Feeling Peaceful

How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours.
Wayne Dyer

Stop causing yourself pain...

All my life I have agonized over not having friends...oh well, there are folks out there who, if we run into each other, it is as if no time has passed, but I don't have friends like other folks have friends. The last couple of weeks I've been eaten up with it mostly because I sent out an email offering fresh eggs and I received only three replies in response to it. All anyone had to say was, "No thanks, I don't want any eggs, but how the heck are you?" Instead I get cyber-silence....empty inboxs, no response. It bugged me, like it has always bugged me....but the Internet is soooo easy, hell, 12 seconds or less to just respond instead of ignore. With that said, it kind of pisses me off too. Why aren't folks kinder? It seems a little mean to ignore someone completely, via email or otherwise.

Today, I saw a sign "So and So's Barbeque 1 mile" ...I had completely forgotten that I was invited to that barbeque via Facebook months and months ago. The invite included a note that said there would be a real invite when the date was closer.....guess, I fell off that invite list somewhere between then and now. Again, it is bothering me and pissing me off. I'm always sort of rash about things so, first I deleted my Facebook account and then I went to Yahoo to delete that account and all the addresses with it.....I don't suspect I need the account anymore and the address book? Well, it must be mostly full of acquaintances since no one replies to my mail. While is my yahoo mail account I read my "Daily Insight" from Yoga Journal....it never ceases to amaze me that the universe supplies me with just what I need when I need it....

Find Contentment

Yoga is much more than a physical practice. It is also a philosophy about the way we should live. According to yogic philosophy, we cause ourselves pain by desiring things we don't have, but think that we need. In other words, we hurt ourselves by yearning after what's out of reach.

Santosa is a niyama, or guiding principle of yoga. This principle encourages us to develop contentment. It prescribes the merit of striving to be grateful for what we have rather than yearning for new and different things. The word "santosa" is also sometimes translated as happiness, because, byfinding contentment with what we have, we also find joy, relaxation, and peace.

You can practice santosa in all aspects of your life-toward your family, friends, and your career.

WE HURT OURSELVES BY YEARNING AFTER WHAT'S OUT OF REACH....hhhmmm, 

The Spirit of Japhy J

I named Japhy after a character in Kerouac's book Dharma Bums....I just came across this quotation from Kerouac...Yeah....That's my Japhy J, searching the wilderness, not caring what others think, seeking enlightenment!

"...colleges being nothing but grooming schools for the middleclass non-identity which usually finds its perfect expression on the outskirts of the campus in rows of well-to-do houses with lawns and television sets is each living room with everybody looking at the same thing and thinking the same thing at the same time while the Japhies of the world go prowling in the wilderness..."

Here are two more from Kerouac:

"Boys and girls in America have such a sad time together; sophistication demands that they submit to sex immediately without proper preliminary talk. Not courting talk- real straight talk about souls, for life is holy and every moment is precious." (I added the emphasis)

"Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends and fads and popular opinion."

What is the world coming to?

So, I was surfing at work a couple of days ago and came across this site:
http://www.harpiesbizarre.com/paperdolls2.htm

This is the link to on-line paperdolls with draggable clothes. I was mesmerized by this because I kept waiting for it to have a point. Seriously, what is the point of a "paper"doll that has drag and drop clothes on a computer screen.

I'm not sitting here tellling you that I loved paperdolls as a kid, but seriously, what are we doing in this society that "paper"dolls even exist in a format that requires no more than a drag and drop to dress them and then, that's it, they're dressed. There is nothing else.

Yeah, paper dolls were no fun, but you have to admit they were a challenge. If they had more than one piece of clothing, say a dress and a hat, then you had to figure out how to make your fingers stretch out and keep all the tabs folded down or their clothes would fall off. At least, the old school kind incorporated a bit of dexterity and some problem-solving. If you could keep their clothes on you could move them around and have imagined conversations , like little flat Barbies, but VIRTUAL "PAPER"DOLLS, come on....what is the world coming to?

What will the neighbors think?

Cataract Canyon
(Archives)

I will never forget the awesome power of the water which was frigid even as it ran through the desert of the Utah. The nights were warm and lit by a full moon, the quiet almost perfect except for the constant running of the river heading homeward to the sea.

Even now I am awed by the memory of the places I’ve walked, accessible to so few. Each year I try to find a way to travel to a location with the power to remove me from civilization. A place that strips away societal constraints and accepted norms and allows me to behave, think, and feel without regard for society; to act, to live without wondering, “What will the neighbors think?”

I don't know when I wrote this...before I was married for sure. Obviously when I was still a little hung up, I guess. The truth of the matter is: I don't care what the neighbors (or anyone else for that matter) think anymore and that has been coming on for awhile. Thanks to Ian Moore for shaking some of it loose....listening to my iPod on two seperate occasions (both on airplanes) I heard Ian Moore's song "Society" from Modernday Folklore

I've been really trying to get some peace of mind
but the world just keeps on spinning and I'm starting to unwind.

Teachers teaching children to go out and get their own
They forget about their hearts, they forget about their soul.

And it's hard to convince yourself, when your life's been gauged by power and wealth, spend your whole life trying to break free from this society.

So I climb up to a higher place where I'm not blinded by tradition or ruled by any race.

But the system always pulls me down
Can't stand to see me free
throws me right back in the masses
says that where you're gonna be

Still dream a dream of humanity, somewhere a world exists, softly turned phrases and melodies of bliss

Painted in a picture of violets and blues, stolen from the moment when I first encountered truth

Yeah, or something like that....that's how I'm singing it in my head anyway. (Sorry Ian).
I'm really tired of trying to be something that I'm not. Considering how long ago I wrote the above piece about Cataract I guess this has been lurking for awhile. Funny, how things are called up by songs, or even lines in songs.