Winter came back. It was -7F this morning, but it is warming up nicely. It is 13F now. It didn't feel cold doing the chores this Morning. We had four to five inches of snow yesterday Morning. It brightened everything up.
We have an old crab apple tree that bears large marble size fruit. Every day I walk by it on my way to the barn. The fruit hang on it all Winter long. The snow under it is beaten down by deer and rabbits. The deer reach as high as they can to pick the fruit. They knock some down which the rabbits eagerly consume. This year we don't have overwintering Robins {they must have known it was going to be a cold Winter}. In the Spring they will feast on the remaining apples. We often have flocks of Cedar Waxwings that visit the tree in late Winter.
Our new addition is finally getting completed. The target date for completion is next Thursday. That is the day before my 79th birthday. Yup, I will be starting my eightieth year next week. Wow! Time flies when you are having fun.
I am a quick learner in some senses, other ways not. I grasp things intellectually quickly, but emotionally learning can be like wearing away a stone. Psychological and Spiritual information I absorb like a sponge in terms of the intellect. But having that awareness become real in my entire being is another matter.
For instance, I understood the value in letting go of the past over 40 years ago. I devoured Carlos Castaneda's books as they came out and completed the Course in Miracles three times in the early '80s. Yet no matter how good we are at understanding things intellectually, making it part of our being is another thing. I was reading an article the other day where the teacher said [I paraphrase] "I know you give lip service to not judging, yet I know you do it a mile a minute." I had to laugh out loud. Despite constantly reminding myself not to judge, I find myself doing so.
Getting back to letting go of the past. Wouldn't be nice if we could do it once and for all? Some of us are doing it gradually[me] and some are able to do it in one felled swoop.
So much of our judgements and perhaps all of our fear comes from past experience. Wouldn't it be great to carry that peaceful mind we discover in meditation all day long? Oh, I know we can. With intent and practice, we will.
Despite our foibles and the fact that we don't measure up to some ideal we have, we must not cast aspersions on ourselves. We are talking about loving our neighbor as our self, here. If we want to love those around us, we need to start with ourselves. We need to treat ourselves with dignity and respect. We need to be gentle with ourselves. A great aid to our learning is a good sense of humor. When we find ourselves slipping into judgement or some other foible, a hearty laugh will bring us into the present and dispel the judgement. If we find ourselves laughing all the time, all the better.
Love and Peace, Gregg
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