I take Curling very seriously.
Even my potato chips are into Curling.
So far i am in line for winning Silver… a silver set of hair, that is! 🙂
Notice that my sweeping technique is not top-notch Gold; (i am not foolish enough to let Marla think that i am good at sweeping!)
Besides, who needs to sweep if there is a Roomba in the area?!
My wife and i never had kids (because the world is way overcrowded with humans as it is), but we are concerned about them deeply. If i had only a few short moments — or a bit longer — to tell a child what to care about, in life, here is what i would likely say:
Mistrust everything anyone has ever told you about truth… and find out for yourself.
Go beyond the dead symbols that they provided; be intelligently empty, stay young, and don’t lose your innocence (as so many adults do).
Don’t just look through the screen of what was taught; use thoughts often, but go beyond them.
Love the whole and not merely a few isolated parts.
Let effortless silence be your oasis from internal patterns that were planted in you by others.
Help others (so-called other life forms) to go beyond suffering.
Help (and care for) Mother Earth; she is all we have, and many are making her sick.
Ask serious questions beyond merely comfortable answers.
Don’t be ordinary (even if it is more comfortable and easy to be ordinary).
Never lose that youthful feeling of eternity (that most adults have lost long ago).
Perceive with (and “as”) dynamic emptiness without a mere center.
Look without mere separation between you and what is perceived.
Perceive with a warm heart, not merely (as so many do) with a cold mind.
Note:
[These are fish in a large pond in our area. There is a small creek that flows into the pond, and the fish love to hang out by the mouth of the creek to get oncoming food and to enjoy the current. I like how one of the fish — unique, with the purity of white on its head — in the top section of the video is (especially) enjoying a burst of water current, creating surface swirl! There were many more fish than what is seen in the frame.]
Fish of Gold. Video by Thomas Peace c. 2016
We all cling to something
You cling to part of an old white birch tree
Some of us cling to corrupt politicians who promise sunny heaven
while connivingly making shady deals under the table
I’d rather cling to a simple old white birch
and then soar joyfully through the vast wondrous sky
rather than grasp onto what driveling babbling politicians say
I’d rather fly free into that wordless timeless immensity
Redpoll Finch. Video by Thomas Peace c. 2016
Wherefore we alight upon these mineraled grounds
far from the dainty blossoming stores
with their nectar prizes all too pure and sugary seeded?
To extract something tangible and something intangible
must occur together as a unified whole
in and out of the recurrent clockwork of time that was needed.
The Cabbage Butterfly Club. Video by Thomas Peace c. 2016
Boredom never occurs to the mind that is without a spurious, central regulator that is always dependent upon experience. If the mind is its own energy it does not always have to depend upon outside patterns of energy to function joyfully. So many depend on outside influences, outside patterns and forms. Often they internalize these patterns and forms and merely look with the accumulated remembrances of these. So many depend on internal influences, internal patterns and forms. However, a mind that often looks without merely accumulating, without merely storing patterns and attributes… may perceive freshly and joyfully without the dead and dusty past. When the mind is fresh it renews itself from moment to moment, beyond mere accumulation and storing. Without being dependent upon experiences at all times, it may enjoy experiences, but it often goes beyond them. Then boredom rarely or never sets in. If there is no false center to be entertained, then the mind is free of a learned center that was accumulated from others; such a mind may also be free of many other types of accumulated patterns, forms, and images (oftentimes). For instance, when perception of a creature takes place, it need not merely label it and look at it with a sense of separation. Or if it does label it, there is a “going beyond the label,” and the animal is seen without merely pigeonholing it, categorizing it, and looking at it from a separative stance. Such a mind is free to be fresh and uncontaminated, without the stale past and stored symbols. Boredom is not freedom.
Well, I Toad You So! Video by Thomas Peace c. 2016
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.(Left click on the photo to enlarge it; hit “left return arrow” to return.)
Painted Lady by Thomas Peace 2013
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. from Emily Dickinson:
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. THE BUTTERFLY’S Numidian Gown
. With spots of Burnish roasted on
. Is proof against the Sun
. Yet prone to shut its spotted Fan
. And panting on a Clover lean
. As if it were undone —
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Other of Emily’s insightful poems occur in my book. eternalfountainofyouth.com
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Tom's Nature-up-close Photography and Mindfulness Blog 