A Deeper Shame

 

 

And then it turns nasty:  LINK

I Was I Shall

In this excerpt from Autobiography of a Yogi,  Paramahansa Yogananda talks with Anandamyi Ma:

"Father, there is little to tell." She spread her graceful hands in a deprecatory gesture. "My consciousness has never associated itself with this temporary body. Before I came on this earth, Father, I was the same. As a little girl, I was the same. I grew into womanhood, but still I was the same. When the family in which I had been born made arrangements to have this body married, I was the same... And, Father, in front of you now, I am the same. Ever afterward, though the dance of creation change around me in the hall of eternity, I shall be the same."

Autobiography of a Yogi is in the public domain and may be downloaded or read online freely at Project Gutenberg.org.

Ask Yourself:

 From Online Counseling College:

How to Stay out of Arguments

1. Ask yourself: Is important enough to fight about? Is this the right time and place to be having this argument? Will arguing about it change anything? If the answer is “no” then there’s no point arguing.
2. If you find the same person always picks an argument, plan strategies for helping you stay calm around them, so you don’t get drawn in to an argument.
3. Learn to recognize when things start to change and a conversation turns into an argument. Choose to stop and withdraw before things escalate.
4. Be aware of your triggers. Know the comments and looks that tend to set you off, and recognize when others are pressing your buttons – so you know to walk away or quickly take control.
5. Try not to take the comments too seriously – as the things that are said in an argument are rarely balanced and accurate. They’re usually meant to provoke and are wild exaggerations.

Frodo's Front Door

(Clicking Imbiggens)

I love everything about this!  From Neverending Fairytale.
 

Excelsior!

(clicking imbiggens)
 

Whirligigs

 

I love these.

I remember as a young boy tossing them into the air over and over, and watching them spiral down.

 

2

Duos that broke up:

• Hall & Oats
• Simon & Garfunkel
• Abbot & Costello
• Martin & Lewis
• Loggins & Messina
  

Duos that stayed together:

• Penn & Teller
• The Bellamy Brothers

Somebody Like Me

 

(clicking imbiggens)

Taking This Photo Just Amused Me:

 

(clicking imbiggens)

A Christmas Carol

Everybody knows the story of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol from the uncountable number of Christmas specials that flood the airwaves every year, but if you've never read the book for yourself, you're in for a treat.

It's in the public domain and is free to download or read online.  Project Gutenberg has the book available in multiple formats HERE, and Standard Ebooks has gorgeous editions available for Kindle or in Epub format, HERE.

 

Little Souls

 

(Clicking Imbiggens)

Specific Negative

 

(via)

Once, Years Ago

 "Once, years ago, I emerged from the woods in the early morning at the end of a walk and-— it was the most casual of moments-— as I stepped from under the trees into the mild, pouring-down sunlight I experienced a sudden impact, a seizure of happiness. It was not the drowning sort of happiness, rather the floating sort. I made no struggle toward it; it was given. Time seemed to vanish. Urgency vanished. Any important difference between myself and all other things vanished…"  ~Mary Oliver

Instead,

 

(via)

I think that

 

I think that the
world should be full of cats and full of rain, that's all, just
cats and
rain, rain and cats, very nice, good
night.

Charles Bukowski, from Betting on the Muse: Poems & Stories.

Bukowski has the reputation of being curmudgeonly and hard, but not all of his poems are like that.  It would be nice if someone published a compilation of his more upbeat work.

Inspiration

 

Dancing

 

(Click to imbiggen)
The artist, sacrée frangine, can be found on the web HERE.

And that, of course, reminded me of this:

Full lyrics HERE.

Neither

The sky is never
the same shade twice
and neither is your heart.
 
The moon has never apologized
for hiding some nights
and neither should you.
 
The stars have never stopped shining
because someone wanted them to
and neither should you.
 
The earth has never stopped
moving, growing, evolving for anyone
and neither should you.  

~ Nikita Gill

Not Everything

 "I like mindless disco…  They say the lyrics are stupid and repetitious.  So, what's wrong with that?  So is lying in the sun.  Not everything has to be serious."  ~Lou Reed, 1979

If there wasn't a you…

Do

 

But Not

 

(clicking Imbiggens)(via)

Underwater

This was posted anonymously to a blog that has since been deleted, so I can't give proper credit.  But whoever you are out there, I'm with you:

i want to live in the peaceful feeling you get underwater where everything sounds softer and the lights are all tinged blue and the world feels silky and light and surreal

Wham Bam

 

This song always makes me nostalgic for where I was when this was on the charts, but the lyrics are actually pretty awful.

You can read them HERE.

It Doesn't Matter

 "Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn't matter.  Explore the world.  Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough."  ~Richard Feynman

Unwell

My father died, and I'm not doing well.

I don't know how it is for other people, but my religious faith is strongest in the good times, virtually nonexistent in the bad times.  I feel very alone and isolated. 

I feel like I'm letting down the people around me.  I sit and stare.  I'm present physically but not mentally or emotionally.  I'm overwhelmed most of the time.

I can't see myself bouncing back from this one, but I know I always have in the past.  Logically I know that time heals, and someday I'll be myself again.

Anyway.

I thought of this song this morning:

 

But I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell
I know right now you can't tell
But stay awhile and maybe then you'll see
A different side of me

I'm not crazy, I'm just a little impaired
I know right now you don't care
But soon enough you're gonna think of me
And how I used to be

 Full lyrics HERE.

Old Ideas

 "I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."  ~John Cage

 And that reminded me of this:

 

Miracles

 "All around us, life bursts forth with miracles—a glass of water, a ray of sunshine, a leaf, a caterpillar, a flower, laughter, raindrops. If you live in awareness, it is easy to see miracles everywhere.  Each human being is a multiplicity of miracles. Eyes that see thousands of colors, shapes, and forms; ears that hear a bee flying or a thunderclap; a brain that ponders a speck of dust as easily as the entire cosmos; a heart that beats in rhythm with the heartbeat of all beings.  When we are tired and feel discouraged by life’s daily struggles, we may not notice these miracles, but they are always there."  ~Thich Nhat Hanh

And that led to this:

 

Pretty Sure

 

Pickles by Brian Crane is on the web HERE.

Tiny Opening

Someone Should Start Laughing
Hafiz, from I Heard God Laughing translated by Daniel Ladinsky. ©1996

I have a thousand brilliant lies
For the question:

How are you?

I have a thousand brilliant lies
For the question:

What is God?

If you think that the truth can be known
From words,

If you think that the Sun and the Ocean

Can pass through that tiny opening
Called the mouth,

O someone should start laughing—

Someone should start laughing—
Now!

Look Up!

Charlie Chaplin's soliloquy from The Great Dictator, ©1940.  The style is a little dated; the sentiment, sadly, is not:

 

I'm sorry but I don't want to be an Emperor.  That's not my business.  I don't want to rule or conquer anyone.  

I should like to help everyone if possible. We all want to help one another -- human beings are like that.  We all want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the earth is rich and can provide for everyone.

The way of life can be free and beautiful.  But we have lost the way.

Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.  We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in: machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little: more than machinery we need humanity; more than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.

The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me I say, "Do not despair".

The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress.  The hate of men will pass and the power they took from the people will return to the people and liberty will never perish.

In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written, "The kingdom of God is within man."  Not one man, nor a group of men, but in all men -- in you, the people.

You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy let's use that power.  Let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give you the future and old age and security.  Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness.  Let us all unite!

Look up.  The clouds are lifting, the sun is breaking through. We are coming out of the darkness into the light.   The soul of man has been given wings, and at last he is beginning to fly. He is flying into the rainbow - into the light of hope - into the future, that glorious future that belongs to you, to me and to all of us. Look up. Look up!

If It Meant

Chinese Satellite
Phoebe Bridgers

You were screaming at the Evangelicals
They were screaming right back, from what I remember
When you said I will never be your vegetable
Because I think when you’re gone, it’s forever
But you know I’d stand on the corner
Embarrassed, with a picket sign
If it meant I would see you when I die

Cats

Excerpted from "What is Tao?" by Alan Watts: 

When a cat falls out of a tree, it lets go of itself.  The cat becomes completely relaxed, and lands lightly on the ground.  But if a cat were about to fall out of a tree and suddenly made up its mind that it didn't want to fall, it would become tense and rigid, and would be just a bag of broken bones upon landing.
 
In the same way, it the philosophy of the Tao that we are all falling off a tree, at every moment of our lives.  As a matter of fact, the moment we were born we were kicked off a precipice and we are falling, and there is nothing that can stop it.
 
So instead of living in a state of chronic tension, and clinging to all sorts of things that are actually falling with us because the whole world is impermanent, be like a cat.

64 Color Box of Crayons

 'Excerpted from A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, ©2012: 

Her friends couldn't see why she woke up every morning and voluntarily decided to share the day with him.  He couldn't either.  He build her a bookshelf and she filled it with books by people who wrote page after page about their feelings.  Ove understood things he could see and touch.  Wood and concrete.  Glass and steel.  Tools.  Things one could figure out.  He understood right angles and clear instruction manuals.  Assembly models and drawings.  Things one could draw on paper.
 
He was a man of black and white.
 
And she was color.  All the color he had.