Yearly Archives: 2016

Daily Life, Overcome Difficulties, photograph

So be it, Truly

10 Comments

1Writing desk
This writing desk was asking for some serious TLC and I’ve taken on the task. Bought at the local Charity Shop, it was love at first sight. I’d wanted a writing desk and now I have one. Or has it got me!

This is the before photograph of the desk in its original, scratched and flaking state. You will see the after picture ‘in due course’. This is my ‘intention’ desk. To write more and more often desk. With a coat of paint tender care along with love will be etched into the wood. It’s a hand-writing desk. Somewhere special and specific I can return to sit down and take up an actual pen, with ink. Proper ink. No great novel or even great thoughts, simply a place to land before, put pen to paper and see what comes. Blog posts and thoughts I didn’t even know were there. Who knows.

Now here is a woman who has herself a desk too. She calls it her Intellectual Altar.

So now when I sit down with a cup of tea and either my laptop or notebook, I have a clean, uncluttered space to contemplate: a place where I can spread out my books, papers, or whatever else I’m working on. Just as a Dharma room Buddha is a visual representation of the calm, compassionate focus we’d like to attain, my desk is a tangible reminder of the priorities and practices I’d like to cultivate.

From Horded Ordinaries
Amen to that. So be it, truly.

Overcome Difficulties, Teachings

The Irreparable Hour

4 Comments

River Bela - in full spate
River Bela – in full spate
Tempus fugit: Time is fleeting. Where tempus fugit appears as fugit inreparabile tempus it is: it escapes, irretrievable time.

Ah the flying time!
Fast flies
meanwhile
the
irreparable hour.

In Zen we have a verse:

Time flies
As an Arrow
Flies from a bow.

To the teacher then:

I wish to sit
beside you
And learn from you.
Always.

The verses are a commitment, a deep one. Yes, time passes and deeper still there is never a time when one does not learn from ‘the teacher’.

This post is for all those who are caught in the irreparable hour. The space from diagnosis and a date for surgery. The space from date of surgery to surgery. Time does not fly then. Time wears heavy boots then. And still we can sit beside/in our heavy boots, the interminable hour. And learn. For ever.

Sounds trite perhaps but what else is there?

Curiosities, Daily Life, Falls Between the Cracks

Doggy Life

Leave a comment

20160403_093952
The dogs where I am staying in Cornwall. But soon to drive north to lovely Cumbria.

A whoof of greeting to all dogs everywhere. And to the people who love them, especially my dear hosts here in Cornwall.

Curiosities, Information, Out and About

What Dogs Really Think of Us – Brain Scans Speak!

3 Comments

From the way dogs thump their tails, invade our laps and steal our pillows, it certainly seems like they love us back. But since dogs can’t tell us what’s going on inside their furry heads, can we ever be sure?

Taken from Brain Scans Reveal What Dogs Really Think of Us

and this later on in the article

The scientists found that dog owners’ aroma actually sparked activation in the “reward center” of their brains, called the caudate nucleus. Of all the wafting smells to take in, dogs actually prioritized the hint of humans over anything or anyone else.

So the word is out our doggy friends delight in us because…of our smell and what it represents, in their brains. Who would have thought!

Daily Life, photograph, Teachings

Recalibrate Time –

Leave a comment

Making time for tea - for two.

There is enough time. Take your time. Take Time. You have all the time in the world. The world is not waiting for you to finish. Not waiting for you to arrive. Finish in your own time. Plenty of time. Honestly. You and time are not in a fight. No rush, No need to finish – you can have more time. As long as you like. Take your time. Please.
I can – do it in my own time. I don’t have to do anything ‘on time’. What’s the rush? Why the hurry? No train to catch (as my mother would say).
One foot steps out and before I know it, the other is there up ahead! It is so easy to get stuck in one’s ways. Rush/hurry, push on, pull back. Not knowing how to stop. To really stop. To decide to; stop, not step, not plan the next.

This is only part of the story. It is a start. A look at myself and my way of going about life. In a rush, in a hurry. It’s words to myself. I know enough to know that fast and slow, rushed and not are ideas which cannot, should not be maxims to live by. Neither fast/rushed nor slow/relaxed can become maxims for or against the ways to go about the day. Circumstances resist concepts. However, (now taking a breath out and a breath in,) being aware of one’s ‘set’, one’s largely unconscious way. Is good.

Thanks to my tea companion of yesterday. Thanks to the reader who sent me an email noticing I’d not posted much recently, and offering merit. And a big thanks to all who subscribe to this blog. If you haven’t done that already it is easy to do. Simply look to the left of your screen, fill in your email address and press the green subscribe button. Your address is safe with me.