Delightful dream

Orestad, Denmark, 2 June 2023

Thank you for this delightful dream, said the Haiku

that Takako was taught in school in Japan.

Looking back (or, more precisely, dreaming myself back)

in time, my life seems to be amazingly unreal. There's nothing

I can catch, to lay my hands on, to hold on to – everything is

fleeting.

I'm grateful for having been able to experience what we call

life, even though I do understand less and less what it actually is.

Does it make sense? Not to my thinking. I guess there is something

wrong with my thinking ...

The Duty of Prayer

In the life of the Indian there is only one inevitable duty - the duty of prayer - the daily recognition of the Unseen and Eternal. He sees no need for setting apart one day in seven as a holy day, since to him all days are God's. 

Ohiyesa, Santee Dakota

Some of our past troubles came from our naive arrogance. We failed to acknowledge anything beyond ourselves. Whatever was unseen or eternal remained invisible to us. We were skeptical, scientific, task-oriented, self-centered, and unreflective. It's like we had been racing down a country highway at top speed, hardly tuned in to the rich vitality of life that surrounded us. When we stopped the car and explored the road banks, we could suddenly smell the grasses, hear birds singing, perhaps see a whole community in an anthill, or watch a darting squirrel.

Coming to believe in a Power greater than ourselves is not something we create on our own. It is largely a matter of shifting our attention, of being open to the spiritual. We don't need to force it. We need only be willing to quiet ourselves and notice. Ultimately, every moment is sacred.

Today, may I live from moment to moment.

On Preaching & What Others Say

Davos, Switzerland, 17 November 2023

That everything is connected, I consider a given. As to how things are connected, I'm more often than not at a loss. Take this photograph for instance: I can't really see that what I'm now going to elaborate on has to do with it yet what came to mind when looking at this pic is this:

Lately, I spent considerable time with a book that pointed out that intellectuals rarely practise what they preach. In fact, they practise often the precise opposite of what they preach. It seems to me that such behaviour is very common, for everybody, not just intellectuals.

Therefore, it isn't really something to criticise, it is something to accept. Such acceptance, I think, has the potential to rid ourselves from useless expectations and will, hopefully, reduce our suffering.

What I'm preaching, I hardly ever practise myself; what I however hear others say or write often has quite an impact on me. What regularly comes to mind is. If you really want to please yourself, just forget your longing and attend to your daily life. In this we find goldenness. 

PS: For a long time it has been my habit to attribute quotes to the ones who have supposedly uttered them. Since I nowadays believe the what to be more important than the who, I will for once refrain from it.

Taking Pictures

After twenty years of writing on photography (mainly on press and documentary photography for which the stories behind the pictures are often more relevant than the pictures), I eventually started to take pictures myself. I soon discovered that this wasn't anything new (as I had believed) for I had always taken photographs. And, much to my amazement, mostly photographs of nature. In other words, pretty much the kind of photos that I'm taking nowadays. Needless to say, to become aware of something that I didn't know was with me all the time left me somewhat puzzled. So I took my time and thought about it. 

And, I began to realise that I've had this kind of experience on other occasions. I particularly remember a train ride with a friend I hadn't seen for some years and so we talked about what had happened during this time. I told her about my newest plans to write without restraining myself (self censorship I consider the biggest writing obstacle) and to simply let come out what I felt needed to come out, when all of a sudden she burst out laughing: But you've always been like that! Differently put: What I had perceived as a life-changing moment quite obviously wasn't one. Instead, it now seems to me, I have basically been the same person throughout my life, regardless of education and experience.

Some of my characteristics I can identify, others not. When some time ago I was about to cross the street in the village where I have my base, I heard a male voice shouting my name. I spotted somebody waving at me but didn't recognise him from that distance. Once he got near me I said: Now I see who you are. Well, he said, I was able to identify you because of the way you walk. That was new to me, I had no idea that I have a specific way of walking.

Other characteristics are however easy for me to spot. The fact, for instance, that whatever I like to do I do obsessively. The three pics on this page I took on the same day. The first one in the morning (by late afternoon the flower had disappeared), the second one demanded quite some patience and the willingness to not give up), and the same can be said about the third one for it was rather windy this late afternoon. Sometimes, obsessions are a good thing for they can teach us to be patient.