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Drowning in snow
Palzang
Veteran
I'm sure most everyone is aware of the "snowmaggedon" in DC and Maryland by now. We've got probably about 3 ft where I am. It's something! They say it's the biggest snowstorm ever here, and we'll probably break the record for most snowfall in a winter. It's hard to tell how much actually came down as it's drifting a lot, and it's very, very wet (to which I can attest, having just shoveled the sidewalk). It may be days before I can get to work! So far we've got power, but a lot of people don't. We lost power at the temple, which is bad enough for the people who are there, but it creates an emergency situation for our birds at the Garuda Aviary (macaws, cockatoos, big birds). Tropical birds + cold = BAD SITUATION! We have a generator, but it wouldn't start because it's battery was dead. But we finally dug through the snow to get to the building and were able to jump start it with a car battery. Now the birdies will stay warm. Those suffering in the cold and snow could use some prayer support.
Palzang
Palzang
0
Comments
Best of luck getting through the cold! May you stay warm and I hope that the birdies and people stay nice and warm at the temple too! I really hope you don't have too many homeless over there
With Metta
Ashley
This sucks!!! :cool:
Unfortunately the generator conked out again, and this time it's not just the battery. Hopefully they can get it fixed as it's going to get very cold tonite.
Palzang
Hope you get dug out OK down in Woodbridge. We've gotten almost everything plowed out up here in Poolesville. Just have to dig out my car tomorrow, and I'll be good to go! Where I don't know, but... Right now though there is more snow on my car than there is car! (I have a Yaris, which one of our nuns calls a "backpack")
Palzang
Latest news is the birds are OK. They got a small generator somewhere that's running the heaters for them. And I got my car dug out. All's right with the world...
Palzang
Glad I could NOT help. All is right until tomorrow but that is for another time. That sounded very philosophical-like didn't it?
Palzang
Love & Peace
Jellybean
Love & Peace
Joe
it has logged me off...
asks me to login again..
and in the process....dumps my writing.
Does anyone know how many minutes I have to compose a reply before I'm automatically logged off?
I'm NOT a very slow writer....
but often have many thots to convey...
This is the third time it has happened in as many months.
It makes for superficial conversation and frustration when one attempts to contribute something extra...something perhaps interesting...
VL
If you forget the Remember Me box, then use the back button to go back to the post editor, copy your post, and then you can just paste it when you log back in.
Glad to hear it CI
Love & Peace
Joe
Thanks. I did take picture that near the top of Utah around 12,000 feet. It is near one of my most favorite places on the entire planet.
I am glad the birds are doing better.
Palzang
and RenGalskap
I'll give this another try.
I just got back from Green Valley Lake....a lovely tiny community here in the mountains on a little lake. I went to check on a friend's house after we had nearly six feet of snow a couple of weeks ago followed by five inches of pounding rain a few days ago.
Our power also went down for 3 days and my deepest condolences to Palzang and any others who are struggling with power issues.
My 27 year old daughter and myself
live in an old ski cabin at 6,200 feet above sea level
in the mountains of So. Calif.
Very quickly the fireplace became the central focus point of our lives. I strung a clothes line along the mantle to dry our clothes....which came in sopping wet from the sleet. Keeping the fire hot and well tended was all that mattered against intermittent gale force winds and driving rain and snow. At about 5 PM I would panic and realize the candles and lanterns needed attention before the daylight vanished.
Our entertainment was meditation or listening to the storm or reading by lamp light.
Quickly our daily routine followed the available daylight......
up at 6 and asleep by 8.
Ok...this isn't very interesting here in the "Current Events" folder...
and I get that...
but this is a TESTO post...
as I have let this linger here while I've been drinking a beer and steaming rice....
Thanks to RenGalskap...
hopefully this will post.
VL
!!!
"Remember Me" totally works.
Thanks,
VL
:hrm:
I've been watching too much "Criminal Minds" lately.
My recent point of study are evil geniuses....
as the entire topic of "evil" eludes me.....
I have never experience, first hand, the indisputable existence of evil.
Which is odd....as I certainly experience regularly the existence of ecstasy
and joy and happiness....basic goodness, etc.
tho perhaps the opposite of evil is not ecstasy....
perhaps it is merely
non-evil.
Hmmm.
I see they arrested Michael Jackson's doctor today on charges of "Involuntary Manslaughter"....with a 4 year maximum sentence.
That is all I can contribute to current events.
VL
How's everyone else?
Love & Peace
Joe
So, Joe, do you call your bird "Fudgie budgie"?
Palzang
Kinda goes without saying, donnit? :winkc:
Palzang
HAHA!
yet have been unable to cage a creature born to soar and dance in the sky.
My impulse at the pet store is to open all the caged finches....to let them fly.
I think any truly sane person feels this urge.
One day I was sitting in the car in a residential section of LA...
Suddenly the hum of the city was shattered....
a flock of bright green parrots....screaming....
dove in a magnificently formed cluster over the car and up onto a rooftop
I leaped from the car in amazement.
The locals went about their business.
Sometimes I'll hear someone in town shriek with delight:
"A squirrel"
or
"A woodpecker"
or
"A coyote"
Then,
it is myself
who is unimpressed by worldly pleasures.
VL
HAHAHAHA!
Yeah......I do that to myself all the time.
What can you do but roll your eyes,
say "God, I'm a jerk"
and keep moving forward?
>>A reverse Buddhist monk let's his hair grow out, lives in the world, and let's enlightenment find him. This is me.
How is that working out for you?
How long have you been practicing in this way?
Is there practice involved...like meditation?
It could be argued that this approach to practice is the most sensible
as everything in this reality is headed back towards the center....sooner or later.
Also, it puts a dent in the ego feeding idea of:
"I'm a monk....see my bald head and robes...
therefore I'm holier than you"
Even the Dahlai Lama said "When millions of people see you as a living god,
it's a constant struggle not to believe it."
Paraphrasing there.
I probably screwed this post up....as my "Quote message in reply" box
doesn't seem at all responsive.
Gotta go check the snow.....we're getting lots today.
VL
It's working just fine.
(which I do from time to time....)
all I see is the path...
Every time I take my eyes off the path
(to perhaps enjoy a tree...)
I stumble.
VL
HAHAHAHA!
A thousand apologies if it feels that way.
Be assured it was not intended.
I saw your picture and read your words and instantly liked you. I thought
"Here is a person who is fun to talk with"
I don't understand the "run thru the woods" thing.
But would like to understand it....if you could explain it.
>>Every time wake up to more than a foot of snow on my car, it makes me more and more eager to move to either Texas or Arizona someday.
You need a winter get-away spot.
Or maybe a great pair of gloves...(conveniently located by the door.)
(my issue with great gloves isn't owing them...
(it's FINDING them when I need them.)
In my experience, Texas and Arizona in the dead of summer is every bit as oppressive as midwest winter.
One day I was sitting a stop light in Phoenix
when I realized I'd rather die by freezing than by fire.
Of course at that moment, death by freezing was a distant, romantic idea
while the concept of death by heat was a constant companion.
VL
It simply means that I don't need to see things that aren't there. Sometimes seeing trees means I'm seeing trees. I've found when people are seeking something in their lives they tend to make up a lot of things. Sometimes we see beyond and sometimes we just see trees.
Ah! The buddhist idea of emptiness.
I understand.
Like the pile of dog poop which may be perceived as "disgusting"
is, in reality, neither disgusting nor pleasing...
only thinking makes it so.
On the other hand....that pile DOES have a suchness
which, if not acknowledged, would also miss the mark.
Sometimes I drift into nihilistic thinking if I go too far with the empty thing.
Other times I over-create my reality until I'm dealing with
problems that don't actually exist.An example of that would involve
adventures in worrying.......fear about an imagined future event or situation....
Stuff like that...
>> I've found when people are seeking something in their lives they tend to make up a lot of things.
Yes....I've seen so much of that....
Omens...
Synchronicity.....
and such ....are the birthing ground for
superstitions and rationalizations
for all kinds of bad behaviors.
On the other hand....frequently I engage in the practice
of "sniffing the wind" to get a feel for how things are playing out.
Getting a sense of what is truely appropriate behavior often involves
a kind of opening up to the way things are...
but this is a subtle and small practice....
much like the Quaker idea of "....the small, quiet voice within"
Difficult to speak about and absurd to analyze....
like sex or prayer.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It's snowing again.
It's a wimpy California snow....
and as deep and difficult as it feels NOW...
by friday it's gonna be 80 degrees in the city
and that means 60 here.
VL
If sex and prayer are easy,
you're not doing them right.
<maniacal laughter fades in the distance>
VL