Manai'a Explorations
HC SVNT DRACONES

For the time being one is doing this or that, but whether it is a woman or a job, it is not yet what is really wanted, and there is always the fantasy that sometime in the future the real thing will come about.... The one thing dreaded throughout by such a type of man is to be bound to anything whatever. - Marie Louise von Franz, Puer Aeternus Rereading my essay On Karma , the part about following my bliss sent me to one of my favorite books where I rediscovered this quote.

Bones - a reflection on John 6:1-21 William Loader Dust on her muddy feet, still smeared from the wet and now blue with cold, hands stretched out in a meaningless pose of begging; for UN relief supplies reach the camp only late in the afternoon. Drawn faced children with bulging bellies, listless, some sleeping, many dying. Time.. time to live and time to die. Time to think - if only, but too tired, too undernourished, time but no strength to be profound, to reflect, to meditate; makes the dying easier, the pain less revolutionary. So don't ask me to think. Why do you want to tell me stories about food? Why torment me with your miracles of plenty? Where have the bread breakers gone? If only there were such multipliers of loaves and fish. We'll give them the fish. We'll offer the loaves. But these are your fantasies, romantic images of antiquity, best left to their glint and passed by. They never were a model for future followers. At most they are remnants of propaganda, stu...

“The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.” – Matthew 12:35 Several years ago, my shrink gave me a brilliant little book titled “Reaching Out” by Fr. Henri Nouwen. The gist of the book is this: There are 2 ways of being in the world: A positive way wherein you are confident, secure, and full of faith A negative way wherein you are insecure, fearful, and anxious Your way of being, positive or negative, determines how you relate to: Your Self Others God If you are at peace internally, you will create a beautiful life. If you are riddled with self-doubt and insecurity, if you are fearful and anxious, you will tragically avoid life. Great, I thought after reading the book. All I have to do is be confident and secure. But the reality is that everyone is riddled with varying degrees of insecurity and self doubt, even the most beautiful, popular, successful people. When we ...

“Shariputra, all things are essentially empty” – The Great Prajna Paramita Heart Sutra “In the beginning was Logos” – John 1:1 The monsoon had blown itself out in the afternoon. A cool damp breeze carried the smell of wet desert and the sound of celebratory bird songs across my back porch. I settled into my lawn chair, a tall glass of lemonade at my side. The sun dropped below the mountains (or did the mountains rise above the sun?) and the bottoms of the clouds began to glow an intense orange and then a soft pink. My body still, my mind at peace, my heart rate slowed and I slipped into an accidental meditation. The colors that I saw across the sky; where did they come from - the sun, the clouds, my retinas? Venus, the evening star, which is no star at all, appeared between the clouds and slowly glowed brighter (or did the sky slowly darken?). Stars twinkled, dusk settled into night, water condensed and dripped down the side of my glass making a puddle on the porch, and the fatigue of ...

Mom has published her reflections on her trip to Turkey .

Sunday's bike ride: Distance: 23.4 miles up + 23.4 miles down Elevation Gain: 6,404 ft Estimated Calories Burned: 2,858 C

We acquire our perspective, our point of view, from our culture. It becomes so fundamental, it is (almost) impossible to perceive anything without looking through our distorted lenses. The Buddhist understand that everything is essentially empty and we get to create meaning and significance, but even with that recognition, what we are capable of imagining is still quite finite. Our egocentricity gave us the illusion of dominion over all of creation - we have souls but the animals are for us to exploit. Anyone who suggests that humans and animals are not so different is accused of anthropomorphizing. I hope someday to dream a human song like brother whale .

April just brought a dead quail into the house. I don't know if she killed it or found it dead in the back yard. She's quite the hunter. Sent from the field.

The White Man's Burden Rudyard Kipling 1899 Take up the White Man's burden- Send forth the best ye breed— Go bind your sons to exile To serve your captives' need; To wait in heavy harness, On fluttered folk and wild— Your new-caught, sullen peoples, Half-devil and half-child. Take up the White Man's burden— In patience to abide, To veil the threat of terror And check the show of pride; By open speech and simple, An hundred times made plain To seek another's profit, And work another's gain. Take up the White Man's burden— The savage wars of peace— Fill full the mouth of Famine And bid the sickness cease; And when your goal is nearest The end for others sought, Watch sloth and heathen Folly Bring all your hopes to nought. Take up the White Man's burden— No tawdry rule of kings, But toil of serf and sweeper— The tale of common things. The ports ye shall not enter, The roads ye shall not tread, Go mark them with your living, And mark them with your dead. Tak...

Left to right: Aunt Nancy, Dad's sister Aunt Joan, Dad's sister Uncle Ron, Joan's husband The fantastically handsome fellow is me Uncle Henry, Dad's brother Mom Dad took the picture.