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The sun will rise again tomorrow…
The sun was visible this morning as it rose over the trees. Visible in the sense that you could look right at it without being blinded. I grabbed my camera and took this picture. The blue globe is a large glass marble in a wind chime hanging off our deck.
When feeling particularly frustrated or depressed, a professor of mine from long ago would say to me, “the sun will rise again tomorrow”. I’ve repeated this to myself over the years as a reminder that tomorrow is another day, another chance.
The challenges I’m facing at work and in my academic life really aren’t a big deal…though I can let myself get all flustered and defeated feeling sometimes. I have to remind myself that the sun will rise again tomorrow, that whatever I’m facing isn’t the end of the world. “This too will pass”. Often it is these feelings of frustration, anxiety, depression, or whatever-black-funk wonkiness (thanks Communicatrix) that I find myself waiting patiently to pass. Well, not always patiently, but definitely waiting. And they do pass…or change…even mutate or transmorgify. It’s dynamic. And I’m rambling.
It’s getting kind of late. The sun that was rising in this picture set hours ago. Stay tuned…it’ll be back.
Nice to hear from you Baldrick.
Clutching the hope of repair
The long weekend is over. We planted some flowers, cleaned out the garage, washed our cars and did some relaxing. Something I didn’t do was weed whip.
The picture is of the clutch mechanism on my Craftsman 32cc Weekwacker. While trying to start it the other day the pull cord snapped. I decided to take it apart to see if I could attach what was left of the pull cord. After purchasing an appropriately sized T15 screwdriver I was able to remove the clutch drum. This clutch was underneath it. I have no idea how to remove it. The assembly that holds the pull cord is behind this so it has to be removed in order to fix the pull cord. The weeds are growing while this engine sits on my workbench, mocking me. It might be time to replace it.
This week is a short one since Monday was a holiday. I’m sure I’ll be plenty busy though. There is much to do and time doesn’t wait for nobody.
The Universe in a Single Atom
I’m reading a book by the Dalai Lama called, “The Universe in a Single Atom – The Convergence of Science and Spirituality”. It’s pretty fascinating to read the thoughts of a highly respected spiritual leader embracing scientific inquiry in an attempt to find the parallels between the two. And there are parallels. Science can’t explain everything and spirituality devoid of science tends toward dogmatism. The Zen of Everything? Very much so.
In this book, Tenzin Gyatso, His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, talks about his experience and discussions with great scientific minds around the world. As it turns out, the scientific view of the world is very consistent with the Buddhist view of the world. No thing exists independently. All things are related and connected. Science does a good job helping us understand the physical world but it doesn’t do a very good job explaining the deep emotional connection humans can share. How can physics explain compassion?
Okay…enough of the philosophy and spiritual blather.
This picture is from a couple weeks ago. I get a kick out of taking self portraits. But I try to capture interesting things going on at the same time. In the background is the Wife and her father looking for mushrooms. After finding some mushrooms in her Dad’s backyard, we took a walk through the woods behind his house to try and find more. We didn’t find any but enjoyed being in the woods with the old man. He has a few acres of pine trees behind his house and a path winding through them to a deer blind. Atypical Kalkaska woodlands, at their best.
Today is golf league day. I subbed for a co-worker last night on another golf league and shot a 48. My average is 51 so I was feeling pretty good. The mosquitoes were out in force and my legs are all bit up, but it was a beautiful night. Need to remember my bug spray.
This weekend, like most weekends, went by to fast. We had guests which tends to make things go by faster than normal.
I talked to my mother today. She sounds like she is doing okay. She’ll be starting a new job this week. Hopefully that goes well. She is concerned about the choices my oldest nephew is taking with his life. I try to tell her that he isn’t doing anything that different from what my brother and I did…but it is hard to tell how he’ll deal with things. Could go either way. It’s out of my hands at this point…but I’ll be around, waiting to see what happens.
It is late on a Sunday and I’m about to go to bed. We cleaned house today, like most Sundays. A belt on our vacuum is bad and I went to the hardware store to try and replace it but they didn’t have the one I needed in stock. I rigged it with some electrical tape to take up the slack which seemed to work okay. Not a long term fix but it worked long enough to finish the house.
This picture is of a small oak tree growing in our back yard. I stacked some rocks near it to give it some import. This was taken last weekend. The little oak tree is actually showing some leaves today. I don’t have a current image so you’ll have to imagine it. The Communicatrix includes a picture with most of her posts…but I don’t think they are hers. I like the approach but am using my own pictures. This summer I’m pretending I’m a photographer.
I didn’t get everything done today that I hoped. Tomorrow is another day and Suresh will understand. After our guests left we tackled our chores then relaxed. I trust Sam’s graduation party went well. Hopefully the weather held out for them.
Inner fears and quiet voices
New opportunities lie ahead but there is always tomorrow to get past. This week the wife is flying to New York on business, the father-in-law is have prostate surgery, and I am struggling with fresh demons. Alas, challenge is what cultivates strength.
There are always those inner fears that you can’t do something or the fear of not knowing where to start. Most of these fears are associated with ego preservation. Saying this and knowing it are not the same thing at all. If you know it, would there still be fears?
Yoga classes start tomorrow. I used to do yoga every week then school started and golf league. Scheduling changed and now I can make the class. I anticipate sore muscles.