My Memory of Ed Broadbent

Tags

Abe Taylor, Bill Rutherford Sr., canada, Ed BroadBent, education, history, imperialism, Last Post, NDP, NDY, politics

CANADA – FEBRUARY 05: Edward Broadbent 1982-83 (Photo by Jeff Goode/Toronto Star via Getty Images) This was my memory of Ed’d early days. 3/21/1936 — 1/11/2024 87 years young.

Some years ago here in my files of blithering, I posted my A.R.M. Document. At that time, I suggested intentionally voiding one’s ballot, as a protest against the rigged money system of voting. Those must be counted, at least in many, if not all jurisdictions within Canada. Who knows what the legal protocol is in other countries?

Despite my former allegiance to the NDP for many decades, plus my adoration for Ed, the man and his stand for justice and equality, my gut sense is that with the reversal of governance through Inverted Totalitarianism; i.e., the corporations now tell governments worldwide what’s trump, (vide: Sheldon Wolin) voting will not get the societal change needed to reverse this spiritual deficit humans are mostly completely blind to.

55 years ago at 20, I was a boy in a man’s body, still wet behind the ears, as far as what could be achieved through overt political action.

Truth is a matter of fiction, since in war, and make no mistake, the working class has been in an information war long before the digital age began. Truth is the first wartime casualty; an old line. What we are all experiencing now is the classic Marxist class war between those who own and those who work, the employing class and their employees; yeah, you wage slaves; ‘cept you don’t know that, let alone admit you are one. hahaha

1. Truth depends upon where we access information.
2. Who the investigative journalists work for and their lineage of analytic coverage.
3. What filters we apply as individuals as to the veracity of those statements?
4. Who benefits from decisions we are all asked to implement?

Also, a little while ago, the good American liberal Bret Weinstein with his dear wife Heather Heying interviewed by Tucker Carlson, theorized that the West has already fallen, since, we have entered the unemotional intellectual territory of amorality, not knowing nor discussing the diff between right and wrong, such as Germany and AmeriKa sending munitions to Israel to support their genocide of the Palestinian people. Reminds me of yet ‘nother dictum: “What is our oil doin’ beneath your sand?” The so-called bombing campaign by the Zionists is only ’bout land. I digress…or due eye? hahaha

The following is my memory of an earlier and far simpler era, where politics and voting may have had a chance outta the gate, at placing the human within the natural world, without which, he cannot take our next breath.

I remember Landslide Ed well, as he was then nicknamed from my earliest recollection in 1968, when he first ran for the Federal NDP in Oshawa, my hometown. I was barely 20, finishing a 5 year part-time school job as assistant caretaker at the Oshawa (McLaughlin) Public Library. Trudeau-mania was sweeping the country. And so it was that Canada too, developed a hero-worship of a kind, based upon the shallowness of looks and athletic agility, not to mention a gift for gab; as if one man could fix all that ailed any country.

Front & centre, hahaha Xmas 1965 Oshawa Public Library This is the first time this image has been publicly shared. jayöh @17. A very informative time in a boy’s teen years. Notice the swept-back bouffant hairstyle, the glitter 3-piece suit with the purple over the ankle boots…oh yeah, plus the white bobby socks! So sorry, no kiss ‘n tell for voyeurs.

Ed came as a green poli-sci prof from York U, if memory serves. He was severely chastised by UAW 222 president Abe Taylor for wearing a tweed jacket and drivin’ a Volvo, of all things. Abe told Ed that if he wanted to be elected, he’d better buy a Chevrolet and nix that sport jacket. Ed ran against Mike Starr, (Labour Minister in Dief’s PC cabinet) who was for a time earlier, known by his Ukrainian surname of Mike Starchewsky. Mike was told to Anglicize that. He concurred. Such was/is the pressure for political office. There were two ballot counts in the Oshawa riding in June of 1968, with Ed winning each time; the second recount was slightly larger in single digits (8 vs 11 or 15…not much anyway). Memory fades after 55 years in this elder adult genre.

I met Ed several times while in my first year of University at the then Waterloo Lutheran U, now Sir Wilfrid Laurier U. My best friend at the time was Bill Rutherford Jr. Together we made over 2000 hand silk-screened Bristol-board lawn signs for Ed’s 1968 campaign run, using the ole squeegee method and building supply store 1×2’s for the stakes. Bill was son of Bill Rutherford Sr., the union president of Houdaille Industries, manufacturer of automotive bumpers and bathtubs.

The workers loved Bill Sr., a known Communist Party member, as he won for his workers the best benefit packages and biggest pay contracts in that industrialist city, over and above what Abe’s 222 local won for the blue collar workers at GM. It’s interesting in how the office white collar workers got pay increases only after the union won for their blue-collar workers raises. So much for corporate largesse and benevolence. Do you know the real diff between blue and white collar workers? We blue boys shower and bathe after we work in the evening; while the white collar dudes and dudettes wash and bathe in the AM before they herd in to do the man’s dirty work. Imagine that, eh?! hahaha Oshawa is now a bedroom community for Big Smoke commuters, since GM is a fading shadow of its once marketplace dominance, sigh.

In 1969 I was elected VP of Education for the Federal NDY, the youth branch of the party, at a small national convention in an Oshawa union hall. We were all quite radical in those dayze; a few of us remain so, alas. I wear a t-shirt with the words “UNAPOLOGETICALLY AUTHENTIC” emblazoned upon it. Yet ‘nother says: “MAKE 1984 FICTION AGAIN”. Usually, I am looked upon with eyes rolled backwards when sayin’ or sporting those words on my clothing.

Authentic

The Federal NDY supported the Waffle group led by Laxer and Watkins, whose sole intention was to shift the party back to its socialist origins with the X-tian ministers from the Prairies like Douglas and Woodsworth, through discussion and democracy at the local riding level. Check out Tommy’s YT video of Mouseland, the speech he gave in 1969 at the Oshawa Ukranian Hall. Ed did not support the move to affirm the essence of the Waffle’s manifesto. He could not. There were other powerful players that swayed many; principally the Lewis brigade (David, Stephen and Michael behind the scenes), alas.

Ed believed in and promulgated the notion of Industrial Democracy. This is where workers at factories, (in the dayze before the West made the enormous tactical error of giving away our industrial base to China), had a duty, indeed a gawd-given right to own: A) a say in how consumable items were made, B) how the profits from the sale of those widgets would be distributed and C) a fair distribution of seats at the boardroom table on how the company was run. All of that was capitalist heresy then, nowadays perhaps even more so. The term Industrial Democracy could be and was to some extent, used interchangeably with ~ socialism, social democracy, participatory democracy, democratic socialism (by definition this phrase is redundant) and oft-times by the uninitiated ignore-ant as Alan Watts uses the term, as a form of communism (Marxian, not to be confused with Stalinism or State Capitalism). Industrial Democracy was a decent attempt at soft-peddlin’ phraseology, for the sake of injecting true democracy into the workplace.

In my second year, I moved up the street to the so-called engineer’s palace, “the plumbers’ school”, Waterloo U, where poli-sci became my major. Ed loaned me his Ph.D. dissertation on the social democracy of John Stuart Mill, a liberal English writer, philosopher and political theoretician. In October of 1970, after True-Dough the Sr, invoked the country-wide WMA (War Measures Act) for a local Quebec insurrection, I dropped outta university, yet, have never ceased learning, as my curiosity as to how the human + natural world functions, is as avid today, as it was then. Professors at Waterloo were being arrested by police alongside the then undercover army boys for entertaining radical left-wing viewpoints. Wow, imagine some folks not towin’ the propaganda of our governments. Or even having’ a different opinion, based on government published stats, such as the correlation, of excess deaths with the injections of the so-called vaccines during the scamdemic. Only then, eh?! hahaha! Few recall that the WMA exercised no habeas corpus, no phone call to a lawyer, or a parent/spouse/next of kin plus internment for an undisclosed time period without charge. Chief among the analytical metaphors, that has been for this scribbler then, as it is now, as it has always been: Follow the money!

I’ve yet to meet anyone who remembers the excellent Quebec news magazine of the day called The Last Post. Its tagline was Publish-it and be Dammed. As an aside, recently, Tucker Carlson, of whom I had no love when he was gainfully employed by Foxy Entertainment, masquerading as a NEWS outlet, gave a speech in Al Freakin’ Berta where he said (paraphrasing…) ‘Canadians won’t talk ’bout anything!’ Duh, now how did he know?! I’m still in love with interrobangs. My fondness for this country is not lost on my own yuk yuk that: Canada is the biggest island on planet E-air-th (spelling courtesy of David Abram in his tome: Becoming Animal) everyone’s livin’ here on permanent vacation.

Make 1984 Fiction Again

Ed wanted Canada to move beyond the social welfare state. There’s a good link here in Jacobin to describe that essence from Ed.

I never met Ed again, as he went to Ottawa as an MP; I got married, raised 3 offspring as a product of me own protoplasm, with my then spouse near Belleville and Brighton ON-Terrible (expats only allowed), heartily entered the world of vulgar materialism as a woodworker, using the many guises in that profession (sawyer, carpenter, cabinetmaker, furniture maker, veneerist and finally high-performance loudspeaker manufacturer under the brand of Waveform) to earn a living. One should not entertain the notion, that the words capitalist and entrepreneur are synonymous, as they diverge qualitatively.

Thanks so much for this opportunity to remember a fine human being, an early mentor of mine in the man of Ed Broadbent, who served his riding constituents and the citizens of Canada proudly and honourably. Many blessings Thy departed, but, not forgotten by those who remember.

The above image was posted on the passing of Ed Broadbent at their site: Broadbent Institute .

The bulk of this storey was sent to the Broadbent Institute for publication, since they solicited such ramblings.

I sincerely appreciate your reading down this far. 🙏

I AM John Gabriel Ötvös, aka jayöh.

a water fast

Tags

alan watts, consciousness, John Otvos, Leo Tolstoy, prostate cancer, reverend James Sherman, Tao The Watercourse Way, water fasting

…a movement from an exterior mode of consciousness to a fuller sense of interiority.

12 ounces every hour on the hour using the stove’s timer judiciously

H₂O makes up between 60—80% of our body, depending upon whose science you subscribe to.  Regardless, humans can only live a few days without it, depending on circumstances.  We can live without food, however, for 2—3 weeks, depending again…. As far as air deprivation goes, unless you are a Herculean Guinness Book world record holder athlete, or, underwater swimmer, a few minutes without and you’ve likely crossed over to shake hands with your maker’s extended family, as long as your Truth accepts that viewpoint. Me? I dunno.  No experience.

A.W. ~ a favoured mentor who put gobbledygook into plain language.

I’ve never completed a water fast before, nor any other type. Any fast requires planning and should not be executed for long periods, unless under qualified and experienced supervisory personnel. I had planned a 5-day experience, but, as the saying goes: Life is what happens when you’re making other plans. Sister tells me: ‘We Otvos’s overdo things to extremes.’ Karma, eh? hahaha Sheesh!

Four days before the planned event, I began to lower my total caloric intake and was meditating more regularly.  This is a large part of the key secret to those who live in the Blue Zones, the areas where folks routinly live to be 100 years old or more.  Additionally, older folks in these areas, eat little animal foodstuffs, concentrating in the main, on whole plant foods, exercise, community engagement and companionship. Yeah team!

1. Okinawa, Japan
2. Sardinia, Italy
3. Loma Linda, CA, USA
4. Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula
5. Ikaria, Greece

Ostensibly, I did have the intention of losing 2-3 kilos, not that I was grossly overweight, but a slight belly roll needed a trim for spring. Long cold winters here in Canada, do shut us single rural elders in more often; therefore, the temptation to self-medicate with excess calories especially in the evening when absolutely unneeded can go unheeded. I was also interested in a cleanse of any residual toxicity in my body, plus releasing any fat ingrown through my organs and their surrounding tissues. What I did not count on, was the unexpected delight of the silver lining.  I’ll save that savouring for later.

Day –1: Tuesday, April 21st. I last ate at 7:30 PM. No further food nor water past 7 PM. As a former EBRT patient for prostate cancer, if I drink past that witchin’ hour, I’ll be up multiple times during REM to visit the urinal, since I now have a 2-1/2 hr only, bladder. This is a lingering side-effect from electronic beam radiation treatment. At least the tumour in my doughnut has left the playin’ field, being now discharged, these past two years.

Day 1: I drank a full 12 oz glass of H₂O every hour from sunrise to sunset, about 13 in all 7 AM—7 PM. I set the timer on the stove to one hour before each drink.  No food whatsoever. Yeah, plenty of pee breaks feeling the wind in my face and his, on the mountainside backyard, such as it is. I live and garden at the edge of a forest. Some may be familiar with the adage postulated by a seasoned rishi/shaman/guru, that if you cannot throw one off your back step, yur livin’ too close! What I thought were hunger pangs, 4X that first mornin’, were in effect, only stomach contractions.  I became the more astute witness to my own body sensations, which, was a delightful harbinger for the entirety of the fast. These abdomen contractions lasted a millisecond, but with the house locked down with no screens, i.e., no large screen Hoopla or Netflix evenings, nor, clicking through the 120 odd YouTube channel subscriptions; not even the desktop computer for world event news and inevitable emails. Friends and acquaintances would have to wait for their pocket notifications.  True friends did call, as did I, them. It’s crucially important to not do anything with much physical or emotional exertion.  Save your energy as it will surely drain hourly. This also means no vehicle usage or any other machinery. Your sense of control will likely be compromised.  My thought has been for a long time, that we have capitalism and we have unfolding climate catastrophes now everywhere, moving at warp speed upon us; plus this COVID-19 pandemic, all caused by an economic system, based entirely upon profit rather than wellbeing; so then, what else does one need to know? Leo Tolstoy teaches that knowldege is limitless, so the difference between those who know a lot and those who know little, is infinitesimal.

Coincidently, those all begin with the letter C, see/sea? Water eh? The foundation of all life here on E-air-th. hahaha

Day 2: This time the tummy sent contractions with a 1—2 sec. duration, but, only in the early AM. There was a slight blizzard where the snow did now stay, yet a deposit of 10mm persisted for a spell.  Reason? Same as the 2″ hail in the southern US, the hundreds of tornadoes outta season and the tragic loss of life. The prolonged cold in northern climes such as the late spring here in NS. Russia experienced the warmest Jan. & Feb. in history [+5° C over normals] since the 1840s, when meteorological records began being regularly kept. Moscow was a balmy 21°C this past January with no snow. Oh well. The Arctic polar air vortex, aka the jetstream, has collapsed. I began reading 2-yr. old back issues of The Sun, a magazine in print since 1974 published in North Carolina, editor: Sy Safransky, dropped off by a very dear friend. Meditation became progressively easier and most importantly, I wanted to remain in the chair for this Aching legs zazen as Alan Watts referred to the Buddhist method of long intervals.  ‘Cept, I employ a chair, as my ole knees no longer allow the crossed leg asana.

That night, I filled the tub, so as to lounge up to my neck in very hot water, not so hot as to develop red capillary skin damage, but, quite luxurious, nonetheless. Yeah, I know, that damned carbon footprint gets us every time.  The absurdity of our being and of our humanity, simultaneously. I had planned to listen to an old cassette tape recording of a man I really appreciate: The Reverend James Sherman, pastor of Unity Church Toronto, ON. The subject was: How To Pray, a tape I sincerely love and enjoy reacquainting my noodle with, by listening every few years.  I originally took part as a congregational person in 2004 for the original sermon. The giving was 50 minutes long.  Normally I only soak/bathe for 1/2 hour at most. It’s good prep for a soundless sleep. As I stood up to get out and dry off, I instantly became dizzy, fainted loosing consciousness briefly, then coming out of that after a very bad bang on the back of the head; the proverbial wake-up call. Low blood sugar from the fast + excess heat and my senior status, well. I’ve no idea how long that faint or unconscious period lasted.

more than 1″ long Try taking an image of the back of your head at a specific spot, looking in a wall mirror *facing away*, holding a hand mirror to locate the spot, all the while holding a P&S camera and trying to locate the trigger button, while holding all this still in the wrong hand? hahaha

Food deprivation and prolonged excessive heat had gripped this 72-yr. old bawdy, so grabbing hold of the wall in front…after that, it was a blanked blur. Struggling to get up, I found my bite plate, chomped on the bit and fell onto the bed, too fatigued and disoriented to get under the plumo [sp?][Austrian], you know better as an eiderdown or duvet.

My new blue sheets. Hydrogen peroxide fixed most of the stains.

Day 3: Outta the sack @ 6:30 AM, after tossing and turning all night, waking far too early, I awoke to see copious amounts of blood on both pillows.  I wandered into the bathroom where I had fainted, saw my head blood on the floor and where my noggin had bonked the hardwood door. As I brushed my longish hair [lockdown is forcing new hairstyles] sorry Shelley, [hairdresser] the brush bristles passed over the goose egg et quelle surprise. Ouch!

to wit: pg 95: “It is thus a common joke that believers in the unreality of matter have difficulty in convincing anyone of the unreality of pain.”

There was a faith healer from Deal,

Who said, “Although pain  is not real,

When the point of the pin

Goes into my skin,

I dislike what I fancy I feel.”

Those sheets got spot cleaned and washed twice, then christened the rotary line outside for the initial warm breath of spring air. Nothing better in life then a naked bod betwixt clean laundered sheets hung on an outdoor line.  Well, let’s not get too risqué, huh? In Courtenay, BC, the condo Strata regulation where I briefly owned, prevented any such airing of one’s ‘dirty’ laundry.  A pox on rules for looks alone! ‘Sides, I’m an anarchist anyway[s]. For the uninitiated, the original meaning, to which I subscribe for anarchy means: no hierarchy.

I decided not to quit the fast, but, vowed 3 days was ’nuff. I would end fasting the next day on Sat. morning and ingest some sustenance. Normally, I set out breaky with a plate load of frozen berries, then meditate after my hour for Kripalu yoga.  That morning, I was able to turn the 15-minute “hour” glass over 3X, remaining seated, as minutes turned into flashes of insight.  I would look at the emptied sand particles in the upper chamber and—so? Oh~kay. This was the first time ever. The fast had caused me to love zazen. I finally felt a becoming, a Oneness with All That There IS! A most brief unstimulated high.

15-min timer fashioned from plumwood, a gift by a former father-in-law’s backyard in Oshawa. Ebony standoffs, an MO signature element.

Earlier in the day, I had completed reading Alan Watts’s final book, released posthumously in 1975 by his wife, 2 years after he departed our common terra firma.

His last work, posthumously released by his wife, two years after his death at 58. Highly recommended!

Day 4: Down for the count:

1. Saturday, April 18th. >169 lbs
2. Wednesday, April 22nd. >165 lbs
3. Saturday, April 25th.  >159 lbs
4. Sunday, April 26th. >161 lbs

I first ate at 10:30 AM, which, is consistent with my normal practice of 2 meals/day and intermittent fasting, i.e., 16 hrs. between meals. Light eating was the prerequisite, not too much, with plenty of liquids.  WOW, how good food tasted!  My normal practice is to lay everything out on a plate, as I usually eat between 10 to 20 different types of whole plant foods.  But the taste, my gawd!  Like many, I too, used to toss everything into one bowl, mix ’em up and use a lever [spoon/fork] as one would a shovel. Not recommended!

Feel the beating 💗 of the Sufi poet, regarding smell, taste, etc., ~Ibn al ‘Arabi from his Theophany of Perfection:

Belovèd, how often have I called you and you do not hear?

How often have I stood before you,

and you do not witness Me?

How often have I embodied Myself in scents,

and you do not inhale?

And in the flavours and you do not savour the taste

for My sake?

What is the matter with you,

that you do not feel me when you touch?

Why do you not recognize Me in the fragrances of musk?

Why do you not see Me, why do you not hear Me?

What is the matter with you?

What is the matter with you? 

Baba Ghanoush Woodville style: with red, orange and green pepper, + added chopped chives, just beginning to force through in this late spring.

*Ahhh, when the call comes and it’s the low time for Beethoven’s first movement, you may experience some time delay.  With no fibre pushing the muse along, it does tend to compress and dry out. Gives new meaning to the words, sucked dry. This is meant only as a caution, so take care and enjoy the throne read, while leaning forward, so your forearms rest on your thighs, as that’s the recommended posture from Dr. Michael Greger, my main man, i.e., [only the science…oops, I meant the evidence folks] if you are not assuming an African or Asian squat position.

Here’s the silver lining for the readers who have been patiently salivating.  In a few words, clarity, complete calm, a clear serenity of Being, plus a sense that whatever was happening in the human-centred world was just fine, regardless of attributing fault, blame, rightness or wrongness, shame or other witless, sarcastic commentary. Whenever any negative thought would form into my awareness, it would be witnessed by the watcher, acknowledged and immediately vanish from whence it came—on its own accord! When it comes to judging others, the Christian Bible in Luke:6:42 and I parapharse in current lingo~ ‘Hypocrite! First extract the tree trunk lodged within your own eye, then sea clearly how to remove the tree’s twig that’s stuck in your sister or brother’s eye.’

As Alan Watts teaches us in his last work: Tao The Watercourse Way , I was able to really focus on the matter at hand.  Since I had previously shut off all the screens, books, magazines, classical and folk music came fullstream back into my life.  How easy it is to turn on some flick or YT vid and get sucked into someone else’s form of what’s important such as their puddle. So, yes, they will yank you in then under, should you be a pipsqueak to allow that pull. What then took the place of the negativity was a profound Love and great warmth of feeling for all life and existence itself.  The HeartMath Institute teaches us that the heart produces an electromagnetic aura 60X larger than our brain.

As Alan teaches any who will pay attention, the things we term opposites are really polarities.  One cannot have a coin without a head and tail,  No battery without a positive and negative terminal. No wave without a trough and crest. I look forward to a return to that home again and again.

Getting a full fridge back with good stuff to eat, such as a whole flour multi-grain loaf with my 25-yr-old trusty Westbend twin paddle machine. My priority is nutrition with taste following. After 10 years at this alone, one begins to know what works and tastes good.

Changes in our lives begin with changes in our thoughts. Changes in how we think are much more important than the efforts we make to change our lives” ~ Leo Tolstoy April 26th Wise Thoughts For Everday. Tolstoy was a devout Christian, yet an avantgarde one, by firmly believing in the human intellect. He was a vegan, like eye. ‘Cept I loathe that nom de plume.  Rather I eat an evidence-based dietary regimen. It is theoretically possible for one to digest freedom fries [for the yanks who’ve perused down this far] sip a Pesi for a drink and finish that all off with a Twinkie, then refer to yur diet as vegan.  Most nutritious, eh!? hahaha Love them thar interrobangs.  Go on, look it up.  It’s legal and good grammar, i.e., for those few who still read, alas.

A perfect loaf as I begin to understand how to use bulk bread yeast; wholewheat, gluten, ground flax, honey, sea salt, rye flour, besan flour [chickpea] kamut flour, sunflower and pumpkin seeds.

All in all, yet another feeble attempt to walk my talk, yet,

🎶I’m so happy to be alive;

I’m also pleased that you’re here.

🙏

Your experience may differ.

I AM John Gabriel Ötvös, aka jayöh.

PS: About the I AM, to be continued….

the ten thousand true treasures to cherish

Tags

Albert Einstein, art, attachment, Belief, body, camaraderie, contentment, crop circles, death, Extinction Rebellion, food, happiness, John Otvos, joy, letting go, love, meditation, mind, money, mysticism, nothingness, ooparts, pandemic, passion, politics, profit, religion, sharing, soul, Spirituality, truth, work, XR

jayöh’s poem, circa 2003.

NB: In its entirety, this final chapter is a tad over a 1-1/2 hr. read, harbouring the two finest comments in 10 years of keyboard scribbling. I have updated some of the text and added several images as of 12/06/2023.

Many blessings.      

It is entirely fitting that I post this final article on June 27th.  Papa was born that day in 1895, which, would make him 125 today. This last selection of images & ideas was originally entitled: az eye sea it.  While that idea remains unchanged, some late night reflection has juxtaposed the images and words into a truer perspective. There are only a few images that relate to the text.  There is no order as to where they were posted other than they are favourites to this scribbler. This is no rant. I unapologetically publish this piece in my normal chatty, conversational style. Many topics are undiscussed.  No matter, since in my mind, all IS connected. How could it be otherwise?

8″ X 24″ black spruce burl, Kentville ravine, 2008. The tree itself was 6″ in OD. Did you notice the spiral, as if it IS its own Universe?😉

Introduction ~ This pictorial essay with a modicum of artistic license, is my personal take on this physical reality, our common material realm. Learned experience and gut instinct (when I listen), with a modicum of intuition, intellect, conscience, alert awareness and sub-conscious social mores, are all gleaned from those intimate quiet solitary moments, which, have formed me as I am now. The expression is that we see reality as we are, rather than as it IS.  How IS it then? Maya? Who knows?  “The Shadow knows…” Ahh, there’s the rub!

perception #1

Just so we can retrain on the same page; let your mind relax into this one, too.

perception #2

Some claim that morality is based on religion. As I become aware of how I accept, appreciate and understand my relationship with all of Life, ‘tis crucial to live a life that does as little harm as possible to all other living beings, trees, plants, or animals, both recklessly, or vengefully. While I’m no Jain, I regularly swat instinctively at mosquitoes, and black flies, plus squishing tics, when they intrude upon my personhood.

A magical mystery tour through the metaphysical world of manifestation: aka, all eye really wanna know is how this raccoon ate all the jam, peanut butter, lettuce and carrot shavings, while so politely tossing a cleaned, ‘fine bone China’ 😋 platter out, with ‘im still inside and locked down? A lesson for our brethern within this pandemic.

I catch and release raccoons, porcupines, red squirrels and chipmunks, the latter two eat the blueberries, from my forest edge garden. Perhaps collective ethics is what we lack as a highly urbanized species, with such little appreciation for the natural world, from whence we spring forth and could not exist without.

Since I am not a subscriber to the Oxford dictionary, I am prevented from using their link. I have copied it instead.

nature 

the phenomena of the physical world collectively, including plants, animals, the landscape, and other features and products of the earth, as opposed to humans or human creations; the physical force regarded as causing and regulating these phenomena, especially as personified as …

The online Oxford dictionary gets it so very wrong/incorrect/incomplete. Take your pick.  Hardly different from the square boxes Google uses as factual ‘truth’, or the definitions folks use to fact check using the corporately controlled Wikipedia.

Black wasp on the ice late March during a melt.

The storyline goes, that an assistant of Albert Einstein, asked the master why he was giving the exact same questions asked on the previous year’s test, for a student exam. 20th C’s mathematical genius replied: “Because the answers have changed.” What an abundant allegory for truth seekers today!

Love this creative waterstone house near Avonport.

The fundamental, underlying nature of reality, the Cosmos and the Universe to this writer, is one of mystery and overwhelming awe at the beauty all ’round; for the potential I was granted at birth, to be gracious in allowing me to experience All That There IS, now. The true artist/craftsperson is in possession of an innate ability to meld intellect and sensory perception by transmuting those two attributes into feelings.

Only three purple rhodo blooms this season. Many flowers will not produce in this sustained 30°C temp heatwave.

Authenticity ~To be authentic, especially as we come closer to that time when our faculties fail more often, seems to me to be essential for our species to advance from an evolutionary perspective.  Plus, there are far more years behind than in front for this scribbler. This means opening to our own uniqueness; getting real and expressing ourselves freely, without concern for what others think, believe or say.  This is the walk of tightwire balance, with a sense to not publicly nor privately humiliate others; nor make them wrong so I can be right.  It does, however, mean that de temps en temps, one must stand our ground firmly, not with pride, but, with honour. That too, is a worthy practice.

Cape Split, NS at high tide. One of NS’s favourite landmarks.  On previous adventures, I along with others have hiked over to the farthest rock at low tide. The rocks are very slippery, covered with wet sea grass. This is a favourite hiking destination a short drive from this homestead.

My aim with this essay is to show the unbridled optimism with life itself, found at the macro and micro levels of existence. While the pandemic and ecological/climatic devastation clearly show the limits of swivelization’s impact on the natural world, it’s not that previous advanced technological cultures have not disappeared before ours.

Dawn breaking at my meditation chair mid-winter.

Belief ~ Inculcation begins with parents, moving through institutions, such as schooling and religious study. Those ideas learned become our MO [Modus Operandi], our belief system, that we unconsciously cart forward. The prevailing political culture in the locale where we grow up, informs us on what is the correct position on issues, both past and current. Perhaps this is why the big Q’s hardly ever become posited, rarely in polite gatherings, alas.

The fungi contribute to the breakdown of old cellular tissue, converting the tree mass into compost for new growth, perhaps some other species for the propagation of forest succession.

Each person must chart their own path, as it’s not t’other’s responsibility to try and change their beliefs. Question them with curiosity, perhaps, but, not aggressively finding fault by finger-pointing. It’s not possible to change anyone else’s beliefs by tutoring them with evidence and fact-based truths. Folks with beliefs as qualitatively separate from truth, are usually fearful of that vacuum, since they have nothing to fall back upon.

These two variegated Dieffenbachia plants freely give bountiful blooms throughout the winter, apparently, somewhat unusual.

Doing/Becoming/Being is old circular logic. The circle has been popular in many spiritual groups for an overly protracted period. By peering more deeply into this apparent contradiction, we realize that all 3 are happening simultaneously, not separately, nor one after t’other.

Slug race on a concrete patio slab. Who will win? Ask them if they care? hahaha

Truth ~ When we state our IS-ness from a place far deeper inside, than we have ever ventured, in *every* situation, no matter how distasteful that may be to others, this then becomes a wise expression of authenticity. My truth is all those ideas, techniques or concepts that have passed muster, by percolating through the acquired filters of lies, myths, and falsehoods. More importantly, my morality is my conscience.  I instinctively know when love rules over indifference. Hate is loves bedfellow. It’s an attachment thingy…I surmise.

Hemlock double take, 2009.

Another method of enquiry, is to drop into the methodology of how we interpret reality and the data or explanations by experts {“Experts” are the lowest level on the ladder rungs for determining the viability of evidence.  The gold standard is the peer-reviewed meta-analyses.} in their field assuming fact. Our perceptions and the lines of inquiry, or, lack thereof, form our interpretations and thence our beliefs. ∴ There will always be contrasting multiple versions of that portion of existence. No problemo.

A wannabee, fearless mating brain banger in waiting, against my window pane. Chipping sparrow, aka house sparrow 1st shot.

People may be able to explore why they have determined how a thing IS in their frame of reference. An upshot could be an evident openness to converse honestly about that subject matter. Suppose that humanity were to develop a deeper commitment to information sharing, thence commentary through mano à mano; folks might eventually possess a clearer vision of their own truth, with a renewed willingness to divulge that truth and allow it to emerge without effort.

PG, 130 Clark Moustakas; Loneliness and Love 1961

Our Western culture, thence our society, has allowed itself for the sake of convenience and expediency, to dumb itself down.  The manner in which language is used for texting and within so-called [un]social media, is replete with instances.  Alas, that has filtered over to email messages as well, where cordiality, politeness and courtesy have been tossed out the window.  All is consumed.  Folks flick through their messages with the scroll wheel[s] to ‘reply’, simply to assert: “Yes, I’ve seen this message, but, I do not have time to give it any of my precious time, let alone my soulful 💓.” Pop music is inverted from years ago, where today’s standard as vocals are the background, usually unintelligible and instrumentation is foreground.  They are hard to dance to and have at their base only beat themes.  Hollywood movies lack plot, and in-depth characterization, with much of what passes for spoken copy as with pop music, is formidably unintelligible, at least to this author.

I adore the forming icicles from the mid-winter sunny days coming off the steel roof. Notice how the melted drop on the left, has not quite reached the lowest apex of the icicle.

I was also married on this day, in 1970. 35 years, was as far as that experience went, which, in itself, was an enormous and decisive life lesson. Nothing lasts. I know I am responsible for all of my own problems.  That’s ownership! At the time, my personal therapist helped me understand the trauma of the separation and pending divorce, saying to me: “John, you are 100% responsible for…your 50% share, of the marital breakup.”  It was Linda’s punchline that saved my bacon that day.

6-spotted green tiger beetles reproducing. It was the only way to capture their image as they fly away when approached. Eye guess when One is preoccupied with sex, all else takes a ‘backseat’!

Yes, a wise assertion in itself; a gigantic head-turner, as I was also told that I could no longer find fault with my former spouse.  I was there to know John’s behaviour and be responsible for it. After dating these past 17 years, with separated ladies, some never married, widows, divorcées, what a sad tale to tell about how many point the finger away from themselves.

When I point the finger at my neighbour, there’s 3 more pointing back at me, with the raised thumb presenting the shaft to Life.

So many have never graced the offices of any therapist to help examine their own actions in similar circumstances. Sage advice for men at any age when dating: if the first word uttered is ‘He’ rather than ‘I’, please be advised, that this often means there may be non-recognition between being self-absorbed and Self-centred.  I sea all of this as observations, not judgements, although, one does muster opinions. All just words…

Mid winter baking day spree. Asking me what is my favourite, would be answered as: ‘the one I’m eating now’.

There was a time some years ago, when I fully intended to write a book about this dating game; i.e., the meet/meat market, since the community gran’ma matchmaker has fled, becoming unavailable. The title was most apropos as: “The Baggage Handler”, where that person was the author.  In all of life, we, ourselves, are fully responsible for all our actions, beliefs and proclamations, whether wittingly or in ignore-ance, as A.W. says [Alan Watts].  Our collective personal and individual baggage, has now been monstrously dwarfed by the climate/ecological catastrophes unfolding at warp speed in every area of our planet E-air-th. It’s referred to as the 6th MEE [Mass Extinction Event].  Interesting usage of an acronym denoting the selfish self-absorbed nature of we Westerners, unwilling to give up anything such as travel of consuming, despite the blatherings about loving our children. Marital divorce es rien de chose d’important [nothing important] by comparison with the disconnect humans have with the natural world.

Red bellied Northern snake about 200 mm long. That’s 8″ for my stateside readers scrambling for the ruler. America: the last frontier for change to the metric system.

However, that does not mean that any experience is unimportant, intrinsically good/bad, or even crucial for further development of that individual’s growth as both human & being.  Experience is all there IS! We decide through our social mores, what becomes our ethically accepted practice. There is no intrinsic morality.  Those are culturally defined options. We make those decisions ourselves.

IS may be a more powerful word in this sense than I AM; yet, upon reflection, the word and phrase are synonymous when employed within this magical, mystical metaphysical membership.

Beak’s too big, bud! NS stout male Downey woodpecker

Passion ~ In the beginning when I set out on this adventure of woodworking, making it my professional trade, i.e., career, my only goal was to develop a decent semblance of technical proficiency, a competence in this ancient craft. I simply desired to be a respectable craftsman. As I look back on a career that has spanned 5 decades, there have been dabblings in many motifs from chainsaw lumbermaking, carpentry, millwork, cabinetry, furniture making, lathe turning, sculpture, tool making, veneering, loudspeaker manufacture and ultimately now, through a lens of privileged reflection. None of us were to age this quickly. hahaha Brings to mind the ole adage that: “Life is what happens when you’re making other plans.” Or “Too soon old, too late smart.” 🤨

Dandelion flower head only, the most nutritious tea and the most nutritious portion. 1/3 of my 2020 harvest. While the entire plant is edible, the roots and leaves are far more work with less nutritive benefit. Do your own homework.

Passion is the unrelenting, urgent drive within the depths of our energetic spirit for full authentic expression — in any discipline! While the word passion, has come to mean what happens in the bedroom between consenting adults, that is such a narrow definition; so, I’d personally like to reclaim my own meaning. The same with the word intimacy.  Fully explained, intimacy can be defined as becoming vulnerable, allowing someone else the freedom to sea us more.  ***Friends wish to know and they wish to be known.***

Parthenium Beetle

For the struggling craftsman [we are all struggling whether creative or not], who wishes for more artistic expression through his hands, passion is what gets us up every morning to pick up where we left off, or simply rework an idea expressed in our work, that no longer serves any purpose.

1/2″ drawer-bound drill rescued and re-purposed as a mini lathe to fashion a rolling pin in order to make ground flaxseed wraps. The “lengths” we woodworkers go to, eh? hahaha Yeah, yeah, $15.0 at Jeff’s delivery service.

Art ~ The greatest achievement of this human absorption in any creative discipline may coincidentally be considerable, yet light-hearted, entirely devoid of purpose. Art connotes a non-functional representation of that maker’s mind and heart. No matter how we cloak ourselves in words, art and craft share very similar tools for execution.  Craftsmen also make wall hangings and sculpture.

The wind made me do it. There is so much reason to maintain low vision during a walk in the forest, such as behind this homestead. Those are new branches evolving from the mature cambium layer under the outer bark of this maple. Blown and bent, the horizontal limb measured over 5′ remaining busy, propagating new life. Imagine the grain figure in the stressed underbelly of that horizontal limb!

In the practice of my trade and thence my craft, it took interminable decades to realize that perfection was unattainable and quite unworthy of being sought after. As above with Albert, the answers are always changing. Eventually, through the school of hard knocks, I have shed more than a few drops of my own blood, sweat and tears, carelessly and accidentally, although looking back there was that intuition, as the first quiet voice that remained unattended, sigh. Yes, there have been tears when a selected piece of wood was machined incorrectly, having to be replaced with a poor substitute of colour or grain pattern mismatch.

The first dove twins [one month old] cannot leave each other alone. This was their initial foray outside the nest. As I had made several camera expeditions up the ladder, they were unafraid and permitted this closeup.

Central to this effort, has been a late realization that I was never alone.  There has been a cooperative collaboration between experience, The Friend, my own intellect, all in the pursuit of design, execution and finish of those items I’ve made, with these hands, through this heart. ‘Tis an unbreakable partnership!🙏

Like many, I make hummus regularly. It’s a vegan’s butter. Here I have pictured a tahini runoff, with the winner being the far right Cortas brand. The oil did not separate, the flavour was not bitter, as it poured outta the jar with little scraping of congealed solids on the bottom. Lebanese of course. Kudos, brothers and sisters!

Notions of brilliance in solutions or excellence of execution, are noticed through an internal ‘witness protection plan’, then laughed at, then promptly squelched. EGO or Edge G-awe-d Out means that we are able to see our foolish pride.

1 at a time, then 3. Mama Robin did not like my presence despite not laying a finger on her eggs. I will preserve this under glass as a natural sculpture this coming winter. I’ll not bother the robins again. The first time this has happened with Mama leaving her clutch, sigh.! I’m in love with interrobangs. And you; what do you love?

Excellence lies in that place of placid peace, which, comes through realizing none of this matters in the grand scheme of things, since nothing lasts, even mountains wear away. As a woodworker, I see what the rain and carpenter ants do to the exterior sculptures here, how the intensity of the sun’s rays through a reduced ozone layer discolours my work. So, I smile and laugh at the grand illusion, yet play on.

Neighbour children doing what we did as kids; playing on an ice puddle in a farmer’s field.

Work ~Here in NS, the common Annapolis Valley colloquial is; “ ‘Tis good enough.”  It’s taken me the 12 years I’ve lived here, to understand what folks who have spent their entire lives here, mean.  In my craft, it is still laudable to strive for excellence.  It’s unimportant if that goal is ever attained.  What’s central is the focus which translates inside the task, meaning that the potential outcome may be salutatory or not. hahaha It’s an internal/external polarity thingy.

Late gardening, allows the annual winter ryegrass to mature, which, can then act as both mulch and green manure. No-till, regenerative gardening is the way forward for all of us, as with forests and undisturbed meadows.

Attachment ~ I learned early on, not to become attached to the work that was fought for with that blood, sweat and tears. None of this is ours anyway, not even our children.  Life is a loan from All That There IS! This idea of possession is hardly freeing.  No legal deeds, trademarks, patents, or copyright mean anything long term. There is the story of a master and student, who when approaching a river crossing, finds a young woman, in tears about her inability to cross.  The old monk picked her up and safely carried her to the other side, setting her down gently.  Hours later on the path to nowhere special, the student asks his master why he picked her up, when the teaching was for strict asceticism with no contact.  The master replied: “Why are you still carrying her?  I set her down many miles ago.”

Poplar twig with symbiotic fungi, as one devours t’other, while dropping nutrients back into the soil. This is not seen in the soil reminiscent of industrial chemical agriculture. The twig was hidden under last year’s fallen meadow plants.

Letting Go ~ Many people hold grudges; are vengeful, even hateful. We make our own karma. Own it before changing it. We’ve all experienced some of those actions directed towards ourselves, either where we live, or online, which, is a haven for pa-troll-ing and con-troll-ing a narrative. A comment on YouTube; the epitome of modern democracy, sigh!. hahaha

Danna Faulds ~ Let It Go

Accepting what IS, may well be the very first lesson in ageing peacefully through the Grace of the Goddess.

Aquafaba = bean water {chickpea} ice cream; surmounted with walnuts, raspberries, bananas and a desire for a treat. No added sugars. Good work deserves good rest +…continuous treats. 🥰

Money ~ Money is a method of calculating a value for exchange.  In itself, there is no evil, unless the intent is to deceive or falsify worth. Moving forward through this pandemic and the rapidly failing economic system, that falsely rewards greed, humans will of necessity have to devise a more true form of exchange. The twin sacrosanct pillars of modern swivelization are the 4-P’s: Private Property & Personal Profit.  I don’t have much of an idea, but, it may well be set on sharing.  What’s missing in our society’s culture are ethics that come from the ground of being, applied with kindness and gentleness based on virtue. What a collective concept, huh? hahaha

🎶 the long and winding road…”Me no hurry.  You take your hurry and go bye bye.” or “Here’s lookin’ at you dude.”

Profit ~ In business, profit is a separate component that figures into a price when costs are tallied.  In a public venture, profit does not intrude into the cost total. Public is always less expensive than private. All businesses in a private capitalist economy need some profit to purchase repairs, capital cost outlay for new equipment, or just a punitive add-on, because governments do not regulate the degree of additional upcharge. Supposedly, the marketplace is responsible, meaning whatever governments allow them to get away with. Doesn’t appear to be, during this plandemic, sigh.

One branch, 2 trees, poplar 2009…undoctored, i.e., not photoshopped!  More mystery unfolds from the quantum vacuum.

Sharing ~ It is my firm belief that sharing must of necessity, be the new ethical principle behind any economic activity after this plandemic leaves humans. We have all seen and witnessed this in how data is streamed for free; i.e., music, news, films, movies, videos and good jokes, keeping we, the peasantry, entertained, civil, yet not completely brain dead. Hopefull aren’t eye?! hahaha

How passive solar works: June 19, 2020, 2 PM. All natural, no air conditioning. 10.4° C differential! Not too shabby. Open the windows/drapes, close the windows/drapes.  Live with nature and don’t fight her. WU WEI Why? ‘Cause ‘she’ IS you, me and, us, all of us; no escapees.

Folks are talking about economic equality, when that will never be allowed to be regulated.  Without a genuine, ground up rebellion against this toxic economy, the climate/ecological catastrophic breakdown will continue, putting humans at severe risk within the ongoing 6^th mass extinction event. Even though the IPCC tells us that the climatic changes now occurring are irreversible…we don’t actually know that. Admittedly, if one *only* looks at the accepted scientific data, the situation becomes more dire with each passing day; the outlook appears grim indeed. Then there’s the unseen realm at work behind the scenes. To say we’re done, it’s all over, is immoral and quite self-indulgent.

Paul Hawken’s 2017 tome entitled Drawdown is only a tech solution.  The basis for a more wholistic solution is one word: DRAWBACK.

Mama mournin’ dove on ladder and offspring on the nest. The adults mate for life, can live 13 years and can have 6 clutches of two eggs/yr. Bring it on as she now sits for the 3rd time since her initial foray this year in late March at -10°C! Not exactly a B&W image, but, close ’nuff.

Camaraderie ~ Friendships are not only formed with other humans.  Watching the eagles soar far above, caterwauling crows, hummingbirds pushing mates away from feeders, chattering red squirrels, hammering woodpeckers, etc, deep relationships of a non-verbal kind, can form between these critters and your spirit, perhaps at best, a mystical form of telepathy joins souls from different species. Likely how ET intelligence “speaks” with one another.

Onion Medusa with very edible braids.

My pleasures are simple such as canoeing on a still lake, relaxing on the hammock in summer, working hard in the garden in spring, taking deep, long luxuriant baths once each week, listening to music from many genres principally classical, taking part and hosting potlucks and documentary evenings, as well as workshops for the one group I feel comfortable with, i.e., XR = Extinction Rebellion.  That was then…sigh!

This is the 7th weather bomb, defined as a 24 MB drop in 24 hours, recorded here since hurricane Dorian, Sept 7th, 2019.  This time it was a 42 MB drop!

I enjoy gardening and watering in the quiet morning or near sundown, when all else has become silent.  Of course, woodworking, which, has been with me since I was a boy.  I recall leaving the house often before the age of 10 whenever there was household strife of one sort or another; finding peace down by the old creek in the [then], old-growth Eastern white cedar forest and glens that abounded. There was one red oak that stood as a sentinel [still there] with a base girth of more than 4′ in OD! Cooking and baking with new recipes, finding ways to make this senior’s fixed, limited income stretch further each year by deciding what can be let go of. For now, it’s haircuts, as the locks once curly, move to shoulder length with this late June lockdown.

This black spruce living burl, along with at least 100 others, were all clearcut to make way for the Cape Split parking lot an area, which, is now a provincial park.

The most common spring flower is a dandelion. Isn’t it both excellent and perfect as it IS?! Methinks so. Therefore, it deserves its own space herein.

Dandelion, the most common wildflower also makes the most nutritious tea. Ironic really, when we dump so much poison on our lawns, to rid ourselves of this sun gold gem.

Mind ~ The possession of authentic deep humour is the innate ability to laugh about ourselves and the absurdity of existing simultaneously, as ***both*** human + being. Oftentimes, it’s not so much what has happened that is upsetting us, as it is how we 👀 the event. So much of our perception as to what is changeable, is merely jammed between our ears.

Orange-belted Mrs/Mr Bumble, pollinating a wild rose, from which each fall, as I’ve done for nearly 50 years, collect the red hips for making wintertime tea, a great source of vitamin C in the skins and flesh, with vitamin E in the seeds. The larger European variety known as Rosa Rugosa is the best.

Body ~ The vehicle for our soul. Our bodies are the repository of our intellect, intuition and biome. Some major parts are not regrown as with salamanders. Yes, our nails and hair, but, not limbs, not our stereocilia found within the cochlea, those vibratory hairlike strands that transmit sound messages on nerve endings, thence onward to the brain. Nor are our most valued sensory organ, our eyes for seeing creation’s beauty, regrown.

Ryegrass [winter ground cover and spring green manure] grew to over 1200 mm this season with some strands exceeding 1425 mm [4’8″].

Soul ~ This one is a mystery. Since the prevailing scientific truth suggests that matter cannot be created nor destroyed, what is it that leaves the body after our final expulsion of air!? What is consciousness and where does it reside? There are only anecdotal accounts coming from people who’ve had NDE’s [Near Death Experiences]. Measurements were made over a C ago, that purported to indicate a loss of 21 grams? Hollywood even made a 2003 flick of that with Naomi Watts and Sean Penn starring.

Spring beauty in late April before the tree foliage begins, on the walk through the highlands towards Cape Split, a provincial hotspot for hikers.

***If truth be told, we are all of these, mind, body, soul, experiences, environment, plus a gigantic dollop of mystery, sugar-coated with awe. All inseparable, entwined and entangled, penetrating each other as lovers do.  Please, let me know if I’ve left anything out.

Pushing through the leaves, not a morel nor a chanterelle and I’m unconcerned if it’s edible. The camera lens is always hungry for a Kodak moment.

Religion ~ It’s scarcely surprising how people in a given locale defend their ideological positions with respect to religion, politics or culture — even science, yet particularly the former! If one peers more intently, ‘tis easy to notice they are simply honouring their own assertions from a position of personal interest, virtually rote like. No one wishes to have their beliefs taken away arbitrarily, not even indigenous folks who were here for millennia before the white Europeans practised their cultural genocide. Religion is a way of explaining life, our purpose, who we are and what ‘transpires’, after our last exhaled puff of air, Rumi’s “touch of spirit on the body”. But, one must belong to the tribe, one must accept all the dogma as handed down unquestioningly and obey, to comply.  This is inherently a paternal, patriarchal and hierarchal system of ideas.  Reminds me of the early ’60s classic sitcom “Father Knows Best”. A pox on AmeriKana and how it has catapulted their culture to near domination…but, not quite. The Universe doesn’t work that way. In The Cosmos, constant change is the only characteristic of ceaseless coexistence.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! This bud’s for you.

Spirituality ~ For much of our current civilization, we collectively move and act, blindly unaware regarding religious attitudes held, as to how we were raised by parents and the prevalent community culture. The same is true for voting patterns, ideas about racial superiority, dare I mention diet? Once liberated from these unconscious persistent patterns, or in-the-box thinking, someone with a modicum of creative curiosity, will be set upon a path to true spiritual development. Yeah, it’s hard to stay on the path, as it is lonely, fraught with isolation, gossip, attempts at public shaming, third-hand innuendo and outright anger. Look at the attitudes towards we of the unvaccinated re: C-19!? The new ghetto Jews, eh?! Don’t get me started on Israel’s decades long genocidal apartheid regime. To the few who succeed in this marathon, since few will join in, they are rewarded with authenticity and get to hang with their own soul and eventually a small, but, committed tribe.

Dutchman’s breeches with spring beauty offer a backdrop, on the hike to Cape Split.

Mysticism ~  There is a component of mind that one comes to after we have escaped our swivelization’s mechanistic material understanding of this physical realm. The duality of life is inescapable as being more like the polarity of a battery than mere opposites. All is complimentary. This mystifying seeming schism between what we perceive with our senses, juxtaposed with that which we often experience individually, appears contradictory, even non-existent if there is no corroboration. It’s no escape nor excuse to utter, that this reality is…mystifying.

One of my many mentors, the late great Alan Watts, was fond of saying that a wave can never be known as just a crest; it’s also a trough as well.  The two always go together as do peas in a pod.

A tiny overnight puffball already on its way to full decomposition. Mysticism, my preferred curiosity.

Politics ~ Our human-centred world is so very far beyond any left VS right dogmatic spectrum dichotomy, whether political, religious or economic. The COVID-19 plandemic [yeah, it looks more and more like that] clearly demonstrates we’re all in this together; not the same boat, yet certainly the identical storm. It’s been an ongoing class war for centuries. The racism, economic inequalities and intellectual snobbery, are all a part of that academic institutionalized idiocy. Capitalism gave us these problems, based on the pursuit of individual personal profit.

Flowering dogwood outside the bedroom window in mid June. Alas, this season there is a pittance of blooms. ‘Tis this June heat.

The NET has shown that the solution is sharing—freely—all resources and techniques, with local strategies for implementation, as I’ve already spoken to this. The ole ‘60s line of getting back to the land is more cogent now than ever.  Degrowth, with the final stage of austerity for the masses [robbery and theft with governmental approval], hoarding by the 1%, depopulating and dismantling the urban centres by repopulating the countryside is the only solution.   Working where we live, growing food where we live and not owning personal vehicles. Rapid, free walk-on walk-off public transportation in all urban centres. Re-inventing what a locally born agri-culture, based upon anarchy [no hierarchy] principles could look like.

The new garden in early spring, 2010. Tamarack boxes and wood shavings for underlay. The 7 bins of leaves collected in town from resident rakings now sit as potential compost as a distant background. Like that new car, where the first scratch is the devil’s work.

Food~ I don’t eat a vegan diet.  That could be exposed as French Fries, Pepsi and a Twinkie for later. No, what I eat is an evidence-based diet which just so happens to be 100% plants, whole ones, i.e., unprocessed, with very low additional SOS = Salt-Oil-Sugar; no CRAP, i.e., Calorie Rich and Processed].  I’ve heard tell it said that: We ate no flesh in Eden.

My catch ‘n release trap. Plenty of raccoons here. They raid the planter boxes for June bug larvae, making havoc for the young seedlings. It is, after all, their forest [they were here first]. The critters also have a right to exist. These past few years, the electric fence has kept the catch ‘n release trap in the attic.

I’m supremely thankful for having dropped all those sophisticated tastes associated with my former animal foodstuff dietary intake. Repetitively eating the same plants, daily, has been a revelation for my mental, emotional and physical well-being. Potatoes, oats, barley, flax, sorghum, millet, rice, wheat, [spelt, kamut, quinoa] berries, carrots, tomatoes, onions, garlic, greens, beans, herbs, etc. are mainstays, many of which I grow here, on this patch. It’s both a hobby and a vocation.  A chance to learn new gardening practices such as no-till, i.e., no digging, laying the refuse exactly in the spot where it was created.  Forests and meadows, trees and plants all feast on their own refuse. Time for others to politely plagiarize that practice.

Black-eyed Susan. I’ve tried to propagate more here by spreading the seeds in the fall when dry. There has been some blessing.

Death ~ The most horrible torment is if one accepts that there may be an escape clause not yet revealed. hahaha The ultimate awareness of life, is that death is inevitable for all living beings. As A.W. tells it, human life moves from the maternity ward to the crematorium. We will refer to that as a form of Cosmic Consciousness, alright? If we are always waiting for a better moment, another fix from some substance or deliciously devious device that gives us a high, then we are racing through life which is a gigantic tragedy, since tomorrow never arrives. You get high, you come down…you get high, you come down… It’s always NOW, the Present Moment, because, that’s all there IS.

Unusual pastel sunset. Most are less vivid. This could be taken as a dawn shot, rather than at dusk. Sunlight reflecting off atmospheric particulate…or gawe-d having her own way. An American astronaut saw her and said she was black.

Love ~ It is my truth that there is only one form of love.  We may alter our interaction with different subjects/objects that we give love to, but, the giving is the same; all or nothing.  This is not an in-between state. We learn how to love through many behaviours, such as offering service to others, without thinking of recompense, becoming content with what we have been given while we are here, to offering our lives to the creative force, which, gave life to all of this from molten rock, then peace is surely the gift wrapped prize.

Supertunia that needs no picking of deceased blooms, usually purchased locally from Brooklin Gardens each year.

• Why are we here?
• Where did we come from?
• What does it mean to Love someone or something?
• What does it mean to live a good life?
• What is our purpose?
• Where do we go after our final exhalation?

Grammy hemlock with a base OD of over 600 mm i.e., 2′ above the driveway. I pleaded with NSP to allow it to remain, even though it was within the 20′ right-of-way for the primary line to the transformer pole.

And therein lies more rubs. Just exactly what constitutes Truth, as we ‘know’ it? This essay is not about what I believe, as I have no beliefs, per se.  I have truths, which — change.  So, why then?  Change is the only constant in The Universe.  Karl Marx stipulated that as well. If there was a simple song’s lyrics I could subscribe to, it would be Yoko & John’s 1971 hit: Imagine. In 1964, years before she met Lennon, Yoko actually penned the “Imagine” ideas, from which John expounded many of the lyrics, in her book entitled; Grapefruit.

Giant white ash left by the loggers. Those who 👀 it, tree hug, reap the reward. The scar is likely a lightning strike, yet that branch still lives. At the base, it is nearly 1200 mm or 4′ in OD.

We enter this life-giving material realm through our first inhalation of air as we breathe, with hands clenched tightly in fists as if to say; “All of this I possess”. We exit with a final exhalation, palms open graciously admitting; “I give it all back”. Was it ever ours in the first place?

For years, each spring the yellow salamanders have been laying clutches of eggs in the pond here. Not for the past two years, alas. Notice how they are attached to fallen dead branches. All creatures are opportunists.

OOPArts ~ Aka, Out Of Place Artifacts. Ever heard of these?  Look it up, please.  What they tell us today is that there is so much that remains unexplained and unexamined from long ago. There are museums the world over housing these artefacts, with no genuine explanation as to how they were made, or, the exact date of their fabrication.

Antikythera mechanism: Ancient celestial calculator is an ancient shoebox-sized device that is sometimes called the world’s oldest computer for its ability to perform astronomical calculations. 
Discovered by sponge divers off the Greek island of Antikythera in 1901, the remains of the mechanism are now preserved in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. Only 82 fragments, consisting of about one-third of the original mechanism, survive today. It was built around 2,200 years ago.

The greatest evidence for this lack of explanation remains the megalithic walls, carvings, polished granite columns, buildings and pyramids that exist on every continent and multiple ocean islands, such as Easter Is.

Red bell pepper nearly 165 mm or 6.5″ long. There are good years for some crops and not so good ones for others. Mulch – mulch – mulch!

Crop Circle Formations ~ Since 1991, mostly in the Wiltshire district of the UK, but, also in over 50 other countries, there have been these overnight laydowns of geometric and life drawings in fields of cereal grains such as barley, wheat, rape [canola] and corn. P

Photo courtesy of Steve Alexander of Temporary Temples UK. 780′ O.D. with 409 circles. Formed overnight on the crest of this hill during all-night rainfall

Most years they complexify.  There are inherent communications: We’re here, now deal with it. We mean you no harm.  We are your allies, wishing you to know we are watching. It is the contention of many who study this phenomenon, that these CCF’s are the best evidence of an on-going basis, that we are not alone as intelligent beings in this Uni~verse [One Song]. Doing the math, given the number of stars systems within separate, yet connected Galaxies is not difficult. I heartily concur!

Vegetable Gardening ~

Garden in late summer. An excellent harvest that year. I rotate most beds. Now I practice no till which means cut and lay rather than dig and bury. This does not disturb the C02 stored in Her E-air-th nor the roots which aid the aerating of the soil. Neither does no dig disturb the microorganisms or soil biome.

Metaphysical can be used as a synonym for spirituality. This word can mean involving an actuality, beyond, or not part of, how we perceive existence, through our 5 physical senses, i.e., taste, touch, sight, smell and sound.

Chieftain red skinned potato with white flesh are great long term keepers. This one is especially fruitful with many sprouts. Spuds are modified tubers, grown on a stem to produce a “tuber”. The simple potato contains 2X the protein content of human breast milk/gm.  Do your own ooglin’.

With this lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s as though Gaia has sent us all home to reconsider and reflect upon what we have done to Her E-air-th, as She continues to prune Her planet. There are these molecules, that science informs us are not alive; however, it does appear to be conscious. Once humans wrap their noggins ’round that seeming contradiction, we may make headway…maybe. There is hardly any mention anywhere, about taking animals off the menu, based on our biological anatomy, we are plant eaters. Evolve or die seems an implicit message.

Even in death, dandelions take in light, before the wind scatters their seed in the four directions.

All of this is happening simultaneously with the climate catastrophe and the burgeoning ecological calamities. Yeah, I know, I’m being repetitive.  What humans have wrought since the massive burning of fossil fuels will stay with us for thousands of years, as both a torment and a life lesson. Our species’ name is homo sapiens, yet a more accurate description might be homo stupidio, as we lemmings sit in our homes watching our species’ demise, through all the latest high-tech gadgetry such as High-Def LCD screens, multi-speaker surround sound systems with fine listening algorithms such as DD=Dolby Digital or, DTS=Digital Theater Systems. Mea culpa, sigh! I’m not different; how could I be? This is our culture and I’m unsure as to why it hasn’t evolved us to be more loving, compassionate, or kind and gentle.

Mournin’ dove’s first clutch of two ivory coloured eggs.

Nothingness  ~ Is the basic, fundamental reality. Emptiness rules. Since all of this material reality sprang from that. Got it? hahaha Quantum physics is constantly reminding those who deem listening as still a redeemable concept, that matter comes from no matter. Perhaps that’s why Zen suggests that to adopt a sense of no-mind is beyond mindless. Sound emerges from nothingness, as with the American goldfinch beak banging against my window this morning, likely seeing its reflection in the pane of glass. Narcissus indeed. hahaha

Male American goldfinch at the window teasing me with his saliva strand, yet ‘nother Narcissus in action. I just love this!

We find our niche, then set about to collaborate with all that surrounds and encompasses our personal worldview. Others have phrased this concept as a form of obligative mutualism. The issue is not our intellect per se; it’s how we direct that mental capacity, the degree of compassion we offer to all other living beings, including aspects of existence we term inanimates, such as mountaintop removal for mineral deposits, or the clearcutting of forests for biomass. Bad ideas are driven by greed with permission and deeds granted by governments for personal corporate gain.  The perrenial revolving door.

Yes, I had a leg run-in with the thorns from a similar wild blackberry. I generally pick between 40 and 50 lbs of berries each year. Blackberries have more antioxidants and anthocyanins than blueberries. A thorny reward.

Contentment ~ Is being fully appreciative of what I have now, as all I need. If there are no expectations from others or from life itself, how can there be a possibility for disappointment?

The Annapolis Valley of NS from the Burgess Mtn Rd, on the North Mtn, looking due south, where I live. 4/2020

Joy ~ Can be felt through new experiences never before imagined that are usually pleasurable to the mind and also the body, but, not necessarily so with the latter.  Life’s joy is the play of one aspect VS its counter. The polarity of dualism rather than the interchange of opposites. Polarity is complementary.  A battery cannot exist without both terminals.

The tick would not stop crawling until it became ‘flushed’. That white stuff in its jaws is a piece of jayöh. hahaha Apologies for the blur. I never quite cozied up to this A900 Nikon.

Happiness ~ Is summed up as being fully in the moment or as athletes tell it: ‘in the zone’. Once there is a preoccupation with a current task, then all thought, action and interest IS with that focus; that’s happiness. When there is no outside consideration for anything else, no payment, no attribution, no patent, no trademark nor intellectual property rights and no other personal profit, then one is able to dedicate attention through the intention of excellence.  Perfection is unattainable; if it was, then how would change ever manifest, since change is the only constant? All IS developing and complexifying.

I’ve been making my own semi firm tofu for two years now, in a poplar wood press of my own design. I then marinate the slices in different decoctions for a week before using it in sammies. As with life, this making is a process.

Meditation ~ This was the one spiritual custom that I not only avoided, but, decided it could be spiritually bypassed.  Since this past fall early in the AM, I sit and just watch.  No particular position other than comfortable, fingers not touching thumbs, legs not crossed nor facing East, West or any other direction. No mantra chanting, no breath following. No dogma lives here. Meditation is like this plant food diet; they’re both evidence-based. Eyes open in a corner chair, looking at life pass by, not judging, just witnessing.  That’s the secret key. When the mind wanders and the noticer seas, acknowledge and return to ‘no-mind’.  As Sadhguru exhorts us, keep mind at a distance as one cannot dissolve it and you will meditate.

A large beet that is answering the call to reproduce…again. I’ve been able to store beets for 13 months in damp peat moss.

Wisdom does not necessarily befall those who simply grow older. Therefore,  it may be wise to pursue knowledge through constant learning.  Allow your inner spirit, nudged by the still voice of bodily intuition, to act as a guide towards love, through acceptance and constant companionship with The One.

Rocknotch Gorge, NS; mesmerizing. Could be a pleasant way to go deaf.

A tale has been told, that an esteemed eastern Rishi or teacher, was lying on his deathbed close to his final breath. In life, this honoured man was revered, for delivering talks on non-attachment as the penultimate sign of awakening, or “enlightenment”.  Around him, in the courtyard outside, as there was standing room only in his bedroom, had gathered from far and away, many former students.  He lay there covered in a white sheet, symbolic of his attained purity, eyes closed, hands clasped on his enormous belly. They’re all grossly fat, “isn’t it”? hahaha All of a sudden, sitting bolt upright, eyes wide open, his words ejected with volcanic force: “I don’t want to go!” …some lily gilding was added, since embellishment is the craftsman’s tool. Mea culpa.

Cicada head on. Terrifying to look at, yet harmless to humans.

It’s been a wonderful ten years of public writing and picture posting.  I’m unsure if there remains anything left to say or show. Humans need to mount a rebellion against the sociopathic corporate 1%, their mass media + their governments, which, are their bedfellows. We’ll not vote our way outta this. No form of governing, short of local community citizenry counsels [XR‘s #3 demand] will bring about any lasting change, which, may resolve the underlying ethics behind why a complete change in the economic means in how we operate amongst ourselves, is unsustainable, even in the short term.  This pandemic has opened the bottle; the genie has flown her coop. This is no dress rehearsal.   With the severe ecological damage, rapidly accelerating temperatures, excess heat stored within the oceans precipitating massive dieoffs and atmospheric rivers flooding vast areas, food security is greatly challenged, as is all life HerSelf, here on Mother E-air-th.

Yup, the tallest! Mt Everest from 2nd base camp reflecting pool of alpine glacial meltwater; altitude of 17,200′. jayöh 8/2011 There’s far less foreign travel for this lad.  What are YOU prepared to give up and let go of?

***About the I AM…a last parable, eye promise. Have eye ever lied to you afore? God queries Moses as to why Moses wants to know His real name. God tells Moses that His name is identical to His existence. Those who want to know God’s exact name, do not know Him as He IS. Thence, I AM. An expression of the present moment and the coexistent duality of the twin realms, which, are encircled [polarity]. Vide: the Taoist Yin/Yang symbol, my fave.

Is it any wonder, that many Eastern religions and philosophies state that life IS all a grand illusion; i.e., MAYA?

She riseth @7:38 AM 2/20/2020

I AM, in that order, are the two most powerful words in our English language.

Your experience will differ.

Thank you for reading.

🙏

I AM John Gabriel Ötvös, aka jayöh.

Gaspereau Lake, NS in fall stillness with a treasured Bluewater 16′ 6″ kevlar canoe and bent 8 gm carbon fibre paddle.