And I Have Felt

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And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air;
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man:
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things.

William Wordsworth

Distilled Impressions

There is something distinctly clean and clear about this kind of poetry – Haiku. These are reflections of our time together as a sangha last week. Thank you so much to all who came along and walked. We walked and we walked and made it back to our starting point. Three dogs included.

Thursday:
august moorland
conversations interrupted
by mud

Friday:
forty toes
dipped in the brook
all kinds of sounds

in gassho,
Fred

I’m quite busy at the moment and for the next few days as well. As is my custom at such times I will endeavor to post some short poems (not original ones like the haiku from Fred) along with a photograph from my library. That should satisfy my wish and intention to keep posting. Field of Merit, the project and website, are calling for my attention as well as other things. All good stuff.

Keeping One’s Head

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From highways to byways – High Cup Nic

Motorway driving just brings home the need to be vigilant, but not pumped with adrenaline hopefully! That would be no way to live a life. Yes, the potential for chaos to break out, at any time in any place, is ever present. The consequences of a moment of inattention might not be as dramatic as when on the motorway. There are consequences none the less. Keeping one’s head, sitting still within the midst of conditions if you like, when the way forward is obscured, confused, chaotic is…wise practice. To say the least. And one gets better at it with practice. From Motorway Driving – Field Of Merit.

A group of us did a circular walk yesterday. The high point was gazing down this amazing valley.

My Throssel walking companion took this photograph. Thanks for sharing.

Blame Is Not The Name Of The Game

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Sheep over the Eden Valley – summer.

We in Britain, and most likely everywhere in the world, are engaged with this huge event, the Olympic Games. I happened to catch the end of the women’s hockey match where Argentina won, and Britain lost. Directly after the match many of the British women were sobbing openly. Right there on the pitch. They were hugely disappointed and they showed it. Initially I was mildly shocked at witnessing this public outpouring of emotion. I’ve since grown to appreciate what I and millions of others saw. We have seen this showing of emotion at other events too. It’s honest.

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Clouds over Shropshire fields – viewed from the Wrekin

How life in general, in the living of it, is punctuated with disappointments! And, unlike the Olympian hopefuls, one often doesn’t know ahead of time what they might be. Perhaps we don’t know how much we feel a certain way about something, or event, until things go a certain way or words are spoken. And then wham, those feelings of disappointment wash over and through body and mind. That’s painful when emotions run high, or low, depending on ones disposition. The only response I know that doesn’t lead to greater disappointments is to…stay with it. To have compassion for oneself, and for others and their actions and words which triggered the upset. Blame is NOT the name of the game.

The photographs take from high up, relatively speaking, are for uplift. For those known and unknown who are in extremity in all the way one can fall into such circumstances.