I had a discussion with a good friend recently and we were talking about Spirit and what it is. Here is what came to my mind.
Spirit is the essence of being.
It is the life force of the mind and body and the animator of intellect.
It is the Divine that moves through us as us.
Spirit is the All That Is.
It is the simplicity of a single cell and the mystery of a quark.
It is the splendor of a rainbow and the grace of appreciation.
It is the tenderness of a singular touch and the collective comfort that being alone brings to meditation.
Spirit is full and empty.
It is endless.
It is forever.
It is the cohesive force that holds the universe together.
SPIRIT IS LOVE.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Goals and Age
Goals and Age
© 2011 Rolland G. Smith
There comes a time in all our dreams
When we let go and sigh.
It could have been! We had the means
To try and try and try.
There must be something in our hopes
That lets us seek the goal.
We learned techniques and know the ropes
But then we loose control.
Perhaps it’s age or other stuff
That loosens a sure grip.
And we let go with no rebuff
The goal we think we skip.
But I have learned throughout the years
When letting go, I find
The goal I lost then reappears
As new and redefined.
So what’s the lesson in this thought
That I must now embrace
It is to never be distraught
When things seems out of place.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Legal Idiocy
The world is in disorder. Three wars are being fought in disparate parts of our globe; young people from many cultures are dying because of humanities insanity.
We have destruction and tragedy and contaminating radiation on a continuing basis in Japan and three of the world’s most powerful techno giants are spending obscene amounts of legal money over two little words. "App Store."
Good Grief!!
This is from the New York Times:
“Microsoft is suing Apple, and Apple is suing Amazon, all over the right to use a simple two-word phrase: “app store.” Apple got there first, introducing its App Store in July 2008 as a marketplace for mobile applications. In January, Microsoft disputed Apple’s trademark claim, arguing that “app store” had already become a generic expression. And last week, Amazon announced its own “Appstore” for Google’s Android devices, prompting an infringement suit from Apple.”
WHO CARES GUYS! IT’S A DAMN APP STORE! GET YOUR PRIORITIES STRAIGHT and use the money you are spending on lawsuits for something good in this troubled world.
We have destruction and tragedy and contaminating radiation on a continuing basis in Japan and three of the world’s most powerful techno giants are spending obscene amounts of legal money over two little words. "App Store."
Good Grief!!
This is from the New York Times:
“Microsoft is suing Apple, and Apple is suing Amazon, all over the right to use a simple two-word phrase: “app store.” Apple got there first, introducing its App Store in July 2008 as a marketplace for mobile applications. In January, Microsoft disputed Apple’s trademark claim, arguing that “app store” had already become a generic expression. And last week, Amazon announced its own “Appstore” for Google’s Android devices, prompting an infringement suit from Apple.”
WHO CARES GUYS! IT’S A DAMN APP STORE! GET YOUR PRIORITIES STRAIGHT and use the money you are spending on lawsuits for something good in this troubled world.
Monday, March 28, 2011
North Korean Surprise
Good Morning!
I saw a video clip the other day that hopefully is a positive harbinger for the future for North Korea.
Like many of you I am a watcher of world events and the predominance of negative stories, belligerent vibrato, global posturing and bellicose arrogance of and from Kim Jong II. It is a scenario that is laughable if it weren’t for their alleged control of nuclear weapons.
Seeing these kinds of stories on a continuing basis leads one to think that nothing graceful, nothing cultural, nothing elegant is possible from the Democratic Peoples Republic of North Korea.
Here is the link to a little North Korean girl and a phenomenal guitar performance. I don't know who old she is, but size is an indication. The guitar is as big as she is.
It made me happy to see that not all culture is embedded in the egocentric dictatorship of North Korean communism. It also reinforced the beliefs that good eventually will always overcome the bad and the cruel and the catalyst will be the arts.
I hope you enjoy the clip as much as I did.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Earthquakes
Most people think the big quakes happen out west or along the ring of fire in the Pacific, but history says differently.
The biggest quake ever experienced in the continental United States happened during the winter months of 1811.
A quake estimated at 8.6 on the once used Richter scale rumbled through an area 150 miles long and 50 miles wide from New Madrid, Missouri.
The quake was so powerful the ground sank 12 feet in some areas and for awhile reversed the flow of the Mississippi River.
The tectonic shock wave rumbled all the way to Washington D.C. where bells rang in church steeples from the ground shaking and clocks were supposedly stopped in New Orleans.
200 years ago the country was relatively unpopulated and there was little damage and few injuries.
If a quake, that large, were to happen today the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it could cause billions of dollars in damage and probably kill thousands of people. A good guess FEMA, but probably a lot worse that your estimate.
We should not be complacent and think that the East or anywhere is invulnerable. The underground geology in the East, with its tight formations, would shake more violently in a big quake than those that occur in the west.
Let us hope not, but also let us be more prepared than they were in quake experienced Japan.
The biggest quake ever experienced in the continental United States happened during the winter months of 1811.
A quake estimated at 8.6 on the once used Richter scale rumbled through an area 150 miles long and 50 miles wide from New Madrid, Missouri.
The quake was so powerful the ground sank 12 feet in some areas and for awhile reversed the flow of the Mississippi River.
The tectonic shock wave rumbled all the way to Washington D.C. where bells rang in church steeples from the ground shaking and clocks were supposedly stopped in New Orleans.
200 years ago the country was relatively unpopulated and there was little damage and few injuries.
If a quake, that large, were to happen today the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it could cause billions of dollars in damage and probably kill thousands of people. A good guess FEMA, but probably a lot worse that your estimate.
We should not be complacent and think that the East or anywhere is invulnerable. The underground geology in the East, with its tight formations, would shake more violently in a big quake than those that occur in the west.
Let us hope not, but also let us be more prepared than they were in quake experienced Japan.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Snow, Spring and Spirituality
Snow is here again today. Snow is here again today…did I already say that? It seems like I’ve been either saying that or hearing that or seeing that for the last four months.
But alas…that is winter in the northeast and so be it. BUT… Spring is here too.
Have you ever wondered about the spiritual significance of the seasons?
Let’s start with Spring and its snow melt and warming rains. When gentle, nothing changes, but when it’s a torrent it is a different story.
Erosion
Water carves an open slice
in earthen crust to view
Roots of Trees, in sacrifice,
dangling, drying, all askew.
Stand beside this suckled swath,
see nursing roots entwined,
Weaving deep in mineral path
A probing poke with stone enshrined.
A single root does no good
holding life secure to ground
Where lacing tight is understood
to free the leafy green unbound.
Behold the bold of other roots
and the strength they give as one,
Many mingled braided shoots
Hold earth from water’s run.
There is a truth in nature’s cut,
how helping gives a strength,
Protecting from eroding rut
so life can have its length.
Erosion speaks not a word,
yet its language is precise.
The wisdom of the undergird,
for man, is sound advice.
Summer’s wisdom is also profound!
Garden Grace
Two blossoms yellow, proud above the green,
stand strong and know their love is seen
By all who wander and by those who gaze
into this garden of wonder, a maze.
Color binds attention and form holds grace
attracting heart and spirit to this place.
The flowers stand as one and separate too,
symbols of the noble ones, too few.
They come to see and hold this place in love,
responding to an essence from above.
The nectar is the wine the flowers hold,
toasting through the touch of zephyr’s gold.
Tell all strangers who pass here, walking by:
The fragrance of the flowers glorifies
The spirit of the earth and nurtured seed
that blossoms into beauty when we need.
The fall is a time of gathering and getting ready for the winter cold.
Firewood
Wooded light stands darkly
ready for expression.
Letting go the warmth within,
giving up possession.
How powerful is this teacher,
this lecture of the wood,
Remembering the gift of sod
and light from a tree that stood.
It only takes a spark
to change the wood to fire,
And feel the sun again
in a golden lighted pyre.
Whoever holds a match or thought,
not knowing how it ends,
Gets sulphured cries of pain;
therein truth transcends.
In life and wood see the light,
the heat and the fire,
Then live in the moment,
as love becomes your choir.
And finally Winter comes with its harbinger "Jack."
Jack Frost
We much malign a draft of cold
slippin’ round a window old,
A chilling dash of winter clime
that paints a pane in ice of rime.
Without the draft and warmth within,
the crystal etch could not begin.
So let us praise the weathered sash
that lets us see a frost panache.
But alas…that is winter in the northeast and so be it. BUT… Spring is here too.
Have you ever wondered about the spiritual significance of the seasons?
Let’s start with Spring and its snow melt and warming rains. When gentle, nothing changes, but when it’s a torrent it is a different story.
Erosion
Water carves an open slice
in earthen crust to view
Roots of Trees, in sacrifice,
dangling, drying, all askew.
Stand beside this suckled swath,
see nursing roots entwined,
Weaving deep in mineral path
A probing poke with stone enshrined.
A single root does no good
holding life secure to ground
Where lacing tight is understood
to free the leafy green unbound.
Behold the bold of other roots
and the strength they give as one,
Many mingled braided shoots
Hold earth from water’s run.
There is a truth in nature’s cut,
how helping gives a strength,
Protecting from eroding rut
so life can have its length.
Erosion speaks not a word,
yet its language is precise.
The wisdom of the undergird,
for man, is sound advice.
Summer’s wisdom is also profound!
Garden Grace
Two blossoms yellow, proud above the green,
stand strong and know their love is seen
By all who wander and by those who gaze
into this garden of wonder, a maze.
Color binds attention and form holds grace
attracting heart and spirit to this place.
The flowers stand as one and separate too,
symbols of the noble ones, too few.
They come to see and hold this place in love,
responding to an essence from above.
The nectar is the wine the flowers hold,
toasting through the touch of zephyr’s gold.
Tell all strangers who pass here, walking by:
The fragrance of the flowers glorifies
The spirit of the earth and nurtured seed
that blossoms into beauty when we need.
The fall is a time of gathering and getting ready for the winter cold.
Firewood
Wooded light stands darkly
ready for expression.
Letting go the warmth within,
giving up possession.
How powerful is this teacher,
this lecture of the wood,
Remembering the gift of sod
and light from a tree that stood.
It only takes a spark
to change the wood to fire,
And feel the sun again
in a golden lighted pyre.
Whoever holds a match or thought,
not knowing how it ends,
Gets sulphured cries of pain;
therein truth transcends.
In life and wood see the light,
the heat and the fire,
Then live in the moment,
as love becomes your choir.
And finally Winter comes with its harbinger "Jack."
Jack Frost
We much malign a draft of cold
slippin’ round a window old,
A chilling dash of winter clime
that paints a pane in ice of rime.
Without the draft and warmth within,
the crystal etch could not begin.
So let us praise the weathered sash
that lets us see a frost panache.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
A Twenty Dollar Bill
I looked at a twenty-dollar bill on my desk yesterday and remembered when I had to work twenty hours just to make that much. There are still many of us around who remember working for a dollar an hour.
Everything cost more these days. I understand the economics of time, inflation and progress, and the fact that the value of personal services are not the same as it was when I was making a dollar an hour. But still I wonder if the working young today can understand the phenomenal difference in the work value perspective?
Probably not! I did not when my Dad was making thirty-cents an hour as a line worker at General Electric in the 1940’s. I remember him saying that his union went on strike for a two-cent an hour increase and when they returned to work the members were jubilant.
My Dad was angry. He figured out it would take years of working before the two cents would make up for his lost wages. It didn’t make sense to him.
My Dad had three ethics. Be honest. Be strong, be honorable. He was a Canadian by birth. He grew up in a small border town where he had limited career choices. He could become a border guard, a semi-professional hockey player of which he was very good or he could immigrate to the United States and find another career path. He did the latter.
He was an auto mechanic, a gandy dancer, a sign painter and eventually a general foreman for GE.
On his own time he was a commercial artist, an inventor and a laconic wit of wise sayings.
It is amazing what a twenty dollar bill will make you think of sitting on a desk.
Everything cost more these days. I understand the economics of time, inflation and progress, and the fact that the value of personal services are not the same as it was when I was making a dollar an hour. But still I wonder if the working young today can understand the phenomenal difference in the work value perspective?
Probably not! I did not when my Dad was making thirty-cents an hour as a line worker at General Electric in the 1940’s. I remember him saying that his union went on strike for a two-cent an hour increase and when they returned to work the members were jubilant.
My Dad was angry. He figured out it would take years of working before the two cents would make up for his lost wages. It didn’t make sense to him.
My Dad had three ethics. Be honest. Be strong, be honorable. He was a Canadian by birth. He grew up in a small border town where he had limited career choices. He could become a border guard, a semi-professional hockey player of which he was very good or he could immigrate to the United States and find another career path. He did the latter.
He was an auto mechanic, a gandy dancer, a sign painter and eventually a general foreman for GE.
On his own time he was a commercial artist, an inventor and a laconic wit of wise sayings.
It is amazing what a twenty dollar bill will make you think of sitting on a desk.
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