“Yesterday I watched a small bird, flying very fast, disappear into the canopy of an oak tree. So dense were its leaves that it was impossible to see what happened next, though I can tell you it remained inside.

I wondered how the little bird found its opening through the leaves at such a speed, and then managed to gently align its fragile body on the branch it chose to land upon, all within a fraction of a second. Not to mention the impossible to imagine flying maneuvers required: the banking, the curling, the vertical and horizontal stabilizations, the deceleration and landing.

Memory? Calculation? Not in that tiny brain. Instinct? Maybe, but how does instinct know which way the branches of a tree have grown when no two are the same?

That little bird just knew. It had faith, in spite of not being able to see how things would work out, that if (and only if) it stayed the course the details would be taken care of; that an opening would appear and a twig would be found. In fact, had she slowed down enough to carefully and logically inspect the tree first, the prudent thing to do, she would have lost her lift and fallen to the ground.

Kind of like reaching for your dreams. Neither memory, nor calculating, nor instincts are the deciding factors, but faith coupled with action.”
Tallyho,
The Universe

A buddy sent this to me.. much needed.

2 avocados
1 chopped mango
1 jalapeno
1/2 chopped red pepper
1 lime (juice)
Dash of salt
Dash of pepper
1 tsp or more of cumin
1 tsp of crushed garlic

Mash all together and enjoy!

From Notes by Song Zijing

Don ‘t Walk Behind Others: For your work to pass through the generations you must have your own distinctive style. If you always use a compass to draw a circle and a ruler to draw a square you will always remain a slave. As the ancients say: you can’t build a house inside a house. Lu Ji says: avoid the morning flower in full blossom and gather instead evening buds which are not yet open. Han Yu says: all cliches must go; this is the essence of prose. The Book of the Hermit Fisherman of Zhao River comments that this is also true of poetry. If you just repeat cliches and imitate old works without any change or original ideas, how can you become a famous poet? Huang Luzhi writes that if you follow someone you will always be behind. The first taboo in writing is to walk behind others.

A lovely excerpt from Vanda Scaravelli’s “Awakening the Spine.”

“Carry your body, but please do not let you body carry you! Walking in the streets, one can see people heavily following their bodies. Their heads leans forwards, pulled by their necks, on their insecure legs, their feet scarcely touching the ground. It is evident that they are slaves to their bodies, following the whispering of their chattering minds.
We must walk well, as animals do.
Put the heels down first placing the feet straight in front of you. Then expand the soled of the foot, allowing it to receive the weight of the body, moving towards the toes. While the other leg moves forwards, continue to keep the back foot on the ground, so that the back of the knee remains extended and open until the last moment before lifting the foot for the next step.
This way of walking will help you to re-establish order, if your body has developed bad habits.
We are always in a hurry, we run, we run, in order to be able to do as many things as possible: to achieve, to become, to obtain. To run is a symptom of fear, to run after something, after somebody. We are slaves not only to others, but to ourselves, to our ideas, to our ambitions, to our projects, and even to our mental projections. This is a miserable attitude that life does not deserve. The slave runs, but the king keeps quiet and remains still in his place.”

A Christmas painting I did for family. Inspired by one of Konstantin Tovstiadi's creations.

Quite fitting for anyone.

Libra

“I was walking down the street agonizing over what to do about a particularly troublesome person in my life,” writes Tai Moses in her blog (aerophant.com), “when I saw a playing card laying facedown on the sidewalk. I turned it over.” It was a joker. Her thoughts immediately turned to the words of the philosopher Alan Watts: “When you get the message, hang up the phone.” I hope you’ll be inspired by Moses’ experience, Libra. For now, the best approach to take with your knotty dilemmas is to welcome them as wild cards and X-factors that will bring you interesting experiences and valuable lessons — and just stop worrying about them.

Horoscope from: freewillastrology

A reading from:  “The Book of Secrets,” by Osho

“We divide time into three parts–past, present, future. That divison is false, absolutely false.  Time is really past and future.  The present is not part of time.  The present is part of eternity.  That which has passed is time; that which is to come is time.  That which is, is not time because it never passes–it is always here.  The now is always here.  It is always here! This now is eternal.  If you move from the past, you never move into the present.  From the past you always move into the future; there comes no moment which is present.  From the past you always move into the future.  From the present you can never move into the future.  From the present you go deeper and deeper, into more present and more present.  This is everlasting life. We may say it in this way: from past to future is time.  Time means you move on a plane, on a straight line.  Or we may call is horizontal. The moment you are in the present the dimension changes: you move verically—up or down, toward the height or toward the depth.  But then you never move horizontally…Live in eternity, not in time.”

Konstantin Tovstiadi Photography

Being spiritual means a good many things, and most of them are misunderstood by a good many people. So to clarify, here’s how I see “it” and you:

Being spiritual means seeing yourself as divine, not just of the divine; a creator, not just the created. You needn’t be saved, forgiven, or fixed. You’ve already changed the world, added to its brilliance, and done enough. You’re there because in some long forgotten time, you already earned your wings.

Of course, there are still challenges. You wanted it this way. It’s part of your nature and they’ll serve to make you even greater. In spite of these, you are still a winner, you are among the relative few who have been so bold, and today is part of your victory lap.

Amen.

From a long time fan -
The Universe

Just a painting I did this summer.