2018.03.21 - Day 7

Did my morning meditation before having any solid food.
I find I gravitate toward a lighter breakfast when I am more focused. Tea instead of coffee, smaller amounts of solid food. Feeling grateful it is here.


Thank you Raffila, for thinking along.

As I see it, the background of the food is as much a part of the isness of it as the immediate sensory experience. The walnut is not just a bundle of what it tastes like, it is also a part of a tree. And of a history of trees growing and producing nuts to make new trees. And a common history of trees and humans, where humans have used nuts for food and trees have used humans for getting around. All this is as much a part of the walnut as the sweetness and bitterness.

This is all part of a wider now. Is there any moment that is not a now?

What a lovely 'eternity in an hour' contemplation.



A little blank today
Sad, mingled with cosmic acceptance
and a subtle beckoning

Step 3

Continuing with my daily reading practice. I am reading in two books at present, which have interestingly and coincidentally both converged on a single topic of interest. I am enjoying the opportunity to step aside from the round of daily activity and let my mind be led into new paths.

Snow falling all day; snow to fall through the night. Tree branches bending down low, some prostrating themselves having left their home high above. Sometime next week, the crocuses and daffodils may emerge as the white blanket recedes into the ground giving moisture for the flowers and plants to come. For now I sit over the keyboard very thankful for this day on this planet that I share with all the readers of this, all the immigrants, all those hungry without enough food, those experiencing war, those suffering from hate (theirs and from others), those who suffer from sadness, and those experiencing happiness with their loved ones. I am all of you and I send you my love.

My 91 years old mother-in-law moved today into a new appartment in a home for old people. When we left, after helping her to settle, she was drinking tea and watching a hockey game. She's looking forward to taking tai-chi classes and watching Spring blooming in her bedroom's window. We looked at old pictures of her at 17, before she got married: she's as adventurous as she was, breaking new ground with an enthusiasm I find very inspiring.

The Celebrate today holidays listed on websites seem So made up and forced today that they will not be mentioned.
Happy Day!

the grey areas of levels of dreams, levels of sleep, levels of awake, spectrum levels of random bizarre thoughts to rational concentrated working thoughts all collided this morning.
Those are/were the separate lives to be dealt with here.
For a vivid split moment they collided. Memories of being there, being in it now and going there soon happened.

That should be enough. and enough written.

My Japanese inlaws and son-in-law bow to their food before eating. I like watching it. They say a certain phrase but of course I can never remember it. I like to think of you bowing. My only worry that you were fussing a bit. (maybe) Today I went shopping for the first time in a month or so and was busy reading the labels of pet food as I am trying to buy food without chicken in. Wow. Salmon dinner flaked--has meat byproducts and chicken. All the canned dog/cat food seems to have one or the other or both no matter What the name of the meal is. Lamb dinner beef stew seafood medley. It's all meat and chicken often even more so than the lamb or fish etc. Chicken makes the dog sick as does some products from "meat".. what is "meat by products".. Meat? I am amazed it's not necessary to name any particular meat. ah well. At least a walnut is probably only a walnut. It take 20 years to make a new apple variety. Did you know that. It's a handy factoid.
Alma could you tell us the names of the two books?
I forgot it could snow in March. I never liked March snow compared to the first snows th at came in early December. I wonder what it is like to be 91. Mobility is all. I read yesterday that the chance of getting Alzheimers for people in their '90's is supposedly 50 percent. That seems way too high. I am glad that the hockey fan has found a home with fellow enthusiasts. It must be hard to go to one's "last home". Then again, it's all about the food from what I hear from my friends of that age.