More photos from the same hike

The lizard is a southern fence lizard, for those who are interested.

Here are some photos from my hike today

The picture where you see a trail and, on either side, blackened earth, is a photo of the charring caused by what must have been a recent brush fire. I was at this same spot 2 and a half weeks ago, and the fire had not yet occurred. Some blackening could be seen at the base of the trees, but it seems like the fire wasn't severe enough to really damage the trees.

Howard Zinn lecture

I went to a wonderful talk by Howard Zinn this evening. He's a wonderfully gifted speaker. He made a very clear case for exiting Iraq as soon as possible. The U.S. occupation is causing more violence to occur. It is an irritant, and even though we can't predict what will happen when we leave, our absence means the removal of one more obstacle on their journey toward a more normal and safer society. He pointed out that we, in this country, have a very limited sort of freedom of speech, where people are indeed allowed to say what they want. I can get up on a soapbox and talk to 50 people, but Procter and Gamble, who made the soap box, can talk to millions of people. Freedom of speech is also about quantity, and it is the large corporations that have the voice. One other thing from his lecture that really hit home for me was his blanket statement that war is never justified. I wholeheartedly agree. War, at least in his definition, always involves the indiscriminate killing of thousands of innocent people. During WWII, the good war, 50 million people were killed. Was this justifiable? The holocaust may never have happened, if there were no war, because the war generated widespread madness on both sides. On the German side, there was the madness of the holocaust. On our side there was the madness of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. By engaging in war, the cycle perpetuates. If we can refrain from war, and get at the root of the problem, the cycle can end. Although it seems unlikely, fantastic, and utopian, it is possible if we try. If we don't try, it is clearly impossible. Anyway, he said it much more eloquently and thoroughly than I can.

Side note: I got him to sign a copy of my book "The Southern Mystique." :)

Shakyamuni Buddha Quotes

I was surfing around online when I found a collection of
Buddha quotes.
Here are some of my favorites:

Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.

He who experiences the unity of life sees his own Self in all beings, and all beings in his own Self, and looks on everything with an impartial eye.

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.

Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.

Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful.

The world, indeed, is like a dream and the treasures of the world are an alluring mirage! Like the apparent distances in a picture, things have no reality in themselves, but they are like heat haze.

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.

Unity can only be manifested by the Binary. Unity itself and the idea of Unity are already two.

You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection.

Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others.

Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it.

Ladybug

Today's Sunrise

Some "weeds" from my yard

I love these tiny flowers. Around here they're one of the first harbingers of spring. Some people, who prefer a lawn which lacks biodiversity, consider them weeds. What are they thinking? Notice the ant in the second picture, which will give an idea of scale!

Note: The pictures are more impressive if you click on them for larger versions.

Look at this beautiful picture my new camera took of an ant on my bathroom floor!

I've always wanted to take pictures like this, and now I can. Life is beautiful. Thanks to my wife for scouting out the camera for me.

A better goldfinch picture

I've been fooling around with my camera, and snapped the above goldfinch picture, which is a vast improvement over the previous one, and is a vastly huge improvement over the smudge that my other camera would produce. This is a female goldfinch. The males have brighter yellow patches at this time of year. (During the summer the males are very yellow, while the females remain drab.)

Another hike

Here's a couple of pictures from a recent hike. In addition, we saw a very large garter snake, and some strange burrowing beetles. I tried taking a picture, but my camera isn't good enough to capture them well. I did look them up in my insect guide, but to no avail.

I just recently bought a new camera which has 10X optical zoom and 7.2 megapixels. Expect the image quality of my posts to go up. In fact, here are a couple of pictures I've taken from my den:

Two photos from a recent hike

This was an interesting hike. The day started out kind of cold, dark and miserable, but ended up being sunny, bright and summery. The trail went up onto a ridge and there were some awesome views of the surrounding tree-covered hills. It also wandered through an interesting little valley. At one point, I wandered off the trail to a hilltop where I meditated for a while. Very peaceful. My camera is not very good, so the pictures I took did not do justice to the beauty. Several times I would look at the trees against the blue sky on a neighboring ridge and it would look very beautiful. That's what I was trying to capture in the second picture above, although it doesn't come through as strongly as it does in person. The other picture is of some flowers that appear to have been planted along the trail. I don't know who would have done that in this remote location, but their efforts are appreciated!(As usual, click on the photos for a larger view.)

A poem I wrote a long time ago

Ranges

The Himalayas are young and Zen,
Though Appalachia is not, and riddled.
Appalachia recounts:

I don't have appreciable mass
Nor have I contrivable mirth
I am a considerable match
An intolerable myth
of history in destruction.

---------------

This poem, like most poems I wrote in this period of my life, is essentially a dialogue between my unconscious and the dictates of form. As a result, I can't say I know fully what it means, although it seems like I was having some issues with the aging process. When I wrote the poem, the phrase "An intolerable myth" rang like a bell in my consciousness after I had penned the previous three lines. In any event, I've always liked this poem, so I am sharing it. :)