Clouds and Thoughts and How we Choose to See Them

Clouds and Thoughts and How we Choose See Them

There are times when clouds look majestic and fanciful and other times when they look ominous and threatening.
As a long time meditator I have often compared clouds to thoughts. Some thoughts are friendly, uplifting and fun.
For example when things are going my way I feel like I am on a proverbial “Cloud 9." 
Other thoughts are strange and downright terrifying. This is when it seems everything that can go wrong “will” go wrong.
As human beings we prefer clouds we like over those we don’t like. It is the same with thoughts. We embrace the thoughts that make us feel good and resist the ones that make us feel badly.

One of my meditation teachers, Gil Fronsdale, at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA once told us that when he was growing up in Norway, his father told him: “Now Gil, your mind is going to come up with a lot of crazy thoughts. Don’t believe them!”

In other words, just like clouds, thoughts are variable, transient and impermanent. Trying to make a dark cloud go away is as futile as trying to make a dark, scary thought disappear. Just as we can’t control our thoughts, we can’t control the weather. The best strategy is to patiently wait it out. As the song in Little Ophan Annie goes: “The sun will come out, tomorrow….” 

In the meantime, take these wonderful clouds for what they are—expressions of atmospheric moods, Nature’s artistry and poetry in flight.

Photos: I Took these photos in and around our neighborhood in Los Gatos, CA

https://enjoyyourlifenow.net

Biophilia: The State of Love for Nature and all Living Things

It sounds like an exotic, rare and deadly disease. On the contrary, the root word “philia,” comes from the ancient Greeks, meaning “love.” In 1973, American psychoanalyst, Erich Fromm, described Biophilia as “the passionate love of life and all that is vital.”
In 1984, Edward Wilson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning biologist called Biophilia a human being's tendency to seek connections with nature and other forms of life. Living in a fast paced society has caused many of us to lose that precious connection with ourselves and the natural world. However, when we find ourselves living in an environment where living things are growing and thriving, it has a healing effect on our well-being.

Spring is a wonderful reminder of the opportunity of being enlivened by our connection to nature. 
Biophilia implies a deep affection for plants, colorful flowers, trees, pets and other living things. We have a need to interact with the natural world. We do it because if feels good. It makes us healthier, lighter, and happier. In fact, at Rutgers University in my home state of New Jersey, Researchers Jeanette Haviland-Jones, a professor of psychology, and her husband, Terry McGuire, professor of genetics, both at the school of Arts and Sciences, offered convincing evidence that flowers are potent mood elevators and have an immediate impact on our happiness.

From a historical perspective, the remains from the ruins found in Pompeii, in Southern Italy demonstrated that people brought plants into their houses and gardens more than 2000 years ago. Infirmaries, in monastic communities that were the sites of our first hospitals incorporated gardens on their grounds because they supported the healing process.

For me, Biophilia means spending time on the walking trails behind our home, or any of the County Parks like Shoreline, Vasona; and Rancho San Antonio. It is observing the passing cloud formations, feeling the breeze, and smelling the salty air of the ocean when we are on family holiday in Maui each year. Observing the ebb and flow of the ocean waves is very meditative and leaves me feeling relaxed, centered and at peace.

For others, it’s playing golf in some of the most natural and pristine settings. It is skiing, hiking in the forests, tending your garden; nurturing your orchids, playing with your dog, having lunch in the park, tea with a friend, or a bike ride on the sparsely populated scenic back roads.

All of these wondrous experiences that we engage in by ourselves or with family and friends, allows us to connect with the force of energy that surrounds us and is a part of us. We have a symbiotic relationship with "all that is," which is essential to our well being, especially in these turbulent times.

When we allow the business of life to overtake us, when we live inside our heads—worrying, planning, fantasizing, and when we allow our mobile devices to take control of our life in a way that is unhealthy, it is imperative that we remind ourselves and each other to reconnect with the beauty and movement of life that is always present. All we have to do is be mindful of it, change the channel in our minds and tune-in. 

Photos: Taken behind our townhouse at Rinconada Hills, LG, CA

https://enjoyyourlifenow.net

If a Tree Falls And No One Is Around To Hear It, Does It Make A Sound?—A True Story

While at my computer this past Wednesday morning at around 8 AM, I heard a loud crash and boom sound. My first thought was “wow,” the landscape maintenance crew at our 100 plus acre gated community at Rinconada Hills were really noisy today. Then I went back to what I was doing. Cecile had taken our son’s dog Daisy for a walk earlier. She said a tree had fallen and it was blocking the walking trails. “That was the sound I heard earlier,” I said. She looked surprised. But, I wasn't. You see my home office overlooks the walking trails of this unusually quiet refuge.

"Come on! Let’s go take a look,” I said. It was only a few hundred feet down the path. We were blown away by what we saw. A thirty foot Aleppo Pine tree was leveled to the ground leaving a fractured, rotted 5 foot high stump. It was only a matter of timing and fate that Cecile and Daisy as well as other residents were spared serious injury or worse. I felt a deep sense of relief and gratitude that they were safe.

This wasn’t the first tree I had seen a tree uprooted. While at Vasona County Park last Saturday I saw an even a bigger tree that had toppled to the ground as seen in the first photo. It too, was completely blocking a path where a public fundraising event: Walk with Compassion to End International Child Poverty was taking place. 

I couldn’t help but think of something philosopher, George Berkley, postulated in the early 1700s. When he said, “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” This would later become a paradoxical Zen koan used to demonstrate the inadequacy of logical reasoning since there are many ways to answer. In my case, it became a moot issue, since I actually heard the sound–at least the one behind our town home.

Like us humans, all trees have the potential to keel over. There are many reasons a tree dies and falls: wind, ice, snow, flood waters, and disease-like fungus induced wood decay. But most tree experts say the main reason is a phenomenon called “‘windthrow” that causes a tree to uproot. It’s like we learned in physics class. The tree trunk acts as a lever arm and when force is applied to the roots and the trunk, it begins to reach a literal “tipping point,” and is seconds crashes to the ground.

After returning home I thought further about these acts of Mother Nature. The shapes of the felled tree looked almost-human like. Twisted and severed limbs. It really made me wonder if trees feel pain when falling to earth. Many from the scientific community say no. But over 40 years ago, scientists noticed an interesting phenomenon on the African savanah. Giraffes were feeding on umbrella thorn acacias, and the trees resisted the attack. Within minutes they began pumping toxic substances into their leaves. The giraffes got the message and moved on to other acacia trees. Eventually they had to abandon their efforts as the trees whose leaves were being eaten sent out a signal—via an emission of ethylene gas—to members of their own species warning them of an impending crisis. All the forewarned trees prepared themselves by pumping toxins into their leaves and the crisis was averted. 

Reference: Do Trees Have Feelings Too? One Expert Says they Do. Peter Wohlleben, The Telegraph, September 2016

Visiting Three Baby Cheetahs during an Unplanned Camera Safari at the Living Desert in Palm Desert

While China celebrated the Year of the Rooster, The Living Desert (TLD) is celebrating the year of the Cheetah. These elegant, agile cats can sprint up to 75 mph within seconds. They are currently extinct in 20 countries. There are only 7500 living cheetahs in the wild and they could become extinct within 20 years. TLD is undergoing conservation efforts to protect them.
One project that The Living Desert team is focused on three adorable two year old cheetah sisters, Sudi, Bela, and Kali. The first two graced an audience of men, women and children with their presence. A third sister, Kali, played hard to get and remained out of view. Of course, they needed a little coaxing. To accomplish this, the animal trainers hidden on one side of the long running path blew a high pitched whistle to announce their feeding time. The Bill of Fare was a favored dish of my Italian ancestors-Meatballs:-). Having gone on camera safaris in Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Botswana and South Africa over the years, The The Living Desert outing was an unexpected pleasure. We also visited: Giraffes, Greater Kudu from the Gazelle species, Abyssinian Ground Hornbill bird, Zebras, Smiling Goats, Warthogs, and Ankole Longhorn steers.

Postscript: On this day millions of people were tuned into a live cam feed of a Giraffe named April about to give birth at the Animal Adventure Park in NY.

Playing Hide and Seek with A Praying Mantis (Mantis Religiosa)

While sitting out on our lanai on the 8th floor at the Wailea Marriott Resort overlooking the ocean in Maui, I noticed a Praying Mantis, measuring approximately five inches long. It had positioned itself upside down on the handrail of the glass enclosure like a shadow of itself. It was sitting as still as a Buddhist monk in meditation. I got closer to photograph it. Its’ patience and one pointed focus was amazing. Though sitting motionless, it slowly turned its alien like head keeping me directly in its’ gaze. The praying hands of a Praying Mantis have little to do with religiosity, and more to do with the rows of sharp spines at the end of its front legs that shoot out to grasp its’ prey (tiny insects). 

I expected this interesting looking creature to be gone by morning. But, there it sat, this time right side up on a ledge below focusing on obtaining its next meal just like our primitive ancestors who roamed the Earth.

These amazing creatures are known to detect movement from 60 feet away and its head can turn 360 degrees like Linda Blair in the exorcist:-). There are 22,000 species in the world. In all the years we have been coming to Maui I never saw one up so close and personal. I remember as a young kid seeing one on the sidewalk in my home town of Hoboken, NJ. I have to admit being a bit frightened by it as I had never seen anything like it before. The rumor is the Praying Mantis was a protected insect and if killed carried a $50 fine. Though considered a beneficial insect, the rumor proved false. They are usually born in the spring and have a short life span—living only one season. The female praying mantis has earned a reputation of being a cannibalistic femme fatale. Men think fatal attraction here! She lures males with her pheromones, and when one approaches, the prospective mate engages in a courtship dance. If the male mantis is deemed worthy he is allowed to mount the back of the larger female mantis and commence fertilization. At this point the female mantis begins chewing off her partner’s head (no joke), which increases the success and duration of copulation. Perhaps her next date will be wise to take her out to dinner and not be her dinner:-) 

A Lesson in Beauty & Stillness at the Lake behind our Home

Here in the light, filtering through perfect forms, arranging itself in lovely patterns for those who perceive beauty—Roy J. Cook.

I was so captivated by this pose of the Cormorant, I moved about to capture this moment while trying not to disturb its private reverie.

It's been said that birds spread their wings to dry their feathers and regulate their body temperature, but it could very well be that they sun themselves in this fashion simply because it feels good. Then again how to do you measure the intention and mood of a bird?

Imagine being free as a turtle where everything you own is on your back-the shell that houses your body.

I imagine it saying: "SPEED DOESN’T MATTER, travel at your own pace, you’ll arrive to your destination soon enough. Be like me—at ease in your own shell."

Being led along the way where the land kisses the shore, that place between movement and stillness, carrying all It needs at all times—wherever It goes. Poking its head out when it wants to eat or moving and drawing it back-in when he wants to chill and relax.