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Category Archives: observation

Slow Witnessing

Egads… a book review…

Doomsday Book : Connie Willis

What?  Science Fiction?  Time Travel?  14th Century Europe?

Wasn’t that the time of the Black Plague?  The Blue Illness?

Yes.  Yes.  Yes.  Yes.  And yes.

I’ve discovered Connie Willis..  sort of like Columbus discovered America.  Doomsday Book won the Hugo and Nebula in 93.  She has won 11 Hugos and 7 Nebulas.  So maybe others have discovered her too.  But those that like SF respond to my question of Connie Willis and Doomsday Book with puzzled looks.

Doomsday Book is story telling at its best.  Willis spent over 5 years writing this book and I expect that those who love it as I do, consume it in a very short time.

It is a story of youthful exuberance.  Of the power of belief, not in a religious fashion, but from a spirituality that shines from within.  Something that can come from within formal religion and from outside it.  It is both joyous and heartbreaking.

I witnessed this book.  I don’t say this about books.

 

-neil

 

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Witness on the Edge

Look at this picture. To take it, we had to get up at 4am and drive the 35 miles to the trail head of the Zion Canyon overlook so that we could get a parking space and hike up the 1.5 miles before everyone else took up all the choice spots along the edge. There were no stars. It was cold and overcast. We were the first in the parking lot, the first on the trail, and the first to the canyon overview. The clouds filled the sky. No one else bothered, realizing that there would be no blue sky this morning.

Zion Canyon Overview

Zion Canyon Overview

And then, on the horizon, a break in the clouds allowed this beautiful sunrise with a stormy back drop. The light show lasted 10 minutes. Then it was gone, having shown for only the two of us. Life is being there hoping…

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Taking up .. Letting go

You hear about the fight/flight mechanism.  Aikido is not fighting.  Certainly there is no flight.  I get a glimmer of the essence of it all during katatetori, when uke grabs my wrist.  If I make a fist making it strong, then I’ve given uke something concrete and substantial to hang onto.  It is about me.  It is about my wrist.  If I let it go limp and surrender, uke has it completely and again it is about me.  I’ve disowned my wrist.

What then is left?  Uke has hold of my wrist.  He has hold of my arm.  He has hold of my torso.  He is holding my body.  And of course, I am holding Uke’s body.  If I see this, then I see more than my wrist.. more than his grip on my wrist.. I see both Uke and myself.  This then is the beginning point.

I see it here.

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Where ever you go.. there you are

We come up here to Sea Ranch once a year.

bright sunlit waves break over rock on a calm day

waves on a gentle day

Every year since 1988, except one year, when we went to Hawaii and could not afford both trips.  The kids now come home so that we can do our yearly sojourn up here.  We have friends here that live in Gualala, just 5 miles up the coast.  For their vacation, they go down to Martinez in the S.F. Bay Area.  Yes, that Martinez, with the refinery in its back year.

Man, Meadow, Sea as backdrop

Witnessing

Yet they are excited as they prepare to go down there… to get away from the quiet.

Thank goodness for photography.  I take pictures where ever I am.  I find beauty there.  I find beauty here.  So the pictures are a reminder that you find beauty wherever you are.  “.. the eye of the beholder.”  I know that.  You know that.

But every once in a while, we need a reminder:

Beauty is everywhere.. just remember to look…

Beautiful sunset with streaks of clouds

Light Display at Day’s End

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Once Upon A Midnight Dreary

but no pondering weak and weary.  On this night of nights when it is no less than hope that enters the world.  Every group celebrates birth.  This night belongs to one group, while others celebrate other nights and days.  Shared all though is the belief that buried in the dust of the strugglings of daily life, there is something more.  Something just.  Something that stands above us all, as a star to which to reach.  In the wind and cold, there is warmth within.

So stop.  Pause.  Look.  For every person around you is struggling and striving and trying.  Each one feels pain and fear and sorrow.  Each travels the road alone, whether surrounded or isolated.  We enter alone.  We leave alone.

Such a burden to think yourself special.  Such a burden to think thus.  Rather see value in each life, each thing.

Ecclesiastes 1:9
Parallel Verses
New International Version
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.

Pick things up and put things down and needed.  No more no less.  May you know that that is sufficient.

May you feel the joys of all the celebrations of seasons such as these.

 

 

 

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So Long And Thanks for all the Fish

Yes.  Hitchhiker’s Guide.  When it’s time to say goodbye, sometimes there isn’t much to say.

I spent 4 years working hard and learning much.  I guess that is when I’m happiest, when I’m in learning mode.  But even with great technology, sometimes the market is just not right and it is taking just a bit too much time.  That means something has got to be done.  So, before that something, I decided to leave for greener pastures.

With the new job in the pocket, I had to say goodbye to the old.  It was tough.  People make the difference in the workplace.  These are good people.  But after a final yoga class and sandwiches.. no, no goodbye lunch for me, I shook some hands and left.  It was like a weight was lifted.  Funny how you don’t realize how the fishbowl looks from inside the fishbowl.

The next day was the next job.  Good job.  A place to learn lots of new things.  A solid company.  A new start.  But as I sit here at home after my first full week, I can’t help but think about how chance lines things up.  Sometimes for success.  Sometimes for failure.  If you’ve ever read “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” [a bit racy] by Milan Kundera.. six chance events that bring us to our fate…

Where ever you end up, there you are.

Sometimes there is nothing left to say, except ..

Thanks for all the fish.

 

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Once in 20 years

I’ve been driving the SF Bay Area freeways for many years.  So many times I have seen Peregrine Falcons perched on freeway lights, power polls,..  Lots of times.  But they have always been alone.  Never have I seen two together.

Today, on the way home from work, I saw what might have been the sight of my lifetime: Two Peregrine Falcons, sitting on a light fixture, just west of the Dumbarton Bridge Toll Plaza.  One was brown:

http://www.google.com/imgres?sa=X&espv=210&es_sm=93&biw=1036&bih=656&tbm=isch&tbnid=BCRgD4YKlg11LM:&imgrefurl=http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/peregrine-falcon/&docid=yEDkye36XfCdgM&imgurl=http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/006/cache/peregrine-falcon_659_600x450.jpg&w=435&h=580&ei=ctq0Uu63MtH3oAS62oHICA&zoom=1&ved=1t:3588,r:1,s:0,i:105&iact=rc&page=1&tbnh=172&tbnw=127&start=0&ndsp=9&tx=78&ty=119

and one was blue [ at least in the moments I could see it, it looked blue ] :

http://www.google.com/imgres?sa=X&espv=210&es_sm=93&biw=1036&bih=656&tbm=isch&tbnid=5UJlVME0PyZ_BM:&imgrefurl=http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/peregrine_falcon/id&docid=yodZoMn_KGFzuM&imgurl=http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/PHOTO/LARGE/MJH_040302_00123Z_L.jpg&w=425&h=301&ei=ctq0Uu63MtH3oAS62oHICA&zoom=1&ved=1t:3588,r:7,s:0,i:123&iact=rc&page=1&tbnh=172&tbnw=240&start=0&ndsp=9&tx=108&ty=76

I’m assuming they were a mating pair.  The brown bird was larger.  I was thinking that the female is colored brown and the male colorful, but wikipedia says they have the same coloring.  The female is larger.  The Peregrine Falcon mates for life.

Just another romantic Friday afternoon in the Bay Area.

 

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The Rage Within

He was yelling.  Actually, he was screaming.  There is an edge to the voice when someone screams.  He was double parked next to a van stopped in the pickup area in front of the library entrance.  It isn’t really a pickup area since there is no widening of lanes to allow an unobstructing stop.

He was screaming at the van about stopping and blocking traffic.  He must have sworn because someone commented about the foul language.  Fifty or so  people stood around in disbelief witnessing this display.

He gunned the engine and his rather nice silver car jumped violently forward a couple of feet.  The car looked and felt very much like a weapon.  There were mothers and young children around.  Teens carried books.  There were many cars around.  Many in some state of wait.  Waiting to pass.  Waiting to park.  Waiting even to just get out.

It was crowded.  It was a bother.  At 3:30, the edge of school time with the school time crowding.  I did feel the annoyance.

On the back end of a horrific day, perhaps the events pushing inward would lead to anger.

We are all human.  We are all subject to the pressures from without, mounting on the pressures from within, potentially  leaving one screaming in some library parking lot.

The solution for us?  There is no solution without seeing.  So the first step is to watch.  Today you may not be able to stop what might come, but tomorrow you will change nothing unless you first see.

The car drove away in moments.  There was no screeching of tires.  No more yelling.  The car gone, the question remains:  What of the rage within?

 

One Fine Wednesday | at 3:30 pm | Just after school has let out.

 

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Irish Tour Eye Opening

I was fortunate enough to be sent to Dublin Ireland for work.  I added a Saturday at the end of the work to do some sightseeing.  Ireland is a tourist destination, and they have very good sightseeing trips.  I booked a tour bus trip up to the north end of the island to see Belfast and the Giants Causeway, two popular tourist destinations.

The day could not have been more perfect, blue sunny skies that are rare with big billowy clouds.

Stairway to heaven

Ireland North Ireland

The scenic sights were great.

What was just as memorable though was the bus driver.  He had spent 7 years in British jails without a trial as a suspected IRA sympathizer.
Continue reading “Irish Tour Eye Opening” »

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Passing on the Right : America’s Downfall

Okay, this is for an American audience, used to driving on the right and entering freeways on the right with the fast lane on the left.  It is also an over-reaction, though I know I don’t have to point it out .. Most people are good.  Most people are thoughtful.  Most people are considerate.  That said ..

There are those that will drive in the fast lane holding a line of cars behind them hostage.  They can often drive the next slower lane at the same speed, but end up matching speeds with those slower lanes, and thus impeding traffic.  What results is a furious flurry of cars zig zagging to pass on the right.

It is a symptom of Entitlement.  It has always existed.  We were warned 2000 years ago that the first shall be last and the last, first.  It is not a “problem” when it is only the rich or powerful or elite that act this way.  I’m not saying that it is good, but rather that it is not debilitating.  When the masses act in this manner, society itself comes to a grinding halt.  We see that all the time.  It becomes debilitating when it comes as an intransigent stance.  One supported by fervor and belief that there is only one correct road, and that road is “my” road.  Of course, there is no one road, no one way.

So commuting down 880 four days a week, I ask that you be willing to move over and drive in that slower lane that is moving at your speed.. not because you have to.. but because it is in final assessment, good for America.

 

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