ellenspictures

Category: vision

the dimensions of time and trouble

Tactical.

That’s a word that really deals with the immediate situation. The “situation room”. You have a problem, you deal with it, you make the problem go away (for now), you get sleep at night. Fine.

Dealing with long-term chronic illnesses – now that’s a concept where we apply both the tactical and the strategic.

So much possibility…

Remember. None of us leave this planet alive.

We go somewhere else and leave the shell. We all hope that the somewhere else is a good place, and not “the bad place”. Sometimes we might rightly feel that some of our human comeuppance has been already held on the planet – if you listen to the news, you think “wow, this is really some weird shit…” – “what will they think of next?”

Very complex. Very confusing. That’s why they call it “faith”. You have to have it in order to survive through those rough patches.

In the meantime, we deal with the strategic (eat healthy, get regular activity – not too much, not too little, just right…) and read all the research that comes out about what we’re doing – coffee is good, coffee is bad; one drink a day is good, drinking is bad; eggs and butter are bad, eggs and butter are good; carbs are bad, you need some carbs, just not some others… good grief…

If you can’t remember your password, you have early onset Alzheimer’s — really? Which password of the thousand that I have set, over the years, so that if/when someone hacks me, they won’t hack ALL of my accounts (naïve)… I am supposed to remember those. yeah. right.

Sometimes I am convinced that there is this great “anxiety generator” out there, making market for the yoga studios – there is something in it for everybody, right? Everybody has to eat. The people that don’t figure this out, and that they have to work to get food end up under the bridge living in cardboard boxes – and don’t call me paranoid, it just seems that there is always someone living under the bridge in cardboard boxes, no matter what we do to try to keep that from happening.

Same thing with the jerks who “beat and cheat” – kids, wives, girlfriends, whatever – no matter how it is quelled on one hand, someone decides that they won’t support the quelling anymore, so it builds up. Harper’s Bizarre. Serial what-cha-ma-call-em’s…

Oh, I digressed.

Back to “long-term chronic diseases” — So you get pushed and pulled by media and news reports. You try not to scare the shit out of yourself by reading too much of this “non” information on the net, complete with ads for drugs that look at what you’re lookin’ at and configure it “just for you” – lovely – and you may wonder, does it really matter after all? Because, in the end of our time here on earth, we will either lose that battle with some sort of “long-term chronic disease” or else we will stroke out, fall down and go boom, have a coronary, be hit over the head, stabbed, or whatever happens that will take us out in an “acute incident or episode”.

Whatever. I guess I wonder why freak out? Maybe its a wobbly. We have not yet reached the Zen of our existence. It’s maybe because we are not getting our way. Its the anger because our dreams of what we thought we would be don’t turn out as we expected. We have to go the other way, not the way we wanted to go, both figuratively and literally.

We live in the clouds the rest of the time, floating through life day by day, as time accelerates to the event horizon, the older you get, the less time you have, so you should appreciate when you wake up and take a breath every day – and make that coffee that smells and tastes so good – and go places, do things, kiss butterflies, chase dragonflies, love your loved ones, and of course, try not to leave a legend that is like “Ichabod Crane”, but rather one that everyone remembers fondly…

Maybe it is just how we are, and we are realizing more about it every day. I wish I could be back in time to interview my relatives who are now unreachable such that I could understand their thoughts, but I can’t right now.

In the meantime, it’s live life to the fullest, get over the bumps in the road, ask for help moving the boulders and love your loved ones, telling them you love them as much as you can, as often as possible.

It’s important for your family – and of course – for your history… and theirs, too.

May 18, 2015
Rangitoto

We visited Rangitoto. Rangitoto is a volcanic island that has been used in war-times and in peace for various purposes. It has been set as a nature reserve, being reset back to a more original state and enabled to collect and grow species native to New Zealand unconstrained.

We walked to the summit and had these fantastic vistas of the surrounding area – gorgeous New Zealand as always.

As stated, Rangitoto is a national preserve. It is an extinct volcanic island where the lava field has been left to evolve naturally over sixty years, to re-foliate and attract birds and host the only reptile in New Zealand, the Tuatara.

Unfortunately, we did not see one. There are reasons for that. I will explain.

According to the New Zealand Department of Conservation,

“Tuatara are rare, medium-sized reptiles found only in New Zealand. Adult tuatara range from about 300g to 1kg. They are the only surviving members of the order Sphenodontia, which was well represented by many species during the age of the dinosaurs, some 200 million years ago. All species exept for the tuatara declined and eventually became extinct about 60 million years ago. Tuatara are therefore of huge international interest to biologists. They are recognised internationally and within New Zealand as species in need of active conservation management. Tuatara once lived throughout the mainland of New Zealand but have survived in the wild only on 32 offshore islands.”

I have my theories about noticeable increases in tourist populations. I think that commercializing sites such as these actually contributes to harming the very populations of species that these preserves/reserves are trying to protect.

We have the environmental damage that exists today due to the human footprints that have moved into areas not occupied originally by humans. Damage comes from sound, light, weather, erosion, fire, air-pollution, and any other land-use that is out of balance such as over-foraging, hunting, commercial fishing and agriculture, the taking of animals – birds, reptiles, amphibians included, for their body parts for either edible or non-edible use and other invasive actions on the part of civilization.

I don’t consider myself a “tree hugger” – but, I do have enormous respect for nature – and that saying “we know not what we do or have done until it is too late.”

When it is a question of balance, we intuitively understand, like it or not, that if we are arguing that “we have the right” or should be able to exploit… just the argument is a bad sign. As our television character, Maude, said, “God will get you” – whatever she meant was essentially, the KARMIC forces will make it right.

We harvest too much we starve later. Or somebody does. Or great storms or waves will come (ask the people in Indonesia or victims of Katrina). Yes some of that happens anyway, regardless of humankind’s boots.

What we do not understand is whether “we” are part of the natural process – and our emotions lead us off the path in our pathos.

January 9, 2015
hello 2015

The year’s beginning is always full of hope. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. What really happens is that you have another year ahead, and for those creative types, it gives a fresh canvas with a new palette full of colors – you choose – you think (!)

Well, the other day, we had that experience where you get so amazed you can’t stand yourself… at least, I always do… These beautiful creatures are likely more intelligent and live the best example of existence of any beings on our planet… Think about it.

These creatures are not excessive. They kill only what they eat. They have communities and seem to have the whole leadership thing down without imposing undue cruelty to anyone in the group. Probably need to check my facts, but I think it is so.

They somehow have figured out how to keep scary predators away most of the time – sharks are afraid of them – go figure…

At any rate, having this experience of suddenly being surrounded by these beautiful creatures – having them put on a show, and two of them dive under the little boat we were in – made us feel like they picked us to surround and entertain, clicking, splashing, dancing (didn’t catch that on the video, but I was madly trying to grab my iPhone and catch the most that I could – wish I had…) get what I could, while standing in a boat with fairly much choppy sea around us, and then the final tail slapping – the whole experience was like watching a fireworks display! The tail slapping was like the finale!

New Year… followed two days later… We can choose to be optimistic. Lots of reasons for that…

Let’s hope that this was a sign… We need a good year, as always…

December 31, 2014