Happy Holidays

Karen and I will be very busy with many activities for the next four weeks.

Each day we pack up boxes of our belongings for storage in an 8 'x 40' metal storage unit at a nearby storage facility.  We are making some progress in emptying and cleaning up our home in preparation for a sale of our home.

We have some travel plans and a train trip planned.

We will spend some time with family and friends over the holiday season.  

As of today, there have been 886,446 page views of this blog.  Last month, there were 25,695 page views of this blog.  Hopefully, readers will find something in this blog in 2017 that they find interesting, useful, or uplifting.  

Something borrowed?  Saturnalia?   Christmas?   New Year?  Winter Solstice?  

Yuletide Celebrations

Pagan Christmas: The Plants, Spirits, and Rituals at the Origins of Yuletide. By Christian Rätsch and Claudia Müller-Ebeling. Translated from the German by Katja Lueders and Rafael Lorenzo. Rochester, Vermont, Inner Traditions, 2006. Index, bibliography, 213 pages. ISBN: 1594770921. VSCL. 


My very best wishes to all my readers.  
May good health, prosperity, peace, and contentment be yours.  
Enjoy the holiday season with your family and friends.
Happy New Year!

Reading and Resting

I've been struggling a bit with a cold the past few days.  The usual: fatigue, coughing, chest congestion, feeling down ... familiar problems to millions.  

I bundle up, stay warm, rest, drink plenty of warm fluids, take mild medicines, and slowly recuperate. Karen is a wonderful helpmate- understanding, providing remedies, and encouragement.  

While resting quietly, I have been reading books on the history of science, evolutionary biology, and a biography of Charles Darwin (1809-1882).  These books will keep me fascinated and busy for a few months.  

"The History of Science" by Stephen F. Mason.  Collier, 1956.

"The Annotated Origin: A Facsimile of the First Edition of On the Origin of the Species."  By Charles Darwin.  Annotated by James  T. Costa.  Belknap Press of the Harvard University Press, 2009.  Indices, references, biographies, appendices, 537 pages.  ISBN: 9780674032811.  

"The Greatest Show on Earth" by Richard Dawkins.  

"Darwin: The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist" by Adrian Desmond and James Moore.  Norton, 1994, 868 pages.  The Darwin biography was detailed, comprehensive, historically fascinating, and very interesting to me.  Life in London, and Down House, from 1840-1880, is well documented in this book.  

Tao Te Ching, Chapter 15

Daodejing, Laozi
Chapter 15

"The skillful masters of the Dao in old times, with a subtle and exquisite penetration, 
Comprehended its mysteries, and were deep also so as to elude men's knowledge.
As they were thus beyond men's knowledge,
I will make an effort to describe of what sort they appeared to be.
Shrinking looked they like those who wade through a stream in winter;
Irresolute like those who are afraid of all around them;
Grave like a guest in awe of his host;
Evanescent like ice that is melting away;
Unpretentious like wood that has not been fashioned into anything;
Vacant like a valley, and dull like muddy water.
Who can make the muddy water clear?
Let it be still, and it will gradually become clear.
Who can secure the condition of rest?
Let movement go on, and the condition of rest will gradually arise.
They who preserve this method of the Dao do not wish to be full of themselves.
It is through their not being full of themselves that they can afford to seem worn and not appear new and complete."
-  Translated by James Legge, 1891, Chapter 15  


"The Sages of old were profound
and knew the ways of subtlety and discernment.
Their wisdom is beyond our comprehension.
Because their knowledge was so far superior
I can only give a poor description.
They were careful
as someone crossing a frozen stream in winter.
Alert as if surrounded on all sides by the enemy.
Courteous as a guest.
Fluid as melting ice.
Whole as an uncarved block of wood.
Receptive as a valley.
Turbid as muddied water.
Who can be still
until their mud settles
and the water is cleared by itself?
Can you remain tranquil until right action occurs by itself?
The Master doesn't seek fulfillment.
For only those who are not full are able to be used
which brings the feeling of completeness."
-  Translated by John H. McDonald, 1996, Chapter 15 


"Of old, those who were leaders in good actions examined mysteries with deep penetration; searching deeply, they did not understand; even Masters did not understand; therefore their actions were void of strength.
They were timid, as those who cross a torrent in winter; irresolute, as those who fear their neighbors; grave, as strangers before their host; they effaced themselves as ice that melts; they were rough as undressed wood, empty as a valley, confused as troubled water.
Who is able by quietness to make pure the troubled heart?
Who is able by repose to become conscious of Inner Life?
He who safely maintains his consciousness of Life will find it to be inexhaustible.
Therefore he will be able, though not faultless, to renew perfectness."
-  Translated by Isabella Mears, 1916, Chapter 15 


"Profound indeed were the most excellent among the ancients, penetrating, fathomless;
inasmuch as they were fathomless it becomes necessary to employ far fetched symbols when speaking of them.
Irresolute? as if fording a stream in winter.
Timid? as though fearful of their neighbors.
Grave? as if they were guests.
Elusive? like ice about to melt.
Simple? like raw material.
Expansive? like the space between hills.
Turbid? like muddy water.
Who can still the turbid and make it gradually clear;
or quiet the active so that by degrees it shall become productive?
Only he who keeps this Tao, without desiring fullness.
If one is not full it is possible to be antiquated and not newly fashioned."
-  Translated by C. Supurgeon Medhurst, 1905, Chapter 15  


古之善為士者, 微妙玄通, 深不可識.
夫唯不可識.
故強為之容.
豫兮若冬涉川.
猶兮若畏四鄰.
儼兮其若容.
渙兮若冰之將釋.
敦兮其若樸.
曠兮其若谷.
混兮其若濁.
孰能濁以靜之徐清.
孰能安以久動之徐生.
保此道者不欲盈.
夫唯不盈.
故能蔽不新成. -  Chinese Characters, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 15 


ku chih shan wei shih chê, wei miao hsüan t'ung, shên pu k'o shih.
fu wei pu k'o shih.
ku ch'iang wei chih jung.
yü yen jo tung shê ch'uan.
yu hsi jo wei ssu lin.
yen hsi ch'i jo jung.
huan hsi jo ping chih chiang shih.
tun hsi ch'i jo p'u.
k'uang hsi ch'i jo ku.
hun hsi ch'i jo cho.
shu nêng cho yi ching chih hsü ch'ing.
shu nêng an yi chiu tung chih hsü shêng.
pao tz'u tao chê pu yü ying.
fu wei pu ying.
ku nêng pi pu hsin ch'êng.
-  Wade-Giles Romanization, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 15 



"The Tao of those eminent for wisdom in the olden times was subtle, mysterious, recondite, and penetrating.
Its depths were unrecognizable by others.
The non-adepts, being unable to learn it, strove by main force, therefore, to act it out in practice.
They endured the hardships of their search as those who ford streams in the winter.
Cautious were they, as those who dread the ridicule of their neighbors.
Reverent were they, as those who entertain a visitor.
Expansive were they, as ice on the point of melting.
Simple and unpolished were they, as unhewn wood.
Vacant were they, as a ravine.
Undiscerning were they, as turbid water.
Who is able to make turbid water grow gradually clear by reducing it to quiescence?
Who is able to impart unending life to that which is at rest by setting it in perpetual motion?
Those who preserve this Tao desire no fullness; wherefore, having no fullness,
they are able to guard it in their hearts for ever and it never requires to be renewed."
-  Translated by Frederic Henry Balfour, 1884, Chapter 15  



"Los sabios perfectos de la antigüedad
eran tan sutiles, agudos y profundos
que no podían ser conocidos.
Puesto que no podían ser conocidos,
sólo se puede intentar describirlos:
Eran prudentes, como quien cruza un arroyo en invierno;
cautos, como quien teme a sus vecinos por todos lados;
reservados, como un huésped;
inconstantes, como el hielo que se funde;
compactos, como un tronco de madera;
amplios, como un valle;
confusos, como el agua turbia.
¿Quién puede, en la quietud, pasar lentamente de lo
turbio a la claridad?
¿Quién puede, en el movimiento, pasar lentamente
de la calma a la acción?
Quien sigue este Tao
no anhela la abundancia.
Por no estar colmado
puede ser humilde,
eludir lo vulgar
y alcanzar la plenitud."-  Translation from Wikisource, 2013, Tao Te Ching, Capítulo 15


"Those of yore who have succeeded in becoming masters are subtle, spiritual, profound, and penetrating.
On account of their profundity they cannot be understood.
Because they can not be understood, therefore I endeavor to make them intelligible.
How cautious they are!
Like men in winter crossing a river.
How reluctant! Like men fearing in the four quarters their neighbors.
How reserved! They behave like guests.
How elusive! They resemble ice when melting.
How simple! They resemble rough wood.
How empty! They resemble the valley.
How obscure! They resemble troubled waters. 
Who by quieting can gradually render muddy waters clear?
Who by stirring can gradually quicken the still?
He who cherishes this Reason is not anxious to be filled.
Since he is not filled, therefore he may grow old;
Without renewal he is complete."
-  Translated by D. T. Suzuki and Paul Carus, 1913, Chapter 15  


"Those good at practicing Dao in antiquity
were subtle and wonderful, mysterious and penetrating.
They are too deep for us to know.
And precisely because they cannot be known,
so I am forced to figure them out.
Cautious, oh,
as if crossing a river in winter!
Hesitant, oh,
as if afraid of the surrounding neighbors!
Dignified, oh,
they were like guests!
Yielding, oh,
they were like ice about to melt!
Simple, oh,
they were like a piece of natural wood!
they were like valleys!
Vast, oh
confused, oh,
they were like turbid water!
When left still, the turbid
slowly turns clear.
When roused, the quiet
gently comes to life
To keep this Dao
is not to desire to be filled.
And precisely because they do not desire to be filled,
they can, therefore, remain hidden
and stay unfinished."
-  Translated by Joseph Hsu, 2008, Chapter 15  


A typical webpage created by Mike Garofalo for each one of the 81 Chapters (Verses, Sections) of the Tao Te Ching (Daodejing) by Lao Tzu (Laozi) includes 25 different English language translations or interpolations for that Chapter, 5 Spanish language translations for that Chapter, the Chinese characters for that Chapter, the Wade-Giles and Hanyu Pinyin transliterations (Romanization) of the Mandarin Chinese words for that Chapter, and 2 German and 1 French translation of that Chapter.  Each webpage for each one of the 81 Chapters of the Tao Te Ching includes extensive indexing by key words, phrases, and terms for that Chapter in English, Spanish, and the Wade-Giles Romanization.  Each webpage on a Chapter of the Daodejing includes recommended reading in books and websites, a detailed bibliography, some commentary, research leads, translation sources, and other resources for that Chapter.  Each webpage includes a Google Translate drop down menu at the top that enables you to read the webpage in over 100 languages.

Chapter 15, Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

Chapter and Thematic Index (Concordance) to the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

English Language Daodejing Translators' Source Index

Spanish Language Daodejing Translators' Source Index

Ripening Peaches: Taoist Studies and Practices

Taoism: A Selected Reading List

One Old Daoist Druid's Final Journey  

Property for Sale in Red Bluff, California

Karen retired in June of 2014.  I retired in June of 2016.

Karen and I have decided to sell our home in Red Bluff and move to Vancouver, Washington.  

This is well maintained 1909 square foot house, with 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, a large office area, and large screened back porch.  There are extensive gardens, beautiful landscaping, an orchard, and 5 acres of land.  There are two 125' wells and 2 ponds on the property.   

Here is a detailed webpage on this house and property.Here is the current Zillow listing.

Holiday Cheer

Last night, Karen and I listened to some Christmas music, enjoyed a cocktail with our delicious beef stew dinner, and chatted about the good old times we had during many a winter holiday season.  Wonderful memories of fun times with family and friends!  

This year is somewhat different.  We both are now fully retired and unemployed.  Since we are selling our home, we are very busy with packing, storing, and home improvements.  

We are now into the cold and wet season here in Red Bluff, and all the wild grasses are now green in California.  Enjoying the autumn colors.  We have plans for a train trip to Vancouver, Washington.  


Winter Solstice and Yule Celebrations

One Old Druid's Final Journey

"Reclaim Santa Claus as a Pagan Godform. Today's Santa is a folk figure with multicultural roots. He embodies characteristics of Saturn (Roman agricultural god), Cronos (Greek god, also known as Father Time), the Holly King (Celtic god of the dying year), Father Ice/Grandfather Frost (Russian winter god), Thor (Norse sky god who rides the sky in a chariot drawn by goats), Odin/Wotan (Scandinavian/Teutonic All-Father who rides the sky on an eight-legged horse), Frey (Norse fertility god), and the Tomte (a Norse Land Spirit known for giving gifts to children at this time of year). Santa's reindeer can be viewed as forms of Herne, the Celtic Horned God. Decorate your home with Santa images that reflect His Pagan heritage.    Honor the Goddess as Great Mother. Place Pagan Mother Goddess images around your home. You may also want to include one with a Sun child, such as Isis with Horus. Pagan Goddess forms traditionally linked with this time of year include Tonantzin (Native Mexican corn mother), Holda (Teutonic earth goddess of good fortune), Bona Dea (Roman women's goddess of abundance and prophecy), Ops (Roman goddess of plenty), Au Set/Isis (Egyptian/multicultural All Goddess whose worship continued in Christian times under the name Mary), Lucina/St. Lucy (Roman/Swedish goddess/saint of light), and Befana (Italian Witch who gives gifts to children at this season)."
-   Selena Fox, Celebrating the Winter Solstice     

Playing For Its Own Sake

"Creative people are curious, flexible, persistent, and independent with a tremendous spirit of adventure and a love of play."-   Henri Matisse  

Play: Quotes, Sayings and Poetry

Play: It is an an activity which proceeds within certain limits of time and space, in a visible order, according to rules freely accepted, and outside the sphere of necessity or material utility.  The play-mood is one of rapture and enthusiasm, and is sacred or festive in accordance with the occasion.  A feeling of exaltation and tension accompanies the action."
-  Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens

"In rare moments of deep play, we can lay aside our sense of self, shed time's continuum, ignore pain, and sit quietly in the absolute present, watching the world's ordinary miracles. No mind or heart hobbles. No analyzing or explaining. No questing for logic. No promises. No goals. No relationships. No worry. One is completely open to whatever drama may unfold."
- Diane Ackerman in Deep Play

Deep Play  By Diane Ackerman.  New York, Random House, 1999.  Index, 235 pages.  ISBN: 0679448799.  

"We may play with and pass on a garden, possessing one is an illusion.
Gardeners must dance with feedback, play with results, turn as they learn.
Some gardeners don't grow old and stop playing; they stop playing and grow old.
Nature's playfulness is a gardener's delight.
A garden is a sporting field, an area for play."
-   Michael P. Garofalo, Pulling Onions


"To play is to listen to the imperative inner force that wants to take form and be acted out without reason. It is the joyful, spontaneous expression of one's self. The inner force materializes the feeling and perception without planning or effort. That is what play is."
-  Michelle Cassou and Stewart Cubley in Life, Paint and Passion


"Play exists for its own sake.  Play is for the moment; it is not hurried, even when the pace is fast and timing seems important. When we play, we also celebrate holy uselessness.  Like the calf frolicking in the meadow, we need no pretense or excuses.  Work is productive; play, in its disinterestedness and self-forgetting, can be fruitful."
-  Margaret Guenther in Toward Holy Ground


Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture  By Johan Huizinga.  Beacon Press, 1971.  240 pages.  ISBN: 978-0807046814.  VSCL. 

Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul  By Stuart Brown, M.D..  Avery Trade, 2010.  240 pages.  ISBN: 978-1583333785. 

Lifelong Vitality

Move Into Life by Anat Baniel
Nine Essentials for Lifelong Vitality

"1.  Moving with Attention, Wake Up to Life, Mindful Movements
2.  The Learning Switch, Bring in the New, Lifelong learning, Retraining
3.  Subtlety, Experience the Power of Gentleness
4.  Variation, Enjoy Abundant Possibilities
5.  Taking Your Time, Slowing Down, Not Rushing, Luxuriate in the Richness of Feeling 
6.  Enthusiasm, Turn the Small into the Great
7.  Flexible Goals, Make the Impossible Possible  
8.  Imagination and Dreams, Create Your Life
9.  Awareness, Cultivating Mindfulness, Thrive with True Knowledge"

Move into Life: The Nine Essentials for Lifelong Vitality  By Anat Baniel.  New York, Harmony Books, 2009.  Index, bibliography, 306 pages.  ISBN: 9780307395290.  VSCL.  

Lifestyle Advice from Wise Persons

The Good Life  

Dao De Jing Chapter 16

Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu
Chapter 16


"Attaining perfect emptiness
 Remain patient and sincere
 The myriad beings arise as one
 Through this we observe the return
 Of beings in numberless multitudes
 Each coming home to its root
 Return to the root means serenity
 It may be called a return to a higher order
 Return to higher order speaks of the enduring
 To comprehend the enduring speaks of clarity
 To not comprehend the enduring
 Is to recklessly create suffering
 To comprehend the enduring (is) tolerance
 Tolerance becomes justice
 Justice becomes sovereignty
 Sovereignty becomes celestial
 The celestial becomes the path
 The path is then continuous
 The death of self is nothing to fear"
 -  Translated by Bradford Hatcher, 2005, Chapter 16



"Bring about emptiness to the extreme.
Guard true stillness.
The ten-thousand things rise together.
I therefore observe their return:
Those ten-thousand plants—each plant—returns
Going back to its root.
Going back to the root is said to be stillness.
This is called returning to life.
Returning to life is called the Constant.
Understanding the Constant is called clarity.
Not understanding the Constant:
Reckless actions—misfortune.
Understanding the Constant, forgive.
Forgive, then be unbiased.
Be unbiased, then be whole.
Be whole, then be Heaven.
Be Heaven, then be Tao.
Be Tao, then be eternal.
Not having a body, there is no danger."
-  Translated by Aalar Fex, 2006, Chapter 16  


"Empty the self completely; Embrace perfect peace.
 Realize that all beings alike go through their processes of activity and life,
 and then they return to the original source.
 Returning to the source brings peacefulness and stillness.
 This stillness is the flow of nature, and signifies that the beings have lived their allotted span of life.
 Accepting this brings enlightenment and tranquility,
 ignoring this brings confusion and sorrow
 If one can accept this flow of nature; one can cherish all things.
 Being all-cherishing you become impartial;
 Being impartial you become magnanimous;
 Being magnanimous you become natural;
 Being natural you become one with The Way;
 Being one with The Way you become immortal:
 Though the body will decay, the Way will not."
 -  Translated by John Discus, 2002, Chapter 16   



致虛極.
守靜篤.
萬物並作.
吾以觀復.
夫物芸芸, 各復歸其根.
歸根曰靜.
是謂復命.
復命曰常.
知常曰明.
不知常, 妄作凶知常容.
容乃公.
公乃王.
王乃天.
天乃道.
道乃久.
沒身不殆.
-  Chinese characters, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 16

zhi xu ji.
shou jing du.
wan wu bing zuo.
wu yi guan fu.
fu wu yun yun, ge fu gui qi gen.  
gui gen yue jing.
shi yue fu ming.
fu ming yue chang.
zhi chang yue ming.
bu zhi chang, wang zuo xiong zhi chang rong.
rong nai gong.
gong nai quan.
quan nai tian.
tian nai dao.
dao nai jiu.
mo shen bu dai.
-  Pinyin translation, Daodejing, Chapter 16 

"Effect emptiness to the extreme.
 Keep stillness whole.
 Myriad things act in concert.
 I therefore watch their return.
 All things flourish and each returns to its root.
 Returning to the root is called quietude.
 Quietude is called returning to life.
 Return to life is called constant.
 Knowing this constant is called illumination.
 Acting arbitrarily without knowing the constant is harmful.
 Knowing the constant is receptivity, which is impartial.
 Impartiality is kingship.
 Kingship is Heaven.
 Heaven is Tao
 Tao is eternal.
 Though you lose the body, you do not die."
 -  Translated by Charles Muller, 1891, Chapter 16

"Vacía tu Ego completamente;

Abraza la paz perfecta.
El Mundo se mueve y gira;
Observale regresar a la quietud.
Todas las cosas que florecen
Regresarán a su origen.
Este regreso es pacífico;
Es el camino de la Naturaleza,
Eternamente decayendo y renovandose.
Comprender ésto trae la iluminación,
Ignorar esto lleva a la miseria.

Aquel que comprende el camino de la Naturaleza llega a apreciarlo todo;
Apreciandolo todo, se convierte en imparcial;
Siendo imparcial, se convierte en magnánimo;
Siendo magnánimo, se convierte en parte de la Naturaleza;
Siendo parte de la Naturaleza, se hace uno con el Tao;
Siendo uno con el Tao, se alcanza la inmortalidad:
Piensa que el cuerpo perecerá, el Tao no."
-  Translated by Antonio Rivas Gonzálvez, 1998, Tao Te Ching, Capítulo 16


"To arrive at ultimate quietness
Steadfastly maintain repose.
All creatures together have form;
I see them return again to their root.
The Master creatures come to perfect form,
Continuously they return to their root.
Continuous return to the root is called repose,
Repose is called the law of return,
The law of return is called eternity.
To know eternity is called illumination.
To ignore eternity is to draw misfortune on oneself,
To know eternity is to be great of Soul,
To be great of soul is to be a ruler,
To be a ruler is to be greater than all,
To be greater than all is to be conscious of Life,
To be conscious of Life is to endure.
The body shall disappear but not decay."
-  Translated by Isabella Mears, 1916, Chapter 16  



Audio Recordings (Podcasts) in English by Mike Garofalo

Here is an audio recording of selected translations from Chapter 16 of the Tao Te Ching. This reading includes translations by Isabella Mears 1916, Charles Muller 1891, John Discus 2002, Bradford Hatcher 2005, Stephen Addis 1993.  Reading and recording by Michael P. Garofalo at the Valley Spirit Center in Red Bluff, California.  Recorded on December 5, 2016. MP3 format.  12.7 MB.    



A typical webpage created by Mike Garofalo for each one of the 81 Chapters (Verses, Sections) of the Tao Te Ching (Daodejing) by Lao Tzu (Laozi) includes 25 different English language translations or interpolations for that Chapter, 5 Spanish language translations for that Chapter, the Chinese characters for that Chapter, the Wade-Giles and Hanyu Pinyin transliterations (Romanization) of the Mandarin Chinese words for that Chapter, and 2 German and 1 French translation of that Chapter.  Each webpage for each one of the 81 Chapters of the Tao Te Ching includes extensive indexing by key words, phrases, and terms for that Chapter in English, Spanish, and the Wade-Giles Romanization.  Each webpage on a Chapter of the Daodejing includes recommended reading in books and websites, a detailed bibliography, some commentary, research leads, translation sources, a Google Translate drop down menu, and other resources for that Chapter.   

Chapter 16, Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

Chapter and Thematic Index (Concordance) to the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

English Language Daodejing Translators' Source Index

Spanish Language Daodejing Translators' Source Index

Ripening Peaches: Taoist Studies and Practices

Taoism: A Selected Reading List

One Old Daoist Druid's Final Journey  

Reflections of Autumn Green

Backyard Bounties

The End of Autumn

A beautiful day here in Red Bluff.  Cool and overcast.  Everything wet or damp from the recent rainstorm of last weekend.  

A time for household chores and garden chores.  Less time for reading, thinking, and writing.  

Funerals

Karen and I attended a funeral service last Friday night. A young woman, Chandes Goodin, was killed in a recent automobile accident. She died on her 24th birthday.

The funeral services were traditional Christian rituals, preaching, and songs. I hope their faith helped them in this hard time of shock and sadness. A somber scene.  Many expressions of the hope that they will all meet again in heaven. A tender, sincere, fit and proper remembrance ceremony for Chandes and her family.

We know the family through Kathy and Davis Goodin. They run the wonderful Goodin Nursery on 99W and Flores - a half mile from our home. Karen and Kathy are good friends.

Someday a death will leave you speechless - including your own. 

Death and Dying - Quotations and Thoughts

"Fear no more the heat o' th' sun
Nor the furious winters' rages;
Thou thy worldly task hast done,
Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages.
Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust."
- Shakespeare


"Earth, that nourished thee, shall claim
Thy growth, to be resolved to earth again,
And, lost each human trace, surrendering up
Thine individual being, shalt thou go
To mix forever with the elements,
To be a brother to the insensible rock
And to the sluggish clod, which the rude swain
Turns with his share, and treads upon. The oak
Shall send his roots abroad, and pierce thy mold."
- William Cullen Bryant, Thanatopsis

The Essential Experiment: You

"The ultimate test of a scientific hypothesis is experiment.  Experiment specifically means that you don't just wait for nature to do something, and passively observe it and see what it correlates with.  You go in there and do something.  You manipulate.  You change something, in a systematic way, and compare the result with a 'control' that lacks the change, or you compare it with a different change."
-  Richard Dawkins, The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution, p.66

One way to view your practice of mind-body arts is that you are conducting an experiment with your body-mind.  How does the practice of Tai Chi, Qigong, Yoga, or walking change you, change your attitude, change your mood, change your body, change your feelings.  

Keep a log, a journal, a record of your progress.  Be exacting, precise, factual in your reporting.  Be scientific.  

Quantify your key measurements.  Consistently measure and record your blood pressure, hours of sleep, caloric intake, hours of exercise, etc.  Use some psychological rating scale.  Measure range of motion and flexibility.  Quantify and compare changes over time.  

Change something!  Learn a new Taijiquan form, and articulate what happens. Change the pace of a form you know well.  

Be systematic.  Don't quit.  Persist.  Compare.  

It is time for you to evolve, modify, change, become!!

Thanksgiving Day Celebration

Happy Thanksgiving Day!!

T   hanks for time to be together, turkey, talk, and tangy weather.
H  for harvest stored away, home, and hearth, and holiday.
A  for autumn's frosty art, and abundance in the heart.
N  for neighbors, and November, nice things, new things to remember.
K  for kitchen, kettles' croon, kith and kin expected soon.
S  for sizzles, sights, and sounds, and something special that about.
    That spells THANKS for joy in living and a jolly good Thanksgiving.           
-   Aileen Fisher, All in a Word

"They began now to gather in the small harvest they had, and to fit up their houses and dwellings against winter, being all well recovered in health and strength and had all things in good plenty.  For as some were thus employed in affairs abroad, others were exercising in fishing, about cod and bass and other fish, of which they took good store, of which every family had their portion.  All the summer there was no want; and now began to come in store of fowl, as winter approached, of which this place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by degrees).  And besides waterfowl there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc.  Besides they had about a peck of meal a week to a person, or now since harvest, Indian corn to that proportion.  Which made many afterwards write so largely of their plenty here to their friends in England, which were not feigned but true reports.”
-   William Bradford, 1621 

In 1863, Abraham Lincoln, declared the last Thursday of November to be a National Day of Thanksgiving.

November: Quotations, Saying, Poetry

Months and Seasons

Neo-Pagan Holidays

The first photo shows part of our family in 2012, at our home in Red Bluff, on Thanksgiving Day.

Photos of families enjoying a Thanksgiving Day together.  

November Gardening Chores

Red Bluff, North Sacramento Valley, California, USA

USDA Zone 9

Typical Weather for Our Area

Red Bluff, California.  Natural History Studies at our Home and Gardens

The Spirit of Gardening

Removing dead and non-productive summer vegetable crops.
Turn in composted steer manure and compost into the cleared vegetable garden.
Ordering from seed and garden catalogs.
Planting potted trees and shrubs.
Putting winter crops in the ground and harvesting greens: onions, lettuce, radishes, garlic, beets, chard, cabbage.
Placing cold sensitive potted plants in protected areas or indoors.
Planting bulbs.
Prune and mulch dormant perennials.
Prune fruit trees.
Storing and repairing tools.
Cleaning, storing, repairing and removing gasoline from equipment.
Fertilize with 20-9-9 or 16-16-16.
Trees without leaves need little or no watering.
Reduce or eliminate watering, watering as needed, depending upon rainfall, normally 3.1 inches in November.
Picking pumpkins, squash, colored corn, and other crops for Thanksgiving decorations.
Pruning grape vines.
Picking and storing peppers.
Raking leaves and add to compost piles and mulch layers.
Lawn care: aerate soil and fertilize.
Digging holes and post holes in cooler weather.
Burning dead trees and shrubs in burn pile.
Watering potted plants.
Reading gardening books and catalogs. 

November: Quotes, Lore, Poems

Gardening Essentials


"As the biocentric view suggests, the garden prospers when control is balanced by equal measures of humility and benevolence. A balance is struck. Control, servitude, respect, imagination, pragmatism, an ecological conscience, compliance, and a certain measure of mysticism and altruism all meld together to provide nurturance. Try to separate the various aspects into their constituent parts - grant any one of them the status of fundamental gardening definition and one soon skews the entire process. Put them back together again in the service of the two-way street called nurturance, and we express the state of grace called gardening."
- Jim Nollman, Why We Garden: Cultivating a Sense of Place, 1994


"Why do plants have such a positive impact on us?
There are a number of reasons, including:
They have a predictable cycle of life that provides comfort in our time of rapid change.
They are responsive but non-threatening.
They form no opinions or judgments about their caregivers.
They soften our man-made environment.
They enable us to change or improve our environment.
They promote relaxation and tranquility."
- Gardening - Therapy for Mind, Body and Soul, Proxima Health System, Atlanta

Pulling Onions Again

Freedom opens a few doors and closes many more. 
My mind is a sea I cannot see into; I merely skim along its surface.
I think, therefore I am a living person; dead bodies don't display thinking, just stinking.
Sometimes the present alters our interpretation of the past; most often the past surrounds and infects the present. 
Wherever I go, something new becomes me. 
Be careful not to stand up for that which will cause your downfall.    
God may be very smart, but he is a poor communicator.
What ought to be cannot be derived from what is the case, but a reasonable person ought not to ignore what is the case.  
I can admire a few great persons or heroes, but seldom have much desire to try and imitate them. 
Disrespect and contempt for the body is a common trump card for spiritualists; but, our game of life does not use trump cards. 
Nonsense can sometimes improve our sense and senses. 
Prohibitions focus our aim on better choices and actions. 
Don't sell the present short on the promises of "when." 
Most tire from hatefulness; cheerfulness is abiding.
Stubborn facts are loosened up with novelty.
A sure path to the perversion of truth is to make it a belief. 
The act, the deed, the doing are the primary considerations. 
My body gave birth to my mind, is in my mind, and my body-mind thrives in our world of lived experiences. 
Objectivity is a product of our agreements, and an important feature of my imagination. 
R. Buckminster-Fuller once suggested that "God is a verb, not a noun."  Which verb?  Pretending?  Storytelling?  Fantasizing?  Believing?  Indoctrinating?
My consciousness is a vegetable soup, and the water in the soup is what I do. 
Yes, I am just this and that; but, I am also not just that and this. 
Hearing the cat purr when we pet them gently matters far more to us than whether the cat's fur is black, white, or orange. 
If you think you are damned if you do or damned if you don't, your not thinking creatively enough. 
The ten thousand things are more enchanting than the Silent One. 
To lift the mind, move the body.
The road to flourishing needs regular maintenance and repairs.
The present is merely a fleeting moment; we actually unearth our essence in our past and create ourselves in the future.
By decreasing your desires you actually diversify and and increase your pleasures and satisfaction.
Having a poor memory helps a great deal in finding happiness.
A gardener loves the rain; also, for the resting time it brings.
Gardening is but one battle against Chaos.
Our understanding of "enlightenment" varies like living in Paris, Tehran, Kamakura, Pretoria, Beijing, Rio, Nashville, or Portland varies.
Indeed, absolute "truth" is very hard to discover; but, some "truths" are far less substantiated, validated, and supported than others.
There is no 'i' in "team," but there is an 'm' in me, my, and mine.
Clear and kept boundaries help keep us sane.
Seeking truth is not like being lost alone in a pathless land.
Nonsense can sometimes improve our sense and senses.

Pulling Onions: The Quips and Sayings of an Old Gardener.  Over 890 quotes.  By Mike Garofalo