Do you miss me? …… Call me
Want to meet up? …… Invite me places
Want me to understand you? …… Open your heart to me
Want to know something about me? …… Ask me
Don’t like something? …… Please tell me
Have some advice for me? …… I want it
(I need all the help that I can get)
Have nice thoughts about me? …… Share them with me, in exquisite detail
Want/need something from me? ……. Ask for it
Love me? …… Let me know
(Don’t let anything or anyone stop you)
Thank you.
If you keep saying yes I’ll invite you to more places.
It is extremely helpful to try to see things from the point of view of others
Even though this is absolutely impossible to do.
Every warrior of the light has been afraid to enter a combat.
Every warrior of the light has betrayed and lied in the past.
Every warrior of the light has lost faith in the future.
Every warrior of the light has trodden a path which was not his own.
Every warrior of the light has suffered because of unimportant things.
Every warrior of the light has doubted that he is a warrior of the light.
Every warrior of the light has failed in his spiritual obligations.
Every warrior of the light has said yes when he meant no.
Every warrior of the light has hurt someone he loved.
That is why he and she are warriors of the light:
They had endured all this without losing the hope to improve.
-Paulo Coelho, in Warrior of the Light: A Manual
Why don’t we skip the introduction. I want to hear your question, please.
-Marion Rosen
This morning I took a look at my list of friends, family and acquaintances and reflected on how grateful I am for each one of you in my life. You will find some of those reflections below.
Read it slowly, with full intent, if you will. I wrote these reflections about you.
I am grateful to you because you’re funny and unassuming. You’re so adaptable and often in good spirits. You’re tender, vulnerable, sophisticated. You love your family dearly.
I’m grateful to you because you’re original, bold, experimental, sensitive and extremely amusing. You are innocent and beautiful and fragile, and smart. You’re so classy and attractive and grounded in spirit and in the strength of your family. I’m grateful to you because you’re intense and don’t give up, because you strive to understand the world we live in. I have so liked it when we have had the chance to share from the heart, learn from each other, listen to each other, spend time together.
I’m grateful for your open heart, your determination to keep living amidst adversities, your depth of character, your intelligence. Many of the things I’ve learned from you have sustained me on the rainy days of this life, and kept me warm and smiling, on the inside, even as a I felt soaked to the skin. Have you any idea how much you have meant to me?
I think about you and admiration is what I feel.
Thank you.
Near the place where Zen Master Hakuin lived there happened to be a food store. The owner of the food store had a beautiful unmarried daughter. One day she was found with child. Her parents flew into a rage. They wanted to know the father, but she would not give them the name. After repeated scolding and harassment, she gave up and told them it was the Zen Master. When the child was born they ran to the Zen Master, scolding him with foul tongue, and they left the infant with him. They said to him: “Take care of this child as you’re the father.” The Zen Master said, “Is that so”. That was his only comment.
He accepted the child. He started nourishing and taking care of the child. By this time his reputation had come to an end, and he was an object of mockery. Days ran into weeks, weeks into months and months into years. But there is something called conscience in our human life, and the young girl was tortured by her conscience. She finally disclosed to her parents the name of the child’s real father, a man who worked in a fish market. The parents again flew into a rage. At the same time, sorrow and humiliation tortured the household. They came running to the spiritual Master, begged his pardon, narrated the whole story and then took the child back as they said to him: “You don’t need to take care of this child anymore as you’re not his father.”
His only comment was: “Is that so.”
(Taken, with light editing, from Reps, Paul; Nyogen Senzaki. Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings)
View King’s Canyon - Sequoia - Summer 2010 in a larger map
This map roughly documents the sections of King’s Canyon and Sequoia National Park that Jeff Berkman, Cris Fuentes and myself were able to visit between the 13th and the 20th of August, 2010. It was an intense and beautiful trip, filled with long hikes, breathtaking views, cold nights, oddly planned meals, a bit of off-trail madness, and lots of humor. That was definitely the best part.
You’re invited to take a good look at this interactive map, especially if you have Google Earth. It may give you a broad sense of the remarkable topography of the places we visited.
Nothing compares to having been there, or course, but if playing with the map stirs up your curiosity about, well, getting out there, then that will have meant that the time it took me to make the map was very well spent.
You can also see some photos of the trips as well, if you want.
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