I remember reading a book, “The Weapon Shops of Isher”. the weapons could not be fired as an act of aggression, they could only be fired in self defense. They worked as a deterrent to war, and against violent crime. It upset the balance of power. I wonder what would help with equality among humans? I wonder what would bring balance to us all? I found some sites that discuss the different views of raising our awareness of Loving, Kind Beings. We are dealing with a shift in economics, a change in our natural environment, resource allocation, a large number of people with little resources, and all those and more are increasing in intensity. We have a fascination with the different inventions brought by technology. We have changed the lives of many using concepts developed out of economics. We have helped people with our understanding of biology and other sciences. A lot of this has happened because we have discovered how to use fossil fuel energy. What we have failed to do is learn, over and over, how to treat each other with respect and dignity. The Wisdom of ancient times is difficult to learn new by each individual as [...]
Looking in the mirror, he noticed the wrinkles around his eyes, reminding him of a river journey with a friend, laughing for days and seeing white wrinkles amid the tan lines. Today, my face is tan and rounded somewhat, perhaps from the beard, going gray around the edges. There is that combination of youth and age that defies our usual indication of time in a body. A smile is often present and there is something about brown eyes that can tighten into a focus when speaking directly to someone. My niece was at a family reunion that I did not attend and she told me my grandmother’s last name meant bent willow, which I find interesting. There is a northern European look about me, heavy set and I think short, or stout might fit. Am I pleasant to look at? Only when I am fun to be around. But my portrait is not that, it is in my song: I’m a child of the desert, hot burning sand And a friend to the buzzard circling the bleaching bones of a man I spent my contemplation under a pinyon tree And a nut fell down and hit me and that’s what [...]
It is night here. I had a dream that I was listening to music at a concert and the music finished. It had been instrumental music with drums and percussion and other sounds that I can’t remember. A musician spoke, saying the concert was over and that he had not said much with words because the music spoke for them. It has been over an hour since that experience and I am awake, still. My mind is overactive, running through a range of thoughts that I can usually avoid in daylight. i think about being unemployed until I can “officially” retire. I think about my part in what we have done to our environment and our world. I think of the worry and fear that permeates our existence, and how much of that is our own doing, our own actions, that we followed so easily. I think of the anger and rage that I see in so many places in the different media, and how easy it is to step into that state of mind. I think that Loving Kindness is a means to overcome all that I find to be negative in my world. In my dreams, I have [...]
It is my life isn’t it? Have you ever given this any thought?
There are many times in life when there are decisions to be made for so many things from relationships to careers to faith to anything.
How does it affect your life?
None of us knows how long we will be alive, whether we will be healthy or of sound mind or free or not. Yet today, we are alive and whatever crosses our path today may make a change in life. What if it is something we do not want in life?
After all, no one can live our lives for us. Neither can we live life for someone, yet, there are times we try.
My life is precious and I am the only one who can live it.
Each of us inhabits a body that is impacted by the culture, language, place, and more. Most of us are dependent on others for food, water, our clothes, shelter, and more. We are interconnected in ways we choose not to see, and in ways we cannot see, breathing the same air, drinking water that falls from the sky, drawn from the oceans, eating food grown from the soil full of billions of microbes, living and dying.
That is barely a place to start to examine who we think we might be. Because I am (almost) conscious, I can think about a variety of ideas surrounding my life, and I only think about a little bit of it. Sometimes I am exposed to ideas that are foreign to me, making me pause, and think about my place in the scheme of things.
Somewhat akin to bouzouki’s comment, I can’t see where our individual lives are ours. It seems to me that we manage them more than own them in that they’re ours to live but we have few instances of total control over them in an objective sense.
Hi Gentlemen;
We have no control over our lives when actions of others or nature influence them, such as death, injury or something else not going according to our individual plan.
However, as it is our life, there are areas where our actions and decisions do make a difference, not only to “my” life, but those of others.
We are all “connected” and there is no undoing that, even if we were to travel to some isolated place and live like a hermit.
The Hermit, the socialite, the extrovert, the introvert, the lover and those who hate. Are not these choices in respect to how people wish to live “their” lives?