Text Art: Editing

Editing
By Michael P. Garofalo

Text Art and Concrete Poetry

Dao De Jing, Laozi, Chapter 74

Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu
Chapter 74

"The people do not fear death,
 Why threaten them with death?
 Suppose the people always fear death,
 One who does strange things,
 I shall seize and kill,
 Then who dares to do strange things?
 Killing is carried out by the executioner.
 To replace the executioner and kill,
 Is like chopping wood in place of the master carpenter.
 To chop wood in place of the master carpenter,
 Rarely one does not hurt one's own hand."
 -  Translation by Ellen M. Chen, Chapter 74


"Subdue Delusion
Chih Huo

When the people are not afraid of death,
What avails it to scare them with death?
Assuming that they often do fear death,
And that any pervert can be seized and killed,
Who dares to do the killing?
It is the job of the Director of Death to kill.
To take over the job of the Director of Death
Is like wielding the hammer for the master-builder.
He who wields the hammer for the master-builder
Seldom escapes wounding himself in the hand."
-  Translated by Henry Wei, 1982, Chapter 74  


"If the people are not afraid to die,
How can you threaten them with death?
If the people are kept in constant fear of death,
And if it were possible to arrest and put to death the law-breakers,
Who would dare do this?
It is the master executioner who does the killing.
To assume the role of the master executioner and do the killing for oneself
Is like carving wood for oneself
Instead of leaving it to the master carpenter.
Those who carve wood for themselves
Instead of leaving it to the master carpenter
Rarely escape without cutting their own hands."
-  Translated by Keith H. Seddon, Chapter 74  


"If people are not afraid to die, what is the use of threatening them with the punishment of death?
On the other hand,
if people value their lives, and if outlaws are seized and killed or are killed by what they are doing,
who would dare risk a life of peace for the sake of an insecure future?
Yet it is always true that one who takes charge of killing is killed in turn.
To become the executioner of artificial righteousness is like the inexperienced lad who would brandish a sharp axe of a master carpenter.
He can seldom escape cutting himself."
-  Translated by Hua-Ching Ni, 1995, Chapter 74 


民不畏死.
奈何以死懼之.
若使民常畏死, 而為奇者, 吾得執而殺之, 孰敢.
常有司殺者殺.
夫司殺者.
是大匠斲.
夫代大匠斲者, 希有不傷其手矣.
- Chinese characters, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 74


min pu wei ssu.
nai ho yi ssu chü chih.
jo shih min ch'ang wei ssu, erh wei ch'i chê, wu tê chih erh sha chih, shu kan.
ch'ang yu ssu sha chê sha.
fu tai ssu sha chê sha.
shi wei tai ta chiang cho.
fu tai ta chiang cho chê, hsi yu pu shang ch'i shou yi.
-  Wade-Giles (1892) Romanization, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 74

"When people are at one with Infinity,
they have no fear of death
and so they are indifferent to threats.

When people are confused
with the distinction of life and death,
they fear death.

If death is the penalty for breaking the law,
the vast majority will be law abiding.

There are always official executioners
and they are at one with killing.

If you try to take their place,
it is the same as trying to cut wood
in place of the master carpenter.

If you try to take the master carpenter's place,
you will only succeed in cutting
your hands."
-  Translated by John Worldpeace, Chapter 74 

"If people were content with their own deaths
You could not use force on them;  they would be immune
But this is not the way the world is
If you threaten them with death to make them behave
You must assign someone to kill them, or do it yourself
Who, then, kills:  you, or the executioner, or the state?
Someone must take the responsibility
Whoever is responsible for death has put his way above the tao
Yet though he can end a life, the tao will by its nature find a way to return
Any sane man would find in that cause for worry."
-  Translated by Ted Wrigley, Chapter 74  


"Si el pueblo no temiera la muerte, sería inútil atemorizarlocon ella.
Si teme morir, como siempre teme, y aún comete desmanes, puedo cogerlo y matarlo.
¿Quién se atreverá a continuar en el mal?
Debe matarlo el encargado para ello.
Si lo matara otro por él, sería usando el hacha ensustitución del maestro.
Raro será el que, sustituyendo almaestro, no hiera su propia mano."
-  Translated by Carmelo Elorduy, 2006, Capítulo 74


"Why use death as a deterrent, when the people have no fear of death?
Even supposing they shrank from death as from a monster, and by playing on their terror I could slay them, should I dare?
There is one who inflicts sentence of death.
To usurp his functions and to kill would be to assume the role of Master-Carpenter.
There are few who can act as Master-Carpenter without cutting their hands."
-  Translated by C. Spurgeon Medhurst, 1905, Chapter 74


"If you do not fear death,
then how can it intimidate you?
If you aren't afraid of dying,
there is nothing you can not do.
Those who harm others
are like inexperienced boys
trying to take the place of a great lumberjack.
Trying to fill his shoes will only get them seriously hurt."
-  Translated by John H. McDonald, 1996, Chapter 74   



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 over 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 74, Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

Concordance for all 81 Chapters of the Dao De Jing

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  


Yang, Jwing-Ming, Ph.D..  The Tao Te Ching: A Qigong Interpretation.  YMAA, 2018.  Bilingual Edition, 592 pages.  ISBN: 978-1594396199. 

Indoor Playing

I spent a lot of time in November on seting up my new desktop Dell Inspiron computer.  Getting my FTP and personal desktop arrangements set up is always detailed work.  Next week, I will look into SSL certificates from BlueHost.  I've now spent $170 on newer software. I also worked on Karen's HP Desktop and an old laptop (Toshiba Satellite) we use.     

It has been cold outside with temperatures in the low 40's F.  Not much rain here in Novemeber, a record low.  I don't have much enthusiasm for gardening or a need to do much gardening in late autumn as dormancy is dominant now.  We still try to do some outdoor work in the garden each day.  Lately we have been raking leaves from our huge sweet gum and using as mulch, cutting down overgrown shrubs, transplanting, potting, path laying, fencing and lattice work.  

Mostly, on these cold days, I've been busy indoors reading, web publishing, research, using computers, doing art work, and writing.  I work in a cozy, warm, and dry home office/study/computer room.  

I enjoy watching the game of basketball on NBA League Pass and follow West Coast teams: Los Angeles Lakers, San Francisco Warriors, and Portland Trailblazers.  Football season is ending.  I watched all the University of Southern California college football games (my and my father's alma mater), and many West Coast NFL teams games.  

I spent a lot of time on reformatting and updating webpages in my Tao Te Ching website.  Updating and editing can be such tedious and time consuming puttering around.  I've also read a lot of books, essays, and articles about the Daodejing and Taoism.  

I have developed and maintained many hypertext documents which I have published online as webpages.  I began this activity in 1994.  I use Blue Host as my web host.  

Finally, I got an old copy of Fireworks working in Windows 10.  I used this software a decade ago while learning about, playing with, and creating concrete poetry.  I'm also learing how to use CorelDraw 2019 to create vector graphics.  I will try to publish one .gif or .jpg file each Sunday.  

I call one series of graphic arts:  TeXtArT.  It is an attempt to create a kind of "art" using letters in different arrangements.  The letters can come in different fonts, colors, shapes, sizes, directions, etc.  Sometimes, the letters take the shape of objects, the so called, "concrete poem."  Concrete poetry has been an interest of mine since 2001.  

Dao De Jing Concordance

Tao Te Ching Concordance

This document functions as an electronic concordance to the Daodejing by Laozi, 530 BCE.

Use the Ctrl + F keystroke combination to open the search box function in any web browser.

Then, you can search this webpage by terms (i.e., keywords, themes, subjects, topics, nouns, verbs, adverbs, or adjectives).

At present, you can search all 81 Chapters of the Tao Te Ching indexed in this document by using words in the English language, the Spanish language, and the Wade-Giles Romanization of the Mandarin Chinese language.

This standard webpage document search tool enables you to use this Chapter Index as a Concordance to the Tao Te Ching.

Pressing the Ctrl key and the F key at the same time (Ctrl + F) in the Firefox browser opens the search box in the bottom left corner of the webpage window; in the Google Chrome browser it opens the webpage search box in the upper right corner of the webpage window; and, in the Internet Explorer browser it opens the webpage search box in the top left corner of the webpage window of the browser.

Research, Compilation and Indexing by Michael P. Garofalo.  

Body Moving, Mind Moving

"We human beings have bodies.  We are "rational animals," but we are also "rational animals," which means that our rationality is embodied.  The centrality of human embodiment directly influences what and how things can be meaningful to us, the ways in which these meanings can be developed and articulated, the ways we are able to comprehend and reason about our experience, and the actions we take.  Our reality is shaped by the patterns of our bodily movement, the contours of our spatial and temporal orientation, and the forms of our interaction with objects."
-  Mark Johnson, The Body in the Mind, 1987, xix

“The human body is the best picture of the human soul.”
-  Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations

"It was a great thing to be a human being. It was something tremendous. Suddenly I'm conscious of a million sensations buzzing in me like bees in a hive. Gentlemen, it was a great thing."
-  Karel Capek  

“Somaesthetics can be defined as the critical study of the experience and use of one’s body as a locus of sensory-aesthetic appreciation (aesthesis) and creative self-fashioning.”
-  Richard Shusterman


Somaesthetic Practices for Health, Well-Being and Mindfulness

A Good Life

The Five Senses

The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination, and Reason  By Mark Johnson.  University of Chicago Press, 1987, 1992.  Index, notes, 272 pages.  ISBN: 978-0226403182.  VSCL.

Thinking through the Body: Essays in Somaesthetics.  By Richard Schusterman.  New York, Cambridge University Press, 2012.  380 pages.  ISBN: 9781107698505.  

Tao Te Ching Chapter Index

Tao Te Ching (Daodejing) by Lao Tzu (Laozi]
Compiled and Indexed by Michael P. Garofalo, 2011-2020
Chapter Index to the 81 Chapters

Tao Te Ching  Chapter Number Index Standard Traditional Chapter Arrangement of the Daodejing.  Chapter Order in Wang Bi's Daodejing Commentary in 246 CE Michael P. Garofalo, Compilation and Indexing Subject Index
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30
31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38	39	40
41	42	43	44	45	46	47	48	49	50
51	52	53	54	55	56	57	58	59	60
61	62	63	64	65	66	67	68	69	70
71	72	73	74	75	76	77	78	79	80
81

Tradition has it that Lao Tzu disappeared in the mountains in 531 BCE.  There are many legends about this Taoist philosopher, and Lao Tzu is a demi-god in popular Taoism.

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 over 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 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  

Upgrading Our Home Computers

The last time I purchased a desktop computer (HP Pavilion $399) for my home office was in January of 2017.  I upgraded to a Dell Inspiron 3670 ($599) desktop computer (12MB RAM, 1 TB Hard Disk, Intel chip, this week.  I use a Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse.  My home "office" is a cozy bedroom (10'x12') with a south facing window converted into an work space with bookshelves, computer equipment, table, cabinet, lighting, heating, and a chair.  

Of course, I am busy with the new computer setup, file backup, copying between two computers, reloading software, reusing the old software.  Thus far ... pretty smooth setup of Google Chrome browser, MacAfee security software, and file maintainence.  My old favorites seemed to load OK in Windows 10 (with new updates), e.g., Front Page, Fireworks, Dreamweaver MX, Cute FTP, Google Chrome.  I need better headphones/microphone unit with driver software.  Completed Phase I on 11/21 at noon.  

I often used Macromedia Fireworks to make concrete poems.  However, I can't get the old software to load properly on this new Windows 10 computer.  Adobe purchased Fireworks and stopped supporting.  You can't register anymore.  So, I am going to try using CorelDRAW home and student suite for $74.00.  Adobe Illustrator is $22.00 a month to suscribe.  

After I finish with my computer, then I will start on Karen's new computer (Dell Pavilion) and the remodel of her small home office.  

I have been a computer enthusiast since my days of working as a Personnel Specialist in the United States Air Force from 1969-1973.  Also, working for the County of Los Angeles Public Library System from 1974 to 1998 gave me many opportunities to learn and use computer systems for public services and managerial purposes.  Even as a retired old man, at home, I now use a Samsung Android cellphone on Sprint; XFinity TV, Phone, and Internet services; CD player, audio MP3 player, Dell Inspiron desktop computer, Samsung Tablet, Kindle Reader, laptop computer, and electronic gadgets galore.  Using computers at home is a hobby of mine.  

Tri-Cities WA Travel

We took a three day road trip of about 600 miles, out east, through the Columbia River Gorge, to the Columbia Plateau area of south central Washington and north central Oregon. 





We left Thursday, and stayed two nights in Kennewick, Washington, one of the Tri-Cities.  The Tri-Cities area (Richland, Kennewick, and Pasco) in south central Washington is at the confluence of the Yakima, Snake, and Columbia Rivers.  About 190,000 people live here.  

The Columbia River Gorge drive on Interstate 84 from Troutdale, Oregon, to Boardman, Oregon, is spectacular.  Impressive basalt cliffs line either side of the Columbia River for 147 miles, with equally impressive changes in vegetation up the cliff walls.  When we drove I84 East it was very overcast with many low lying clouds, when we drove I84 West from The Dalles in the early afternoon it was clear.  The weather is part of changes to our present seeing of this dramatic scenery along this powerful river.  

On Friday, we visited the Hanford Nuclear Reservation Reactor B, the REACH Museum, Sacajawea State Park, and got acquainted with this area. 

Hanford Nuclear Reservation, 1960

All of the three nuclear reactors in the above photograph 

are now deactivated and two have been demolished.

We visited the Hanford Nuclear Reservation and toured the deactivated nuclear reactor B, from the Manhattan Project days of 1942 to 1950, and then, along with eight other similar nuclear reactors at Hanford, through the Cold War years of producing nuclear fissionable material (plutonium) for atomic bomb warheads. In 2019, the challenge is to “safely” store the remaining 53 million gallons of highly radioactive waste materials not far from the Columbia River. 

This four hour tour of the B reactor was excellent. The docents where highly informed and friendly.  It took 40 minutes to drive from Richland to the B Reactor in a vary nice bus.  

The area in and around the Tri-Cities is used for agriculture, retail, infrastructures, suburban life, and industry all along where these three rivers meet.  Outside the rivers, outside the three cities proper, and outside the outlying irrigated fields using pumped river water is a desert.  This is a desert enviornment with low grasses, very few low shrubs, and no trees.  The hills have no trees in this dry area.  Elevation of 407 feet, and under 10 inches of rainfall a year average.  The three rivers meet here and provide the water for the homes and workplaces of 190,000 people.  

Remains of the Kennewick Man are dated at over 8,500 BCE. Native Americans camped here for thousands of years.  Europeans began to tap the Columbia, Yakima, and Snake Rivers for commercial agricultural production after 1890. We saw many orchards, vineyards, hop vine structures, farms, pastures, wheat fields, and some cattle, as we explored the fertile Yakima River Valley from Richland to Toppenish.  

On Saturday, it was a chilly 35F and very foggy all morning in the Yakima Valley.  

The drive from Toppenish to The Dalles is very dramatic.  The road was U.S. 97, a very good road we have traveled south all the way down to Weed, California. We enjoy stopping at the St. Thomas Bakery north of Goldendale on US97 for a rest.  May the good Saints bless all for safe trips today.  

Pondering How Words Work the Mind

"When I seek God
with something in mind,

the best I get is
the something I had

in mind."


Meister Eckart, circa 1305 CE, was a Dominican clergyman, scholar, and teacher.  His theological and mystical poems, and his sermons are still read today.

Zen also tries to enlighten us to the levels of consciousness, mind, and non-verbal paths to right living.

Meister Eckhart: Selected Writings
Translated with introduction by Oliver Davies.
Penguin, 1995, Kindle Version

Lost Sisters

"I would like more sisters, that the taking out of one, might not leave such stillness."
- Emily Dickinson, 1880

My wife, Karen, came from a family living in Indiana, USA, from 1935.  There were four sisters: Betty, Barbara, Ginger, and Karen.  The four sisters married and enjoyed children, grand-children, and even great grand-children.  

Betty died in July of 2017, and Ginger died in November of 2019.  

Karen, Ginger, Barbara, Betty

So Good to Have Know All of You

Delights of Gym Rats

1978

2019

Get outdoors, garden, walk around, enjoy yourself.

Sing in the Sunshine

Paths to Fitness and Well Being

Veterans Day

I say thanks to all the veterans of the United States military, first responders, law and order officials, hospitals, etc.  Volunteers and employees guard our public health and safety.  We thank them all.    We pay our respects to our fallen comrades.

Young and old we cheer for peace, prosperity, longevity.

I volunteered to serve in the United States Air Force from 1969-1973.  I was assigned to Air Training Command, Personnel, Keesler Air Force Base, Biloxi, Mississippi.  Hurricane Camille hit Keesler in August of 1969.  I was honorably discharged as a Staff Sergeant (E5).

My father was a Republican, my mother a Democrat.

My wife and I generally vote Democratic together.  Both of us are in our 70's.
We greatly appreciate Social Security, and Medicare A-D. 

I don't say much in my blog about current politics.  I just don't have the energy anymore. 

So, once, long ago, I voted for Richard Nixon for President.  Nixon's role in stealing information about opponents in Watergate led to his resignation.  Nixon's continuation of Operation Rolling Thunder and operation Linebacker in North Vietnam are what really disappointed me about President Nixon. 

I wish Donald Trump would diplomatically resign.  Clearly, he is complicit with stealing information about opponents, and lying or misinformed much too often.  We need to have our federal government and our people calm down, end the rancor, pretend to cooperate, and do some real work.  Hopefully, Mr. Pence will be as non-abrasive as Gerald Ford was for a few months.  As citizens we need to think, stay calm, evaluate candidates and vote in November of 2020.

November Garden Planning

Every year, from 1998-2017, in November, Karen and I would talk about what fruit and nut trees, shrubs, and ornamental trees we were going to plant that winter.  We would purchase bare root tree stock in December and January, and plant in our orchard.  We would also place potted plants in the ground in the winter season.  

We purchased most of our plants at nearby Kathy Goodin's Rock Garden Nursery near Flores Road and Highway 99W.  The photograph below was taken in late winter in part of our orchard in Red Bluff, California.  We both enjoyed this creative garden work.  I miss our five acre gardening playground.  

Trying to Remember That

     I made this post back in 2015.  I think the old photo of my home Neo-Pagan altar display reflects my readings and studies from around 2005.  I do seasonal, holiday, and personal interest displays in my current home office room [my study, library, computer den, hang out space, man cave, sunny room, yoga space.]  In 2019, I am now reading Meister Eckart from 1305 CE., and his metaphysical poetry.  Oneness, Beauty and Beings ... the wonder of it all.      


"Straight up from this road
Away from the fitted particles of frost
Coating the hull of each chick pea,
And the stiff archer bug making its way
In the morning dark, toe hair by toe hair,
Up the stem of the trillium,
Straight up through the sky above this road right now,
The galaxies of the Cygnus A cluster
Are colliding with each other in a massive swarm
Of interpenetrating and exploding catastrophes.
I try to remember that."
-  Pattiann Rogers, Firekeeper


"God is the experience of looking at a tree and saying, "Ah!""
-  Joseph Campbell  


“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.”
-  William Butler Yeats


Awe, Wonder, Amazement: Quotations, Sayings, Poems

Long Morning Walks

I enjoy walking in the early morning.  From 1998 to 2017 I walked on a country lane, Kilkenny Lane, directly in front of my home in Red Bluff, California.  This cul de sac lane is .32 miles from Highway 99W.  Occasionally, a car might use this country lane, and I move to the side of the road.  It is a very safe, peaceful, and quiet place with lovely landscaping and dramatic views.

I walked an average of four days per week and walked from two to four miles in the cooler morning hours; when I was not working part-time for the Corning Union Elementary School District.  When cooler evenings were in season, I walked in the afternoon or evening.  At night and Saturday mornings I taught yoga, qigong, tai chi, and other fitness classes at the Tehama Family Fitness Center.  I walked on this road from June of 1998 until we moved to Vancouver, Washington, in April of 2017; nearly 19 years.  


"Putting facts by the thousands,
into the world, the toes take off
with an appealing squeak which the thumping heel
follows confidentially, the way men greet men.
Sometimes walking is just such elated
pumping."
-   Lyn Hejinian, Determination


"Every day, in the morning or evening, or both, take a walk in a safe and peaceful environment for less than an hour.  The can be a great fountain of youth.  Choose a place to walk that has no kind of disturbance.   Walking done in a work environment and when your mind is busy is different; it is not as nutritious as the walking you do for yourself in the morning or evening in a quiet, peaceful, and safe place."
-  Master Hua-Ching Ni, Entering the Tao, 1997, p. 135

Looking to the northeast on Kilkenny Lane.  Mt. Lassen (10,000 feet) in the distance is capped with a little snow.  Late Autumn.    

"Walking is the natural recreation for a man who desires not absolutely to suppress his intellect but to turn it out to play for a season."
- Leslie Stephen

"Our philosophies must be rewritten to remove them from the domain of words and "ideas," and to plant their roots firmly in the earth."
- William Vogt

"If you look for the truth outside yourself,
It gets farther and farther away.
Today walking alone, I meet it everywhere I step.
It is the same as me, yet I am not it.
Only if you understand it in this way
Will you merge with the way things are."
- Tung-Shan

`

Looking west on Kilkenny Lane.  The red leafed autumn colors are from Raywood Ash trees. The Yolly Bolly mountain range (7,000 feet) is to the west of the North Sacramento Valley.


"The interior solitude, along with the steady rhythm of walking mile after mile, served as a catalyst for deeper awareness.  The solitude I found and savored on the Camino had an amazing effect on me.  The busyness of my life slowly settled down as the miles went on.  For a good portion of my life I had longed for a fuller experience of contemplation, that peaceful prayer of the heart in which one is able to look intently and see each piece of life as sacred.  Ten days into the journey, totally unforeseen, the grace of seeing the world with startling lucidity came to me.  My eyes took in everything with wonder.  The experience was like looking through the lens of an inner camera – my heart was the photographer.  Colors and shapes took on nuances and depths never before noticed.  Each piece of beauty appeared to be framed: weeds along roadsides, hillsides of harvested fields with yellow and green stripes, layers of mountains with lines of thick mist stretching along their middle section, clumps of ripe grapes on healthy green vines, red berries on bushes, roses and vegetable gardens.  Everything revealed itself as something marvelous to behold.  Each was a work of art.  I noticed more and more details of light and shadow, lines and edges, shapes, softness, and texture.  I easily observed missed details on the path before me – skinny worms, worn pebbles, tiny flowers of various colors and shapes, black beetles, snails, and fat, grey slugs.  I became aware of the texture of everything under my feet – stones, slate, gravel, cement, dirt, sand, grass.  I responded with wonder and amazement.  Like the poet Tagore, I felt that everything “harsh and dissonant in my life” was melting into “one sweet harmony”."
-  Joyce Rupp  



In Vancouver, Washington, where we have lived since April of 2017, I walk on my suburban neighborhood streets with our dog Bruno.  I walk on Clark County trails, at local parks, along the Columbia, and indoors on tracks and treadmills.  In the photo below, my dog, Bruno, and I are walking at the nearby Orchards Community Park.  Lots of trees mean lots of cooler, foggier, rainy days in Southwestern Washington, west of the Cascades peaks like Hood, Adams, St. Helens, Rainer.  Orchards Park is adjacent to the I 205 Freeway, so it is far nosier walking here than in Red Bluff because of the surrounding automobile, truck, suburban, and PDX airport jet sounds.  Vancouver is the largest suburb north of Portland.  A busy and noisy area!

"As I went walking
That ribbon of highway
I saw above me
The endless skyway
I saw below me
The lonesome valley
This land was made for you and me."
- Woody Guthrie, This Land is Your Land

The Ways of Walking: Quotations, Facts, Methods, Spirituality, Meditative

Compiled by Mike Garofalo

• Ways of Walking
• Walking Meditation
• Walking Quotations
• Walking Bibliography
• Circle Walking: Bagua
• Walking the Labyrinth
• Garden Walking
• Walking Qigong
• Walking Staff  

Fog in Red Bluff, CA

My walking path in October 2019

When I walk I nearly always walk with a wooden cane.  I keep one cane in my automobile at all times, and a number of canes and sticks around my home.  A stout wooden cane provides a modicum of self defense techniques, some balancing advantages, exercise for the arms, help for the knees, and looks cool.  Walking with a cane is carrying a potentially lethal weapon.  I've collected a lot of information on using a wooden cane in my hypertext notebook titled Way of the Short Staff.

Learning the 32 Sword Form

Numbered lists, names, illustrations, pictures, books, DVDs, practice ...
all aides to memorizing.  

List of Standard 32 Movements Taijiquan Sword Form
One Page, 2007
By Mike Garofalo
Valley Spirit Taijiquan, Red Bluff, California

Taijiquan Standard 32 Double Edged Sword Form
Hypertext Document
By Mike Garofalo

I also practice the 32 Sword Form with my martial arts cane.