silent thunder

Ha. Synchronicity. I was heading into a long fast two days ago and my body clearly said... 'nope' around hour 30. And instead offered to eat every other day for a time. I have accepted.

Boulder Basin in California is my local spirit home and home to one of my favorite climbing trees of all time. This mountain spot was the primary catalyst for my gal and I moving to California from NYC back in 2000. My wife worked for Fox Sports Latin America at the time and had come to Los Angeles for a business trip just after Christmas. I came along with her and we made plans to go camping with our oldest and dearest friend who lived in San Diego at the time. As we drove East on the 10 out of Los Angeles, then headed south into the San Jacinto range on the 243 toward Idyllwild. My heart opened up, my spirit soared and by the time we reached Boulder Basin up around 8.000 feet, I told my gal. "we should move here. why are we still in new york?" Within three months she had a job here and I had arrived with all our belongings. This tree is one of the all time great climbers. Her bark shines silver in the light... even in decay she has remained resilient and strong for the last 18 years. She veritably beams with silver light in her perch atop the cliff overlooking the valley west. Each night at sunset the entire sky explodes in magenta love from her vantage point. this is the view West... every single night...

That is an old and dear friend... the Staff of Creighton the Red. (now more Creighton the White lol). For a time, when I was crippled, I literally leaned on her to walk. She was my cane as I hobbled about for a few years. I'm recalling how I meet some wonderful people due to her. Stick people and wood folks light up when they see her and come over and we strike up a conversation.

Great thread! Thanks for sharing the inspiration!

While all paths stem from and return to source... Can one walk another's path? andedit to add: what's that old quote... "something something something... as you would a small fish?"

Taomeow's trails criss cross thoroughly throughout the midst of this digital realm with impeccable precision, wit and adroit wisdom born of a deep well and a challenging life. That she shared so openly here for so long is a gift I cannot repay, but will endeavor to nontheless... Taomeow shared generously for years her insights and observations, born of her direct experience and her diligent pursuit of the energetic arts. A rare individual. I feel innately comfortable around people who unapologetically share their authentic nature and don't adjust, filter, or hide it to assuage the potential fragility, or expectations and projections of others. I find I need the authentic light people carry in their awareness to reflect aspects of my own self that are not readily observable from inside my own fish bowl. Authentic people, even when I don't agree with them, provide this type of mirror in their candor and frank, honest authenticity. It is a rare gift to be presented with... to have a person willing to shake you up a bit and not be interested or willing to present a filtered version of interaction they think will keep me from being uncomfortable.

The sense I got from reading the book and talking with Richard and spending time with Master Wang, is that he was something of a natural, or a prodigy in this regard. His three teachers were pleasantly surprised by his response to early training, and by his will, intent and ability from the inception.

lots of hummers used to visit regularly at our old place. We get a few here, but no longer carry a feeder. With three vital, feline bio predators in our home, it just doesn't seem proper to lure them near. in the eaves under the cabin sits a nest with three little bobbitz cheeping away inside mom was constantly bringing home the bacon

on second thought... na

This tree is was the matron of our neighborhood. She has passed now and is going back to the earth since the 'arborists' showed up to trim her branches one day. It was just the first step in her removal really as they scraped her clean of all but about 10% of her breathing branches and she lasted about 13 months before letting go. They'll be back in another year or so when she dries out to take the rest down. I recall when my wife brought us to look at the place we live in, my first comment upon turning up the street was... holy shit! Look at her! She's been stipped clean in this pic, but in her prime, her canopy was so dense that when it managed to rain here, you could stand under her and not feel a drop. There is no other tree for a mile in any direction of her age and canopy breadth. She housed generations of Odin's Eyes who've come to know our home well as the place where that viking guy whistles and offers scraps each day near dawn. She was the hang out spot for my son and his friends. Her main branches like an upturned hand begging, literally begging folks to climb up and have a rest. I'm looking for the shot I have of her in her prime, from down the block. Her canopy covered a staggering area and the small unclaimed area in which she stood was and is still a natural hang out for the local kids, and me when I'm out late at night, or early in the morning playing energy, talking on the phone, or just being. I've kept a large chunk of one of the many large branches they took... it's seasoning and I'll strip, oil and preserve it as a stump seat in another year or two. That will come with us wherever we end up. It was powerful though the evening I went to her while she was passing and I received quiet clearly the distinct message of no human emotion in her passing. I had all this angst over it while she, after being cut severely put not effort into emotions, but simply responded to the cuttings by burgeoning new growth sprouts where she could. There was no angst in the loss and when she ceased growing and began to decay, there was no resentment, no bitterness, only complete release into the soil beneath her, going back now effortlessly to the soil which supported her while she grew. Me? I'm waiting for the 'arborists' return with a certain message to deliver...

I grew up in the vibrant north woods of Minnesota, the Dakotas and Canada. I know northern woods as my hometown and my street. Trees have always been a source of unending interest, inspiration, healing and meditation to me. I regularly involuntarily exclaim when encountering a spectacular tree along the path. Something in the old growth forests of the Pacific Northwest is unique however and resonates with such a distinct power, vitality and subtle complexity... the very air teems with a vibrantly different energy than the woods I grew up in... these are the woods I will grow old in.

My son was hanging out near the cabin and spotted this lovely flutterby on the ground one morning. She was obviously struggling and very weak, close to passing and some other insect had settled in to take advantage of an easy meal, munching on her right wing, so he picked her up and carried her to where my wife and I sat on the deck. She spent a while in his hands, then she fluttered a bit and walked onto Okasa and passed shortly after.

for my son:

As above, so below. As within, without... comes to mind when I consider astrology, my former skepticism and the potential influence of the nearby bodies in our solar system on my awareness, or my environment... (are those even separate? any more I'm not certain... anyway)... The influence of the moon on the earth's water is undeniable. And in line with that, I've oddly never had a problem for all of my skeptic tendencies, in accepting the seeming influence of the full moon on folks behavior in terms of reported police activity. My body is mostly water as well. So I've come to loosen some of my materialist programmed assumptions of my Father and my Western schooling and no longer outright reject the possibility of the water in my body, which is an extension of the more subtle aspects of my full awareness, which is my experience of reality, to be affected by the pull and sway of the planetary bodies known as our solar system.

Been missing my pack members... strewn out as they are across the globe. Some whom I've never even met in the flesh, but have come to know as kindred here at this digital watering hole. it would be so great to see your face at my door...

I too am Missing Mistress Meow!!! Some heavy diminishings lately... Taomeaw, Brian, Limahong... sigh... To quote the hatter: what's wrong with you Alice? you've lost much of your muchness...

there may be discomfort, there may be pain, there will be loss. this does not mean there is suffering. suffering is no longer a thing of itself suffering is a crisis of perception

darkness is dark? who says? my eyes? what does that prove? darkness appears dark because of the functional limitations of eyes. my suspicion... my experience is... it's all light. who can trust eyes with true seeing?

Well said mate!

Well said Wu Ming Jen. Nature shifts... always shifting and flowing. Nature is fuild and never still and always Nature is just out of balance while ever balancing. The very motion of nature is the constant shift toward balance, while absolute balance is never expressed. Not ever once is nature fully in balance, as that would be static, without movement or change. Nature shifts constantly. When it shifts rapidly, humans (ant like colonies that we are) experience it as destructive to what is important to us and refer to it as a disaster. Yet these storms are merely neutral energy, shifting towards balance. Sun shines with no distinction on the murderer and the healer. Rain falls without preference in the forest and the desert... in the desert it grows thorns, in the forest, flowers. There are no disasters in my perspective, nor anything wrong in the universe of expression... whether manifest or not. The universe of manifest is as it is and can be no other way. Any notion of disaster, or wrong is a mental projection of a mind, willing/wishing/projecting expectation that the manifest should be other than it is. These storms and disasters are merely shift on a rapid scale that affects us in frightening and destructive ways, yet to the overall health of the planet, they are the perfect expression of movement towards balance and are thus not destructive in the long game, but preservative, preventative and utterly beneficial... to the organism of earth as a whole, not to the particular cells/humans involved in the areas of rapid shift. Consider the constant warfare within our own bodies. In your colon at this moment, (unless you're fasting), is a multilevel destructive storm like process of decay and destruction that is utterly required for your vitality and overall health. Across your entire endocrine and circulatory systems there are myriad murder cells waging war and carrying away the broken, defunct, or invasive cells. When viewed under a microscope, the processes of our own bodies are engaging in what would appear on that level to be outright warfare. Yet when we pull back our perspective to the organism as a whole... vitality and health are expressed. In the entire history of the earth... has any singular leaf, or a raindrop ever fallen in the wrong spot? My sense is there are no accidents. Conditions arise and nature manifests and shifts. Thinking occurs. Action occurs. Stillness (relative) occurs. wrong and right? not so much... not for me anyway.

what a fantastic word!

such an important distinction that remains elusive... thank you my friend for that clarification. in my fervor to express what I feel and seem to know, I often skim past the jist of things. *deep bow* you are deeply appreciated

thinker and thought buyer and seller light and shadow none of these are separate they are each other, complimentary, supportive and of one spectrum not two

rene... your voice... or the voice I've assigned to you in my mindscape rings that phrase in my life on a regular basis lately. There is never yin without yang. They are imbued within each other and generate each other spontaneously in a never ending dance of supportive harmony. They are two seemingly separate aspects only due to my perceptive tools. When a wave crests in yang movement, yet moves due to receptive yin, flowing as it's pulled by the yang of the moon's or the wind's influence... The wave rises in yang until the yang pull of the wind and moon can no longer support its own weight, then the ever present yin shifts and the wave settles in balance. every wave is comprised of yin and yang simultaneously... there is never a set of waves that are all crests, or all troughs... break a stick and you have not a stick of top and one of bottom, but two sticks with top/bottom the action of dao is like a bellows... Both are everpresent and of one unified flowing process, not two. What I used to perceive as two opposing separate things... I now experience as two complimentary expressions of one unified spectrum of wait for it... both... same time

also, to get back on track with the OP. What brought me to the topic in the first place, the retrograde comment caught my awareness, as my wife was so viciously angry over a misunderstanding on Saturday night... In 29 years I've never seen her so upset, she was close to swinging on me and I had no idea what it was that started it. Every time I tried to delve into it, that caused her to become more upset, so finally I just went silent and let her spin out the energy. The next day, she was unaware of what it was that even started the ball rolling. No memory of the cause. While we were on vacation up in Oregon... on July 23, that entire day, from the moment I woke, I was incosolable, unapproachable, seething with anger and bitterly depressed for no discernable reason. I warned the family instantly to just leave me be in silence as any topic brought up to me in that mood would have been met with a tirade monologue of what was wrong with the world and why everything was shit. It passed toward evening as mindlessly as it had come. I'm a skeptic by nature, but not a skepdick. I'm agnostic and know that I don't know. Being mostly made of water and having 5 decades of experience now of emotional states rolling through me like weather fronts, I have softened in my skepticism of astrological influences on personal behavior. We are instruments of a highly sensitive nature, specifically when we begin the process of alchemy and internal change with intention. That argument could have ended my marriage and neither of us, two very aware and cultivating people can ferret out what caused it...