Sunday, October 26, 2008

sunny sunday



Me "Smalls are quiet"
Him "Mmmmmmm"

Me and Him wander over to see 2 sorta nudey smalls 'painting' selves with a bucket of water (and dirt). They sat there for an hour, painting, singing, warming their backs in the sun.

Me and Him kept planting and mulching. Get your tomatoes in, folks! Before Cup Day to guarantee good harvest (so they say).

Thursday, October 23, 2008

good things come...



I have a column over there (see right) entitled 'were I buying it, it would be this...' where I list a few of the things that I come across that take my fancy but are just too far (okay, some of them are really, really far) from being essential that I may never own them for myself. If you've just read my last post about non-attachment, you can consider this list as one of my many efforts towards aparigraha. What I love most about the practice of non-attachment is that sometimes really really good people do really really good things and you end up with really really nice things in your hand, for your own, just like that. Let it go and it will come. The universe will provide and all that.

Like Frankie. He comes along this week, containing a free wrapping paper book which makes me happy. Then I see it has a piece of my folk lover joy within. Free for me. So I can enjoy my folk lover papercuts in the flesh after all. Sorta. Kinda.

Then there is my friend's ma, who recently sent me a heap of fabric she no longer used. Hey. Thanks! Sure it was kinda floral and bright, but it's perfect for perfecting the pretty knickers I'm currently working on for the little 'un. She will only wear 'pretty' knickers, and not the ones that no longer fit the big 'un. Fair enough. And whatever gets her to the potty, I say! I'm going freehand, no pattern, and really no idea. I'm trying for this kind of thing. Anyone have any pretty knicker tips?

'sup, scarecrow?


Haven't been here in blogland much lately. Things a-plenty happening but just not a whole lot to say about them. I've been enjoying things as they rise and letting them go when they fall, happy again as another appears and happy, too, when they disappear. Aparigraha. The Sanksrit term for non-attachment. My absence from blogging is a manifestation of this. These ordinary minds of ours are constantly building more and more solid images of how things are and how others behave as a way of generating confidence and security. We build these self-images and then we defend them by bending every situation to reinforce our certainty. Were life an homogenous event, this would be fine. But she ain't, is she? Life demands we adapt and change with her. And so this is what I do. In the practice of aparigraha, begin first by consciously withdrawing your hand from reaching for external things. Ultimately the need to reach outward for anything will diminish and you are left with knowing that all you need you have. All that is essential is at hand. Enjoy what you have around you today. For me? Let's just say there's some scarecrow making in the making out back.....