“There comes . . . a longing never to travel again...         except on foot.”

                                   ― Remembering / Wendell Berry

the slowest way is the best way...

I believe this to be true. 

Ever notice that the seasonal changes are in no special hurry and that the animals do not worry about politics and such things?

The hiker uses the tent to sleep in and otherwise uses the hikers on the feet to his or her own advantage. 

your thoughts?

The tranquility of it all... in winter at the River.

Labor Day.... The laborer's DAY

  

Used to hold a local card w/ the Mason Tenders of Mid- town Manhattan/ the Locals in Denver and G. Jct and over in So. Nevada/ Las Vegas long long ago..

taking the DAY is still important to me.

Enjoy !!!
http://www.billcook.net/puttin-up-the-flag.html

Puttin' Up The Flag

www.billcook.net

At times we have to slow down and allow the world to go at its pace, while we rejuvenate and reinvigorate our souls. At times we pray and meditate at other times we find ourselves making the jump from knowledge to wisdom. 

August 5, 2012, Lakewood, CO

11:17:09, hours MDT

...continued hiker’s meditation…

“In life we must learn not only how to live, but how to die well.”

Seneca

Meditations from the Mat, Rolf Gates and Katrina Kenison

Day 195

When my master and I were walking in the rain, he would say,

“Do not walk so fast, the rain is everywhere.”

Shunryu Suzuki

“Out of the pain of where we have been, many of us come to the mat in a hurry. Our self- study has revealed a universe of pain and loss, while at the same time it has intimated that there is a better way. Some work on the mat has brought some relief; therefore, we assume, more work on the mat will bring more relief. 

So we attend workshop after workshop, attempt postures of ever increasing difficulty. We are in a hurry to escape the pain we have been in and are still contending with, but our haste is self- defeating. Do not walk so fast. The pain you wish to escape is everywhere. Do not walk so fast. The grace you seek is everywhere.”

Reminds me about the years of time I put in doing just this. Reminds me about making time to ARRIVE.

Just arriving takes time. Arriving at the mat takes time to adjust to the asana, pranayama and motion in between postures. Patricia Hansen used to tell us in her Yoga class that we will always be “beginners.” I remember the first set of hikes at GRCA 2005 through winter 2007. It took me this many months to adjust from the inculcation to go fast over the course of the last career and living in the socially busy State of Colorado…

Took me a similar time to adjust to living in the SW 40+ years ago too, although blissfully I believe I was not aware of the transitioning time required to Arrive. Suzuki reminds me of the many times I have walked slower in the rain/ weather/ ice- fog of the Colorado Plateau and the 5-day a week walks into and from the Inner Canyon Ranger Station. At some indiscernible juncture with time, energy and matter, I believe I did not walk so fast. I arrived in the present moment. The memories are solid of this- ‘arriving slowly.’

Going fast always gives me a lament for being in such a rush. When involved in evolving it behooves the practitioner to observe the current internal/ external environment and then remove from the environment that which is indicated for the change. Going fast always gives a ‘less than-- result.’

 July 11, 2012

Reading list:

• Through the Grand Canyon from Wyoming to Mexico / E.L. Kolb; with a foreword by Owen Wister ; with 48 plates from photographs by the author and his brother.
• Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power / Steve Coll.

Remember something which may be elusive and confounding at times of attachment to outcomes:

Surrendering into the moment is far better than surrendering those things, circumstances and events which produce agitation in the mind.

 A meditation follows:

Meditations from the Mat, Rolf Gates and Katrina Kenison

Day 182

“We shape the clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want.” 

 Lao-Tzu

“Aparigraha, or nonhoarding, is the art of appreciating emptiness in ones’ life, but before we can learn to appreciate emptiness, we must first learn to let go.  On the mat we practice aparigraha by letting go of our expectations and letting go of the concerns of the day.  I recently caught myself comparing a class I was taking to another class that I had found more fulfilling.  I paused then and questioned my belief that the other class had somehow been more satisfying.  I realized that the class I had found more fulfilling was one in which I had surrendered more deeply, one in which I had given a big sigh, let go of my day, and relaxed into the moment – with

no thought of how it should be, no repeated clock checks, just childlike compliance and present-

moment awareness.  I had allowed that class to be fulfilling simply by letting go into it.  I had to admit now that I was making a choice not to be fulfilled by the class I was in, that I was so full of my own expectations that I could not receive from the class I was taking.  Aparigraha reminds us to always let go and never hold on.  This letting go is the cultivation of emptiness in our lives.  Into this emptiness, grace will come.” 

Like Rolf suggests, perhaps we should try incorporating more aparigraha and appreciate more— the empty spaces in our lives, the non-happenings, the transitions.

Transitioning is at times a spot I find my self at— much like standing at a bus stop, waiting for the bus to come. It is a temporary lull in the velocities in which I travel, and by extension the rest of us here on the planet. Put this in context of the military- industrial complex or the current divisiveness of the politicos, political hacks and their sirens  They are jockeying for position— best favorable position I might add. Correct? Transitioning seems by this analogy to be outcome focused?

Yes, correct again!

Gates proposes that there is deeper meaning— meaning with depth and weight, I believe. To relax into the moment just as it is and allow the jockeying of the mind to settle out the clamor of the world and the bellowing of the mind.

I find that when I look ahead past transitioning I find moments of stabilization. Stabilizing the moments, and remembering again that beginner’s mind seems to yak and holler as if it is the immature teenager, is worthwhile.   Relaxing into the empty spaces and places seems to take time.

The calls to us to buy our way into pleasure leads to addicting efforts and the goal always is elusive. This surrendering into the moment/ empty spaces seems worthwhile compared.

At times I believe those places in Nature— those special places we all have in our mind’s eye— are the solace producing experiences which when immersed in- produce a change; for some profoundly.