Morning Find

Mothra appears
on garden wall.
Godzilla recedes

On Being Human

Recently, while reading a book of essays called The Practice of the Wild, by poet, essayist, lecturer Gary Snyder, I came across this thought-provoking passage:

A young white woman asked me:... "If we have made such good use of animals, eating them, singing about them, drawing them, riding them, and dreaming about them, what do they get back from us?"

A little further on Gary states:

The Ainu say that the deer, salmon and bear like our music and are fascinated by our languages. So we sing to the fish or the game, speak words to them, say grace. Periodically we dance for them. A song for your supper: performance is the currency in the deep world's gift economy. The other creatures probably do find us a bit frivolous: we keep changing our outfits, and we eat too many different things. Nonhuman nature, I cannot help feeling, is well inclined toward humanity and only wishes modern people were more reciprocal, not so bloody.

Definitely some food for thought...

Mud Flap Philosophy

During a recent road trip I was passed on the highway by a speeding truck and its mud flaps caught my eye. They read: Think Safe, Act Safe, Be Safe. What struck me then and there was not any loose gravel but this formula of “think, act, be” and that it could be applied to anything, even our own consciousness. Consciousnesshis is that incredible quality that we humans have, but either lies in dormancy waiting to be awakened, or is just simply ignored. While some of us regard our species as the highest beings on this planet, we often think, act and behave as if we were the lowliest of God's creatures.

Animals, on the other hand, in my humble opinion, are the greatest embodiment of God because they never intentionally harm others, nor do they go out of their way to harm anyone, or even think harmfully of anyone. They exist in the purity of their being and do what they do. A duck is always a duck in the morning, in the afternoon, and in the evening, and it is never anything else but that. It never pretends to be something else, nor wants to be something else (as far as I know). Animals have no duality and no ego. Unlike us, a duck lives in perfect harmony with itself, with others, and with its surroundings.

Think conscious, act conscious, be conscious. That’s what those mud flaps said to me. Our problem is we think too much. Our gift of intelligence is also our poison.

Watch your thoughts, they become words.Watch your words, they become actions.Watch your actions, they become habits.Watch your habits, they become character.Watch your character, it becomes your destiny.— unknown

Or, if not your destiny, then it becomes your fate. Some say fate and destiny are the same thing, but I believe them to be different. Fate is the result of our actions if we choose to do nothing, while destiny is actually the result of our actions if we take an active role in the piloting of our ship, or in some cases, our semi-trailer truck. As it was once said, God gave us all a boat, but if we want to keep away from the rocks, we need to start rowing.