All Posts Tagged ‘Macro Photography’

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Trying to Get to the Top

August 27, 2019
25 comments

 

 

                                                                 O
                                                                 h $

                                                               that
                                                           top that
                                                       so many are
                                                   struggling to get to

                               Is it worth all of the time & competition?
      Is surpassing and suppressing those below and impressing those above worth it?
When you finally get to the top, is there really genuine happiness there or is it an empty lie?!

 

 

Getting to the Top … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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Global Dragonfly

August 26, 2019
30 comments

 

 

 

at the apex of this world’s littleness
perched in a carnivorous bigness
king of his airy domain
making a mockery of mere helicopters and planes

alert rascal of the skies
resting razing beyond gross separative nationality
and manmade stale flags of fabric
ation

 

 

Whitetail Dragonfly … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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So here we are, Master FourEyes

August 20, 2019
17 comments

 

 

So here we are, Master FourEyes,
and i don’t think that what i write
will change things enough

and i don’t think that what you
nibble on will change things enough
… and that’s OK; it’s OK

And when we look at each other
each other we are
And when each other
we together look at oneself

Our unbelievable now is more timeless 
than any dead(stone-cold temple that replaced the prairies)
while Mr. Death — whom so many fear — has nothing on us

because we livingly understand him(and smile with and beyond him)
more than teardrops grow upwards
and flowers flow down

 

 

Master FourEyes… who happens to be a Milkweed Beetle on, of all places, a Milkweed Plant … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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There is the isn’t

August 19, 2019
25 comments

 

 

There is the isn’t 
which every couldn’t lost for                   
Its unquietness is what we were
and its non-absence steals our wonder

This is the joy(quite possible
that)every sorrow would ignore
Its murmuring is beyond our getting
and its thunder beyond your clapping

 

 

Tiny White-Striped Katydid on a Clover Leaf … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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Insights or Non- (Part 11)

August 16, 2019
18 comments

 

 

The comatoseness of the average-ordinary mind is the result of a cadaverous education.

Merely looking at life through a screen of symbols and labels — as most do — isn’t really looking at life at all.

Taking a shower isn’t good enough; cleanse yourself of the dusty, stale past.

One cannot be visited by that pristine ground of eternal sacredness unless one’s mind is of intense order and purity.

There is, despite what we were taught, no (real) separate ego or central “I” controlling thought/thinking; what occurs — other than what holistic insight and direct perception reveal — is mostly all conditioned reactions that one is not separate from.  

Being photogenic isn’t important.  Being whole, compassionate, and perceptive is important.

 

 

After a Shower … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

 

 

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Finally meeting your Long Lost Auntie

August 13, 2019
5 comments

 

 

Yes, dears, I am your long lost auntie.
We finally get to meet, my sweet loved ones!
Life’s been tough, as you can see by all of the 
many timeworn scratches on my aged back.  
Come, come, I have some sweet, fresh salad for you to enjoy!
You had better eat it while it’s fresh…
that way, you will get all of the best vitamins that will help you grow.
Eat plenty, eat!
After we eat, that is when
your loving auntie will hug you dearly.
We’ll hug and hug to make up for all of the lost time that
has befallen us.
Now, let’s eat, dearies, let’s eat!  

 

 

Photo of Your Long Lost Auntie … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

 

 

 

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Monarch Caterpillar

August 8, 2019
24 comments

 

 

In my beginning is my end.  — T.S. Eliot

 

 

[Note:   While photographing this Monarch caterpillar, it noticed the camera and suddenly went from high activity and movement to total stillness.  More of us would be better off by letting total stillness — of the mind — occur more often (even though it is not merely an occurrence and has nothing to do with time or effort).] 

 

 

Monarch Caterpillar … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

 

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Two Short Stories

August 6, 2019
33 comments

 

 

Once there was a very rich man who, every time he saw people in need, would quickly pass them by, saying, “Sorry, I don’t help strangers.”
Then, over a short span of time, the man lost everything.  When he reached out for help, the first person who passed him by mumbled, “Sorry, I don’t help strangers.”

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

There was a man who, every time he looked up, worried about what was down…  and every time he looked down, worried about what was up. 
He suddenly died.
They buried him way down in the ground, facing up of course.  

 

 

Monarch Butterfly on Cone Flower … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Latest Sierra Club News

August 2, 2019
36 comments

 

 

Earth’s glaciers are shrinking five times faster than they were in the 1960s.

The United States used more energy in 2018 than ever before, partly because Americans drove more: 3.225 trillion miles, 12.2 billion more than 2017.

Wolves return to the Netherlands after an absence of 140 years.

A suspected rhino poacher in South Africa is trampled to death by an elephant, then eaten by lions.

The last time Earth’s atmosphere had as much carbon dioxide as it does today, there were trees growing near the South Pole.

Thawing ice on Alaska’s Denali is exposing the 66 tons of feces left by generations of mountain climbers.

Sea level rise has cost property owners on the East and Gulf Coasts more than $16 billion since 2005.

Senator Mike Lee of Utah says that the solution to climate change is to “fall in love, get married, and have some kids.”

Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swede who inspired the Youth Climate Strike, is nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

The stomachs of dead whales found in the Philippines and Italy are full of plastic trash.

Scientists discover a new species of orca of southern Chile — “The largest undescribed animal left on the planet.”

Trump’s proposed federal budget would cut funding for the Environmental Protection Agency by 31 percent.

Composite photographer Nick Brandt, whose profound works show how nature in the world is quickly dying away due to man’s indifference, says, “My motivation is my anger and despair at what we are losing, that the human race is sleepwalking its way to oblivion.”

 

 

Lacewing Insect … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

 

 

 

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On the Precocious Mantis and the Ominous, Hideous Creature…

July 30, 2019
30 comments

 

 

Walking just walking along 
gingerly and slowly swaying 
waltzing alien-like from leaf to leaf

Stalking just stalking along
stick-like & Oh so lean
happily wondering whom next i can eat

Suddenly out of nowhere
a huge ominous creature appears
thrusting a blackish lens-thing right up to me

In a flash, I quickly leap away
and am so very glad
that the huge hideous creature didn’t eat me

 

 

[Note:  This photo was taken about a month ago.   This was the first  Praying Mantis that i’ve seen this summer; it was young, just around 3cm long.  And, yes — with blackish lens-thing macro camera in hand —  i am the ominous, hideous creature.  (You must admit, we ominous, hideous creatures are pretty huge.)]

 

 

Young Praying Mantis (praying that I don’t eat him) … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

 

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The Flower at a Distance

July 22, 2019
20 comments

 

 

The grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence.
The flower at a distance always looks better than the one you are standing on.
Separation is a definite illusion.

 

 

Young Katydid pining for a distant flower … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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Jumping Spiders and Awareness

July 19, 2019
32 comments

 

 

Jumping Spiders, those very alert arachnids, you know, have many eyes.  Some of the eyes are at the back of the head.  Some even have extra eyes on the abdomen (i.e., their rear section).  One of the reasons that they have eyes in such places is so that they can more efficiently see moving prey (that they can capture to eat).  Another reason for having eyes in such places is that other Jumping Spiders (or other spider species or insect enemies) may try to sneak up on them (to devour them).  Seeing such “attackers” affords quick reaction involving countermeasures.  

We might think, “Oh, how very primitive these spiders are, to be attacking and killing each other with such violence.”  Our species, it can be seen, however, still often kill each other on the so-called battlefield.   “Battlefield,” by the way, is just a word or accepted term for where humans go to react ultra-violently (i.e., primitive-ass crazy).  Many of us periodically celebrate those who were the most violent, calling them “great heroes.”  We seldom celebrate — we rarely celebrate — those who were opposed to war.  (We, instead of observing through separative countries, religions, and tribes, need to observe holistically and globally — which would help to end all wars — but most of us won’t do that, because of being firmly and stagnantly stuck in separative ruts.  So the unending nonsense will continue.)  To really go beyond being primitive and violent, we must observe without all of the separations that were poured into us.   

 

 

Jumping Spider Observing … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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Sleeping White Tail Dragonfly

July 16, 2019
35 comments

 

 

What prey are you dreaming about
tonight, my adroit, winged friend?
What shifting air currents
are floating through your
fulfilled, slumbering mind?

 

[Note:  I was in the woods taking nature pictures and stayed quite awhile.  It started getting dark and as i was leaving i saw a White Tail Skimmer Dragonfly landing low in some wild plants on the forest floor, fortunately.  I knew that that meant it was preparing for sleep (there).  I waited a bit — for it to really dose off —  and then i slowly moved in to photograph it.  Poison ivy was all around me!  Please note how they wrap their legs around plants while in sleep; this stance affords stability for possible upcoming windy conditions.]

 

 

Sleeping White Tail Skimmer Dragonfly … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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The Sunset Stared

July 15, 2019
9 comments

 

Part 1

The sunset stared at separate birds
as he pendulously walked into what he thought he wasn’t.
His disconnection with everything  — like the day — was ironically complete:
A separate “me” scratching an arm that was “his” and
there to use from a “distance.”

Part 2

She was the blossoms that she helped grow.
Their colors were colors that were of purplish her.
She was that towering Oak Tree
but to her, it wasn’t an Oak Tree;
it simply was what it was (beyond labels)
and was not separate from any “me” within her,
for she was beyond all “me”s.
She was the beautiful blossoming of wholeness.

 

 

a little bit of her … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

 

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Love exists beyond mere separation…

July 12, 2019
23 comments

 

 

Instead of being images “about things,” can the mind perceive beyond all of the absorbed mental patterns and labels that it has accumulated?  In actuality, most minds are a result of the accumulation; (i.e, they actually are the accumulation).  This “accumulation” often intrinsically involves “looking at things via separation” as one of its core attributes.

Perception beyond mere pigeonholing can take place.  (We are not suggesting that one should not label things; we are suggesting that one need not always be doing it habitually.  It takes dynamic intelligence to go beyond robotic habit.)  Real perception, beyond the mere separation between subject and object, can take place.  However, it takes real innocence, real simple-purity to do that and, unfortunately, the masses are (for the most part) incapable of that.  (However, corruption does have its trivial perks.)

 

 

Nothing between us… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

 

 

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So while looking into the mirror…

July 9, 2019
38 comments

 

 

So while looking into the mir-
ror at one
self,
one asks, “Did
I re-
member
to brush my
teeth this morning?”

Well then, “Oh, that’s 
right!  I don’t have any
teeth; I have a proboscis.”
Proboscises suck,
and it’s not that you “have them”;
they are merely part of what you are…

as are butterflies
and things to reflect on.

 

 

[Note: Butterflies use their long tube-like proboscises to suck nutritious nectar out of flowers.  They have a symbiotic relationship with flowers in that they help pollinate them by going from one flower to another.  Note the yellow pollen sticking to the “face” of this Painted Lady Butterfly.]

In the Mirror … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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The Patterns of the Mind

July 5, 2019
14 comments

 

The associative patterns of the mind, what are their functions?  Do they exist merely for us to acquire, accumulate, attain things (including food and shelter), and differentiate with (and from) an element of separation?  Do such patterns dictate — to us — what we see? 

We usually look at things through labels, through images that we have learned.  A person often distinguishes things (at a distance, separate from himself).  The patterns that we hold dictate what we see.  However, we are these absorbed patterns; we do not actually hold them; they are not separate from what we essentially are.  Real wholeness, real integrity, real love, may involve looking beyond the patterns, beyond the old, stuffy mental accumulations, beyond the labels, beyond the mental separative distance.

 

 

Three in One … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

 

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Short Story about the Best Wooden Thing

July 2, 2019
36 comments

 

 

Once, there was a burly man who carved things out of wood.
Many people in his village would each ask him to carve something special for them, and he usually would, with great pride.
The man would often boast about what he could expertly carve.
Then, one day, a little girl — who had never asked the man to carve anything whatsoever — asked him what the best wooden thing is.
“I am not sure,” said the man, perplexedly, “Maybe it is the large horse that I once carved for Mr. Hayes.”
“No,” said the girl, confidently, “It is that large, beautiful, living Oak tree that grows in our yard.”

 

 

Very young Oak tree sapling just beginning to get there. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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Goodness beyond the self…

June 28, 2019
12 comments

 

 

Unpremeditated goodness is often rather motiveless in that it disregards mere efforts to satisfy the self.  Satisfying the self is crude, gross, unevolved, and is what most people do.  There is a goodness that is unattached-spontaneous, free of the illusory ego, simple, beyond fragmentary thought, and innocent in the way it acts.  It is not a mere reaction but, rather, something else is involved.  That “something else” is the whole, or is a perception of and from wholeness.  Wholeness doesn’t depend upon illusory parts.  Parts and fragments — especially when they are illusory, and most of them are — are not what wholeness covets.  Wholeness is highly intelligent action, though not merely of the intellectual kind.  Wholeness is action, not mere reaction.   

Mere reaction feeds the self, with all of its gross demands.  The self, in fact, is a product of mere reaction.  Crude reactions nourish and sustain the self.  Without such reactions, the image and repetitious movements of self would not be.  Wholeness operates differently than what reactions and fragments entail.  In wholeness, a vast intelligence operates. There is little vastness/intelligence in what is fragmentary and isolated.

 

 

Orange Fairy Cup Fungus at the base of an Oak Tree, Illinois … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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There is no thinker without the thought.

June 25, 2019
30 comments

 

 

There is no thinker without the thought.
There is no observer without the observed.
There is no experiencer without the experience.

And if you think that the world and its creatures
are separate from what you are…
think again.

 

Far beyond separation … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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Winged Purity

June 24, 2019
14 comments

 

 

Makes a living by searching for nectar
Sleeps where it eats
Doesn’t have to pay taxes
Doesn’t have to worship at stone temples that replaced nature 
Doesn’t need to propound fancy opinions
Doesn’t ruin the environment by traveling in fossil fuel vehicles
Is a pacifist and has no crazy leaders

 

 

Common Blue / Spring Azure Butterfly and a scrawny caterpillar … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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Quietness and Awareness

June 14, 2019
18 comments

 

 

Quietness and awareness often go together, like a sweet aroma and a flower.  A mind that is constantly chattering to itself, repeating what it has learned or absorbed… and then merely habitually re-repeating such things in (remembered) altered mental arrangements and recollections for itself, does not have the pristine energy to look freshly and directly beyond the known.  The known is the past — as stored, old patterns of memory — and the beauty of real “newness” cannot take place when mere repetition from (and of) the memory bank takes place.  

One cannot practice awareness any more that one can practice real quietness.  A profound and living awareness/quietness is never the mere outcome of repetitive, learned procedures or known systems.  Profound innocence can occur when one is not filled with what others have taught you to do.  It is a motiveless looking, and most people, unfortunately, merely look with (and from) motives.  Most are caught in a cause-and-effect framework; they live that way, they work that way, and they are programmed exclusively in that.   Real joy seldom occurs in a mind trapped in such repetitive cause-and-effect oriented motives.  In the sequence of things, the cause becomes the effect and the effect becomes another cause.  To merely be one conditioned after-effect (after another) throughout life (in such a robotic sequence)… may not be real living whatsoever.   (It would be wonderful if we could easily disinter such rather cadaverous minds out of the conditioned quagmire that they are in but, alas, it is not easily done.)  Of course, we must engage in (and “as”) cause-effect occurrences often; however, to merely be stuck in that mode is a shame.  An innocent (naturally quiet) mind can look beyond the crude sequence of things and that is when wholeness (beyond mere ordinary effects) and love really blossom.

 

Beyond the crude sequence of things… small Eastern Gray Beardtongue wildflower on the forest floor. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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It Is Only In That Emptiness That Fullness Is…

June 4, 2019
20 comments

 

 

My favorite walk
is when I am not there

but is when everything around
is what one is not separate from

Then there is no I
but only the wonderment of eternity

and everything about
is magical splendid mysterious
whole

 

 

 

Open and Alive … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

 

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Miss Snakey

May 28, 2019
31 comments

 

 

Slithering in this oscillating domain
Feeling it
Breathing it
Loving it
Being an important part of it

 

 

[Note:  This is an innocent, non-poisonous Garter Snake.  I am delighted that she has emerged from our sandy soil to spend time around our house!  Such snakes eat mice, rats, and other such vermin.  Too many people foolishly kill snakes whenever snakes are seen.  Snakes are an important part of the beautiful balance of nature.]

 

Emergent Spring visitor; she must have just come out of the sands after winter dormancy. … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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Of Atheists, Agnostics, Church-goers, Philosophers, and Maytag Repairmen

May 24, 2019
41 comments

 

 

 

How important is it to perceive deeply in life?  (Have you ever asked yourself that question?)  Is the essence of all life and existence rather meaningless and superficial, such that no matter how deeply one perceives, it (i.e. such perception) may be essentially a waste of energy in the long run?  Could it be that there is something in life that is immensely profound, such that looking deeply allows great, eternal treasures to manifest and blossom?

A broken mind, a mind crippled by such things as bad dietary habits, poor sleep, and by propaganda media designed to mold minds (for ulterior reasons), of course, would not be able to look deeply (if true depth really exists in the first place).  It would likely be content with living a superficial, second-hand life that would accept within the limits of that superficiality (though, to it, such superficiality would seem plenty deep enough).  Through miseducation, stagnation is often learned, absorbed, clung to, and cherished.

To go through life merely believing in something without ever having actually perceived it (without delusion) is a tragic thing.   A belief that something does not exist, (without ever having perceived wholly), is an equally tragic thing.   Both are — despite people arguing otherwise — empty acceptances.   Stagnant minds cannot perceive because they have been shaped and molded by other minds that (also) are limited.  Minds can change, however; the mind is a dynamic and wonderful thing (if real care is taken).   Stagnation can end.  Contamination can end.

There are plenty of gullible people deluding themselves (and others) about having had experienced something profound or “otherworldly.”  However, i would suggest waking up and discovering and passionately finding out for yourself.   Look with every fiber of energy that you have.  No one else is going to do it for you; that is for sure!  How critical, how important is this “discovering and passionately finding out (for ourselves)” in our lives?   Personally, i feel that it has profoundly immense and eternal consequences.   Of course, there might be a chance that i am very wrong, but find out; there may be real magic out there!

 

[Note:  Marla is out of the hospital — after her fourth reconstructive shoulder surgery — and is doing well.  I am acting as her nurse and am helping her with enteral feedings and other medical-oriented things.  She is calling me “Nurse Matilda”!   🙂   ]

Miniature Wildflower – Purple Deadnettle (3/4ths of an inch long total for full arrangement)… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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Two Buttons

May 21, 2019
22 comments

 

 

Two buttons, at the beginning of life,
to select from:
One, if pressed, makes you (for the rest of your life) an
extremely rich person (monetarily) with not much
wisdom and compassion.
The other, if pressed, makes you
a not so rich person with
much wisdom and compassion.
Which would you press?
Which would you be?
You can’t press both;
you can never press both.

 

Button Mushrooms with Dew … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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Spring and the Mind

May 17, 2019
6 comments

 

 

Spring involves renewal, growth, and new life.  The mind can be like spring… growing, blossoming, becoming more alive and vibrant.  That cannot happen if the mind remains like the frozen, hard crystals of winter, clinging with coldness and frozen in rigid beliefs, dogmas, and ideologies.   The truly blossoming mind must be alive, unassuming, dynamic, perceptive, flexible, and truly vibrant.  Those set in their ways may be like dead concrete, full of stale blindness toward life as it really is.  

Deep perception and compassion are not two separate things.  Profound (alive) insight and psychologically dying to stale beliefs are not two separate things.  

 

 

Hyacinth with Early Spring Insect … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

 

 

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When Truly One with Nature…

May 14, 2019
44 comments

 

 

When you reach out to others
you are reaching out to yourself

When you help beautiful nature
you are healthfully curing yourself

When you reach out to the lost
you are finding you’re found

When truly one with nature
you are color and sound

 

________________________________________________________________________________________

[Note:  My wonderful wife, Marla, will soon again be having major shoulder surgery — for the fourth time on her problematic shoulder — and i may not be able to reply to my blog (or visit other people’s blogs for a while when that happens); my postings are all prescheduled, so they will continue to appear, only i will not be available to comment on them;please keep this in mind.  Thank you!!!]

 

Reaching Out to Yourself … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

 

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The Emergence of Sweet Spring

May 7, 2019
16 comments

 

 

 

The emergence of Sweet Spring
one purplish thing
beyond all of the sorrow and sting
that sullen contrived fear must bring

 

 

The Emergence of Spring … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

 

 

 

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Spring Beauty

April 30, 2019
34 comments

 

 

Spring Beauty
you are always
(timelessly there)
and so amazingly new
in your selfless sharing

You help make the woodlands
simply magical
Your fragility
transcends transience
with joyous eternity

 

___________________________________________________________________________________________

[Note:   The common name for this Illinois woodland wildflower is Spring Beauty.  The entire width of the flower is less than 1/2 inch (around one centimeter wide).  This wildflower is still rather common throughout Illinois.  It, fortunately, can survive more environmental disruption than most wildflowers.  Its eternal essence has nothing to do with its persistence in Illinois or elsewhere.]

 

Spring Beauty … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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Regarding the Nature of Fear

April 26, 2019
13 comments

 

 

In order to have psychological fear, psychological time is a fundamental necessity.  (Thinking and psychological time are not two separate things.) Without some protrusion of thought about some distant event in the future, there would be no psychological fear.  That distance (that the mind fabricates about the future) necessarily involves space (and sequential duration)… which are projected by (and “as”) the mind.  “In the future, something terrible might happen.”  “In the future, I might not have enough friends.”  There may be innumerable fears, such as the two aforementioned ones, that can plague a human’s mind.  Then one may say that one would like to get rid of the many fears that one has.  Somewhat ironically, the very desire to get rid of these fears is (in a real way) an extension of fear; it (itself) is, in a big way, an extension of (or precursor to) more fear.

Who is dealing (internally) with the fears?  If one is looking at the fears with a feeling of control or manipulation, then one is assuming that the fears exist at some distance (to somehow “manipulate”).  However, (psychologically, whether we like it or not) the manipulator is not separate from the manipulated; the two are both part of the thought/thinking process… and (in a big way) are not two separate things.  Trying to “get rid” of the fear causes the mind to fabricate the controller, the “I” or the “me” who is allegedly separate from the fear. 

Many types of sequential thinking (i.e., many forms of sequential thinking) — in most people — trigger thoughts that project (often needless) fear about what may happen in the future (along with thoughts of an “I” or a “me” that will be dealing with things).   (Sequential thinking that reflects order is very good; sequential thinking — especially the muddled, psychological kind learned from miseducation — that reflects disorder is bad.)  A keen perception that observes this whole process (and that goes beyond fabricating a separate “me” apart from the fear) has gone beyond friction and then has tremendous energy, wholeness, and insight.  Insight is timeless energy; most people, unfortunately, waste energy.   Timeless energy is beyond the chaos that manifests as mere psychological time.  (In true silence there is great energy/insight; however, there is no “I” or “me” who can take one to that silence through the process of sequential time.) 

 

 

Drops from Above … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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The Turbulent Mind

April 19, 2019
29 comments

 

 

People who are not serious will not care about this.  The turbulent mind, the mind that is constantly reacting, constantly chattering (internally), constantly being agitated, is much different than a placid mind of true quietude.  A quiet mind is analogous to a small boat in the middle of a pond, with little haphazard movement, with its oars still and not disturbing the water.  Then, in such stillness, the surface of the water may be mirror-like, accurately reflecting everything.  Contrastingly, the constantly chattering mind, the agitated mind, is like a small boat — in the middle of a pond — that is endlessly rocking, rowing circuitously, and splashing.  Then, in such unending agitation, very little of the water’s surface reflects accurately; then there is a great deal of distortion; this is when a lot of twisting takes place; this is when a great deal of misrepresentation and misinterpretation can take place.  

I will not offer you (like so many of the charlatans do) concrete methods and techniques — meditative or otherwise — to make the mind still and quiet.  Any such concrete techniques (that you can practice) will only make your mind more mesmerized, more robotic and dull.   For many, the “I” or “me” can allegedly “make” the mind quiet.  However, the “I” and the “me” are protrusions of thought/thinking; any such “quietness” that they supposedly conjure up is inevitably an extension of a false and deceptive process.  One conditioned reaction cannot make other conditioned reactions quiet, at least not in any legitimate sense; one form of agitation cannot cause similar forms of agitation to be quiet by using “control” as a means to an end.  Only natural, simple, unpremeditated observing of what is going on (without dependence on antiquated patterns and suppositions) may — perhaps — allow an effortless, non-concocted quietness (beyond gross separation) to take place.  Deep intelligence perceives the whole.  Thought/thinking is primarily choppy, primarily fragmentary. 

 

 

 

First Butterfly — a Red Admiral — of the season; they were eating sap dripping down the Birch bark. … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

 

 

 

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One Multiple Now

April 15, 2019
25 comments

 

 

One multiple now at the opening of all why
blossomed out because
beyond reasons

Echoing spritely
time and time again
outside when’s known seasons

 

 

 

Mushroom Time … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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Insights or Non- (Part 10)

April 12, 2019
20 comments

 

 

We won’t ever have a clean planet — free from dying and mass extinction — if fracking is more important for creating jobs and oil than green energy is for world health.

True meditation lies beyond mere practice, beyond calculated methodology toward an end, beyond sequential, conditioned reactions. 

John Lennon hit the nail on the head when he said, “If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there’d be peace.”

When the idealism of politicians takes precedence over truly caring for all of the people, then chaos and confusion ensue.

The living, dynamic, moving sacred can neither be retrieved like a stagnant memory nor lead to by a dead, organized path.

The epiphany of profound insight may occur when the mind is naturally quiet without effort.

 

 

One of our pet Pearl-scaled Philippine Blue Angelfish … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

 

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A this and that must wear its hat

April 8, 2019
22 comments

 

 

A this and that must wear its hat
while hoping for balmy weather
The meaning of life is to give life meaning
 us on this ship together

This hole of fate in a piece of cake
in a jumble of rhyme and reason
A warm cup of Joe for Larry and Moe
while Curley’s out of doors just freezin’

A sitting duck amongst the muck
as the hunter takes keenly careful aim
It’s like shooting fish in a barrel for him
he’s happy as a clam but it’s himself he’ll maim

We all run the tough gauntlet in this crazy rat race world
many down in the dumps without a clue
The smoke and mirrors gunshots and tears
must do an about turn and fathom out what is true

 

 

Upcloseandpersonal … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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Opaque Perception Personified

April 5, 2019
10 comments

 

 

One might say that the Iris flower in the accompanying photo is very beautiful.  However, real (profound) beauty surpasses what is superficially evident.  Profound beauty goes far beyond mere recognition and superficiality.  Hitler, for instance,  loved flowers; he often gave them to others as gifts.  Most of us see, but don’t see.  Most of us are neither dead nor alive.  It is very ironic, actually.  We take for granted that we can see… perceive.  We look with separation — between a so-called “center” and “what is seen.”  Is seeing partially, seeing fragmentarily, seeing with tainted (i.e., corrupt) eyes… really seeing at all?  Most of us accept the authority of others and we look at things in the ways that authority has dictated.  We have wholeheartedly accepted a life of imitation, slavishness, being tied to systems, jobs, and routines that are making us more and more robotic, more and more mundane; and we automatons don’t see anything wrong with it.  We perceive what we were programmed to perceive; we accept what we were programmed to accept; we fear what we were programmed to fear; we loathe what we were programmed to loathe.  We dupe ourselves into thinking that we are somehow out of the box when, all along, we are firmly inside the box.  We are the box.  We fit into the pattern — that they fabricated — quite nicely, and then we die.  That is how most of us (supposedly) live.

That can change if one is serious enough.  The integrity and health of the world depend on such seriousness and profundity.   Oneself and the world are not two separate things.

 

 

Flowering out of the box… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Please don’t be an April Fool all year long…

April 1, 2019
14 comments

 

 

Frivolity, caught in the little
details of the competitive games
and traditions,
never was 
the serious pondering about the whole.
That’s why it remained
as frivolity.
Frivolity can wear awesome shoes.
Frivolity can wear a first-rate hat.
Frivolity can appear to be intelligent,
in frivolous ways.

 

 

Mushroom Gills … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee

March 25, 2019
36 comments

 

 

Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee
walked through some woods, but one had to pee.
Said Tweedle-dum to Tweedle-dee,
“I need to pee, but so you 
can’t see.”
“But I don’t want to go blind,”
said Tweedle-dee.
So Tweedle-dum did
not pee,
and remained good friends
with Tweedle-dee.

So the next time you are
walking deep in the observative woods,
hold it all in
as Tweddle-dum knows you should.

 

 

Spotted Green Tiger Beetle crossing the Urinary River … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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War and Barbaric Friction

March 22, 2019
15 comments

 

 

Wars, for humankind, have been going on for eons.  War is where and when we often spill each other’s blood over systems and ideas.  Apparently, in war, systems, ideas, (and control) often become much more important than any universal brotherhood, any universal oneness.   

Countries of the world are divisive and most are based on (and extensions of) an antiquated feudal system; “you pay us money (i.e., taxes) and we’ll protect you from ‘others’; we’ll be your ‘leaders’ with power and authority.”  

It is so easy to be lead by ignorant men who, themselves, have little or no deep understanding about order and the wholeness and fullness of life.  It is so easy for sloppy disorder and hatred to trump order and compassion and then be “followed” by others.  We aren’t solving the fundamental problems concerning human against human friction, overpopulation, and environmental degradation but, rather, are chaperoned to dwell in relatively superficial realms that deal with barbaric, mundane things.  We were miseducated to stay quiet and to keep quiet and to “fit in” and keep our mouths closed.   Most of us merely blindly conform and see nothing wrong with it.  It is easy for dullness to accept dullness.  It is easy for mediocrity to accept mediocrity.

 

 

Crab Spider with Butterfly Prey … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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Texting While Driving

March 18, 2019
32 comments

(Not long ago, while driving home, one observed people texting — with their heads facing down — while driving; (this was observed, that day, in two separate automobiles).  It is observed happening, while on road, all too frequently.  What is fundamentally wrong with people these days?

 

 

I perceive a so-called human being
driving from the opposite direction
with an
indifferent, addicted head 
facing down;
blundering stupidity and callousness
thinks that it can multitask while driving.
There are families
with precious children
on the road that that immense stupidity is gambling on.
What messages are so important (so profound) 
that they warrant perilling multiple lives?
Thanks for putting 
us all in 
dire
risk!

 

 

Wasp coming head-on… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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I am a kid!

March 11, 2019
44 comments

 

 

I am a kid
trapped in an old man’s body
i fly kites
i perpetually chase insects and frogs
i still often gaze in wonder through a magnifying glass
i still think that grown-ups are yucky
i love watching toads in the woods
i keep fish and shrimp as pets and stare at them for hours
i hunt fossils and love everything about dinosaurs and prehistoric life
i unendingly question
and i still learn best away from
boring school

 

 

Mr. Toadster … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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Conditioned Responses and You

March 8, 2019
28 comments

 

 

To be one series of conditioned responses after another, each and every day — and please excuse me for saying so — is a rather lackadaisical way to be.  It merely entails letting what was poured into you (over time, by society) internally flutter around to emerge out again (externally) slightly modified, slightly altered (but essentially being the same-old-thing).  It is the way most people are, and it is the way the bureaucrats want you to remain.   They want you to emit what was injected into you.  The powers-that-be don’t want any Walt Whitmans, John Lennons, or Rosa Parks questioning things.  No way!  The powers-that-be want to everyone to robotically conform and nicely fit into their prearranged patterns.  Period.  They want everyone to remain being the cogs in the nice prearranged machine.   The powers-that-be are themselves part of that humongous machine and they will use domination, force, and will blindly do anything to preserve it.  Reacting, day in and day out, only like you were programmed (or miseducated) to react… is a very mechanistic/machine-like way of being.  Most people do not question enough.  Most people do not perceive enough.

Real freedom exists beyond mere conditioned responses.  To dwell in (and “as”) real freedom may be an arduous task that may not (at all) be possible for the halfhearted.  Real freedom may involve getting laughed at, ridiculed, hated, spit on, and ostracized.  Real freedom may involve going beyond a fallacious essence that was given to you to exist as.  Real freedom is a precious jewel that no money can buy, that no amount of bartering can acquire. 

 

 

 

Spider Web Sugar Candy … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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The Cadence of Song

March 4, 2019
24 comments

 

 

The cadence of song
saw its pinkish-purple notes
and yellow hues
while sweet nectar
was just icing on the cake

 

 

The Cadence of Song … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

 

 

 

Post

My Visit with T.S.Eliot

March 1, 2019
21 comments

 

 

 

Let us go then, you and I,
Eliot said, and so we went,
After the cups, the marmalade, and tea,
Beyond the porcelain, beyond the talk of you and me,
When the evening was spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table;
We went, we went through certain half-deserted streets.
We went to the bright retreats that muttered endlessly.

Some overwhelming question always had to ask,
Though it didn’t have to ask, “What is it?”
We went along and made our visit.

And at the first turning of the second stair
We turned and saw below, not far from the rose garden,
A familiar shape twisted on the banister
Under the vapor in the fetid air
Struggling with the business fool of the stairs who ascends
The deceitful steps of hope and despair.

At the second turning of the second stair,
We left them twisting, turning below;
At the third turning of the third stair
We finally went past all of the melodious distraction,
Music of the flute, stops and steps
Of the mind over the third stair,
Fading, fading; wisdom beyond hope and despair
Climbing and being the third stair.

We were the stairs,
We were the shapes and distractions,
And at half-past one,
The street-lamp sputtered
The street-lamp muttered,
The street-lamp said, “Regard that woman
Who hesitates toward you in the light of the door
Which opens on her like a grin.”
My visit with Tom in the rose garden never came to an end.

 

 

Jumping Spider in the rose garden, near the door we never opened. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

 

Post

Exams

February 25, 2019
29 comments

 

 

When i was a student, i thought,
“Exams can go to grass!”
I never really deeply cared about exams.
They never could measure me
and they never will measure me.
As an adult, i still say,
“Exams can go to grass!”

(Sorry grass, you deserve
dandelions and insects,
not cadaverous exams.)

 

 

 

Damselfly with the Insect Prey that it caught … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2019

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Snowingly

February 18, 2019
35 comments

 

 

We must profess 
     that driving in the white stuff 
     (when being elderly is the body’s current season)
     is not our notion of palatability

We quaked with laughter
     playing in — and eating — the fluffy stuff as kids…

Now its greatest beauty is its order
     close up and (also at a distance)
     as long as
     driving in whiteout isn’t involved
     or being immersed
     in certain kind of great depth

 

 

Snow Pyramid Crystal … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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Enlightenment

February 15, 2019
42 comments

 

 

Wanting to become enlightened — to be in nirvana or satori or whatever it is — is a form of avaricious behavior that depends upon thought and psychological time.  Desire and thought create psychological time.  This time is always limited and based upon the past.  (We are referring to psychological time, not necessary physical/chronological time, here.)  In (and “as”) a person (often), there is a gulf (i.e., a chasm) — psychologically — between what one is and what one wants to become.   Most of us do not mind such a gulf/chasm to exist psychologically; we were brought up and educated (or miseducated) to accept such a gulf fundamentally.  We don’t see anything wrong with it.  We don’t (ever) question it.

Additionally, there is often a tremendous gulf or chasm between “what one considers oneself to be” and “other people” or “other organisms.”   Many people look with separation and see “their race” as better, “their culture” as better, “their family” as better, “their species” as far better,  and “their being” as much better.  Others are “at a distance” and they are separated from “oneself” by a gulf (a chasm), much like the chasm mentioned in the aforementioned paragraph.

You know, it is so easy to be duped.  It is so easy to be deceived and defrauded to think that one is rich in the things of life.  Fragmentation and psychological time are one hell of an illusion (wholly grasped by restricted minds).  Be careful and attentive. 

 

************************************************************************************************************************

 

[Note:  My wife, Marla, is doing better following her recent shoulder surgery; she, however, will still require further surgery on that shoulder.]  

 

 

Snow Crystals … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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Another New Year that really isn’t New… (and further note about my wife Marla’s surgery)….

January 2, 2019
15 comments

 

 

[Note:   My wife Marla’s shoulder replacement surgery went well (so far, it seems) but she still has a long way to full recovery.  She must have strong PICC Line antibiotics given to her intravenously via syringes multiple times per day for 6 weeks (and i am the one giving her these).  Additionally, i am helping her with her enteral feedings (via tube feedings to her stomach) multiple times per day (because, at the current time, she is unable to do them herself, with only one functional arm.)  The shoulder replacement that they put in is a special antibiotic-emitting kind and she will likely need a whole other “regular” shoulder replacement done (in the same shoulder), with a steel replacement, once this temporary antibiotic replacement fully heals and is bacteria-free.  Apparently, the infectious bacteria that caused trouble in the first place — and that is hard to eradicate (since it lodges deep within the joint) — is a type of acne bacteria (which baffles us as to how she got it).  Since i will be busy taking care of Marla for the next few weeks,  i will likely not do postings after my already scheduled 01/02/2019 blog/posting; i will not have time to read others’ blogs or correspond with others re their blogs or my blogs.  Hopefully, i can soon get back into blogging again once things settle down and i find more time to do so.  Peace!]

 

 

Why doesn’t a smidgen of cream
dash itself into a cup of coffee for you?
Stirring itself, the cream
is part of this poem’s theme.

 

 

Coffelicious — Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

 

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What is a New Year? (and note about my wife Marla’s surgery…)

December 30, 2018
14 comments

 

[Note:   My wife Marla’s shoulder replacement surgery went well (so far, it seems) but she still has a long way to full recovery.  She must have strong PICC Line antibiotics given to her intravenously via syringes multiple times per day for 6 weeks (and i am the one giving her these).  Additionally, i am helping her with her enteral feedings (via tube feedings to her stomach) multiple times per day (because, at the current time, she is unable to do them herself, with only one functional arm.)  The shoulder replacement that they put in is a special antibiotic-emitting kind and she will likely need a whole other “regular” shoulder replacement done (in the same shoulder), with a steel replacement, once this temporary antibiotic replacement fully heals and is bacteria-free.  Apparently, the infectious bacteria that caused trouble in the first place — and that is hard to eradicate (since it lodges deep within the joint) — is a type of acne bacteria (which baffles us as to how she got it).  Since i will be busy taking care of Marla for the next few weeks,  i will likely not do postings after my already scheduled 01/02/2019 blog/posting; i will not have time to read others’ blogs or correspond with others re their blogs or my blogs.  Hopefully, i can soon get back into blogging again once things settle down and i find more time to do so.  Peace!]

 

 

 

What is a New Year?… and is it really new?   We humans, most of us anyway, have a very superficial sense of time, a very linear, rudimentary perspective regarding time.  Many of us, even when we think that we are dwelling in (and “as”) the present, are, in reality, conceiving of (or recognizing) that “present” via past images, old, learned perspectives.   So, it really isn’t “the present” at all (due to recognition via old, stored mental images).  If one really often lived timelessly in the present, there would not be any concrete recognition of the present as the present (as something separate from the past and the future).  

So many of us live almost exclusively in (and “as”) the past.  Our recognition of things, our labeling of things, our habitual (repetitive) chattering of thoughts and mental images, are all fundamentally protrusions from the learned past.  We have allowed our minds to become reacting mechanisms; reactions are essentially secondhand and mechanical (being part of a cause/effect continuum).  If we have reduced ourselves to that — which, unfortunately, so many have — then we will remain as parts of a rather mechanical, sequential process (which is rather limited). 

Can one look without the past dictating?  Can one perceive, not fragmentarily, but wholly, beyond mere limited, learned reactions?   One says that it is possible.  Will a step by step method, that you absorb from others, get you there?  Of course not!  A radical revolution in consciousness has to take place.  Will it take time to (eventually) get there.  No.

Happy New Year! (ahead of time)!  (… though, for decades one has realized that there is really nothing new about it.)

 

 

 

 

Lichen at the end of the “New Year” … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018