"There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true;
the other is to refuse to believe what is true."
- Soren Kierkegaard

"Awake. Be the witness of your thoughts. You are what observes,
not what you observe."
- Gautama Buddha


Quotes sent by Living Compassion this week.

Today peaking fall colors make a cool Sunday seem warmer. Evenings have been cold. Wonder if I'll be hiking and sleeping on Cold Mountain on Friday as planned.

Fall break joys: sleeping in, sitting an hour each morning, running, visiting friends, playing with Mela kitten (she fetches!), going to studio, getting things done, not getting anything done...

As for nothing/something, ego-karma took a blow this week (perfect for anniversary of Big Bang!) A friend told me something I was doing, was upsetting her.

Oh, tizzy! Am I not the sensitive person who always knows (was TRAINED to know-or else!) how to interpret and read people's (my mother's) minds. No, apparently not. And who could be that anyway? Oh no! Is there a possibility I could be more like my father whom one had to hit over the head to get him to understand certain things? Truly scarey. Then so funny and light - as a kite.

Mind clutching at phantom selves - terror - doing, not doing, insight, peace, gratitude, so much,
not much.

in chilling rainfall
the house stands
still smelling
faintly of oil
hot reds
umbers
golds
twist
fall
new
furnace new
kitty purring

Good opera in Atlanta this weekend. Pagliacci and Carmina Burana.
How about these words (of suffering) from the Goliards sung in Carmina Burana? Change is part of life, yet these guys appear to be whining (suffering) a lot over it. Is the whirling wheel truly monstrous, malevolant?

O Fortune,
like the moon
you are changeable,
ever waxing
and waning;
hateful life
first oppresses
and then soothes
as fancy takes it;
poverty
and power
it melts them like ice.

Fate - monstrous
and empty,
you whirling wheel,
you are malevolent,
well-being is vain
and always fades to nothing,