Alan

"Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought." Percy Bysshe Shelley

Twenty nine years.

I will never stop missing you, little brother.

Song of the day: Classical Gas by Mason Williams

Photo: Sheree and Alan, June 9, 1985

Time

"The greatest part of our happiness depends on our dispositions, not our circumstances." Martha Washington

Time’s fool I am—
I have always been
Seduced by its imprecision.
Adept at denial
I can’t reconcile
Its power over my vision.

Days I squander
In childish wonder
Pursuing some irreconcilable truth.
Faithlessly wanton
Hope misbegotten--
Vestiges from a soul-shattered youth

Trust misguided,
Innocence spited,
Wounds too deep for time to heal.
Enigmatically alive,
The imperative to survive,
Transcends a dubious will.

Song of the day: Time Is by It's A Beautiful Day

Photo: Cancun, Mexico

Ofuna

"Mercy stood in the cloud

with eye that wept

essential love."

Robert Pollock

Persistently
Incrementally
You poisoned me
With your
Strychnine lies
Cleverly disguised
In words of
Love

Song of the day: Babe by Styx

Photo: Ofuna Kannon, Kamakura, Japan


Ōfuna Kannon (From Wikipedia)

The Ōfuna Kannon or Muga sozan Ōfuna Kannonji is a Buddhist temple in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan. The outstanding feature of the temple is a 25 meter tall 1,900 ton reinforced concrete statue of Kan'non which is dedicated to the bodhisattva Kan'non or Kuan Yin.

Construction of the Temple began in 1929 by the Soto(Zen) Buddhist sect. The outline of the statue was complete by 1934 but work was suspended at the outbreak of the Pacific War. The Ofuna Kannon Society continued construction work in 1954 and the Temple was finally completed in 1960.

The Kannon incorporates stones from ground zero of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to commemorate those who died in the explosions of the atomic bombs. A fire originating from the atomic fires of Hiroshima burns in a mushroom-formed statue.

Still Apropos

"The world is a beautiful place

to be born into

if you don't mind happiness

not always being

so very much fun

if you don't mind a touch of hell

now and then

just when everything is fine

because even in heaven

they don't sing all the time

The world is a beautiful place

to be born into

if you don't mind

some people dying

all the time

or maybe only starving

some of the time

which isn't half bad

if it isn't you

Oh the world

is a beautiful place

to be born into

if you don't much mind

a few dead minds

in the higher places

or a bomb or two

now and then

in your upturned faces

or such other improprieties

as our Name Brand society

is prey to

with its men of distinction

and its men of extinction

and its priests

and other patrolmen

and its various segregations

and congressional investigations

and other constipations

that our fool flesh is heir to..."

Lawrence Ferlinghetti

How quickly time seems to pass. Days are filled with deadlines and demands which loom large because someone else has deemed them important and I, like a mouse in a spinning wheel, haplessly pursue their perpetually elusive completion. How easily my mind is fooled into believing that this is a purposeful life. Did my rebellious spirit abandon me, or did I abandon it? There was a time when I would immerse myself in those deliciously vital urges to study, ponder, wonder, read, write, connect...Now I "accomplish." It's strange how these "accomplishments" are infinitely less satisfying than the non-utilitarian pursuit of the philosophical. I attend classes and workshops; I write reports and treatment plans; I read work-related books and publications. My days are so full they seem to burst at the seams. But I hunger for more depth, more meaning.


Song of the day: The Riddle from Scarlet Pimpernel

Photo: Tanah Lot: Bali, Indonesia

Disguise

"I've seen and met angels

Wearing the disguise

Of ordinary people

Living ordinary lives."

Tracy Chapman

Your letters--
A garden
Of words
Each
Delicate seed
Sent adrift
Upon currents
Of pulsing energy
Floating
Free-falling
Finding
The fertile
Affection
Of my heart
Therein
Taking root
And blossoming

Song of the day: Constant Craving by K.D. Lang

Photo: San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

Cats and Caveats

". . . with a cat, you stand on much the same footing as you stand with a fine and dignified friend; if you forfeit his respect, the relationship suffers. The cat, it is well to remember, remains the friend of Man because it pleases him to do so, not because he must." —Carl van Vechten

Song of the day: Turn, Turn, Turn by the Byrds

Photo: Joey

Moorea Dreaming

"It is the marriage of the soul with Nature that makes the intellect fruitful, and gives birth to imagination." Henry David Thoreau

Song of the Day: Bali Hai from South Pacific

Photo: Moorea, Polynesia

Nature

"The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures. It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth in numberless blades of grass and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers. It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth and death, in ebb and in flow. I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life. And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood at this moment." Rabindranath Tagore

Nature asks not that we admire Her, pray to Her, or pledge fealty to Her. She does not ask that shrines be built to Her or hierarchies be assembled to lead the masses to Her. She exists on Her own terms, asking nothing and promising nothing. Because of this, She is dangerous: she cannot be bribed or bullied. She does not concern Herself with fulfilling wishes or easing pain and suffering. She does not endorse one belief system over another nor elevate one man over another. She is not all goodness and light and does not pretend to be. But She is real and accessible to every one of the senses. When I mindfully stand in Her presence, I am always transformed.

Song of the day: Canção do Mar performed by Dulce Pontes

Photo: Bali, Indonesia

Black and White

"It is the stretched soul that makes music, and souls are stretched by the pull of opposites... opposite bents, tastes, yearnings, loyalties. Where there is not polarity... where energies flow smoothly in one direction... there will be much doing, but no music." Eric Hoffer

Friend, I do not want to dance with you, I want to spar with you. I want us to enter the ring from opposite corners, ready to mix things up, to jab and punch at each other's bravado until we break through, at last, to our quivering hidden truths.

Song of the day: Honest Questions by Daniel Bedingfield

Photo: Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado

Shana Tova

"Writing is the only thing that, when I am doing it, I don't feel I should be doing something else." Gloria Steinem

Erev Rosh Hashanah. Good time to assess life.

Getting old. Can't hear; can't see. I have metamorphosed into Magoo. Honestly though, it isn't all bad. When you can't see what others see, you begin to invent, to create. Like Magoo, I will stumble my way through my strange new world. Because I do not know what is in front of me, I will take more chances, have more adventures. As I go, I will mark my path with words and images as a record of my journey.

Song of the day: Just Breathe by Anna Nalick

Photo: Original Art