Here we are in February of 2016, and on a day that has meaning of all kinds or none at all. I like to celebrate love, and want to share something from an author I love in honor of whatever this day means to you.

Annie Dillard’s writing is rooted in the Tao, and the graphic descriptions of nature are sometimes sharp as they are in this piece. If you choose not to follow the link to the full short story, may this serve as your valentine:

“The weasel lives in necessity and we live in choice, hating necessity and dying at the last ignobly in its talons. I would like to live as I should, as the weasel lives as he should. And I suspect that for me the way is like the weasel’s: open to time and death painlessly, noticing everything, remembering nothing, choosing the given with a fierce and pointed will.”

– Annie Dillard, “Living Like Weasels”

Full short story HERE.

Between birth and death,
Three in ten are followers of life,
Three in ten are followers of death,
And humans just passing from birth to death also number three in ten.
Why is this so?
Because they live their lives on the gross level.

One who knows how to live can walk abroad
Without fear of rhinoceros or tiger.
They will not be wounded in battle.
For in them rhinoceroses can find no place to thrust their horn,
Tigers no place to use their claws,
And weapons no place to pierce.
Why is this so?
Because they have no place for death to enter.

– Lao Tsu, Tao Te Ching

June? I last posted in June. One part of my summer was diving into some divine books. One book I keep reading again and again is “Shambala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior” by Chogyam Trungpa. I have been deeply exploring one particular passage that feels so relevant to the dynamics of our communal here and now:

“If you want to solve the world’s problems, you have to put your own household, your own individual life, in order first. That is somewhat of a paradox. People have a genuine desire to go beyond their individual, cramped lives to benefit the world. But if you do not start at home, then you have no hope of helping the world. So the first step in learning how to rule [authentically contribute] is learning how to rule your household, your immediate world. There is no doubt that, if you do so, then the next step will come naturally. If you fail to do so, then your contribution to this world will be further chaos.”

Almost a year and a half ago I committed to a weekly practice that is an inexpressable influence in my life : playing music with the Catskill Mountain Gamelan.

Since I can’t express it, I’ll borrow some words from the I Ching!

Hexagram 16 / Yu / Enthusiasm

” When, at the beginning of summer, thunder–electrical energy–comes rushing forth from the earth again, and the first thunderstorm refreshes nature, a prolonged state of tension is resolved. Joy and relief make themselves felt. So too, music has power to ease tension within the heart and to loosen the grip of obscure emotions. The enthusiasm of the heart expresses itself involuntarily in a burst of song, in dance and rhythmic movement of the body. From immemorial times the inspiring effect of the invisible sound that moves all hearts, and draws them together, has mystified mankind.”

This Spring is mesmerizing!
I’ve got giant baskets and recycled drums full of peas and bird-pleasing flowers anywhere I can fit them. I love seeing herbal treasures pushing out of sidewalk blocks on my walk to work. And when I want to delight in even more garden treasures, urban and otherwise, I peek at the lush plant folly of these sites/sights:

Kingston local loveliness: https://www.facebook.com/KingstonYMCAFarmProject?fref=ts
Just across the river: https://www.facebook.com/TheHerbalAcre
Beyond: http://www.soulemama.com/