Sleep Warm

Warm blankets--good sleeping! (Tomasito, photo)
Thanks for the warm, woolly serape, Bro Jack, and thanks for the $3.00 warm blanket "The Attic" shop!

Sleeping Warm

Sleeping warm is Very Good.

I have pilgrimmed a lot in my life--and sometimes that meant sleeping rough--sometimes very rough.

I have slept outdoors miles from any shelter in cold and driving rain.

Once---only once, thank goodness--I slept in a frozen field in snow as more snow fell with only an old coat for warmth.

I have slept in barns with cows--Very Nice!

And I have slept under freeway bridges--Noisy.

But when I am not pilgrimming and when I have a choice--give me a warm, dry bed with lots of warm covers.

That's what I REALLY like!

The Dalai Lama--who ought to know--says the purpose of life is to be happy and life yields quite a few possibilities for happiness.

But for me--NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING--beats waking up on a freezing cold morning--the kind where your breath is visible as steam--in a nice, warm bed.

Tomasito, 2008


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Merican Pie

As Merican as Apple Pie! (Tomasito photo)

Home baked apple pie!

Home Baked apple pie!!

Home Baked Apple pie!!!

Home Baked Apple Pie!!!!

That's about as GOOD as it GETS!


Tomasito, 2008



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Shadows

T&T Shadows at Trout Pool Bridge, Sacramento River Trail.

Just a short walk below the colossal dams on the Sacramento River--dams which have destroyed the habitat of so many fish and wildlife creatures--and which ended flooding and produced electricity--is the old bridge we call the "Trout Pool Bridge".

Some of our fathers and and grandfathers built these dams and bridges and were proud of their work.

Now most scientific studies seem to indicate that these incredible dams are the most destructive of all civil contractor's projects to their ecological surroundings.

Sometimes it seems to me that the best things we can leave behind us is just our shadows.

In fact, sometimes it seems to me that in the very long run
all we can leave behind is our shadows---

Tomasito, 2008



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Shadows

Shadows

There was a seer who was born an Oglala Sioux in the old days of the "Indian Wars" in America.

He had a vision--a hoop of the nation crossed by two roads--a good "red road" and a bad "black road"--and in the center where the roads crossed-- was a stick which became a tree and bloomed.

This was a symbol of hope to him.

You may read his life story in the book by John Neihardt: Black Elk Speaks published by the University of Nebraska Press ( first edition, 1933).

A good read.

Tomasito, 2008)


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nine eleven NYC

Tomasito, 2001

There is a DVD movie I would like to recommend: The Cats of Mirikitani.

Director Linda Hattendorf has done a remarkable work for those hoping for a more peaceful world.

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Kitchen Sink

Kitchen Sink (Tomasito photo)


Rethink Tradition

Maybe some of those of us who are presently unemployed or even underemployed will have some leisure to appreciate the simpler joys of homemaking--that is, if they still have an apartment or home to shelter them from the winter cold and enough money to keep something cooking in the pot.

And by the way, I don't know of anyone with a traditional home these days who is not in serious financial trouble!

It is probably time to rethink a LOT of typical and traditional American "givens"--since our overwhelming population growth and the foolish greed of many of us has eliminated forever the traditional American Dream of the mid-twentieth century--that is, the "cottage with white picket fence and rambling rose", the "freedom of the open road", even the "good, steady job with a future".

It may be time to slow down--think--and go on in a different and better way--since they way we were will never again be the way we are.

Tomasito, 2008


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Gentle Reminders

Gentle reminders:

* Live for others

* Laughter is the best exercise

* Poverty is the basis of perfection, contemplation is its heart

* Return from the mountaintop with wisdom for the people

* Renounce distractions

* Cling to nothing because there is nothing to cling to

* Love yourself--extend that love to all beings

Tomasito, 2008

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