scholarly disinterest with this book.

2.-- noun, lack of interest in something: he chided Dennis for his disinterest in anything that is not his own idea.

Dislike -

1.-- verb, feel distaste for or hostility toward: he was not distressed by the death of a man he had always disliked.

2.-- noun, (a) feeling of distaste or hostility: despite her dislike of publicity, she was quite a celebrated figure | they had taken a dislike to each other., (b) a thing to which one feels aversion: I know all his likes and dislikes.

When discussing an issue, always remember the two and never think a person's disinterest is dislike. When someone says, "I don't care about ...", it may be that they don't really care one way or the other about it, and not have a dislike for it.

Thoughts on Memory

I had some thoughts on the walk home from town this morning. It's a 6+ mile roundtrip walk, which I do 4-5 days a week now, sometimes for the exercise and sometimes for the stores in town and the cafe for the reward. Today's walk was during the snow storm that is present in the Puget Sound until Thursday.

I'm always amzed how falling snow dampens sounds. There were several places on the walk I stopped and couldn't hear anything beside myself. And I loved watching the falling snow, heavy at times, floating down to stick to everything, to be surrounded by all the snow and watching the world turn white.

Anyway, I often let my mind wander on these walks and this is what I thought. Nothing original or new, just moments of thoughts on memory.

I don't have a short memory. It's just takes me longer to remember.

I don't forget things. I just don't remember everything everyone else thinks is important.

I'm not slow thinker. I'm just not as fast as other people.

A Noise

I thought I heard something in my sleep, but alas, it was only the silence of the night.

Reading Newspapers

I read 3-5 newspapers 3-4 days a week, but some days I wait until after a nap to read them. I do this because I've learned reading newspapers half awake is better than being totally awake, it dulls the anger at the stupidity in the world caused by people not caring, only wanting, or worse demanding. Half awake means I don't want to hurt them, I only want to teach them.