March 21, 2007

Smarter Minds Than Mine

Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war.

~~John Adams

This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.

~~Dalai Lama

A crust eaten in peace is better than a banquet partaken in anxiety.

~~Aesop


I don't believe in killing whatever the reason!

~~John Lennon


Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule.

~~Buddha


Eros will have naked bodies; Friendship naked personalities.

~~C.S. Lewis


As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.

~~Carl Jung

March 16, 2007

Cause and Cure

I believe in justice and truth, without
which there would be no basis for human hope.

-His Holiness the Dalai Lama


The lack of justice and truth is the cause of pain and suffering even for those of us who have so much physical comfort.

Justice and truth and human hope can change and eliminate all the suffering (but not the pain of life) and evil in the world and move humanity forward.

March 13, 2007

Catching Up

This past week I feel like I've been catching up with myself. The previous six weeks were a whirlwind of activity and people. I've been busy at work and doing additional duty with special projects. I've been tired and sleeping hard. This past weekend was the first weekend in 5 weeks that I had no commitment to do anything specific and I celebrated it in style.

I got home from work Friday night with dinner in hand and didn't leave the house again until Monday morning at 9:30 to go to work. I spent the entire weekend wearing only a t-shirt. I was a slug. I was happy. I did next to nothing. Yes, I ate and drank, cooked a little bit, slept - a nap each day, let the dogs in, let the dogs out - over and over again, wrote/read email, surfed the web, played computer solitaire, watched tv, ignored the tv but still had it on, wrote and painted in my journal, read a magazine and an art book, sighed a lot, heard F's voice (a lot), talked to a boy on the phone, and heard the sounds of life outside the door. Never left the house. Did I say that already? It deserves being said twice. I loved it.

Now it is Tuesday, a/k/a toosday. Work is still a whirlwind, but I got some big projects off my plate so the special projects aren't a burden. I've been sleeping late each morning, anywhere between 6:45 - 7:20. I really prefer to have more time in the morning to be with myself before I hustle to work, but I've really needed the sleep so I am allowing myself to roll-over that one last time. I'm not in danger of "over sleeping" for work and as a result I still have the luxury of sleeping til I'm done so I don't need an alarm clock.

I bought a new pair of jeans today. I had a discount coupon and so they cost $19.28 and that includes postage and handling. They should be here next week. They are just like the other pair I have that I wear almost every single day and love. I didn't wear jeans for a long long time and now it is all I want to wear. I wonder why we (I) refer to jeans as a pair? Is it because they have 2 legs? A pair is 2 of something, and yet the term a pair of jeans refers to just one clothing item. But I digress.

I've done some more dreaming about trailers and then scolded myself for being obsessive. I've spent time on-line looking at military shoulder bags - again obsessive, hence, scolded. I was sitting in my car the other day eating a bean buritto. It was my lunch time and I had time left to do something before returning to the office. I didn't feel like going to the library. Everything I thought about doing in the 30 minutes I had left involved looking at things in stores. Looking at products. Looking to buy something. Anything. Consuming as recreation. As a time passer. It wasn't ok. I wrote in my journal for a while about the whole thing and then went back to work. Of course, later in my work day, before I went home, I went on-line to ebay to look at the military bags available for cheap. Oy!

So now it is the end of my work day again. I am going to stop at Blockbuster and drop off films then go to get Chinese take-out. I had a good salad for lunch at Bennigan's. They make a nice Greek salad with sliced grilled chicken breast. Very delicious. I went back to work and had a really good evacuation. Lots of energy afterwards and I finished another project and emailed it off. A good toosday.