Beauty in Buddhist caves

I really like these beautiful photographs of Buddhist caves in Myanmar, Thailand and India, so check them out on Huffington Post!

Snow days, mindfulness of the moment

Hello Atlanta snow days ... I am experiencing this through a lens of mindfulness and appreciation. And, glad to say the appreciation includes Georgia Power coming around on Wednesday and cutting a neighbor's tree down off the wire and restoring our power! Here are some photos that can help us remember our week, including Sophie, Dori and Mac:

One of Atlanta's infamous snow weeks

It turns out that a bit of snow came through on Tuesday with some ice mixed in. At Noon, it came full swing and at the same time all of Atlanta's employers, schools and government workers hit the road. Next came an unbelievable story of cars stuck on highways and side streets for hours - some up to 16 hours. Hundreds of people ended up leaving their cars on the side of the road and walked to the nearest safe place. Here is the story. My family was fine and I was home because I decided to cancel my mid-day plans early that morning! Here is my peaceful place this week during the chaos that occurred nearby. I learned that Mac, Dori and Sophie really do love snow!

Surfboard makes it to Lake Herrington

I was communicating with Lexington friends on Facebook and posted this photo there - it is fun to find a blast from the past like this 1966 photo at the lake, Lake Herrington, near Lexington.

 

 

The Internet I worked on in 1981

This article made me really smile! I worked at the Atlanta Journal and Constitution in 1981 on the Associated Press project putting this newspaper, and others were too [NYT etc.], onto CompuServe so people could read the newspaper over a computer. All my journalist buddies would walk by my office and say "No one will ever read a newspaper over a TV or computer!" Well, I guess they were wrong in spades.

If you click on the link you can watch a video about it back then:

The Internet In 1981 Was Just So Adorable

The Huffington Post  |  By Alexis Kleinman                            

Posted: 01/17/2014 2:27 pm EST  |  Updated: 01/17/2014 3:25 pm EST

"Imagine, if you will, sitting down to your morning coffee and turning on your home computer to read the day's newspaper."

So begins this adorable San Francisco newscast from 1981, chronicling how newspapers are starting to (gasp!) send newspapers over the Internet. Someone is even credited as a "home computer owner."

"Engineers now predict the day will come when we get all our newspapers and magazines by home computer, but that's a few years off," newscaster Steve Newman said.

Apparently it took more than two hours to get the whole newspaper to your computer over the phone. Never complain about your slow Internet again.

 

 

 

Gifting the earth

Opposite the sun

                                               with a warm light
                                          a new day gifts the earth.

 

Here is the moon this morning at the top of the hill behind my house - just starting to wane from a full moon.

Hand-sewing beautiful fabric into purses

 

I decided to look around for purses I made a few years back ... I loved hunting for fabric and sewing by hand. I lined them all and added special touches. I made about 15 of them, and I gave them to friends and family, it was fun. Here is one I still have - a simple purse about 10"x10".

Sixty diamond minutes

A poem I wrote in the 1970s ... about precious time and living in the moment.

Lost:
Somewhere between
Sunrise and sunset
Golden hours with
Sixty diamond minutes

No reward offered
For they are
Gone forever.

Serendipity and "listening to what you can leave out"

I was reading through pages in my blog today and saw that I quoted Miles Davis nearly a decade ago saying, "I always listen to what I can leave out." I see this as a healthy approach to daily living!

Below is a paragraph from The New York Times today that I saw right after I read my blog... what serendipity. Wikipedia says, "Serendipity means a "happy accident" or "pleasant surprise." Specifically, the accident of finding something good or useful while not specifically searching for it. The word has been voted one of the ten English words hardest to translate in June 2004 by a British translation company."

From the Times: "Miles Davis' trumpet solos, whether ruminating on a whispered ballad melody or jabbing against a beat, have been models for generations of jazz musicians. Other trumpeters play faster and higher, but more than in any technical feats Mr. Davis's influence lay in his phrasing and sense of space. "I always listen to what I can leave out," he would say."

Bright moon light

The night black
with bright moon light
touching with soft kindness

Getting back to The Sky Badge Project

I haven't posted in a while and I see there are new ways to manage the blog and I am still figuring out the image choices. I did like reading back through some of my stories and poems. This has inspired me to look again at my creative side and explore! Here is a video from a December 2013 sky - let's see how it looks.

Spring comes to Kings Lake, finally!

The sun is shining daily now and it has been beautiful here on Kings Lake. Here is one photo of the sun rising to the northeast and one of my wooded backyard facing south.

 

 

The Mustang

Finding Matisse

It looks like Henri Matisse will continue to get the attention he deserves for being such an innovator in art.

Right now the Museum of Modern Art [NYC] is showcasing him "In Search of True Painting."

Check it out!

Georgie Anna and Will at the Lake

I love this picture of my family - on the left are Al and Daisy, my great uncle and aunt, and on the right are my grandparents on the Goodwin side [my Dad Rodger's parents] - Georgie Anna and Will. I am sure this photos was taken at Lake Erie, as they lived in Cleveland. Thank you to Judy Goodwin Peterson, my cousin, who sent me this photo recently. Her Dad Carl and Rodger were brothers.

Sky photos - Kentucky and Cape Cod

1958 - the age of my innocence

I am reading a Jodi Picoult book called Sing You Home. One of her characters tells a story about getting Bazooka bubble gum comics and the opportunity to get x-ray glasses. She dreamed about getting the glasses and being able to see through things. When they came, you saw a bone imprint on each lens and she was sad she could not have x-ray vision.

My story of innocence is about this:

In 1958, I was eight years old and I lived in Cleveland Heights. A church on Noble Road had an after school weekly ongoing opportunity for children to come and listen to what was promised. I walked home from school every day on my own and my parents gave me permission to stop by for this. In 1958 children were very innocent about reality, not like today with the Internet.

Well, I may have missed some message the church wanted me to know, because when the final week came I thought they had promised me a live baby rabbit, and I was so excited. How did I surmise this from what had been said? I lived in my own child vision world then, and I believed that this is what they were telling me.

I was heartbroken when the final day came and they handed me some a bag of church info for my parents. This is an experience from a very young age I will never forget.

Finding your wisdom: try Lama Surya Das and Jane Fonda

I consider Lama Surya Das as a guru of the first order and have been able to hear him speak in person. His experience as a meditator and monk expressed via his American experience as a leader of Buddhist thought in the U.S., is important to me as I seek teachers.

I wish I lived closer to where he teaches at Garrison Institute or places he travels. Atlanta is not a big draw for those in this particular line of work.

He has a web site with a cartoon I really like, so click here to see it. He also has a new book out called "Buddha Standard Time, Awakening to the Infinite Possibilities of Now" which I just got but haven't read yet.

An AP reporter whose story is posted on ABC News says it may be hard for regular Americans to follow the wisdom provided by Surya Das. This reporter has some good insights, but without Surya Das giving Westerners a look at a way to begin to embrace meditation and all the goods that come with a practice, a lot of folks will miss out.

No doubt it is hard for someone like me to explain how to move into a practice that respects Buddhism and its concepts, but I just say start reading, visit a Buddhist center, a meditation class, or other opportunity to learn. In her new book "Prime Time," Jane Fonda begins to understand this doorway after attending a week-long retreat at a Zen center. Check Fonda out on ABC News. You can read excerpts here from her book about aging meaningfully.

I haven't focused on skies on The Sky Badge Project for a while.

I noticed a new book described in the LA Times: The author of "The Cloud Collector's Handbook," Pretor-Pinney has always found clouds intriguing and considered himself an enthusiastic amateur before founding the Cloud Appreciation Society in 2004, which has grown to include aficionados in 88 countries, including the U.S.

Another way to enjoy clouds and skies is to Like Clouds 365 Project on Facebook.

Here is one of my sky observations:

The sky starts
Blue, but
Heat will push it
Away today
I saw a yellow finch
On the purple cornstalk
Flower just now.

Dalai Lama teaching compassion in Atlanta this week

This coming week is a special one – the Dalai Lama will be in Atlanta at Emory for a few days, and many monks, lamas, and other Buddhist scholars will be here for a conference. I am looking forward to participating and volunteering with Drepung Loseling Monastery, Center for Tibetan Buddhist Studies, Practice and Culture, where I study Buddhism.

On Sunday, the Dalai Lama will lead “Teaching to the Buddhist Community: The Nature and Practice of Compassion.” His Holiness will explain the nature of compassion and the practices for cultivating it as understood in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition—something to which His Holiness has dedicated his entire life.

The conference descriptions says: Having established itself and laid down roots outside of traditionally Tibetan Buddhist areas through the efforts of many teachers, and particularly His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the time has come for teachers and students of Tibetan Buddhism to consider its future direction, with an eye to ensuring that the tradition continues to grow as a beneficial force for the peace, well-being and happiness of humanity.

Coinciding with the three-day visit of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Emory University, this conference will bring together the preeminent leaders, teachers, scholars, translators, supporters, and students of Tibetan Buddhism from both traditionally Tibetan Buddhist areas and western countries to engage in substantive discussion about the current state of Tibetan Buddhism in the modern world and how best to move forward collectively