My online journal sharing interests in photography, nature, coffee life, journaling, fountain pens, bicycling, spirituality and asking deep questions.
We are made, the scriptures of all religions assure us, in the image of God. Nothing can change that original goodness. Whatever mistakes we have made in the past, whatever problems we may have in the present, in every one of us this “uncreated spark in the soul” remains untouched, ever pure, ever perfect. Even if we try with all our might to douse or hide it, it is always ready to set our personality ablaze with light. – Eknath Easwaran
“Spirituality is the art of transfiguration. We should not force ourselves to change by hammering our lives into any determined shape. We do not need to operate according to the idea of a predetermined program or plan for our lives. Rather, we need to practice a new art of attention to the inner rhythm of our days and lives.” John O’Donoghue
I made an early afternoon drive out east of I-25 looking for clouds against the eastern horizon. Drove on some roads I’d not been on for quite some time and things have changed out there. I found a large 200 yard wide strip of land running east and west that is from a buried pipeline. Along with the pipeline comes more more oil drilling rigs. I came back into town feeling a heaviness and a sad feeling as I notice the landscapes change.
“The soil is the great connector of lives, the source and destination of all. It is the healer and restorer and resurrector, by which disease passes into health, age into youth, death into life. Without proper care for it we can have no community, because without proper care for it we can have no life.”
Wendell Berry
You must not lose faith in humanity.
Humanity is like an ocean;
If a few drops of the ocean are dirty,
The ocean does not become dirty.
Mahatma Gandhi
“Today we are engaged in a deadly global struggle for those who would intimidate, torture, and murder people for exercising the most basic freedoms. If we are to win this struggle and spread those freedoms, we must keep our own moral compass pointed in a true direction.” Barack Obama
A refreshing rain began falling yesterday morning just as I was leaving a local coffee shop. When I pulled up in my condo it was pouring, so I sat in my car to wait out the rain. I found it peaceful for the next 10 minutes. As I sat there my mind wandered back to the coffee shop I had just left and to one of the regular customers there.
He sits at the same table almost 6 days a week from 7:00-10:00 am, reading one of the larger national newspapers, from front to back, and sipping on a large iced tea. Of course he is known by both the baristas and the customers. The other regulars will keep the table reserved for him in case he’s late and he has conversations with other customers on a regular basis. My wandering mind was thinking about how differently we spend our time in the coffee shop, and I imagine that’s true outside the coffee shop. I prefer spending my coffee shop time visiting with a friend, reading an uplifting book, writing in my journal, and fighting the battle to spend as little time on the internet as possible but I almost never read the newspaper. I would rather fill my mind with positive images and thoughts, which is an unreachable ideal. A smile came across my face and I laughed at myself because my idea of coffee shop time would bore him, and probably many others, into a glazed-over-stupor. As I thought about it more, he’d also be bored sitting in my car listening and watching the rain. Sheesh, can my mind wander and not just when it’s raining! 🙂
So, is there some guy coming to on the floor wondering where his pants are, where his car is, where’s his wallet and where’s his shoes. Or could it be one of those alien abductions our friend Paul’s written about?