From the category archives:

Consciousness

The thing about being raw, too, is that it never really ends. That’s what I’d like MOST to communicate! It just never does, or at least it hasn’t yet. There’s always some new idiocy or challenge. It’s like a practical joke of some kind. I realize not everybody in my age bracket feels that way, but this is something everybody living has in common, that we’re all still growing, even if some of us look like food for feral hogs.

{ 10 comments }

Too Weird Normal

by JHF on February 20, 2010 · 0 comments

in Consciousness

The new tires came in down at the Ford place. Good!
This is kind of unusual for me, buying tires from a car dealer instead of a tire store. I was all ready to plunk down $500 at nearby Garcia Tires (“Fastest Tires in the North!”), but their distributor didn’t have anything I wanted that would [...]

{ 0 comments }

Year of Magic

by JHF on January 6, 2010 · 6 comments

in Consciousness, Featured Posts

It all started with a concert performance of Janáček’s Sonata for Piano and Violin. Hoo, boy.
My wife had been practicing for months and rehearsing all week. The key to what turned out to be a magnificent success this past weekend turned out to be her talent, focus, incredibly hard work, and, in her own words, [...]

{ 6 comments }

Something Happened to Me

by JHF on October 6, 2009 · 4 comments

in Consciousness

Knock three times and be remembered…
A five-year-old boy walks barefoot in a clear, clean-running stream in suburban Virginia not far from Washington, D.C. The year is 1950. He carries a white enameled tin pail with a red handle, the kind children used to play with at the beach. He’s walking along collecting crayfish, catching [...]

{ 4 comments }

Deepak ‘n’ Me

by JHF on August 21, 2009 · 14 comments

in Consciousness

Yes, Deepak Chopra just blocked me on Twitter. Wild, huh?
I suppose everyone knows how Twitter works, but then I suppose a lot of things. That being the case, I’ll just explain that if you “follow” someone, their “tweets” or messages show up in your “timeline,” so you can zip through them and read whichever [...]

{ 14 comments }

I was angry enough over the last few days to understand a few more things. Suicide bombers, for instance!
Not that I wanted to kill myself or hurt anybody else, oh no, but there was that intensity of intent. I just wanted to DO something, you know? But since there weren’t any torches-and-pitchforks parades to [...]

{ 7 comments }

The Thing That Isn’t There

by JHF on June 30, 2009 · 2 comments

in Consciousness

This getting up in the morning and reading the news first off has got to end. Rumi was right, you know.
The internet is deadly in this respect. Concentrated “truth” from focusing on certain streams can overwhelm an organism. I know I’ve said that before, but it’s still true: the stuff is bad for me. It [...]

{ 2 comments }

Certainty Must Die

by JHF on May 21, 2009 · 4 comments

in Consciousness

“I‘ve given a lot!” she almost shouted, shooting me a look that would freeze Vesuvius.
How had I provoked her? By droning on a bit too long on a sensitive topic, the way I do to force the outcome. But logic is a deceiver: the real motive is calming her down so I’m not threatened (guys, [...]

{ 4 comments }

What Happened to the Mud?

by JHF on January 25, 2009 · 6 comments

in Consciousness

Yes, I deleted the post entitled “MUD.”
I have a few readers who hate when I do that — or maybe all of you do — but a blog or any other website ought to be a living document, not a digital trail of past mistakes and bad decisions. I have no idea why some bloggers [...]

{ 6 comments }

Woodpile Kensho

by JHF on January 19, 2009 · 6 comments

in Consciousness, New Mexico

More piñon lore, and something else!
This is what resin-heavy piñon looks like. Here and there in the woodpile, there are chunks that have buildups like this. I know when I find them, because they weigh twice as much as they should. These I set aside and chop as small as I can get them to [...]

{ 6 comments }

Not for casual consumption, however. This requires a long, relaxed look:
What is a human being? A human being is a nexus of relationships: the sum total of the connections among his or her cells, organs, and inner ecosystem; connections to other human beings that define the psyche; connections to the rest of nature and this [...]

{ 0 comments }

X-Ray Vision

by JHF on December 6, 2008 · 0 comments

in Consciousness

I’m in a write ‘em and delete ‘em mood. Sorry for deleting your comments as well.
Anyway, I had a very weird thing just happen. I walked past the woodstove (a battered old Ashley, straight out of the pages of the original Whole Earth Catalog) and I saw the fire. So what, you say. Well, for [...]

{ 0 comments }