Daily Life

Keeping One’s Head

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From highways to byways – High Cup Nic

Motorway driving just brings home the need to be vigilant, but not pumped with adrenaline hopefully! That would be no way to live a life. Yes, the potential for chaos to break out, at any time in any place, is ever present. The consequences of a moment of inattention might not be as dramatic as when on the motorway. There are consequences none the less. Keeping one’s head, sitting still within the midst of conditions if you like, when the way forward is obscured, confused, chaotic is…wise practice. To say the least. And one gets better at it with practice. From Motorway Driving – Field Of Merit.

A group of us did a circular walk yesterday. The high point was gazing down this amazing valley.

My Throssel walking companion took this photograph. Thanks for sharing.

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Out and About, Overcome Difficulties, photograph

Blame Is Not The Name Of The Game

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Sheep over the Eden Valley – summer.

We in Britain, and most likely everywhere in the world, are engaged with this huge event, the Olympic Games. I happened to catch the end of the women’s hockey match where Argentina won, and Britain lost. Directly after the match many of the British women were sobbing openly. Right there on the pitch. They were hugely disappointed and they showed it. Initially I was mildly shocked at witnessing this public outpouring of emotion. I’ve since grown to appreciate what I and millions of others saw. We have seen this showing of emotion at other events too. It’s honest.

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Clouds over Shropshire fields – viewed from the Wrekin

How life in general, in the living of it, is punctuated with disappointments! And, unlike the Olympian hopefuls, one often doesn’t know ahead of time what they might be. Perhaps we don’t know how much we feel a certain way about something, or event, until things go a certain way or words are spoken. And then wham, those feelings of disappointment wash over and through body and mind. That’s painful when emotions run high, or low, depending on ones disposition. The only response I know that doesn’t lead to greater disappointments is to…stay with it. To have compassion for oneself, and for others and their actions and words which triggered the upset. Blame is NOT the name of the game.

The photographs take from high up, relatively speaking, are for uplift. For those known and unknown who are in extremity in all the way one can fall into such circumstances.

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Uncategorised

Passionate About – Living

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Matchstick vase

Quite an eye opener to see what can be achieved with matchsticks and glue + dollops of patience and perseverance. This vase is one of a pair which is part of a mini altar set up. One can’t help but bow to the skill and stick-with-it drive that has people building these most amazing models. And make Buddha heads too! Amazing!

We applaud people with stick ability. The Olympic athletes, men with matchsticks (women too no doubt). This level of passion and drive is something else isn’t it. For example how about the chap in Southampton who spent 15 years making a replica of the Brent Bravo oil rig, attempting to get into the record books for the number of matches he had used. Unbelievable!

Nagging in the background though is the question – WHY? I ask this question mostly because I don’t seem to be made of the stuff of stick ability to something. Not in the way of devoting time and energy to a project sustained over time like these matchstick models. Building those huge and complex models out of matches takes commitment.

In this post on Field of Merit I pondered this whole matter of making manifest ones visions. The question of commitment, to stick with it after the initial enthusiasm and drive has faded, is interesting. As with sports training or model making so too with the day-in-day-out perseverance needed to manifest ones vision – there has to be something deeply satisfying in just the doing of it.

A round of applause for human endeavours. A pause to reflect on Precepts.

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Overcome Difficulties

Cry Me A River

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We have seen public tears aplenty recently. Mostly in the sphere of sport. There was Wimbledon and now the Olympics. Tears happen to the best of us, happen to me. Happened to me today. Now many hours later I struggle to remember what it was about. They didn’t last long. How quickly tears come and how quickly they go, given half a chance. But what’s this? Crying clubs?

In Japan, however, crying is all the rage. The Japanese call it the “crying boom” – everyone wants a bit of sadness in their lives. Instead of going to a karaoke bar after work to wind down, businesspeople watch weepy films (called “tear films”) at these crying clubs. There is also a huge demand for sad TV dramas and books, each graded by its ability to induce tears.
Join the blub: The benefits of crying – The Independent.

I’m going to have to think about this….

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Out and About

Alive And Well – Photographs As Evidence

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Yes, there are modern day hermits. Here are photographs to prove it. The photographer apparently spent time with each hermit along the way, sampling the life. All not for me though.

And here is the interesting thing about the photographs themselves that emerged after the article was published. The New York Times editor was not amused:

Updated Aug. 1, 7:57 p.m. | Editors’ Note: After this post was published, the editors learned that at least two of the images, Slides 3 and 10, were composites and had been digitally altered by the photographer to include elements from other photographs taken that same day. Additionally, elements were altered in Slides 6 and 17.

If the editors had known how those images were produced, they would not have been published.

It would seem that public sentiment around photographs as evidence are alive and well.

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