Thought/thinking is the cultivation of the known. The known, of course, has its important place. However, thought/thinking is only a tool. But most of us have made thought/thinking be conceived of as the essence of the organism; but that may be another conception fabricated by thought/thinking, and an erroneous one at that.
Most of us cling to thought/thinking and are afraid of going beyond it. Being identified with (and “as”) thought was hammered into us, and we are fearful of being without it. However, this may be much like clinging to shadows… much like what Socrates’ Allegory of the Cave alludes to. Only ignorance clings to falsities, and existing throughout life clinging to falsities may not be real living at all. True intelligence needs to flower.
Tom's Nature-up-close Photography and Mindfulness Blog 
Well Tom, we all need to be intelligent these days to keep up with life as it swirls around us – no wonder we are weary as we lay our respective heads on the pillow every night after we slog through each day, news headlines, swelter through heat waves, endure volatile weather conditions. No sloughing off on being aware and praying helps as well. The pair of butterflies are beautiful – are they Pearl Crescent butterflies? You know how we chat about butterflies and birds and pollution? We have an air quality advisory today in SE Michigan not only due to wildfire smoke, but ALSO due to excess powder residue from fireworks, both professional displays as well as those in the neighborhood. Poor butterflies and birds.
They are Painted Lady Butterflies, Linda. There are a lot fewer of them these days. There are fireflies all over the place in the evenings, though. Pollution warnings here too, due to the fireworks that will be happening and the lack of any winds to dissipate the smoke. Creatures will suffer from the loud noises and the smoke pollution. Instead of fireworks, we need to use lasers and/or drones… but that takes care and intelligence, which most of us don’t have. As for praying, people have been praying for peace for eons. But peace never happens. If we gave up our isolated and fragmentary countries and organized religions, there would be peace. (And we light fireworks to “celebrate our independence.”)
Those Painted Ladies Butterflies are beautiful Tom. I went to two gardens today … one to see the lavender which was in bloom and the other a perennial garden with Coneflowers and Bee Balm … I wanted to see bees and butterflies. I saw one bee and no butterflies. They have extended our air quality alert another day for tomorrow – I’m sure they’ll have it Sunday too as we can shoot off fireworks Saturday too. Our winged creatures will perish from pollution and pesticides. I saw a photo on social media the other day and took a screenshot of it – a bird with the caption “I ate a bug and had water from your grass and now my wings don’t work.” It made me sad to see it. And David Attenborough recently posted a photo of a squirrel that fell asleep in an outside dish filled with water – he asked people to please leave water out for the creatures, not just birds, as the UK and some European countries are suffering through a heat wave. The poor squirrel – I felt for it. I cannot go to Council Point Park with one squirrel there … it breaks my heart to see how they have demolished the habitat and ambiance of what was my favorite place to walk. They have cement sewer pipes all over and big machinery. I will return in the Fall and hope the five or six squirrels (of different species) had enough of each gender to produce offspring. Peace won’t happen … it is a fractured world now, everywhere. Everything about life now just makes no sense. I have been watching accounts of this flooding in Texas – 100 people were missing at one point, 23 of them children and there are deaths too. Twelve inches of water in eight hours – just incredible.
I didn’t go to any fireworks. Too many people died in firework related explosions lately and too many wild and domestic creatures suffer due to the noise and smoke pollution. People were celebrating, anyway, an independence that they don’t have; it’s an illusion.
I will continue to smile and enjoy life. I will not let what insane human beings do be a factor in my joy of life/living. Nature will survive mankind’s indifference; time is on Nature’s side.
In the end nature may survive better than we do Tom. I am amazed at the destruction from flooding in Texas. Another sweltering day here, likely the same as you have. We were 85 degrees at 10:00 a.m. and a real feel of 102 degrees by noon. I’m sure the outside workers appreciate the long weekend away from backbreaking construction work. I don’t know how they do it. We’ll probably get another air quality alert tomorrow as they are shooting off fireworks in the neighborhood already – they did huge fireworks until way after 1:00 a.m. I went to bed when the firework curfew was supposed to be (11:45 p.m.), but it didn’t matter to them evidently. I had a firecracker land on my roof and burn some shingles years ago, so I am glad we had some rain beforehand.
Your last two sentences are powerful. 🌼 Thank you, Tom.
Thank you, Michele. Stay cool in these sweltering days.
Magic and amazing capture! Lucky you Tom!
Quite the compliment coming from you, Marcela! 😊