Listen

Sunrise this morning

Before i become fully awake in the mornings i listen and feel. i try not to use an alarm clock because the jarring noise bothers me and my husband. When i wake i might be on my side when coming out of a deep sleep or on my back. i can actually hear better with both ears exposed and will usually flip to my back before opening my eyes.

i can tell by the sounds of the morning and the feeling of light on my body whether i should roll back over or get out of bed; but its the listening that clinches the decision.

Listening starts my day. i absorb the sounds of the wind rustling the leaves in the trees, the Pearly-eyed Thrashers squawking, the Bananaquits chipping back and forth, the back ground sounds of dogs barking in the distance, and a roosters cock-a-doddle-do. The sounds of the morning mail plane flying over head mean i can sleep another hour but the rush of a car on the road below means people are moving and maybe i've over slept.

White-winged Dove

Listening is a psychological act according to Roland Barthes, a linguist, who claims it is different from hearing which is a biological process. Listening is an art some of us have mastered and some of us haven't.

Listening, really listening takes practice. We can consume sound or we can deny and block it out by ignoring it. At this moment, while you are reading the words printed here, sounds are wrapping you in their embrace. Listen for a minute. What do you hear?

The Buddha said that:

The unlistening one grows like a bull.

His muscles swell, but not his brain or wisdom

East Rust-op-Twist

Many philosophers and holy men have talked about the attributes of listening and i must admit when it comes to personal interactions i am as guilty as the next one of not really listening. i, like many, listen in order to respond not to understand in some of my interactions. But what if we did try to listen and understand even when we are most disinclined to? How would this change the outcome of our interactions with those we most disagree with?

Unfortunately in our fast paced world too many of us don't take the time to actually stop and listen; to our environment, to our friends, our neighbors, and even strangers when out and about. We speak our pieces and move on without really taking the time to slow down and comprehend.

Tide Pool

Sounds are all around us but most days we ignore their call. We ignore the environment screaming at us to pay attention, we ignore those we don't feel an affinity to, we ignore those sounds from nature and our friends that are alerting us to joys we are missing out on. Listening gives us the greatest opportunity to learn and even evoke memories or emotions we might have forgotten about. That bird you hear but don't really, the wind, the trees, your friends and foes...right now...take a moment to listen.

Sunset over Altona Lagoon

“You can't fake listening. It shows.” Raquel Welch

See ya next week

Photo help

i take a lot of pictures all over the island and recently noticed a quirk. i had taken a photo of this old run down house about a month ago and posted it in my blog.

A friend had seen it in the blog and told me to go back and look at the place again. i went back and found this which looks like it has been there forever.Double click on them they are nice photos.

Does anyone know why the building was plastered with these old photos? Who are they?

Interesting old site:  A sandstone cave located in southwest Egypt close to the Libyan border is called the Cave of Swimmers because of the figures on the walls. Here in the middle of the desert drawings that are believed to be 10,000 years old show human beings in the act of swimming.

You can be put to death in 13 countries around the world for atheism.

The National Day of Reason is on May 1, 2014.

Investment is driven by demand if there are investments to be made they will be done regardless of tax rates.

Inequality hurts economic growth. When people can't buy the economy can not grow.

Obamacare does not ration health care by income like our previous system.

Every time the CBO estimates how much Obamacare will cost the number gets lower...how come you never read that on the conservative sites?

Studies are showing that more and more of the wealthy get their money through inherited wealth.

Studies also find that the wealthy give less of their total income(1.3%) to charity than middle class Americans(3.2%).

Causes of bird fatalities:

wind turbines...less than 10,000

communication towers....50,000

pesticides.......................710,000

vehicles..........................850,000

cats................................1,060,000

high tension lines..........1,370,000

Buildings/windows..... 5,820,000

 i think FOX news incites hatred, animosity, and fear, maybe FOX news watchers think all the other stations do the same thing, i don't.

Apple says climate change is real and a real problem for the world. 94% of its corporate facilities and 100% of its data centers are powered by renewables.

See ya next week.

Visitors mean this one is a shorty

A study from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and US Fish and Wildlife Service has estimated that “free-ranging domestic cats” kill a median of 2.4 billion birds and 12.3 billion mammals every year.

Saudi Arabia spent $67bn on it military, Russia spent $87.8bn, China spent $188bn, and the US spent $640bn in 2013 according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Lesser Yellowlegs

Laws against sleeping in your car or on the sidewalk are called “quality of life laws.” Quality of life for who i wonder.

Spotted Sandpiper

Findings by the National Academy of Sciences released yesterday make claims that China's air pollution could be contributing to intensifying storms over the Pacific.

Adam Smith is quoted a lot by conservatives, i wonder what they would think about him saying this.

"The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state."[121]

or this:

"Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all."

According to the CBO regarding the Affordable Care Act:

1.ACA enrollment through exchanges reached 7.1 million, ahead of early estimates.
2.The ACA is quickly reducing the uninsured rate.
3.Thanks in part to the ACA, health care spending has slowed dramatically and health care inflation is at its lowest point in 50 years.
4.According to the Department of Commerce, the ACA is also having a positive effect on personal incomes.
 5. And according to the CBO, the system is even more affordable than previously projected.

The International Space Station is able to recycle 75% of astronauts pee.

See ya next week.

Did you know

Working together on the Roseway

That there is a company called Opower that has developed a way of communicating with utility customers to help them lower their energy bills and consumption.

China invested more in renewables in 2013 than Europe did.

Japan increased their renewable investments in 2013 by 80%.

The Union of Concerned Scientists analysis of CNN, FOX news, and MSNBC found that FOX news had the most misleading statements concerning climate change.

Bananas might be getting more expensive because of a disease strain ruining crops in Asia.

Red states(Republican) have a higher number of uninsured and lower minimum wages than blue states.

The US places first in number of people believing in angels.

In the top ten most livable cities not one US city is included.

Countries ranked highest on the Social Progress Index invest in schools, collective bargaining and universal health care.

There has never been a time since the Civil War when states weren't involved in providing social services.

It is a myth that charities have enough resources to replace state and national social services.

During acute need charities quickly become overwhelmed and can only serve a small portion of the population.

i've never heard any one claim that if Medicare was abolished elder care charities could fill the gap.

“There is more money to be made from the ignorant than the enlightened, and deceiving Americans is one of the few growing home industries we still have in this country. A truly educated populace would be bad, both for politicians and for business.” Charles Simic

Only one in six Americans can find Ukraine on a map.

According to Neil DeGrasse Tyson if creationists were right we wouldn't be able to see most of the stars in the sky.

“If medium household income had kept pace with the economy since 1970, it would now be nearly $92,000 instead of $50,000.” Mother Jones

The cost of living has increased 67% since 1990. Mother Jones.

Poverty Myth busted:

Black dads are the problem...wrong. Among men who don't live with their children, black fathers are more likely than White or Hispanic dads to have a daily presence in their kids' lives according to a study detailed this month in Mother Jones

See ya next week

Shorties

Every once in a while i like to publish things that most of us don't have the time to look for. The pieces are discordant but there is a thread of wise words if one takes the time to think about them.

Omar Khayyam

Don’t try every door
because of some bauble;
you just have to accept
the good and bad of your time;
a shake of the cup
and a toss of the dice–
whatever comes up,
you’ll just have to play it.

Translated by Juan Cole
from Whinfield 31 .

Bertrand Russell from the book “In Praise of Idleness”

Written in 1933

“Amid wars and rumors of wars, while “disarmament” proposals and non-aggression pacts threaten the human race with unprecedented disaster, another conflict, perhaps even more important, is receiving much less notice than it deserves—I mean the conflict between men and insects.”

J.R.R. Tolkien

“There is another thing about the Hobbits of old that must be mentioned, an astonishing habit: they imbibed or inhaled, through pipes of clay or wood, the smoke of the burning leaves of an herb, which they called pipe-weed or leaf, a variety probably of Nicotiana.”

Kahlil Gibran

“Mankind have I loved. Ay, much have I

loved men,

And men in my opinion are three:

The one who curses life, the one who

blesses it, and the one who contem-

plates it.

The first I have loved for his misery, the

second for his beneficence, and the

third for his wisdom.”

Krishnamurti

“In thought first; and that is not easy, for there are in the world many untrue thoughts, many foolish superstitions, and no one who is enslaved by them can make progress. Therefore you must not hold a thought just because many other people hold it, nor because it has been believed for centuries, nor because it is written in some book which men think sacred; you must think of the matter for yourself, and judge for yourself whether it is reasonable. Remember that though a thousand men agree upon a subject, if they know nothing about that subject their opinion is of no value.”

Bhagavad Gita.

“Both you and I have passed

through many births.

You know them not;

I know them all.”

Carolos Castaneda “A Separate Reality”

“Let me tell you something,” don Juan said. “It was a waste of time for you. His lesson was for someone who can see. Pablito and Nestor got the gist of it, although they don't see very well. But you, you went there to look. I told Genaro that you are a very strange plugged-up-fool and that perhaps you'd get unplugged with his lesson, but you didn't. It doesn't matter though. Seeing is very difficult.”

Ernest Hemingway “The Old Man and the Sea”

“He is a great fish and I must convince him, he thought. I must never let him learn his strength nor what he could do if he made his run. If I were him I would put in everything now and go until something broke. But, thank God, they are not as intelligent as we who kill them, although they are more noble and more able.”

Number 43 from the Tao Te Ching:

The softest thing in the universe
Overcomes the hardest thing in the universe.
That without substance can enter where there is no room.
Hence I know the value of non-action.
Teaching without words and work without doing
Are understood by very few.

See ya next week.