Gone Fishing

So Long.
Farewell.
Auf Wiedersehen.
Goodnight!

I'm taking a sabbatical from blogging.

Can't say when I will return. Enjoy your time and appreciate each minute.

More Continents and More Dreams

I practice Buddhism, so it is very possible that in possible past lives, I may have lived happily on the continent of Asia or Africa, which exempts me from the pressures of conforming to the American Dream (AD) today.


My sister and I appear in the photo above at a time when we were still blissfully unaware that the AD existed in the collective consciousness of our elders. What a light hearted time.

Trolls and Me

Poi Balls Anyone?

Ricardo the Deer in the Woods: I miss him!!!

Everyone is Related and Connected

Reminder to self: Don't forsake the inside for the outside please!

We are also, each and every one of us, whole and perfect as is, interrelated, essentially non-separated, and equal.

This, too, must be realized.

If we forsake the inside for the outside, it is not just Buddhism that is diminished but the horizons for true social transformation as well.

-Helen Tworkov, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, Vol. IV, #1 From Everyday Mind, a Tricycle book edited by Jean Smith

Free Will and Fate: Which horse should you trust?

The Wisdom to Know the Difference

Elizabeth Gilbert, in her book “Eat, Pray, Love,” describes the intersection of free will and fate in our lives like the job of a circus performer who is riding two horses at the same time.

The secret to controlling both horses, she writes, is to have the wisdom to know when to give free will the lead and the common sense to realize when you don’t have a choice; fate will create your path.

Interesting...

As a Buddhist, I would add that it is important to take responsibility for the actions that we take when free will decides to gallop madly or go lollygagging down the path.

Good Fortune is My Middle Name

May it walk with me like the soles of my feet- everywhere and beyond.

May Good Fortune be yours as well!

Merrie Monarch Festival

The Merrie Monarch Festival in Hilo, Hawaii, April 2007

Ancient Hula Night

Put on my Buddha boots and continue on my journey…

These are Brent's boots from the free box, so they must have positive traveling energy that will float with me on my path. I donated the boots to the Landscaping Department at Kalani when I left so other members of our crew may be wearing them now. These boots get around. We like to share at Kalani. That is the spirit of community.

As for myself, let's see where I end up in my Buddha boots walking tour of the world.

Join me on the adventure?

Friends

Shooting Kalani Love

The Surf Is Rising In Maui!

Maui: The Hana Highway and the Drift Wood of Nine Days in the Sun

I have just returned to the big island from a nine day sunrise-filled vacation on the island of Maui. Do I have visuals to dazzle your consciousness? Yes. Tales to tan your skin? Double positive.

Tune in for the rest of the story: Coming soon to a blog spot near you.

Letting Go: from my vacation in the sand

Clinging Imprisons Us

Although I am on vacation in the sand in paradise, Aloha!, I read Tricycle's Daily Dharma today. I am always working on letting go, but this thought was especially comforting to me.

"It is important to understand that anything that can be lost was never truly ours, anything that we deeply cling to only imprisons us."

--Christina Feldman and Jack Kornfield, Stories of the Spirit, Stories of the Heart

I hope that you all have a vacation in paradise too.

The Art of Hedonism

To all of my friends out there finishing their Ph.D. degrees:

From: "The Hedonism Handbook: Mastering the Lost Arts of Leisure and Pleasure," by Michael Flocker

At some point, "the good life" became some distantly imagined finish line that could only be reached through psychotic effort and willful determination. Like over-caffeinated hamsters on a wheel, we began running, sweating, sacrificing and panicking. Could there possibly be something wrong with this master plan? Is there something out there, some lost key to the kingdom of happiness that is being overlooked? You bet your ass there is.

Eat the cake, drink the wine, lie in a hammock and stare at the stars with the hottie you picked up on the beach, but don't try to jam it all into a tightly-scheduled, six-day "vacation."

If you give in to beauty, pleasure and self-indulgence on a daily basis, not only will you be happier day-to-day, you will be less likely to go off the deep end when it all gets too much and you finally cave in. One must practice the art of hedonism regularly to get really good at it.

Balance and Grace and Coconuts

Go Roy!

It was exciting shooting as coconuts were falling all around me. Heads!

Coconut Delight

The Juice of Life

Work is never the same in the landscaping department at Kalani.

Today, for example, we transplanted three large banana trees to a new location so that their leaves would provide privacy for the general manager's outdoor shower.

In this photo, and the photo above, I at last had the opportunity to grab my Nikon when Roy was taking down coconuts from one of the trees near my worksite at the new campgrounds.

If a coconut were to fall on a human's head, this would be an unfortunate experience for that particular human.

Thanks Roy, we love you!

Shakti At The Nut Factory

Nutty Trivia

I bet that you did not know that macadamia nuts have legs just like you and me. We see packs of wild nuts running around in the jungle frequently, but I have never been able to catch one of them myself.

In the photo above, Shakti has managed to tame a rather large fellow. More power to her!

Feral nuts are a part of life on the big island that I enjoy.

Lava Lamp in the Land of Lava

Plug the lamp into the outlet and let it flow...

One of the treasures from the farmer's market in Pahoa that didn't work when tried in an outlet.

Juices Away...

Breakfast of Champions

Fresh carrot and pineapple juice from the farmer's market in Pahoa was part of my Sunday breakfast on March 18.

Come and join me for a glass.

The Van

The Kalani Landscaping Van: Hold on for the ride.

Oh lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz ?
My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends.
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends,
So lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz ?