Stephen Mitchell quotes his old teacher, Zen Master Seung Sahn commenting on verse 15 of the Tao: Our mind is like a clear glass of water. If we put salt into the water, it becomes salt water; sugar, it becomes sugar water; shit, it becomes shit water. But originally the water is clear. No thinking, no mind. No mind, no problem.
My mom was always saying she was going to plant a garden, but it seemed life got in the way. This fact is sort of odd if you knew that my mother was raised on a farm where planting was such a natural rhythm of life that no one thought about it, they just did it. A friend of mine is wanting to get back into the cottage garden business again so I hired her…
I am a horrible, terrible and amateur photographer, but it doesn’t stop me from taking photographs. Today as I was walking in the park I saw an elderly, handsome gentleman in a black suit and tie walking a white standard poodle and they looked like a couple. I wish I could have snapped that photograph.
When you become aware of the negative talk inside your head, it is truly amazing. I’ve been on this mission to kick the habit and so how I’m doing it is acting like the person who is talking in there is a good friend instead of me, and as any good friend does, I tell her, “Now come on, it’s not that bad, it’s okay.” My self talk ranges from criticizing myself for not doing…
Yesterday, friends were over and we took a walk about around the lovely bayou. I spoke about our plans for the future, living at the LaLa and then retiring to the Quarter with trips abroad. I confessed to having been a ball of nerves last year because of my anxiety and fear of the future and now I had come to the conclusion that I must be open to any future that arrives. Later on…
Tin had a playdate today and mommy made brunch and did an impromptu cooking class for friends (in from Germany). All said and done, we passed a good time then I come back to my desk and look at what is going on with Japan and I’m just stunned by how devastating this has been – some towns completely wiped out, over 10,000 feared dead. And also I’m just sickened by the fact that CNBC…
Tin and I took a stroll on the bayou at dusk watching the setting sun and the half moon rising. He’s a good walker, I like that. Later, we came home and he had a waffle and scrambled eggs and a pear for dinner. Eating his waffle he said, “This is good.” For a nightcap we watched the Louis Armstrong DVD I purchased a year ago – best darn purchase I ever made. He tickled…
I began David Mitchell’s first novel set in Japan called Ghostwritten. I wonder about all of these natural disasters and how my mind can’t seem to settle on this beautiful day knowing that Japan has open gashes yet to heal.
I was thinking that next year I’d like to have Carnival masks to hang outside for Mardi Gras. You know the kind that look like jesters and one is frowning and one is smiling. A friend told me that she went to the Quarter alone with her toddler and saw a woman standing on the corner of Royal and Esplanade, with two children in a wagon, and one in her arms and she and the…