Spirit

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.

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.

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.

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.

http://www.flixxy.com/little-north-korean-girl-playing-guitar.htm

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.

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.

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.

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.

Shame

I know that within every age and in every dictatorial, democratic, oligarchy, kingdom, monarchy and theocracy societies there are individuals who will group together for cruelty and torture.

I am ashamed that this is true anywhere in the world in this day and age, but especially from citizens of my country. Word is now public about a US Army ‘kill Team” in Afghanistan posing with photos of murdered civilians.

These sub-humans that have no compassion or honor killed and mutilated innocents civilians as a rogue US Stryker tank unit in the province of Kandahar. All of this happened last year and already 12 men are currently on trial for their role in the killing of three civilians.

Der Spiegel, a German news weekly has just or is about to publish images of the US soldiers abusing and then mutilating dead prisoners. Commanders fear a public fury even worse than the Abu Ghraib cruelty and abuse in Iraq.

The story is horrid. It is human cruelty and dispassion at its worst. It is an indelible stain on the standards and values that comprise the United States of America. Collectively we ought to hang our heads in shame for our children committed these crimes.

Where do these men come from?

They come from normal and ordinary homes that teach prejudice by example and hate of anybody looking different or believing differently.

They come from homes where parents are detached from their children’s lives and who fail to show that life is a grace and comprised of compassion.

They come from a sub-society of drug addictive personalities who cannot see the sacredness of life beyond their group uniform of power and delusional addictions.

Let us all pray in the manor of individual choice that these aberrations never again surface in any society under any circumstances anywhere in the world.

Angels weep when these kinds of crimes are committed and there are human tears everywhere for the choices these men made were wrong and it reflects on all of civilized humanity.

Friendship

I’ve just spent a few days with some old friends. We get together maybe once a year and pick up where we left off.

I think that’s one of the gifts of good friends. You show up and the conversation begins almost where it ended the last time. There are a few fill in’s of late breaking events in each life, but essentially it’s camaraderie and laughter at the outset.

I remember when I was in high school a teacher said to the class that we would be lucky to have five good friends in our lifetime. I thought he was crazy and looked around at all the kids I called friends.

As one moves from teenage years to the twenties, into the thirties and decades beyond, the experience validates the high school teacher's statement.

People come into our lives for a reason, a season or a lifetime.

Five good longtime friends are unique. I’m certain I have five and more and I am very lucky.

Friendship begins with humor, fun light-hearted one-liners and grows rapidly through mutual interests into a bond of trust, truth and honesty. In the trust, there is a deep mutual respect for the gifts of the other. In the truth, there are the acknowledgements that if one succeeds in anything, both do and in the honesty, there is a simple sharing of the pain and pleasure of life.

I hope you are as fortunate as I am.

The language of Roses

Tis almost spring and soon the rose bushes will bloom.

Most of us have at onetime or another sent flowers to someone and aside from the written wishes of love, or sympathy or get well, flowers, especially roses, have a language all of their own.

The burgundy rose, for instance, signifies simplicity and beauty. A yellow rose, infidelity and a white rose full of buds means secrecy.

Flower language has often been carried into art and architecture. On the carved trim work of many old mansion dining rooms and sometimes on the ceiling you can find sculpted white roses.

It is to remind the guests that any conversation uttered there under the influence of drink is to be kept private.

The Latin expression is "Sub Rosa."  It translates to under the rose and it mans in strict confidence.

How did all this get started?

In Greek mythology, it seems Cupid gave Harpocrates, the god of silence, a white rose to bribe him not to betray the loves of Venus. Harpocrates accepted the rose and the flower eventually became an emblam of silence, but the ancient Greeks made a mistake. They borrowed the god Harpocrates from the Egyptians thinking he was the god of silence because he kept a finger over his mouth. In ancient Egypt that was a sign of youth, not silence.

History stuck with the wrong god for keeping secrets. 

It's no wonder no one can keep them.

Tis The Day for Green

The Irish Connection is a good one within my family and some very good friends.

Saint Patrick’s Day is today. It is the day supposedly everyone is Irish. It rings true to me since there is a predominance of Irish blood that runs through my veins or should I say, “me veins”.

A number of my Celtic ancestors came from the old sod during the potato famine of the mid eighteen hundreds and established roots in Canada and the New England states.

I don’t know much about those folks or their escape from famine and oppression, but I do know the stories of mirth and woe from songs that my Mother would play on the piano and the family would sing when I was young.

A few years ago I spent a few week in Ireland, not as a tourist for I had done that on other travels, but as a resident in one place so I could experience the Irish life. The result was expressed in poetry. Here is one expression.

Ireland

© 2006 Rolland G. Smith

Much pain was felt before the joy

As history will attest.

Old Ireland’s memory does employ

A hunger all detest.

But now the Irish share their mirth

With Emerald green and mist.

T’was not the land of “me own birth,”

But tis a land I’ve kissed.

I’ve come to see and be as one

With the Irish spirit.

It’s there I know, it’s halcyon

Listen and you’ll hear it.

It comes from harps and leprechauns

And pipsiewaggins too.

It comes from tunes from vagabonds;

The gypsies traveling through.

I smell the peat smoke wafting pass

The green grass scented air.

Reminding me of Erin’s past

And Celtic colleens fair.

The rainy mist has finally gone

And I can see the sun.

With feathers dried and birds in song

The damp is finally done.

Though fair, this day, a chilly one

Set high along the coast.

The cragged rocks today’s dolmen

Is nature’s mark to toast.

But in this land forever green

The mist is part of her.

Tis here that I have keenly seen

The sun to rain defer.

Happy Saint Patrick’s day to all.

Death and Dying

Several friends have passed in recent weeks.  All endings get me thinking again about life and passages. 

We are both physical and spiritual beings. When we perceive through our physical bodies via the intellect each moment of being is mortally precious because we tie it to time.

Our spirit, the true essence of what it is we are, sees each moment as eternity, as complete and perfect for the linearity of time does not exist. If you accept that premise, the expression, "Live in the Moment" takes on a different meaning.

The body is a beautiful mechanism brought into form that allows the spirit to exist in this earthly density and environment. When the spirit is finished with what it came here to do it discards the body and returns to the Source and the body returns to the earth.

The human heart embraces both the spirit and the body. It is, by design, the most important organ in the body; without it no other organ can exist. It's pith, however, is more ethereal for it is attuned to the Divine as we joyfully participate in the experience of life, not only because we too are Divine, but also because it was a willing choice prior to our birth when omniscience was part of our being and we could choose the experiences we call life with angelic guidance and without the ego's intervention.

Understanding the dichotomy of letting go to always have is a constant struggle of being, of life.

Implicit in this thought is the understanding that we are not our bodies. Our bodies only house what we really are -- spirit!


Would that we could see far beyond the eye
To where the mind oft goes to be alone.
Where mystery blends with thoughts that never die
And magic melts the ice of what’s unknown.
The miracle of mind is what’s not seen
Accept what artist’s hands can clearly show
The Universe and time set in between
The silence and the thought, a vast tableau.
What greater gift is there, but to create
And greet imagination at its core.
It is in bringing forth that we await
The opening of wonder at the door.
The mind is just the hook to hold the thought
Before we let it go and what its wrought.

Profound Thoughts

My neighbor Keith posted a profound point on his face book page the other day and I'd like to share it with you.

Charlie Sheen is all over the news because he’s a celebrity drug addict, while Andrew Wilfahrt 31, Brian Tabada 21, Rudolph Hizon 22, Chauncy Mays 25, are soldiers who gave their lives this week with no media mention.

America's news media priorities have gone awry. America's viewers, you and me, need to be far more discriminating in what we tolerate as news from our news organizations. Let them. Some will listen.

Also:

1. Click here to write your Senators and tell them to save federal funding for public broadcasting!http://capwiz.com/170ma/issues/alert/?alertid=26970501&type=CO

1. Find your Senators through the following link:http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

1. Please call them at 202.224.3121 and ask him or her:

WHAT IS YOUR POSITION ON ‘ZEROING OUT’ THE BUDGET FOR PUBLIC MEDIA? I am a constituent who highly values the programming and services that my local public television and radio stations provide me, my family and my community. I strongly urge you to stand up for public broadcasting and oppose defunding public media. Please vote against the House Continuing Resolution (H.R. 1) to eliminate federal funding for public broadcasting.

Federal funding is critical for public broadcasting, allowing local public radio and television stations to provide educational services, in-depth news and public affairs programming, and world-class cultural content. Without the investment of this funding, many public radio and television stations across the country will be forced to go off the air.

Tsunami

Some thoughts on the earthquake in Japan and the Tsunami across the north and south pacific ocean.

Rich, poor, tourists, residents of cities and seaside ports surprised by a wrenching earth and walls of water. Such loss of life and still counting. All of mankind feels that kind of pain. There is nothing we can do to change it.

So many died so quickly. Grief is a personal hurt. Sorrow and sympathy are more universal and the world is responding with compassion and service. Gifts of food, clothing, tents, equipment, medicines, all needed, all appreciated.

Now comes the after-pain. Like the earthquake aftershocks, the after-pain is also a killer, but not nearly as fast. There is no quick end to despair. No easy answers to questions of why and no relief when cries have run out of tears.

It is not possible for us to hold a hand or hug someone in need in Japan or Hawaii or California or in the islands of the pacific. All we can do, in this human family, is be aware and to care. There is an energy that comes from that expression of compassion and it's powerful and it's healing.

King's Gambit

The last time common America had a consuming and infectious fear of anything was of Communism in the 1950’s and Senator Joseph McCarthy was the instigator.

McCarthy’s public rants and accusations turned out to be based on rumor, false statements, vendettas and slander. Innocent lives were altered and often ruined. It wasn’t until CBS and Edward R. Morrow on a series called See It Now presented a program on McCarthy that started America thinking.

The program itself did not bring McCarthy down; McCarthy did that himself.

Today it is no longer “Red Baiting” as it was in the 1950’s. Today it is “Muslim Baiting,” and it’s not a Senator, but a Congressman named Peter King from New York is the instigator.

He chairs the House Homeland Security Committee. He has entitled his hearings, “The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and that Community’s Response.”

The hearings are nothing but a testimony of polarizing fear. Pollsters have divided the “forers” and "aginers” into groups of differing opinions. Republicans and Democrats, young and old. Republicans and older Americans think we ought to be wary of Islam; Democrats and younger Americans do not.

There is so much more to this pervasive fear than the generalizations and percentages of pollsters. There are individual hates and prejudices for whatever reason that fester in the super patriotic hearts of many. There are the publicity seeking souls who will foster a fear for a different agenda and there is an underlying historic religious animosity between Christianity and Islam.

King’s hearings are too focused against one group. No wonder claims of McCarthyism have come to the fore. Homeland Security? Homeland Insecurity is more like it!

If the committee is going to hold hearing on security do so broadly. Drug Cartels are a threat to our internal security, where are those hearings? Oil Cartels are a threat to our internal security, where are those hearings? Corporate greed is a threat to our internal security and where are those hearings?

Islam as a religion and Muslims as practitioners are generally identifiable in look and practice. They are, therefore, an easy political target for a Congressman who wants to appease a constituency still trembling from the tragedy of 9/11.

Net Worth

I was reading the Washington Post yesterday and there was an article that immediately caught my eye.

In an article written by Dan Eggen, a Post staff writer says:

“The members of this year’s freshman class in Congress are far wealthier than the people they represent.

He sites that “the center of Responsive Politics calculates that 60 percent of Senate freshmen and 40 percent of new House lawmakers are worth $1 million or more.

Only one percent of Americas are worth that much.”

My question is…is this representative government?

I am happy for their success and cast no doubt upon their integrity to empathize with the one percent.

What I do wonder about is how do we get individuals who live in the one percent worth of life to run for congress? We need their experiences and counsel in Congress too, but with little or no money it is nearly impossible to run for office and campaign.

Let's Step Back

Contention lately seems to be the process by which one opinion does not listen to or even assimilate, as valid, other opinions of life and its possibility in the solvency of truth.

I am seeing, better yet, feeling a contention within the American system of civility and within the political structure of governance. Many sides are trying to maneuver us through the daily drudgery of existence. Most political passions do not understand the individuality of diverse daily lives.

The tea party folks have taken a minor accommodation of voting power into a false mandate of political change. Their victories are important and may be a trend and may at some point be the majority thinking, but at the moment it is not a mandate. It is a consideration and it must be acknowledged in the process of  political compromise and common sense.

There are many in this magnificent country that do not see or feel a swell of conservative values as a tidal surge for change.  It does not mean that conservative concerns should not be addressed and addressed with courtesy, consideration and inclusion.

Contention also does not mean that liberal values should be repudiated as wrong or seen as inimical to American principals. The political pundits in all of our media do a disservice to American ideals when they continue to pit side against side for the sake of ratings.

What all change and considerations mean is that the growing bulwark of ignorance needs to be publicly admonished and a common agreement of compromise must be cemented into the consciences of daily political and civil thinking. This is America; this is what we do as a democracy. It is not a fundamentalist takeover. It is the exercising of a fundamental principal in our constitutional guarantees.

Do not listen to those who support and promote fear as the buttress of our democracy.

This old world is in a powerful time of change as we transition into the future of aware consciousness.

Let us not linger in the morass of fear and violence and contention. Let us not forget that we are ONE and the miracle of life is not the Oneness, it is the diversity within the Oneness.

A Rant

Good Morning,

I'm home from a magnificent trip. Thank you to all of you who logged in whenever possible.

What is interesting to me as I catch up on the world's headlines is that so much of the information coming out of Libya and elsewhere as fact is really unconfirmed observation. Some of the world's media takes these reports as if the they are from trained journalists or reporters, but that is not the case.

I do not demean the information coming from either rebel forces or from the Government sources, but all of it is tainted to the belief of the deliverer and should not be considered as fact.

Unfortunately the Fox network is quick to accept any information that blends with their conservative philosophy and that may advance their commentators prognostications.

I still cannot accept anything Fox says until they become a legitimate reportorial organization that gives us only the facts and leaves opinion in can labeled "detritus."

We have so much to gain in this changing world by embracing truth. We have so much to lose by only acknowledging the fear that disruptive change engenders. Truth increases understanding. Fear builds a cocoon of seeming protection when it really segregates the open truth from the illusion of fear. To many of us are willing to live in the house of fear because the foundation of truth is courage and it requires a new house.

Fox is not the only the media outlet that by omission, innuendo and theatrics influence viewers opinion and awareness of current events.

I would like to make up my own mind without color, without shouts, without distortion. All of us are  capable of enlightened discernment without distortion. I encourage every media organization to get back to factual reporting and astute analysis labeled commentary.

I'm baaaaaack.

Homeward

Some random observations.

Wifi is now free in more places that a year ago. Bravo!

Americans are too fat.

The talk at the lunch counters centered the political contention again in Washington and not getting together to fund the daily operations of our government.

Other conversations thought NY Congressman Peter King's upcoming hearings into the radicalization of Muslim America were indicitative of McCarthism; others thought it was a good idea; too many others didn't care.

Everybody thought the weather sucks and can't wait for spring.

The roads are smooth in Colorado, Kansas and parts of Missouri.

The roads still need attention and repair in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and western Pennsylvania. New York has some problems with road surface too.

Semi-Tractor Trailer trucks should not try to pass another truck on a steep hill or any road with 3% inclines. I saw attempts that backed up car traffic for a quarter of a mile. It is discourteous and dangerous and causes frustrated drivers to take unnecessary chances.

If I criticize the truck passing, I must also compliment the truckers for their safety and courtesy for stopped vehicles along the road. They would pull out and give space to stopped vehicles or to police stopping a vehicle. 

And “NO”, they don’t always eat at the best places.

One state’s speed limit is 75 and another 70 and then another 65. The roads are the same. Why the difference? They are all part of the federal interstate system and I am not talking about going through cities where the speed limit should be less.

Many thanks to all of you for tuning in to this Colorado adventure.

A major thank you and compliment to Seth, the night manager at a Best Western Motel in Greenfield, Indiana. His technical expertise went above and way beyond to fix a problem in order to make this post.

Thank you Seth and thank you Best Western. I'm a fan.

rgs

Last Day

Today is the last day of skiing for the 2011 Colorado season. I’ve loved it. There is nothing like the sharing of fun times with good friends and fine conversations.

I normally don’t post on weekends, so Monday will be the next epistle as I motor eastward and home.

Here are some pictures from the week. Most of them were taken by my friend Bruce, a consummate photographer.

Again

I'm off today for another test of gentle endurance. It means I won't grunt, complain, sputter, or even question why I am here in this glorious place. I will, of course, need understanding when I ache and sympathy when I wince, but beyond that I will tough it out and prevail. LOL

I've often wondered if in that " Other Place" it is more wonderful than some of nature's wonders in this place. I think it is, but in this finite mentality and density it is difficult to fathom how anything could be more beautiful or generate more wonder than the mountains of the Rockies. The majesty here is poetry in its most solid form.

Close up of groomed ridges

Within the glide on carpet's white

There is the frame of lasting bright.

Where worries end and laughs begin

With nature's breeze a violin.

Her music guides me in this joy

On ridges groomed in Corduroy.

Happy Birthday Ann!

Mountain Magic

I skied again yesterday and my muscles are telling me to take up knitting.

I remember my Grandmother saying, “knit one and pearl two,” whatever that means. Today I am pearling two and resting the Sartorius and Rectus Femoris and I am favoring the Gastronemius.

The rest of my bodies muscle groups seems to be content with a vodka gimlet.

I have mentioned the grace of silence that skiing engenders to those who take the time to listen. But there is another endemic element of the Rocky Mountains that one also feels. Power!

Standing on the summit one can feel the internal force and the magnitude of the mountain’s Being. It has an energy that permeates the soul and reinforces the grandeur of life.

Perhaps that’s why  smiles are part of skiing.

 

Skiing

A glorious day!

Windy on top at 11-thousand plus altitude, but warmish in the sun. Ambient temperature 23 degrees. I promised pictures of the silence and here they are.

More tomorrow too.