Grounding

Someone told me about ‘grounding exercises’ the other day. I think they may be useful as a memory aid. I guess another term for it would be ‘focusing’. She said the way to hold a moment in your head for more than a fraction of an instant is to list a few details that you see and a few details that you hear, smell and feel. She hikes so she gave me this example. Watch the trail moving beneath your feet ..notice the flowers that grow on the side. Listen to the sound your boot makes hitting the ground ..even notice the silence in between. Notice the smell of the trees and the dust. Feel of the sun on your skin and the passing shade of trees. Or, if you’re like me .. notice the feeling of the ground on the soles of your boots (or running shoes) .. which is something I’ve been working on in outpatient. Don’t know any studies that back this up but it  sounds credible enough.

Tree of life

Down down cut me down so I can lie on familiar ground / I've witnessed all that you ignore / and I don't wanna see it no more / Hold on steady and plunge it deep / I’m more than ready for the secrets I keep / Think you sit upon my grave but I'll be here / when your children rule the day    ~ KT Tunstall

Out of my face

Now wait a minute stranger / I'm not sure I like your angle / My manner is a matter of taste / So I gotta go, whoa / get out of my face      ~ Lissie

Tranquility base

Nothing Else Matters

A  h a u n t i n g   p e r f o r m a n c e

Story by Lao Tzu

A man discovered that his axe was missing, and he suspected his neighbor's son. The boy walked like a thief, looked like a thief, and spoke like a thief.

 A few days later, the man found his ax under some leaves by the garden shed, and the next time he saw his neighbor's son, the boy walked, looked, and spoke like any other child.

note:  this is the reason why I try not to take things personally ..other peoples' misperceptions have nothing to do with who I am.

Lissie

Playing at the Bowl tonight.  Sounding great!!

Selene

Four and a half billion years ago, a celestial female body named Theia crashed into the male body ProtoEarth. The remaining debris gave rise to the moon Selene. Looking back, astronomers have tried to piece together the whole story surrounding this cosmic event. Given the discursive nature of the analytic mind, one story split into three:

• Theia crashed into ProtoEarth and Theia  was obliterated. Her remnants were reconstituted as Selene..our moon.
• Theia crashed into ProtoEarth and both were obliterated. Remnants of the two constitute the moon Selene.
• Theia crashed and merged with ProtoEarth. A vapor trail created in the heat of the union coalesced into the moon Selene. 

Given the interpretative nature of the mind; I’ve heard each possibility extended into a  lengthy discourse regarding the human condition. I just want to take a moment and pay homage to Selene as she appears in the night sky

Juliette

Want to get it all behind me / you know everything reminds me / I can be myself without you / whenever I set out running / Past the city houses / And the ditches on the highway / Under the bridges in valleys / Out on the open prairie / ’Cause I just can't shake this feeling / That I’m nothing in your eyes   ~  Neko Case

Across the sky

See beyond the moment / think beyond the day / love goes on / but time does not return again / it’s cast away / across the sky / I will come for you / if you ask me to /  observe your dreams / stranger things come true / if you ask them to ~ Emilie Autumn

God's country

Desert rose / I saw a desert rose / beneath a desert sky / where rivers run / but soon run dry / sleep comes like a drug / in God's Country / glad eyes crooked poses / in God's Country

St Vincent

well, we know where we’re going / but we don’t know where we’ve been / and we know what we're knowing / but we can’t say what we’ve seen / we’re on a road to nowhere / come on inside / taking that ride to nowhere / we'll take that ride (lyrics by Talking Heads)

A parable

Once upon a time in a world not long ago ..a succession of countries held sway over the planet. A great war ensued and two countries were left standing. The two countries remained in contention for nearly half a century. Then one let it’s infrastructure decay and economy falter while pouring it’s national treasure into the military. They became stuck in an unending war in Afghanistan. The other country watched in amazement while their former adversary became weaker and weaker and then totally disintegrated. Amazement gave way to arrogance. Arrogance gave way to recklessness and they made the most puzzling decision. They chose to follow the same path that lead to the downfall of their former adversary. Moral …? I guess strength doesn’t always override poor decision-making.

Hot and sour soup

“By the end of the century the oceans will become hot, sour and breathless.” ~ French oceanographer Jean-Pierre Gattuso

The West Coast already provides a jarring glimpse of this. Acidic waters from the deep ocean slosh onto the continental shelf off of California and Oregon. Acidic waters melt away the bottom rungs of the food chain that nourish salmon and other fish. Rising acidity is also toxic to fish larvae and can bring on bizarre behavior. It scrambles the senses of the orange-and-white clown fish making them vulnerable to predators. It’s already looking like the beginning of the end of the seafood industry in California. Ask any salmon fisherman

Sun Tzu

“Knowing yourself and your adversaries is the surest path to victory / knowing yourself but not your adversaries is a less certain path to victory / not knowing yourself nor your adversaries is the surest path to defeat.”

I guess that means the one with better information wins ..

better times

Better times collide with now / moving faster than the speed of gravity / faster than you and me / and better times / are coming still      ~  Neko Case

Further on

The remaining members of the Grateful Dead are playing at the Bowl tonight. Fortunately they’re the key members. I can smell ganja from my deck. I grab my hiking poles and head toward Anapamu to watch the revelry. Now I’m part of the revelry. I’m sitting on my neighbor’s lawn with some kids from out of town ..Andy, Emilie, Jeff and Zak. Andy, 25, has shoulder-length hair and a beard. He looks kind of like George Harrison in the day. He's been following the reformed Dead since 2005. He knows a lot more about them than I do ..including their inception-to-date history and current constitution. He tells me who’s playing tonight .. how he first saw them on tour with a guitarist from the Allmann Brothers band ..and who the members were when I was following them in the early seventies. He also knows more about the neuro-active properties of hallucinogens than I do. Something I kinda’ thought was my area of expertise. I tell him I’m looking for marijuana that’s high in cannabidiols (CBD’s). He tells me I’m looking for Cannabis indica. It’s got a higher CBD-to-THC concentration than Cannabis sativa. He asks me what I used to do for a living. I tell him I once worked in the field of regenerative medicine. He tells me how current studies show that psilocybin facilitates neuro-regeneration by flooding the brain with information. Sounds reasonable I say. Then Zak tells me about studies that show how it was probably part of our evolution ..responsible for the development of the neocortex. Our ancestors ingested the ’shrooms they found growing on piles of dung. I’m impressed. I tell them I think kids like them are the future of this planet. Before I leave they hand me a package. At home I open it and I find a pipe packed with hashish. Well, bless their sweet little hearts ..!

Crazy cat peekin through a lace bandanna / Like a one-eyed cheshire, like a diamond-eye jack /  A leaf of all colors plays a golden-string fiddle / To a double-e waterfall over my back.

sisters of mercy

O the sisters of mercy they are not departed or gone. They were waiting for me when I thought that I just can't go on. And they brought me their comfort and later they brought me this song. O I hope you run into them you who've been traveling so long.