The distance between what you want and what you are, psychologically, is (additionally) what you are.
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[Dogbane Leaf Beetles have a deep sheen of iridescence that changes as we move in relation to the insect (or by the way it moves relative to us). Dogbane Leaf Beetles feed on prairie plants, such as the Milkweed plant. Dogbane Leaf Beetles can avoid predators by giving off a foul-smelling secretion when they are touched. An insect with a very splendid sheen of metallic-like iridescence!]
A Dogbane Leaf Beetle with an iridescent sheen that not even Harley Davidson motorcycle gas-tanks are capable of! Photo by Thomas Peace 2014
Most people — even the somewhat callous, indifferent ones — struggle and suffer so much in life that they should be admired greatly, with deep respect.
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[As are many frogs, Leopard Frogs are declining in numbers due to a combination of ecological factors: pollution, deforestation, and water acidity. These were often the formaldehyde-soaked specimens that were used for high school labs. These frogs will eat most any living thing that will fit into their mouths, including beetles, ants, flies, worms, other frogs, and even birds and garter snakes.]
Leopard Frog… in a froggish kind of place! Photo by Thomas Peace 2014
Not: The less you care, the happier you will be. But: The more you care, the happier life and the world will be! (Anyway, you are not something truly separate from the world.)
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. [Though larvae of the Colona Moth – Haploa Colona – may, among other types of plants, feed on apple and peach trees (and I especially like peaches)… I like the moth a lot! They seem to be appearing more in northern areas (possibly due to global warming trends). The one in the photo was far from peach trees… in a natural prairie.]
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The Original Stealth Bomber! (Tiger Moth, Colona Moth) Photo by Thomas Peace 2014
.Go beyond the superficiality of seeing yourself as separate from the whole of life!.
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.(Milkweed Beetle and Fruit-fly on a Milkweed plant. Note how the Fruit-fly gradually moves in and feasts right adjacent to the precarious jaws (i.e., large, dangerous mandibles) of the Milkweed Beetle. The Fruit-fly’s jaws are too diminutive to successfully rasp at the Milkweed flower buds… so the Fruit-fly moves in and joins the “powerful” Milkweed Beetle… right adjacent to its “massive” jaws! Milkweed Beetles are quite “aware” for insects; in our area they sometimes roughly bang against my head – with their whole, flying bodies – to “warn” me to stay away from their precious Milkweed plants!)
Fruit-fly observing the Milkweed Beetle beginning to eat! Photo by Thomas Peace 2014
Fruit-fly trying to eat the Milkweed Beetle’s scraps from a distance! Photo by Thomas Peace 2014
Fruit-fly eating right next to the jaws of a Milkweed Beetle! Photo by Thomas Peace 2014
. Wow! Scientist’s have succeeded in creating a macro-photo of the system and intricate network of neurons composing the human brain (and the images that individual neurons contain)!
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Macro-photo of the Human Neural Network. And, as Elmer Fudd says: “Finawee, here’s scientific pruuf dat humans are wey smarter den doze krazy wabbits and all doze udder animals!” Photo by Thomas Peace 2014
. It’s easy to imitate others and to copy… and be so-called “normal”! However, to really question things and to truly think is not easy nor often admired, but it’s the only way to “be”!..
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. (That everlasting “long and winding road” is time.)
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. “The Long And Winding Road” — The Beatles
. The long and winding road that leads to your door
. Will never disappear
. I’ve seen that road before; it always leads me here
. Leads me to your door
For a diminutive insect, it’s: The Long and Winding Road… Photo by Thomas Peace 2014
. The teacher is the teaching; the criminal is the crime; the nurse is the healing; the woodpecker is the wood pecking; the arthropod is the blossoming.
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Be open minded… not just closed! Photo by Thomas Peace 2014
. Happy Mother’s Day! And let’s all especially wish a happy Mother’s Day to Mother Earth too. She is all we have, and we all need to take better care of her (by recycling, using green energy, and planting more trees and such), not neglecting her. We can’t (as many foolish scientists suggest) leave home to go to another planet when things get bad here; some scientists are suggesting the wrong things; we have to wake up and treat her much better! Mother Earth is not at all separate from all true, good mothers!
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. Excerpt of a Navajo Native American Song (which, as a song of wisdom, occurs within my book):
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Song of the Earth
All is beautiful, All is beautiful…All is beautiful, indeed.
Now the Mother Earth, and the Father Sky… Meeting, joining one another, Helpmates ever, they.
All is beautiful… All is beautiful… All is beautiful, indeed.
Sisnajinni, Tsodsichl, Meeting, joining one another,
Helpmates ever, they. All is beautiful… All is beautiful… All is beautiful, indeed.
Now Doko-oslid and Depenitsa… Meeting, joining one another, Helpmates ever, they. All is beautiful… All is beautiful… All is beautiful, indeed.
And the night of darkness… And the dawn of light… Meeting, joining one another… Helpmates ever, they. All is beautiful…All is beautiful… All is beautiful, indeed.
Now Hastyeyalli and Hastyehogan… Meeting, joining one another, Helpmates ever, they. All is beautiful… All is beautiful… All is beautiful, indeed.
And the white corn and the yellow corn… Meeting, joining one another, Helpmates ever, they. All is beautiful… All is beautiful… All is beautiful, indeed.
And the corn-pollen and the Ripener… Meeting, joining one another, Helpmates ever, they. All is beautiful… All is beautiful… All is beautiful, indeed.
Life-that-never-passeth, Happiness-of-all-things… Meeting, joining one another, Helpmates ever, they. All is beautiful… All is beautiful… All is beautiful, indeed.
Now all is beautiful, All is beautiful, All is beautiful, indeed.
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Happy Mother’s Day to all good mothers and to our good Mother Earth! … photo by Thomas Peace 2014
. You might think she’s ugly… but she has tied a little webbing — on her rear leg to the cement — to remind herself not to leave any time soon… and (though rather emaciated and hungry) she is not moving; so she is a very caring and good mother. That, my friends, is beautiful!
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. (Fishing Spiders get quite large. Some, legs included, can be over 3 inches long. Some can dive underwater to catch prey, or they catch prey near the surface of the water, even minnows. It is unusual for spiders to eat vertebrates, but these do! Females guard their eggs sacs for quite a long time… often over a month, not eating while doing so. The one below was on cement on the bank of a river. It was rather strange about how i came upon it. While at home, i had a premonition that if i went to the river bank… i’d see an unusually nice, large spider there. I grabbed a camera and walked to the river bank; as i approached the bank, the spider could be seen from quite a distance and one realized immediately that that was what the intimation was about. It didn’t budge while i took shots; then i politely left it with its highly precious orb.)
Dolomedes tenebrosus (Fishing Spider) with her egg sac … photo by Thomas Peace 2014
. The door to success in the entertainment world… may be illusory.
. Real success is in finding truth, helping others, and ending suffering… not in showing off like some kind of monkey, getting all the apish stares!
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The door to success in the entertainment world… may be illusory. Mantled Howler Monkey at the zoo, briefly resting after antics with his group… photo by Thomas Peace 2014
This is a fossil i’ve had for quite some time. It’s a fossil Badger from the Miocene Period (around 12 million years old) from the Gansu Province, China.
Badgers are very tidy, orderly, well-groomed animals and keep their deep burrows and bedding scrupulously clean. They sometimes team up with Coyotes to hunt. What the Coyotes can’t catch, because the prey scurry into holes… the Badgers dig up. What the Badgers can’t catch, because they can’t sprint fast, the Coyotes capture.
People ought to, instead of being so competitive, be more cooperative. Additionally: Most Badgers understand that going deep is prudent; i wish a lot more of those (humans) satisfied with the superficial – instead of just getting upset about petty details, though making a mess of their lives while neglecting the whole – would be more orderly and go deeper!
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12 million year old Badger Fossil, Miocene Period, Gansu Province, China (many of my friends are fossilized!) … photo by Thomas Peace 2014
. Deep intelligence sees that the psychological dichotomy between the “controller” of ideas and the “ideas” is essentially fallacious and illusory; one’s ideas and feelings are what one actually is… not — as we were erroneously taught — something at a distance that one “has.” Your reactions and thoughts are not truly separate from what you are. Conflict inwardly can project as conflict outwardly.
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At an end and a new beginning… female Widow Skimmer Dragonfly … photo by Thomas Peace 2014
. Years ago when one was in parochial school, we were required to attend mass, in the church, every day before classes. As a youngster, kneeling in church as the requisite rules called for, i remember thinking: “God is not here (locked up for us to visit), God is outdoors among nature and the good, great outdoors.” I remember feeling like being in prison… but i realized that, some day, i would get out. Later, while in college (and away from home), i purchased a rock music album that happened to have lyrics that really “hit home” with me. The album was entitled “Aqualung”… and the second half of the album contained lyrics helping one to question orthodox perspectives about spirituality and, instead, think (and discover) for oneself. This album, among others, was integral for me regarding my independent search within the realm of the spiritual/philosophical. That search became far more important to me than girlfriends, far more important than having a good time, competing in the job market, or being admired by others in the social realm. I am very appreciative of that album and others like it. I feel that my writings and photos (and especially my book) attest to the fact that independent inquiry (including intelligent doubting and searching) is not only worthwhile… but very noble, fruitful, and magnificent. (Of course, one may be all wrong about this… and may still be primarily just a fool.) 😉
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Later in life, it was a pleasant surprise to discover that the historical Jesus himself seemed to not be in favor of — as my book is indicative of — orthodoxy, temples, and the priests within. It was the high priests, the Sanhedrin (in their fancy robes), that accused him of things and arranged to have him killed by the Romans. After the death of the historical Christ, there were many gospels and versions of gospels that many people could choose from. Ironically, it was high priests that eventually chose the ones they wanted people to adhere to; they (like they did to the historical Jesus) arranged to have those that cherished other versions… to be terminated and destroyed. Likewise their (banned) bibles were destroyed and discarded.
Many of the top biblical scholars of today acknowledge that the ancient Gospel of Thomas — discovered by a peasant in 1945 in an earthenware jug, (and also in Greek fragments in an ancient dump heap) — was very likely existent before the Gospels of Mark, Luke, Matthew, and John. The apostles did not, it is well known, write the four orthodox gospels. The gospels called Luke and Matthew copied Mark; some scholars contend that John is a rebuttal against the Gospel of Thomas.
from the ancient Gospel of Thomas:
Jesus said, “Why have you come out to the countryside? To see a reed shaken by the wind? And to see a person dressed in soft clothes, [like your] rulers and your powerful ones? They are dressed in soft clothes, and they cannot understand truth.”
From the Gosp. of Thomas, Greek dump heap POxy 1 fragment:
[Jesus says], “Where there are [three, they are without] God, and where there is only [one], I say, I am with that one. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there. Split a piece of wood, and I am there.”
Lyrics from the song Wind Up… from the Aqualung album by Jethro Tull:
“Wind-Up”
When I was young, and they packed me off to school and taught me how not to play the game, I didn’t mind if they groomed me for success, or if they said that I was a fool. So I left there in the morning with their God tucked underneath my arm — their half-assed smiles and the book of rules. So I asked this God a question and by way of firm reply, He said — I’m not the kind you have to wind up on Sundays. So to my old headmaster (and to anyone who cares): before I’m through, I’d like to say my prayers: I don’t believe you, you had the whole damn thing all wrong — He’s not the kind you have to wind up on Sundays. Well you can excommunicate me on my way to Sunday school
and have all the bishops harmonize these lines — How do you dare tell me that I’m my Father’s son
when that was just an accident of Birth. I’d rather look around me — compose a better song `cos that’s the honest measure of my worth. In your pomp and all your glory you’re a poorer man than me, as you lick the boots of death born out of fear. I don’t believe you, you had the whole damn thing all wrong — He’s not the kind you have to wind up on Sundays.
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A dancer to another tune… Blue-fronted Dancer Damselfly… photo by Thomas Peace 2014
. You don’t have to believe in anything to enjoy and love nature; you don’t have to swallow dead doctrines to love others and all of life’s creatures.
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John the Baptist – whom the historical Christ followed – was far from the bureaucratic temples, and didn’t believe in them. J.C. tore up temples. …photo by Thomas Peace 2014
. A true, effortless silence between two thoughts… can be the immense awareness that perceives without symbolism, illusory control, conflict, and separation.
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Red Admiral Butterfly resting… photo by Thomas Peace 2014
Tom's Nature-up-close Photography and Mindfulness Blog 