Entertained by chickens
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” Plato
I love that this week I was told the best I can do to help certain islands and cultures is to reduce my impact on global warming. It fits right into my paper and feelings of home. I feel most at home in nature and when being in nature I do not impact the planet at all.
It was the same with Basho, Saigyo, Issa and other Japanese poets I focused on for my paper. They write poems about frogs, flies, rain and other aspects of nature often overlooked. They would be considered simple minded and even stupid by many today.
“Why are they not focused on politics?
Why are they not focused on teaching?
Why are they not focused on activism?
Do more! Do more! Do more!” -The masses of today would scream.
Sunset on volcano from Alaskan home
The truth is, a person who separates themselves from typical cultural habits/norms is a rebel and an activist. They may not label themselves activists or run around preaching to the choir but they are changing the world one meal and/or poem at a time. They may be isolated and alienated from their fellow citizens who demand they do more, but they don’t want publicity and/or spotlight.
Here are a few quotes I try to live by.
“Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.”- Henry David Thoreau
“Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.”- Henry David Thoreau
“Never ask a woman about other men. Either she’ll tell you a lie, and you still won’t know, or if she tells you the truth, you might not have wanted to hear it in the first place.”- Malcolm X
“A strong and healthy body is essential to all things, physical and spiritual.”- Dan Millman
“Boredom is only for people who do not know themselves or the wonders of life.”-Dan Millman
“If a person sweeps streets for a living, he should sweep them as Michelangelo painted, as Beethoven composed, as Shakespeare wrote.” Martin Luther King Jr.
“I cried because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet.” –Persian Saying
“To be a champion, you have to believe in yourself when nobody else will.” – Sugar Ray Robinson
“Nature has given to us one tongue, but two ears, that we may hear from others twice as much as we speak.”- Epictetus, a greek sage
“Just by listening deeply we alleviate pain and suffering.”-Buddhist Saying
Last but not least, a poem I love….
“Peaceful warriors have the patience to wait
Until the mud settles and the waters clear.
They remain unmoving until the right time,
So the right action arises by itself.
They do not seek fulfillment, but wait with open arms
To welcome all things.
Ready to use all situations, wasting nothing,
They embody the Light.
Peaceful warriors have three great treasures:
Simplicity, patience, and compassion.
Simple in actions and in thoughts,
They return to the source of Being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
They live in harmony with the way things are.
Compassionate toward themselves,
They make peace with the world.
Some may call this teaching nonsense;
Others may call it lofty and impractical.
But to those who have looked inside themselves,
This nonsense makes perfect sense.
And for those who put it into practice,
This loftiness has deep roots.”
-Lao-tzu