Saturday, December 8, 2007
Snowy Sunrise & Sunset
Thursday 8am the sun called me outside - after two days of snowy weather - such a treat. Three days of snow, while it was only totaled about 2 inches, remained powdered and white. Quite a new experience for me. (That’s Ganesh above in snowy sadhana).
Walking the acreage, nature puts on a show for me, one that I hadn’t seen before. See the Snowy Sunrise photo gallery for more inspiration.
Tonight was an equally inspired sunset...a different kind of golden, a different play of golden light on the snow... and o, the sky! See Snowy Sunset pics here.
Butternuts Community
Well went into town to give Alberta a few things for her Mandir. She loves Tagore and I told her I was planning to visit his university in Kolkota in February. She asked me to bring a book she drew to his poems. I took some pics of the amazing mandir she is building on her lawn, and her to show the folks at the Tagore University. You can see her pics here...stunning.
She has drawn thousands of intricate, minute detailed mandalas, published several books of mandals including the new mandala coloring book that is transforming the lives of prisoners and an older woman with Alzheimer's.
She has also made hand-painted quilts with her mandala designs. Amazing, I’ll get some pics to show you. The quilts and her coloring book are sold in town at Nona’s quilt shop. See the pics here.
Talking with folks around here is real. People stop and chat for half hour or so. Relaxed, the way it should be. Talking with Nona, she told me during WorldWar II, vegetables weren’t available from stores, so the farmers each grew something different, and whatever you needed, you would just go and ask for; you needed tomatoes, went to the tomato farmer and got what you needed. Someone needed potatoes and you grew them, you gave them what they needed. No payment, no balance sheets, just people living interdependently.
And here I am trying to tell folks this idea that the indigenous folks lived, and how we can aim for such a more natural economy, and today I learn that it was a reality in during the war. It’s not some utopian fantasy, it really works. So lets think about living that way as best as possible.
Afterwards I drove into Oneonta, found the local health food store cum cafe sells local organic veggies. I got some winter squash and butternut squash; with a name like that, I had to get that. Im told there are butternut nuts growing in the summer, so I look forward to that experience. Annie’s Bread & Butter - I’ve had a few cooked meals there, all delicious and inexpensive. And all the bread and butter you want is free...
Picked up a digital video camera to make some talks to put on the web; some interviews with folks to hear how they have created solutions for a more natural life; others will be talks, ideas I’d like to share.
That’s it for now...
Envision your peace and paradise, and live it more each day.
Envision your peace and paradise, and live it more each day.
