Quote

Our true home is in the present moment.
To live in the present moment is a miracle.
The miracle is not to walk on water.
The miracle is to walk on the green Earth in the present moment.

                          --Thic Nhat Hanh

Haiku

The sun
drips silently
off my fingertips.

Insect Life

While flipping over rocks with Clare, my four-year-old, I saw a potato bug stuck on its back. Its legs were flailing and its body was twisting, but it couldn't flip over.  Another bug then left its spot, moved a couple inches and bumped the stuck bug onto its feet.  Then it went back to the same place it was previously. 

Which begs the question, of course:  How aware of others (and self) are insects?  Why would a bug do that?

I asked the potato bug, but it didn't tell me a thing.

Value and Words

The more we value a body part, the more names we give it.  Consider, if you will, cock, titties, and beaver versus elbow, shin, and kneecap.

Overheard Conversation

While driving past two teenage girls:  "They say she's cute, but. . . "

Passion

I see people getting passionate about truly meaningless things--sports, writers, religion--and I don't understand how we are so willing to hold on to things that really make no difference.  Does it matter if Stephen King's characters are flat while Flannery O'Connor's are not?  Does it matter if some people swim on swim on the Sabbath, while others only wade?

I catch myself often as well.  I get worked up because Trudy left peelings in the sink, and it takes me some time to realize how stupid I am being. 

Passion is a glorious thing, and as such, it is easily distracted from its purpose.

Quote

We've formed a theory and belief, but as we look about the human world, it is clear that nobody actually knows what is going on.  Yet claims to Truth are being made at every hand, including the claim that there is no Truth.  --Steve Hagen

Overheard Conversation

An adult son to his mother: "Nobody seems to care or understand.  It seems the only person who cares about me is me." 

What a weenie.

Relief

When considering the great emotions--love, hate, joy, and the like--we have done a great injustice to one of the greatest.  Relief.  Consider the joy of getting corn unstuck from a tooth or realizing that you aren't really in trouble.

Help Me Understand

I recently read this in a book:  "And the madness came upon her, and she fled into the desert."  First of all, it's a horrible sentence. Second, I have no clue what the hell it means.

Overheard Conversation

A waitress at a restaurant, speaking to her friend who was on a date:  "I told you not to date cowboys, and now you are here with this fogey loser."

Christian Bookstores

I just went into our local Christian bookstore for the first time in several years.  It struck me how hard advertising executives worked to make every object marketable to the Fold.  There was the Outdoor Enthusiast Bible, with an Authentic Copywrited Mossy Oak Cover.  For the devout chewer there was Scripture Gum. 

It fascinated me to see how many ways there were to make money off God.  But really that's just small change.  If you want to make big bucks, start a religion. That's what L. Ron Hubbard did.