Overcome Difficulties

Luminescent Splendor In The City

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Long haired Guinea Pig

It is always a delight to visit Warp and Woof Knitting (and so much more) Blog and today’s adventure had me reaching for my dark glasses (only joking). The photographs and text convey something way beyond what you see. A bright attitude of mind is an understatement. The author has light coming out of her onto the page and through her lovely knits. I wondered if anybody is spinning up the groomings from guinea pigs….

It would seem there is a project afoot to look through new eyes at beautiful Vancouver. Here it is in M’s worlds.

I have to “go into town” every day for the next few weeks, and as this involves a bit of rush hour driving and the (really minor) hassle of getting into the congested part of Vancouver, I thought I would make it even more worth while by exploring and appreciating this place. After twenty-six years here it could be that familiarity has bred, certainly not contempt, but maybe taking for granted what a lovely part of the world this is.
This beautiful city, with simple crochet.

27th August post – Here is a Medicine Buddha statue, a recent gift, along with more knitting happiness. I just wish I could get my photographs to look so stunning. Perhaps I make them too small these days and they lose the quality of luminescence. You haven’t dear friend!

And the Guinea pig photo is for a long time reader and her husband. All merit to you two in Vancouver and you two in Reading.

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This and That

Build Your Own Hut – Bolt-hole

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Wower! This looks right up my street.

Sunday 23rd September at 8.00 pm GMT. A new series with Kevin McCloud, of Grand Designs fame, starts off by building himself a bolt hole in the woods. Sound romantic? Read on….
Man Made Home Chanel 4 – this coming Sunday.

Kevin starts work on his hand made home by venturing into the bowels of London. With mains electricity and gas not an option for his bolt hole, Kevin hopes to make biodiesel for a lamp from the huge stinking ‘fatbergs’ that clog up the city’s sewers.

For the cabin’s structure, Kevin cuts down two ancient oaks, and starts putting together the wooden shell of the building.

He also experiments with a Wild West technique of splitting logs by gunpowder, and tries to make the whole cabin mobile because of planning regulations.

Is there anybody who could record the programs (four of them) onto a DVD please? Just drop me a line. Thanks 22/09 Somebody has offered thanks.

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Out and About, Overcome Difficulties

Enlightened Self Interest

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The Dodd at 2014 feet, a mountain for all that.

Not every day one gets to walk out of ones front door and climb a mountain! So said my walking companion as we paused at what was probably not the summit of the Dodd pictured above. That was Tuesday and a grand four hours walk it was too. Seven miles? Possibly nudging into eight miles? Possibly. Anyway it was good to get out for an extended walk even though I came down with something, a cold perhaps, hours after getting back to the monastery. Thus my absence from these pages. Sorry.

At one point, on our decent of the mountain, I pondered aloud on the question of the motivation behind actions. We talk sometimes about enlightened self interest which I’d take to mean that there is a recognition of an action as having an element of self interest in it. Something gained for oneself. A recognition that the act is ‘good’ and not primarily motivated by, or driven by, the part that’s greedy for itself. Oneself. Now, I don’t want to get into grading acts as more or less selfish. Or what is, or could be, a selfless act. This would be silly. Especially since the common everyday understanding of self is a physiological one. Errm, and the Buddhist understanding is that there is no separate self.

My question voiced into the air as we descended to the West Allen River was, What marks out the difference between enlightened self interest and un enlightened self interest? A question that went absolutely no where! Even when the intention is otherwise how drawn we are to grade, pin down and find measures to evaluate and judge. Both ourselves and others. There is a hairs breadth between judgmentalism and wise discernment.

I have found when veering off track that, when ones basic living intention is clearly and strongly pointing towards the good, there is that within our make up which prompts us, sometimes on a visceral level, to stop and take stock. And redirect. Not so easy to turn around when there is the inertia of time and personal investment involved. Yet possible. We see it in the story told by Giles Duley about himself. See my post and the links within it titled Photographer – a self portrait.

Bows to you Giles.

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Overcome Difficulties

Photographer – Self Portrait

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The self portrait keeps me coming back. The story of his journey leaves me quiet.

Photographer Giles Duley, who lost three limbs in an explosion in Afghanistan, talks about his recovery and shares his latest series of photographs capturing the technicians and prosthetists working at the London 2012 Paralympics.

Giles Duley is a dead man walking.
BBC News Magazine.

And on a TED video too….

Thanks again to Julius for pointing me to this story.

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Teachings

Catch The Smiling Heart

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A job well done…

In a way, my thoughts stem from the values I was brought up with and therefore my departed kin helped create those thoughts and they then live on in my thoughts. The confusion comes from my father, who is away with Alzheimer’s. I say away although he has left us some parts, the physical shell, the sense of humour and the stubbornness. I have thought, that if you take away a personality, what is really left. For myself, what is left is a reminder of my father, a balance of good and bad of course, to my values. Which were instilled by him.

So, my fathers animated shell is a living memorial to him, though no epitaph but good fun with a Spike Milligan type humour. Which brings a tiny bit of him back.

I have had the above text, left as a comment some time ago, waiting for the right moment to bring it into a post. The comment appears slightly edited. Thank you to the author. And to the father too.
Yes, smile with your parents and anybody else that comes to mind. The smile is in ones heart. And that smile is catching!

And while on the subject of Alzheimer’s, in this TED talk Alanna Shaikh thinks about her father who has Alzheimer’s and speaks to, How I’m preparing to get Alzheimer’s. An unusual proactive approach but perhaps more wide spread than one might think.
The following is the last sentence of the comment quoted above.

If you can
smile with your parents.

If they are not with you
think a thought
that will make you
and them
smile.

And many thanks to Keith, I think it was you, who left the original comment. I thought I’d post it on the anniversary of my fathers death but that date came and went in mid August. I’ll be down in the cemetery in a day or two and I’ll be breaking a smile as I pass my parents grave.

This post is for you George, sharp as a pin, who died this morning. The smile in my heart now meets yours. Job well done! Well done indeed.

Nearly forgot to thank Julius for the link to the TED talk. Thank you Julius.

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