Finished reading: Soul Writing by Claire de Boer 📚
There is still a week and a half to go before September ends, and this is the site that greeted me when I walk into Lowe’s this afternoon. One of those big figures was singing Christmas songs. Meanwhile outside the sun beat down with late summer heat.
Words escape me.
Crazy Wisdom
I have found copies of old blog posts on my computer from an earlier incarnation of my website. This one was from I know not when, but will guess around 2010. I have edited the post lightly to provide link references and clarification where appropriate.
While in New York last week for Thanksgiving and a host of other family events I visited the wonderful Rubin Museum (which sadly on October 6th, 2024 will close and move to a “global museum model.” More information here.) dedicated, for the most part, to Buddhist art from the nations that straddle the Himalayas. My wife introduced me to the museum a couple of years ago and I was won over as soon as I walked in. A return trip was always on the cards.
While we were in the city the museum was showing the new documentary film Crazy Wisdom, about the life and times of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Trungpa Rinpoche has been a presence in my life from the time that I first met up with Tibetan Buddhism at the end of the 1980’s. While I never met him, I remember picking up a copy of his book “The Myth of Freedom” while studying in the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamsala, India. Before even opening the book the title itself caught me. We are always looking to get away, this title appeared to imply that there was no away. I still have a copy of the book, and made reference to a passage from it in the thesis to my Masters Degree.
Speaking of the Masters Degree, that also had a connection with Trungpa Rinpoche in that the school that ran the program I took was Naropa University, which was founded by Rinpoche.
My 61st birthday today. I have just learnt that it is my cousin’s daughter’s 21st birthday today. That 40 year gap makes me feel old! The opportunities of youth, the perspective and learnt lessons (though probably a few more to learn!) of later years.
Watching my grandson playing football (soccer) last Saturday morning. His team won 3 - 1. I was sitting to the left where there are a crowd of people on the touchline, but the sun was brutally hot and I had to take shelter under the shade of a tree. Those tent structures were all accounted for!
Another game this Saturday.
I’m late to the game here. We started watching Slow Horses on Monday evening, and are now 4 episodes in. I now see what I have been missing. The positive side? I have three and a half seasons to go. 🕵️♂️
A thread on Mastodon made me go looking to see if website for the old Camino browser. Indeed it is. Camino use to be my go to browser. A blog post announcing the end of its development was published on Thursday, May 30th, 2013. I remember Camino fondly. It was sad to see development end.
I was driving home yesterday and found myself in a long line of traffic. I live not far off the Hana Highway here in Maui. This road turns into the Road to Hana, a journey which for very good reason, for its beauty and culture, attracts a lot of visitors each year. Morning time can find the road busier with cars heading out towards Hana, and evening can find the road busy with cars returning, the numbers varying as the holiday seasons come and go.
While moving slower than usual along the highway, locals turning off on the side roads as we headed east, I found myself wondering what this journey was like for those visitors who were driving the road for the first time? I regularly drive this section of road, I know what comes next, what there is to see, how long it will take to get from A to B. For visitors though, each turn in the road offers a new site, buildings and homes will be seen for the first time, what is around the next corner or over the next hill? Indeed even, in my complacency of knowing the road well, what do visitors see that I miss?
Well this is obviously a thought that has stuck with me for a long time. I initially wrote about it over four years ago, saying,
Sometimes when I am driving home, following a car containing a family or persons visiting Maui, I wonder how they are seeing the road and its surrounding scenery? For them, each bend in the road will be revealing a vista that they have not seen before. Views that for me I see pretty much every day, will be a first occurrence for them.
I guess that there is something in this dialogue that for me has some meaning? Perhaps it is around the subject and state of awareness? How present can I be to what is around me, even when what is around me is very familiar?
Be careful if you are up a ladder. I was topping the hedge this morning. I don’t think that I was doing anything irresponsible, but I almost fell backwards twice. Be careful.
Well the updating has commenced. Apple TV and my iPhone are on their way, downloading their respective OSs as I type. I’ll do my watch later.
I am a little on the fence about my MacBook Air at the moment. It’s a 13-inch 2020 and has finally made it to the bottom of the list for Airs that are compatible with the new OS. I suspect that with the next iteration of MacOS, the Air either won’t be on the list, or will be holding on by its finger nails. In the past when I have taken computers this far with OS updates, it has resulted in sluggish performance at times. My curiosity is piqued though by Apples new password manager. I would like to give it a go.
Knowing me, by this time tomorrow MacOS Sequoia will be installed on my Air.
😶🌫️ It’s a misty, wet and muggy night out there. I didn’t expect this end to the day. Good night everyone.
This evening’s rainbow with a Plumeria tree in the foreground (and experimenting with Halide app’s Process Zero). 🌈
We are fortunate enough to have A/C in our house…until we don’t. The split screen system decided to break down last week, and now the hot muggy weather from outside has made its way inside. Aside from keeping the inside cool and in my opinion more livable, the A/C also keeps the dampness and build up of mold at bay. Humidity is a reality here on Maui, especially on the wetter northern shore of the island.
The 3,000th Post
Sometime in the last month I published my 3,000th post to this blog. When I hit publish on this post, it will be the 3,094th. That feels like a big number to me. Perhaps for some, they left that number in the dust a long time ago? But for me this feels like a lot.
My blog started back in March of 2014. I have some posts sitting on my computer from an earlier incarnation of the site. I have hit pause in sharing them as I am not sure they represent how I think now? Maybe that doesn’t matter - a preface and/or some light editing might make them ready for posting. They might still see the light of day, but not yet.
My posts have varied in length and content over the years. Despite earlier aspirations to write longer, thoughtful posts on subjects that interested me or felt relevant to the nature of the blog at that time - the website use to be the home of my coaching business - the reality is that the pieces published here are a collection of long posts, short posts (a sentence or two), photographs, videos and audio.
At times I have set myself themes for the blog, subjects around which I would structure blog posts, and even deadlines as to how often I would post, but I have found this approach to be too restrictive for me. Rather I have allowed myself to find my own way and speed of publishing, what has come to mind in the moment and perhaps a theme of sorts starts to emerge? Topics that I have returned to of late are Meditation and Overseas Travels.
Moving my hosting to Micro.blog was the best move that I have made for the blog. My output has increased, and the support of the Micro.blog community, both technical and social, has made me relax into what I am producing for the site. I have been with Micro.blog for almost six years now, joining in the early days of October 2018. Technology and the Micro.blog platform allow me to create material for the blog and publish it whether I am out and about or sitting at home.
Why do I have a blog?
It’s a good question for which the answer has varied as the years have gone by. Back at the beginning I think that it was a public platform for ideas and thoughts going through my head, at that time specifically the emerging disciplines of Deep Ecology and Ecopsychology, perhaps hoping that others would see my jottings and reach out. If they were seen, I heard from no one.
Since then, apart from when the blog served as adjunct to my coaching business, I maintain the blog simply because I enjoy it. I enjoy putting it together, maintaining it, and producing content for it. The blog is a creative outlet. I enjoy the writing process. It helps me develop ideas. I have a personal journal, but sometimes I like to put my thoughts out there for others to read.
I won’t say, “here’s to the next 3,000.” It’s very much one at a time for me. I might produce a handful of posts back to back, and then go quiet for a few days, but as long as I am enjoying maintaining my place on the web I’ll be putting out new posts. I have a backlog of draft posts waiting to be completed, and many unpublished photos. So I am not short on material.
Thank you for reading and following along.
🌧️ Making coffee on a hot, muggy morning, and listening to the sound of rain as it dances off the concrete around the house.
🏃♂️ It’s the Hana Relay today. A 52 mile race from Kahului Airport in Maui to Hana, along the twist and turns of the road to Hana. Teams of 6 compete with each team member running 3 legs of 2 to 3 miles each. Waking up this morning I could see a big group of vehicles parked up for one of the change over points, and competitors running down the hill. Good luck to them all.