• coffee life,  quotes,  shadows

    Our Character As a People

    November 19, 2024

    I leave at O’dark-thirty tomorrow morning (4:05 am shuttle pickup) to spend a few days in Phoenix with my 95 year old dad and my sister and brother-in-law. We will celebrate Thanksgiving a week early and I will probably overeat. I’m not expecting to post anything until I get back on Sunday. We have had blue skies with scattered clouds but it’s been a cold, blustery day, which makes for a good day to stay inside and pack for the trip.

    I love the shadows

    What the government will or will not do is finally beside the point. If people do not have the government they want, then they will have a government that they must either change or endure. Finally, all the issues that I have discussed here are neither political nor economic, but moral and spiritual. What is at issue is our character as a people.

    Wendell Berry, The Hidden Wound

    The above quote is near the end of Wendell Berry’s book, called The Hidden Wound. Even though the book was written in 1989 this quote seems to aptly apply to our situation today. I’m not a believer in looking to a government, a new legislation, or some leader to make our social, political or economic situations better, although they can help. For several years our real issues in our society, its government, and I will include the world, are really moral and spiritual. He’s right: What is at issue is our character as a people. What is sad to me is that people do not want, or even know how, to look internally at their character. Or, worse yet, many have no idea what character means. It’s much easier to point a finger elsewhere. Anyway, I will be off line for a few days.

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  • coffee life,  poems,  writing/reading

    Living a Privileged Life

    June 24, 2024


    Someone rummages through garbage for food
    Someone hides in the closet in fear of another beating
    Someone loses their child in senseless bombing
    Someone faces another day of dialysis
    Someone receives an wanted pathology report
    Someone contemplates their suicide
    Someone buries a loved one

    While I enjoy my coffee life and mocha latte
    While I live a privileged life

    mws
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  • coffee life,  latte art,  quotes

    Compassion

    June 7, 2024
    Kelsey’s latte art

    Compassion means to come close to the one who suffers… A compassionate person says I am your brother, I am your sister, I am human, fragile, and mortal, just like you… We can be with the other only when the other ceases to be other and becomes like us.

    Henri Nouwen

    We all suffer. Even those with money, food, good health, a job, nice home with two cars and money in savings. I would venture to say most people hide their suffering, maybe even denying it. We can easily believe that because we have stuff we are not suffering and therefore different than others. We can even feel that even when we only have one car. Accumulating stuff can lead to a lack of compassion.

    I would love to see more compassion in our world. Maybe take it one step further and make it empathy not just compassion. And to have compassion and empathy, we must cease to see others as different from us and see them to be just like us. We are, at the core, all the same. I think the above quote is spot on.

    I am sharing this nice photo of Kelsey’s latte art. I enjoy ordering a cappuccino or mocha just so I can see what kind of artwork they will produce. It is a beautiful summer morning, clear skies and sunshine. May you have a wonderful Friday.

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  • clouds,  landscape,  quotes,  Reservoir Ridge Natural Area

    Learning to Become Human

    June 5, 2024
    Morning walk at Reservoir Ridge Natural Area

    All nature is waiting for us to become conscious because there’s a particular quality of consciousness that only humans can provide. Nature needs that consciousness; cries out for it. And the process of deciphering Nature’s need, then discovering how to respond to it, is what’s called learning to become human.

    Peter Kingsley

    After quiet time I moved on to my morning mocha made by Hannah at Starry Night. It was an unusual 68 degrees so I began to question why I was sitting inside. Then the busyness and noise of the shop nudged me to drive to Reservoir Ridge Natural Area and get in some journaling and a walk. It was a wise choice! The clouds were amazing. The meadowlarks sang from their hearts and were accompanied by a group of crickets in the tall grass. These are some of my favorite musicians. Not sure how much nature is conscious of my presence but I know I was conscious of my presence within nature. I’m learning to become more human.

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  • Arapaho Bend Natural Area,  clouds,  landscape,  natural areas,  quotes

    A Bowl of Soup

    March 7, 2024

    Perhaps the first step in making the Middle Passage meaningful is to acknowledge the partiality of the lens we were given by family and culture, and through which we have made our choices and suffered their consequences. If we had been born of another time and place, to different parents who held different values, we would have had an entirely different lens. The lens we received generated a conditional life, which represents not who we are but how we were conditioned to see life and make choices… We succumb to the belief that the way we have grown to see the world is the only way to see it, the right way to see it, and we seldom suspect the conditioned nature of our perception.

    James Hollis

    Overcast skies this morning, a light mist falling, and almost no wind. I did not expect to watch the sun crest the horizon with all the cloud cover but needed to include time in the Arapaho Bend Natural Area to start my day. The clouds were showing their better side so I accepted a few images. On the top branch of a barren tree two hawks surveyed their land. I listened to the babbling of hundreds of blackbirds. Not far from where I stood a goose or two were in a heated debate over nesting rights. I watched the graceful slow flying blue herons glide over the water in search of a fishing spot. And in the distance one eagle sat perched on a pole. After giving thanks and a few deep breaths I moved on to enjoy a mocha by Issac and an almond croissant at Starry Night. Rain and snow are predicted later today and into the night. Hope so as we need the moisture. I am grateful for the lens my family and culture gave me, with all of its limits, but I am just as grateful for the lens of maturity I am now seeing the world with. It will be a good day to enjoy a bowl of vegetable soup with andouille sausage added for a kick. Enjoy your day!

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  • Candid Portraits,  People/Portraits,  quotes

    Moving on…

    January 13, 2024

    “Whether we experience what happens to us as obstacle and enemy or as a teacher and friend depends entirely on our perception of reality. It depends on our relationship with ourselves.”

    Pema Chödrön

    Weather app says it’s −11° and feels like -24°. They are spot on. We also had a dusting of snow overnight. After quiet time I made myself a bhakti chai, wrapped a blanket around myself, settled in for some reading and journaling. After my phone call with Eric I drove to Starry Night because today is Stephen’s last day as my barista. He’s a very good barista and very personable, one of my favorites. No one who walks in will feel like a stranger when he is working. So, I wanted to say goodby on his last day. He has been working and studying to be an EMT and was just hired by the fire department in Johnstown. I enjoy watching as young people move on to new paths. I’ve seen that a lot with baristas, which means I have to train another barista. Good luck and have fun, Stephen! Its now 11:43 am and we’ve warmed up to −6°.

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  • coffee life,  gratitude,  I am learning...,  latte art,  quotes

    Showing off!

    December 29, 2023

    Understanding of the self only arises in relationship, in watching yourself in relationship to people, ideas, and things; to trees, the earth, and the world around you and within you. Relationship is the mirror in which the self is revealed. Without self-knowledge there is no basis for right thought and action.

    Jiddu Krishnamurti

    Well, Hannah out did herself, showing off again, this morning with her latte art. I wonder sometimes if the reason I order mocha lattes is because of the artwork or because I enjoy their flavor. Think I’ll just go with both!

    We have clear blue skies and temperatures in the high teens but expecting it to warm up into the high 40’s. I love the mornings when the sun shines in my front room window, spreading its light across the floor and furniture. It is something I look forward to it each day. Depending on the time of year also determines the length of time I get to enjoy it.

    Relationships have become a vital learning experience in my life over the past 20 plus years. I am learning how to improve them, how to nurture them and how to build relationships with others who are different from me. I am learning to embrace relationships I would not expect to have, such as all my baristas. I am learning to repair damaged and broken relationships. And with the advent of the internet I’m also learning to embrace virtual relationships. I must also include the relationship I have with God, this unknown HIgher Power, that something I cannot define or comprehend, as well as a renewed relationship with all of creation. And, I am learning to be someone healthy in a relationship. As this year comes to a close I find I have a grateful heart for the gift of relationships in the year. 

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