silent thunder

The beauty of Taomeow. She still resonates even in her absence. Her thousands of contributions are so full of intent and reflect a mind and spirit penetratingly present that even in absence she shines. I nearly left the site myself when I saw what went down... and sense another Bums and all out media fast approaching for me as well soon. Taomeow's presence is fabric and foundation here for me and continues to resonate in spite of her lack of recent posting... her years of commitment to sharing incredibly detailed and insightful energy filled contributions emanates with continued presence for me... as do yours Brian. Her words are still intact and her words often come to my mind (as do so many of the deeply connected posters) when they reflect and resonate with the conditions of my mind and environment, they settle on my pond and I find my life enriched in ways I could never have encountered without this place. I find the words of this site to be a companion when I'm no where near a keyboard. Yet... all things have a season and shift is in deep flow currently. I'm deeply grateful for the strength, resilience and incredibly intimately open sharing offered by so many of the foundation contributers here. I am enriched, embroadened and revitalized here, even as I am surprised and hurt at times. Much love Brian... Taomeow and so many others! Deep gratitude *deep bow of respect* Creighton

a human, from a place, with a culture... expresses some xenophobic tendencies about other humans from other places with vastly different cultures? staggering! shocking!

off topic so apologies, but related so I'll post it anyway as it's compelling and keeps returning to my mind pond lately. I don't see objectivity in any human process or endeavors, it's as illusory a concept to me these days as the notion of some things being 'normal'. ask the same question of any oracle two times in a row, five times, ten... is there an objective answer? look at a tree twice... do you see the same tree? are you the same? is the tree?

Interesting stuff Starjumper. who is the arbiter of what comprises good and evil I wonder? to the antelope, lions are not helpers, nor beneficial is one good and one evil? what are the origins of evil and good? compelling stuff...

I'm reminded of a documentary titled In Search of Balance. It is a detailed study of how we grow food, how our soil is utilized and what impact the health of the biome of our soil, determines the nutrient and mineral content in the food we eat. It also addresses that good food is the first phase of health and a source of potent medicine in preventative and treatment phases. We can only absorb nutrients present in our food. Our food, derives these nutrients and minerals from the soil. The soil depends on the biome of the microbial network. Consider Roundup... a poison that is designed to kill "everything but what we want to grow" and then the corn/soy/etc is genetically modified to be immune to the roundup poison, so it can grow. However, it cannot derive the same nutritional content once the complext network of microbial life in the biome of the soil is no longer present. One ends up with food that will fill the belly but not supply vitality, nutrition, nor defenses against sickness. That documentary on the practices of farming soil is still available on Netflix to stream if anyone is interested. I highly recommend it. The good news in the documentary, is that soil long depleted by short sighted practices can bounce back very quickly, with a small amount of care in short order. Another great aspect is that with this emerging practice, all of the elements involved in restoring the soil are completly non toxic. At one point one of the farmers takes the camera into his shed where he's got his various soups of microbes for treating the soil in various stages and he takes a sip from them, knowing they are probiotic and filled with beneficial life, instead of harsh, life crushing toxins.

Welcome to the Bums mate!

Yea. I have no doubt she is thriving. She is as authentic a person as one can encounter in my estimation. I don't worry for her... I just miss her.

@Taomeow

Incidents of bowel disorders seem to be more prevalent in techno-dependent, more sterile environments than in the third world. We don't have exposure to many bacteria growing up and thus have a reduced spectrum of flora in the gut overall. Though this is likely my own projection.

Of tantamount importance... no matter what I eat... is how I eat it, my overall approach to the food, to the consuming of it, who I am with, how I feel about them... and the state of the person/people handling it when it was prepared. There are certain places I enter hungry and very soon realize... nope, I'm fasting for now, can't/won't eat the food from this/in this place. Gut flora is where it's at to me, for overall health and vitality... the flora in our gut is aware, it's alive and it's the foundation of the source of the energy we glean through nutrition. It responds to what we think about eating and to me, is behind many of our cravings. This is why it's so important what I choose to eat when coming off a fast... that food is going to begin a foundation of flora in the gut and this flora will be wanting similar foods to maintain its own life. Gut flora is what is behind many of our cravings I suspect. None of the western dr's my wife has consulted have talked about fecal transplanting, or anything aside from steroids and other pharmaceuticals. They don't even mention what she's eating... sad really. Transplanting seems a viable option to me once she can get past the chronic inflammation. Though at this point, I'd like to see her drop the western dr treatment for a while and consult a TCM for herbal/accupuncture and see how she responds.

no one is any one thing we all fluidly reside on spectrums of behavior, attitude and attributes. some days we may be compassionate, irracible and outwardly kind other days, grouchy, irritable and quick to judge fluid, flowing beings not static nouns of one type... ever

I find the phrasing and approach of the question influences and predetermines the set of possible answers. Whether it be scientific inquiry, or an oracular seeking; how we phrase and shape a question, reflects what assumptions we harbor and what projections we are seeking to experience and thus heavily influences, and to an extent, predetermines the set of potential answers derivable.

I sense our digestive system is adapting to the inculcation of processed modern grains and processed sugar. These elements are very recent additions to our ancestral foodscape (particularly sugar), having no place in our distant past and there appear to be repercussions as our bodies are adapting to, and assimilating these new elements in our regular diet habits. Particularly, the seeming rise in IBS, Diverticulitis, Crohn's, obesity, diabetes 2/insulin resistance, all seem like systemic reactions to attempting to assimilate elements that our bodies are not yet adapted to process cleanly and derive good nutrition and energy from... This is just my sense of it, based on my own experimentation wheening things out of my diet completely, then re-introducing... as well as working with my wife who has been struggling for some years finding a diet that will calm her routine bouts of IBS/Crohn's.

I'm reminded of something my son said to me, randomly and unprompted as we drove around our neighborhood years ago. He was a toddler at the time and we'd been driving in silence. Son: Dad Me: Yea? Son: You gotta love the angry people Dad. They need it the most. Me: (big grin) right on buddy... right on.

I'm still not disappointed... sigh... I must be doing it wrong.

what is money but a shared notion of value? what has real value? for me... contentment, presence, clean water and food and a safe place to rest. paper money, shiny gold, sparkly gems in and of themselves are valueless... aside from the shared idea taht they are valuable. I can't eat, drink or heal with money. yet because of the shared idea of the value of money, I may exchange money (worthless paper, shiny rocks, or mere numbers in a computer banking account) for food, water and medicine which has actual impacting value on the conditions of my life experience. any more, money equals options to me... find yourself in a toxic situation and have some money? you have the option to get the hell out of there. no money? you can still get out of there (we are not rooted trees), but with much less ease the dollar is steadily slipping in its shared value, but still carries value (in large part because america has 11 aircraft carriers stationed around the globe while the rest of the world combined has 9), because the rest of the world agrees to the idea. federal reserve bank makes america's paper money. they lend it to our government @ interest. the banks that use that currency loan it out @ interest as well and the result is a system where the debt owed to the system that creates the money always exceeds the currency in flow at any given moment within that system. all currency seems like a shell game to me at its core... like the notion of owning land. i don't even have the sense of owning my own body, let alone the land lol, or money... yet as pervasive as it is... it's the only game in town aside from wandering. is bitcoin more valuable than the yen, pound, or dollar? it is if we all agree it is and for as long as we all agree that... and of course.. now my mind is echoing Tolkien's words "not all those who wander are lost" time to shut this thing down and wander thanks for the keen topic and insight fellow bums... i'm always grateful.

Hey there, S01000! Not as many bums frequent the welcome section, so posting your question again in another area will likely get more views and potential helpful responses. Welcome to the Bums mate.

Was just talking about this over dinner last night. The seeming fact that nature is always moving toward balance, always balancing... yet never quite in balance. If perfect balance were ever achieved, this implies no motion, static perfection... but life is never static, ever flowing and fluid. The key for me is to be present and aware, in this manner I can ease into the flow toward balance without straining or excess. I find oracles to be incredibly helpful in bringing wider awareness and presence to the conditions of a question or situation. My usual method is the old Norse Runes and Animal energies, though recently the I=Jing has been pulling me with some gravity. It's just such a huge platform, it's daunting to begin... and my willpower for surmounting huge things diminsihed sometime ago along with my desire to free climb every vertical rock face I encountered... lol! I've never considered oracles to be a source of 'giving me the one true answer that I should follow, or else' however. Much like has been described here, I find oracles offer me the great benefit of wider, alternate perspective of the conditions I'm considering. Perspectives I may never have encountered if left solely to my own devices. Though no matter what the oracles relate... it's still me, engaging in the process, only now from the benefit of a wider platform... how I use that is still open to the flow... not constricting and absolute.

John Blofeld goes into this very thing in some detail and with some very practical drawings of the channels involved in his book: The Secret and Sublime, I recommend it.

It's always amazing to me when I meet another new old friend! Cheers bud and see you soon.

or Faith: believing what you want in spite of all else...

Exasperated woman: "If you were my husband sir... I would poison your tea!" Exasperated Man: "If I were your husband madam... I would drink it." loosely attributed to Churchill, but originally an anecdote overheard on mass transit...

As always mate... succinctly stated and well said.

speaking of sun... a fun live version and learn a bit of spanish, if so inclined...