WENATCHEE RIVER VIEW FROM FOOTBRIDGE

This is the last of my landscape photos from my visit to Eastern Washington. Amazing how much I felt at home there so quickly.

I'll be taking another blogging break until November 6. As always, thanks to all who stop by and comment. Thanks to those who stop by and don't comment, too.

Don't know where I am going with this blog. Will give that some thought.

Did enjoy watching "The Other Side of the Mirror", a film by Murray Lerner. The additional short film where Murray Lerner talks about poetry, music, war, peace, civil rights and storytelling was well worth my time.

WOUNDED WARRIOR / REFRAMING

"Mess? You're not a mess -- you're a wounded warrior."

HER NAME IS SIEGFRIED

I met her in Eastern Washington. She belongs to herself and Deb. Her broken leg is healing. She runs faster than I can, using only three legs. She is both fierce and kind.

BLACK AND WHITE AND EVERY SHADE OF GREY IN EASTERN WASHINGTON ON A SUNNY AFTERNOON IN LATE SEPTEMBER

Exploring the Sun Salutation

VIEW FROM WOOD-PLANKED FOOTBRIDGE IN PLAIN, WASHINGTON

A monk asked Wei-kuan: "Where is Tao?"

Wei-kuan answered: "Right in front of us."

"Why don't I see it?" asked the monk.

"Because of your egotism."

"But if I cannot see it because of my egotism, can you see it?"

"As long as there is 'I' and 'thou,'" said the master, "this complicates everything and there is no seeing Tao."

"Then when there is neither 'I' nor 'thou,' is it seen?"

The master replied: "When there is neither 'I' nor 'thou,' who is here to see it?"

(Zen mondo)

MEADOW NEAR LAKE WENATCHEE

SUNNY FALL AFTERNOON WALK IN PLAIN, WASHINGTON

Yesterday there was a break in this dark cloudy fall in Western Washington, so I took a long walk in Whatcom Falls Park.

Still enjoying looking at my photos of Eastern Washington in the fall. While I was there, there were cloudy days and even some rain. The ground was basically dry, though.

"You thought, as a boy, that a mage is one who can do anything. So I thought, once. So did we all. And the truth is that as a man's real power grows and his knowledge widens, ever the way he can follow grows narrower: until at last he chooses nothing, but does only and wholly what he MUST do."

(Ursula K. LeGuin, from A WIZARD OF EARTHSEA)

WAKING UP ON AN EASTERN WASHINGTON AFTERNOON IN FALL OF 2007 / LIKE A ROLLING KOAN REVISITED

Talkin' World War III Blues

Some time ago a crazy dream came to me,
I dreamt I was walkin' in World War III,
I went to the doctor the very next day
To see what kinda words he could say.
He said it was a bad dream.
I wouldn't worry 'bout it none, though,
Them ol' dreams are only in your head . . .

. . . Well, I seen me a Cadillac window uptown
And there was nobody aroun',
I got into the driver's seat
And I drove down 42nd Street
In my Cadillac.
Good car to drive after a war . . .
(Bob Dylan, 1963)

Cadillac Escalade
(Bob Dylan, 2007)

Strange days indeed -- most peculiar, mama
(John Lennon, 1980)

Gallows humor

Bob talking about Cadillacs in James Dean’s voice -- Theme Time Radio -- Cadillac Episode

Like a rolling koan revisited.

LOOKING WEST TOWARD SNOWSTORM ON STEVEN'S PASS

Traveling to Chelan County near Plain in Eastern Washington for me was like traveling back in time to the landscape of my childhood in Northern California in the 1950s. The sky was deep blue, the dry air was filled with the fragrance of pine trees. I loved seeing quail again.

LATE AFTERNOON AUTUMN SUN IN CHELAN COUNTY

Still feeling quiet.

TWO MONKS AND A SCORPION

Unable to download pictures today, but here is a link to a story about two monks and a scorpion from Whiskey River.

I had just heard a story of a frog attempting to help a scorpion by carrying it across a river after the scorpion promised not to sting the frog. As they cross the river, the scorpion stings the frog and they both drown in the river. Before they go under, the frog asks the scorpion, "Why would you cause so much suffering? The scorpion says, "It is my nature."

Synchronicity.

"Take what you have gathered from coincidence" (Bob Dylan, 1965, from the song "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue")

And another version from an article by Doris Lessing with a Sufi story:

A tortoise carries a stranded scorpion across a river. The scorpion stings the tortoise who demands indignantly: "My nature is to be helpful. I have helped you and now you sting me." "My friend," says the scorpion, "your nature is to be helpful. Mine is to sting. Why do you seek to transform your nature into a virtue and mine into villainy?"

OCTOBER IN CHELAN COUNTY IN EASTERN WASHINGTON

Don't have much to say but will continue showing photographs of a recent visit to Chelan County in Eastern Washington during this quiet time.

GRACEFUL TREES OVERLOOKING LAKE WENATCHEE

AFTERNOON SUNLIGHT NEAR LAKE WENATCHEE

From September 28 to October 12, I was in the small town of Plain in Eastern Washington, staying at the Grunewald Guild for a yoga teacher training offered by the Samarya Center, a yoga studio in Seattle, Washington.

Before arriving at the Grunewald Guild on the afternoon of September 28, I did a little exploring and found this spot at the side of the road, above Lake Wenatchee.

"If you begin to understand what you are without trying to change it, then what you are undergoes a transformation."
(J. Krishnamurti)