black & white sunday: typical

from the tip

of the forest ranger’s broom. . . 

spring departs

~Issa (www.haikuguy.com)

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Trees…Medicine Bow National Forest

Medicine Bow National Forest extends from north central Colorado to central Wyoming in the United States. The origin of  it’s name, Medicine Bow, is legendary. The generally accepted version is that the Native American tribes which inhabited southeastern Wyoming found mountain mahogany in one of the mountain valleys from which bows of exceptional quality were made. It became the custom of friendly tribes to assemble there annually and construct their weapons. At these assemblies, there were ceremonial powwows for the cure of disease which, in the hybrid speech that developed between the Indians and the early settlers, was known as making medicine. Eventually, the settlers associated the terms “making-medicine” and “making bow”, and Medicine Bow resulted as the name for the locality.

Hop on over to Lost in Translation to participate.

thursday’s special: vision

Vision:  Unable to see things clearly unless they are relatively close to the eyes, owing to the focusing of rays of light by the eye at a point in front of the retina; myopic

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The Six Blind Men & the Elephant, a famous Hindu fable that tells the story of six blind sojourners that come across different parts of an elephant. In turn, each blind man creates his own version of reality from that limited experience and perspective. The video below is a illustrated version sharing an aged truth about our human condition and the relation between relative and absolute truth.

Jump on over to Lost in Translation to join this week’s Thursday’s Special.

wpc: transient

this rain

a greeting card from heaven

midsummer heat.

~Issa (www.haikuguy.com)

What are the various conditions—past and present, known and unknown—that come together to create raindrops? Scientists have suggested that the interactions between water vapor, dust particles, and wind turbulence within clouds create millimeter-sized droplets which are heavy enough to begin their descent towards earth. And in the process of falling, the droplets accumulate more and more moisture, becoming the raindrops we see on the ground.

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This scientific explanation of how raindrops form invites contemplation of the prior conditions that create vapor, dust, and wind. Each of these transient phenomenon is a telling of the ongoing weaving and unweaving of interconnected threads creating the various phenomena we experience within each given moment.

This weaving and unweaving of threads is noted by Thich Nhat Hanh, “This is, because that is. This is not, because that is not. This is born, because that is born. This dies, because that dies.”