It's Life's Illusions I Recall

Both Sides Now 
By Joni Mitchell

"Bows and flows of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
I've looked at clouds that way

But now they only block the sun
They rain and snow on everyone
So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my way

I've looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
It's cloud illusions I recall
I really don't know clouds at all

Moons and Junes and Ferris wheels
The dizzy dancing way you feel
As every fairy tale comes real
I've looked at love that way

But now it's just another show
You leave 'em laughing when you go
And if you care, don't let them know
Don't give yourself away

I've looked at love from both sides now
From give and take, and still somehow
It's love's illusions I recall
I really don't know love at all

Tears and fears and feeling proud
To say "I love you" right out loud
Dreams and schemes and circus crowds
I've looked at life that way

Oh but now old friends are acting strange
They shake their heads, they say I've changed
Well something's lost but something's gained
In living every day

I've looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
It's life's illusions I recall
I really don't know life at all

I've looked at life from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
It's life's illusions I recall
I really don't know life at all"

Dao De Jing by Laozi, Chapter 71

Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu
Chapter 71

"To know the unknowable, that is elevating.
Not to know the knowable, that is sickness.
Only by becoming sick of sickness can we be without sickness.
The holy man is not sick.
Because he is sick of sickness, therefore he is not sick."
-  Translated by D. T. Suzuki and Paul Carus, 1913, Chapter 71 

"Those who know, and yet do not think they know, belong to the highest type of men.
Those who do not know, and yet think they know, are really at fault.
When one knows that he is at fault, he can be free of faults.
The Sage is free of faults because he knows when he is at fault."
-  Translated by Cheng Lin, Chapter 71  

知不知上.
不知知病.
夫唯病病, 是以不病.
聖人不病, 以其病病, 是以不病.
-  Chinese characters, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 71

chih pu chih shang.
pu chih chih ping.
fu wei ping ping, shih yi pu ping.
shêng jên pu ping, yi ch'i ping ping, shih yi pu ping.
-  Wade-Giles Romanization, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 71


"To know how little one knows is to have genuine knowledge.
Not to know how little one knows is to be deluded.
Only he who knows when he is deluded can free himself from such delusion.
The intelligent man is not deluded, because he knows and accepts his ignorance, and accepts his ignorance as ignorance, and thereby has genuine knowledge."
-  Translated by Archie J. Bahm, Chapter 71 

"Nobody has all the answers.
Knowing that you do not know everything is far wiser than thinking that you know a lot when you really don't.
Phony expertise is neurotic.
Fortunately, once the symptoms are recognized, the sure is easy: stop it.
Probably every leader has tried this form of pretense at one time or another.
The wise leader has learned how painful it is to fake knowledge.
Being wise and not wanting the pain; the leader does no indulge in pretending.
Anyway, it is a relief to be able to say: "I don't know." "
-  Translated by John Heider, 1985, Chapter 71   

"Conocer y no saberlo,
ésta es la perfección.
No conocer y creer saberlo,
éste es el mal.
Conocer el propio mal
es liberarse del mal.
El sabio no tiene mal;
porque lo reconoce, no lo padece."
-  Translation from Wikisource, 2013, Tao Te Ching, Capitulo 71

"To know one's ignorance is the best part of knowledge.
To be ignorant of such knowledge is a disease.
If one only regards it as a disease, he will soon be cured of it.
The wise man is exempt from this disease.
He knows it for what it is, and so is free from it."
-  Translated by Walter Gorn Old, 1904, Chapter 71  

"A man who knows how little he knows is well,
A man who knows how much he knows is sick.
If, when you see the symptoms, you can tell,
Your cure is quick.
A sound man knows that sickness makes him sick
And before he catches it his cure is quick."
-  Translated by Witter Bynner, 1944, Chapter 71 

Chapter 71 of the Tao Te Ching

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

English Language Translators' Index

Ripening Peaches: Taoist Studies and Practices

Taoism: A Selected Reading List

Chelais Country

I drove southeast from Grayland Beach to Tokeland and then to Raymond.  The road travels along the edge of the Willapa Bay.  The low tide revealed immense blocks of sand in this very shallow Bay.  Over half the water in the Bay comes in and goes out each day.  

The countryside from Raymond to Pe El or Doty is very beautiful rural country.  I took back roads from Pe El to Vader, and from Vader to Longview along the Cowlitz River.  The main Chelais river goes through Pe El and Chelais while making its way northwest to Aberdeen and Grays Harbor Bay; and, the south Chelais river flows further southeast from Pe El.  The level of "green" is astounding!  

Traffic on Interstate 5 was quite light both driving from Vader to Vancouver.  The lack of traffic was very surprising to me.  

"I saw from the beach, when the morning was shining,
A bark o'er the waters move gloriously on;
I came when the sun o'er that beach was declining,
The bark was still there, but the waters were gone.

And such is the fate of our life's early promise,
So passing the spring-tide of joy we have known;
Each wave that we danced on at morning ebbs from us,
And leaves us, at eve, on the bleak shore alone.

Oh, who would not welcome that moment's returning
When passion first waked a new life through his frame,
And his soul, like the wood that grows precious in burning,
Gave out all its sweets to love's exquisite flame."
-  Thomas Moore

Memories of Pacific Coast Places

Memories of Pacific Coast Places
By Michael P. Garofalo   

"Exploring Willapa Bay today,
From Tokeland Marina to Raymond's river beds that stray,
And huge stacks of Douglas Firs waiting to be cut up a dozen ways;
To South Bend's grassy sloughs, piles of shelled oysters white and grey,
To the cliffs and river near Bay Center’s docks, where oystermen work away. 
Memories of this Pacific Sea and my septuagenarian life swell up today:  

Our photograph of the young surfer remains in hand, long after the teen has become a man.
The razor clams sucked the food from the foaming sand, for ten million years following an identical plan.
At low tide the muddy Willapa Bay, scary like quicksand, keeps me away. 
A dead whale in the sand near Orick rots, the carrion birds eat and happily squawk. 
The Baja beachlands baked bone hard dry, from the endless summer sun on high. 

I listen to the sounds of the surf from the shell over my ear, the sea so far and yet so near. 
I rest by my simple yurt by the sea, and light a campfire at dawn and just be. 
I used to smoke, now I don't, stopped making my weary lungs cough and choke.
I body-surfed till tired and cold, and ended it at age 50, just too damn old.
My memories of the ocean will hang on, long after my few big footprints 0n the wet dirt trail are gone.

Lots of fishing but no catching, so the old diner's dinner menu was very fetching. 
The high tide left a flotsam line, and I walked along and picked up a lovely agate find.  
The crowds are all gone in winter, and the incoming driftwood piles up and splinters.
Tsunamis ready to unroll from the offshore Cascadia earthquake zone, that indeed could
   erase hundreds of homes. 
Summer kites in Lincoln City, crowds galore, sunburnt children playing at the shore.    
The lingcod fed around the breakwater rocks, avoiding our hooks in the seaweed’s tangled locks. 
Fishermen at the pier, baiting their hooks, waiting, waiting, baiting, staring at the sea swells, waiting. 

The Ex-Dharma Bums at Big Sur are gone, a few clever word-smiths of drunken sad hip rambling songs.
“All life is suffering!” so some Zen men say; but I’m an Epicurean anyway:
   Find ways to suffer less and enjoy more Today. 
Esalen hot tubs and philosopher’s seminars at the edge of the sea, and the smell of cannabis in the breeze.
In a San Diego hillside temple Paramahansa Yogananda preached for one’s realized being,
   bowing in Child’s Pose and clearly seeing.
The high Santa Barbara Mission walls gleam white in the sun, and the priest raises the Host of the Son. 
In a stone house by the Sur shore, Robinson Jefferson lamented the presence of mankind and more.
The Beatnicks in Venice still laugh and listen, mixed with Yuppies and Hippies and musclemen.
San Francisco still hugs the hills, and the Golden Gate’s Bridge whistling moan has been stilled.
I walked to the beach from the Green Gulch Zen Farm, thinking of Alan Watt’s reminders and alarms. 
In McKinleyville, playing under the gray clouds from the sea, Grandmaster Yang Jwing Ming enjoys his Tai Chi. 
The surf fisherman released the fat pregnant surf perch, a considerate donation to the Fertility Church.   

At the gaping Mouth of the Columbia, stands Astoria, dank and old, with harbor seals
   barking loud on the docks so cold.
Chinooks and Chelais Peoples once camped near the Grayland strand, diseases erased them all from this land.
Eureka Bay, wasting away in the plywood papermills’ scum with the old nuclear plant’s abandoned concrete core
   sort of undone.
Whether in Oakland or Tacoma, ports so busy, docks unloading, 24 hour bustling cities.   
The Quinault River flows to the sea, through a rain forest Olympic born, so very very green as far as you can see. 
Grays Harbor for a change is in clear skied sun, fishing boats hustle to get into the King Salmon fall run.
Coos Bay darkened in the fierce wind and rain; while the Indian Casino was bright and gay,
   slot machines running night and day. 
Quiet Brooking, a humble seaside place, with the Pelican Bay Prison nearby locking up
   the worst of the human race. 
Malibu beach surfers wait for the best right swell, then launch for a long ride feeling so damn well.
My brother lives in Carlsbad, high above the sea; he walks slowly below the crumbling cliffs
   feeling somewhat free. 
Taking the Gold’s Beach power boat ride up the Rogue, spinning and splashing and speeding along;
    nevertheless, it seems like somethings wrong.   
From the dark depths of Monterey Bay, two whales came up by our boat to breathe one day. 
   
A pelican rested on a Westport dock post, looking for a feathered lover or
   a run of the eulachon smelt that he liked the most. 
All alone with the roaring surf, and hungry sea gulls gathering close on nearby turf. 
A tin of Ekone smoked oysters and French bread for lunch today, and a coffee latte to let my palette play.  
I looked at more pictures of the Pacific, my inner feelings plotted against external criteria, trying to be specific. 
The redwood groves soaked up the fog, intertwining their octopus roots for centuries, confident of a long slog.   

Flocks of birds fill the Spring sky, and that some salmon are not running up the John’s River is
   a tricky fisherman’s little lie. 
Dip netting for crabs from the Westport pier, the harbor waters were strangely clear.
More fir tree trunks were piled around the Aberdeen mills, cut daily from the distant lush Willapa Hills.
The Bandon cranberry bogs are fruitless now, but my Ocean Spray juice cup carries their essence anyhow.  
The sand dunes near Cape Kiwanda, Florence or Pismo still creep up and down with the wind;
   ORVing on them seems to me a sin.
The tides and long swells are the epic poem, the waves are the rhymes, images, and metaphors chosen. 
Hecate Head tide pools unflooding slowly: limpets, mussels, chitons, anemones,
   urchins, even crabs revealed – a scene that’s holy.      
The mammoth winter surf at the Mavericks at Monterey or at Shore Acres near Coos Bay,
   both scare the shit out of anyone in their crushing crashing way.   

L.A. is sandwiched between the Palos Verdes cliffs and Mt. Baldy’s stones, for 50 years it was my home.
On Ventura Highway, over the haunted Hotel California, just one eagle flies alone. 
My mom loved Carpenteria, and she held our hands tight, as we walked together in the starry 1950 night.
San Onofre’s concrete beehive nuclear dome is locked tight, a memento to ideas not yet right. 
Navy destroyers in the San Diego docks are loading tonight, sailor’s readying for a fight.
The Capistrano swallows return, again and again, a sure as the sun creates seasons for women and men. 
The tourists at the two Newports, one north one south, watch the slow yachts moving about.
Seattle’s high-tech millions make Puget Sound home, settled uneasy at the base of Ranier’s snowy dome. 
U.S.Highway 101, El Camino Real, from border to border, carrying trade and traveler’s under a funded Federal order. 
Three impressive Pacific States in a row, where I’ve lived so long and watched them unceasingly grow. 

The Café by the Edge of the Sea is hidden faraway, somewhere on the lonely south shore of Tillamook Bay. 
The Bolsa Chica tin-can beach years ago was cleaned, but now the smell of oil stinks up the scene.
The Huntington long pier was swept asunder, yet rebuilt again and again, despite the costly numbers.
Our sunburnt hands from Laguna once stung and blistered, decades later skin cancer took her sister. 
The glass beach at Fort Bragg glistens at dusk, the remnants of a trash dump, just broken colored husks. 
We watched the whales from that Port Orford cliffside café, eating oatmeal and berries to start the day.
The smells of myrtlewood from the foggy seaside canyons still linger, as I twist their dried leaves in my fingers.    

Yes, I’ve heard the Memaloose Ghosts in the Sitka swamps all talking, and I also left quickly in fear fast walking.
I dreamt of skulls and skeletons, graveyards of broken canoes, Islands of the Dead,
   creepy Clatsop Chinook stories in my head. 
In the Nehalem rain, with a deep dark dripping forest all around,
   a Memaloose Spook spoke to me with whispered words:

‘The tide comes in, the tide goes out, that’s the essence of what It’s All About.
Your tide flows out, old man, so best now to smile and shout and stroll bravely out.' ” 

 -  Michael P. Garofalo, Memories of Pacific Ocean Places, 4/26/2022 

 

Reflections of Beachcombers    
Poems and quotes about the ocean, seashore, waves, beachcombing, marinas, Bays, fishing, tides ....
Selected by Michael P. Garofalo  

                                                    

Four Days in Grayland

By Michael P. Garofalo

Birds of Willapa Bay

 

Dunlin Flock Over the Surf

Today, I will drive from Vancouver to Longview, and then up two lane country backroads 411 and Westside Highway which follow the course of the Cowlitz River up to Toledo.  Then, up Jackson Highway through Chelais and Centralia.  Finally, Highway 6 to Raymond, and 105 to Grayland.  

I will be camping in a Yurt at Grayland Beach State Park.  Expecting some showers and cool weather.  I will return to Vancouver on Thursday morning.  Observing birds will be a highlight of this Spring trip to the sea.  

"Spring provides shorebird migration spectacles, and summer offers a tremendous diversity of breeding species from the rain forest inhabitants of the Olympics, alpine tundra breeders in the Cascades and desert shrub steppe specialties in the Columbia Basin.  Spring is the season of migration spectacles, the shorebird passage through Grays Harbor, seabird migration offshore, Sandhill Cranes through the Columbia Basin. Landbird migration can be good too, particularly in the riparian areas and desert oases of eastern Washington. Several bird festivals at this time provide the out-of-town birder with a great introduction to local birding and birders; look for the Othello crane festival and the Grays Harbor shorebird festival on the web."

A Birder's Guide to Coastal Waqshington.  By Bob Morse, 2001.  Featuring Ocean Shores, Long Beach Peninsula, Forks, Westport, Tokeland, and 160 Birding Hot Spots.  Detailed coverage of birding locations near Westport and how to get there.  Excellent resource!  RWMorse, 2001, 270 pages, photographs, ring-bound.  VSCL.  FVRL

Coastal Washington Shorebirds and Waterbirds.  By Ruth McCausland.  116 pages. 

Birds of Washington Field Guide.  By Stan Tekiela.  Adventure Pubs., 2001, 332 pages. 

American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of Washington.  By Dennis Paulson and Brian Small.  Scott and Nix, 2020, 368 pages. 

Birds of the Pacific Northwest.  By John Shewey and Tim Blount.  Timber, 2017, 560 pages. 

Birds of Washington State. By Brian Bell and Gregory Kennedy.  Partners, 2017, 284 pages. 

Pelagic Zone (Epipelagic) Boat Trips for watching oceanic seabirds out of Westport Marina in the summer months. 

Bird Watching

All About Birds Website

Shore Birds

Sea Gulls    Western Gull 

Birds from the Northwest Perspective

Seabirds of the Pacific Northwest

Birding in Willapa Bay Wildlife Refuge

Notable Shorebirds in Washington

Birding in Washington State

Bottle Beach State Park  Near Westport  SS   Bird Watching Area, Mudflats, Swamps, low shrubs.    

Grays Harbor National Wildlife Refuge

Johns River Wildlife Area   Images   Near Westport  SS   History  Game Farm Road off 105  Walking trails, boat launch, bird watching.  

Jetties, marina, and pier in Westport. 

Jetty and small marina and wetlands around Tokeland.  Tokeland   Population 200   Willapa Bay   Images  

Martha Jordan Birding Trail, Ledbetter Point, Long Beach Peninsula

In the Spring, many birds flock to the shallow waters and river estuaries of both Grays Harbor and Willapa Bay. 

Four Days in Grayland
By Michael P. Garofalo

Today: Where It Takes Place

“This nondescript, never-to-be defined daytime is
The secret of where it takes place
And we can no longer return to the various
Conflicting statements gathered, lapses of memory
Of the principal witness.  All we know
Is that we are a little early, that
Today has that special, lapidary
Todayness that the sunlight reproduces
Faithfully in casting twig-shadows on blithe
Sidewalks.  No previous day would have been like this.
I used to think they were all alike,
That the present always looked the same to everybody
But this confusion drains away as one
Is always cresting into one’s present."
-  John Ashbery, Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror, 1975

I have enjoyed reading poetry in the month of April.  I have read poems from these two books every day in April, 2022:

The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth Century American Poetry.  Edited by Rita Dove.  Penguin, 2011, 599 pages.

The Oxford Book of American Poetry.  Edited by David Lehman.  Oxford, 2006, 1132 pages.

One objective of mine, from April 20 to May 20, 2022, is to write each and every day.  

My objectives must be under my control, measurable, realistic, specific, accomplished on time, positive, and reported daily. |
The daily measurement and reporting on objectives helps to keep me on track towards accomplishment.

Measurements are recorded in writing so results can be evaluated accurately and properly over weeks and months.
Changing a habit requires at least 90 days of consistent accomplishment of the specific remedial objectives.
“Objectives” are also referred to as plans, aims, goals, resolutions, targets, projects, daily actions, specific tasks, etc.  
Daily steady improvements accumulate over time towards success. 
Belief and confidence in your goals is essential to success in making improvements. 
Norcorss Principles:  Psych, Prep, Perspire, Persevere, Persist.   

Changing Habits – Bibliotherapy

Changeology: 5 Steps to Realizing Your Goals and Resolutions.  By John C. Norcorss. 

Atomic Habits.  By James Clear. 

 

Yoga, Tai Chi, and Zen

"Questioner:  Is it wise to combine Hatha Yoga or Tai Chi or Karate with Zen?

Roshi Philip Kapleau: Both Hatha Yoga and Tai Chi, provided you separate them from their philosophical aspects and do not devote more time to them than to Zen, go well with zazen and in fact strengthen it.

Questioner:  Do you do any of these, Roshi?

Roshi:  Yes, I do Hatha Yoga for about an hour daily.

Questioner: What time of the day do you do it?

Roshi:  In the morning.  First we have zazen, then chanting and then yoga.  It is an excellent way to start the day.  My teachers, Harada-roshi and Yasutani-roshi, both did calisthenics for an hour every day until the age of about eighty-five.'

-  Zen: Merging of East and West (1989).  By Roshi Philip Kapleau (1912-2004).

Stoic Spiritual Exercises

"  "Spiritual exercises."  The expression is a bit disconcerting for the contemporary reader.  In the first place, it is no longer quite fashionable these days to use the word "spiritual."  It is nevertheless necessary to use this term, I believe, because none of the other adjectives we could use — "psychic," "moral," "ethical," "intellectual," "of thought," "of the soul" — covers all the aspects of the reality we want to describe.  Since, in these exercises, it is though which, as it were, takes itself as its own subject-matter, and seeks to modify itself, it would be possible for us to speak in terms of "thought exercises."  Yet the word "thought" does not indicate clearly enough that imagination and sensibility play a very important role in these exercises.  For the same reason, we cannot be satisfied with "intellectual exercises," although such intellectual factors as definition, division, ratiocination, reading, investigation, and rhetorical amplification play a large role in them.  "Ethical exercises" is a rather a tempting expression, since, as we shall see, the exercises in question contribute in a powerful way to the therapeutics of the passions, and have to do with the conduct of life.  Yet, here again, this would be too limited a view of things.  As we can glimpse through Friedmann's text, these  exercises in fact correspond to a transformation of our vision of the world, and to a metamorphosis of our personality.  The word "spiritual" is quite apt to make us understand that these exercises are the result, not merely of thought, but of the individuals entire psychism.  Above all, the word "spiritual" reveals the true dimensions of these exercises.  By means of them, the individual raises himself up to the life of the objective Spirit; that is to say, he re-places himself within the perspective of the Whole ("Become eternal by transcending yourself.")"
-  Pierre Hadot, Philosophy as a Way of Life, 1995, p. 81; Spiritual Exercises, pp. 81-125. 

Stoicism  A hypertext notebook by Michael P. Garofalo.  

Virtues and the Good Life

Stoic Philosophers and Spiritual Exercises

Pierre Hadot   (1922 - 2010) 

"These exercises, involving not just the intellect or reason, but all a human being's faculties, including emotion and imagination, had the same goal as all ancient philosophy: reducing human suffering and increasing happiness, by teaching people to detach themselves from their particular, egocentric, individualistic viewpoint and become aware of their belonging, as integral component parts, to the Whole constituted by the entire cosmos. In its fully developed form, exemplified in such late Stoics as Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, this change from our particularistic perspective to the universal perspective of reason had three main aspects. First, by means of the discipline of thought, we are to strive for objectivity; since, as the Stoics believe, what causes human suffering is not so much things in the world, but our beliefs about those things, we are to try to perceive the world as it is in itself, without the subjective coloring we automatically tend to ascribe to everything we experience ("That's lovely," "that's horrible," "that's ugly," "that's terrifying," etc., etc.). Second, in the discipline of desire, we are to attune our individual desires with the way the universe works, not merely accepting that things happen as they do, but actively willing for things to happen precisely the way they do happen. This attitude is, of course, the ancestor of Nietzsche’s “Yes” granted to the cosmos, a “yes” which immediately justifies the world's existence.  Finally, in the discipline of action, we are to try to ensure that all our actions are directed not just to our own immediate, short-term advantage, but to the interests of the human community as a whole.  Hadot finally came to believe that these spiritual attitudes—“spiritual” precisely because they are not merely intellectual, but involve the entire human organism, but one might with equal justification call them “existential” attitudes—and the practices or exercises that nourished, fortified and developed them, were the key to understanding all of ancient philosophy. In a sense, the grandiose physical, metaphysical, and epistemological structures that separated the major philosophical schools of Antiquity—Platonism, Aristotelianism, Stoicism, Epicureanism—were mere superstructures, intended to justify the basic philosophical attitude. Hadot deduced this, among other considerations, from the fact that many of the spiritual exercises of the various schools were highly similar, despite all their ideological differences: thus, both Stoics and Epicureans recommended the exercise of living in the present."
-  Michael Chase, Remembering Pierre Hadot


Stoic Spiritual Exercises.  By Elen Buzaré.  2010.  32 pages.  PDF File.

Dismantling the Self: Deleuze, Stoicism and Spiritual Exercises.  By Luke Skrebowski, 2005, 18 pages, PDF File.

Philosophical Therapeutics: Pierre Hadot and Ancient Philosophy as a Way of Life.  By Christopher Vitale, Networkologies, 2012.  

Philosophy as a Way of Life: Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault  By Pierre Hadot.  Edited with an introduction by Arnold Davidson.  Translated by Michael Chase.  Malden, Massachusetts, Wiley-Blackwell, 1995.  Index, extensive bibliography, 320 pages.  ISBN: 978-0631180333.  VSCL.


  

Wild Goose Qigong Exercises

Dayan (Wild Goose) Qigong Exercises

Bibliography, Links, Quotes, Notes, List of Movements
Research by Mike Garofalo

The Wild Goose Qigong form is one long continuous sequence of movements, much like a Taiji form.  There are many aspects of the Wild Goose Qigong system as presented by Dr. Bingkun Hu of San Francisco.

"In Ancient Egypt as well as in Ancient China the goose was considered a messenger between Heaven and Earth. In China geese are still a symbol of marriage, because of their lifelong pair-bond.  In the Roman empire, the goose was the sacred animal of Juno, a goddess of light, marriage and childbirth, who was later considered adviser and protectress of the Roman people. A story tells of how geese saved the Romans with their warning cries when the Gauls attacked the citadel of the Capitol.  The Celts associated the goose with war, possibly because of its watchful nature and aggressive temperament. Warrior gods were sometimes depicted with geese as companions. Remains of geese have been found in warrior's graves. The Britons kept geese, but did not eat them. They were, however, sometimes used as sacrificial offerings.  The goose, with its steady, powerful flight and migratory habits, can be associated with travelling, undertaking a journey to a new destination. This journey can be difficult and may take long.  The goose can help people find the perseverance needed to go on with their quests. In earlier times, shamans were aided by spirit geese on their journeys to other worlds."
-   Geese - The Animal Files    

"Wild Goose Qigong claims that “there are no intentional movements without awareness. Wild Goose Qigong advocates “wu-wei” (or “doing nothing”) and “tuo-yi” (“reduce one’s awareness to the minimum”). A good example is Wild Goose-1 (the first 64 Movements). We often tell our beginning learners that the movements in this set of qigong are supposed to describe the daily activities of a wild goose. There are three parts to this qigong.  Part One is “The Goose Wakes Up”. It stretches itself, it brushes up its wings and shakes them. It plays innocently.  A made-up story is even included: “Then the goose looks at the moon, which is reflected in the water and tries to scoop it up."  Part Two is “The Flying Goose”.  Flapping its wings, the care-free wild goose skims over a smooth lake.  It looks at the water and dips down to drink the water.  Then the goose is playing with he “qi”.  It tries to grasp the qi.  It holds and rotates the qi-ball.  It pushes out the dirty qi, and tries to receive the fresh qi from its lower back.  In Part Three, the goose is first flying up into the sky. Now it is flying over the water.  Then it is looking for some food.  After that, it is looking for its nest. At last, the goose goes to sleep.  When beginning, learners are encouraged to be pre-occupied with the daily activity of an innocent wild goose, when they are imagining that they are “flapping their wings” beside shimmering lake under a full moon, their heart beat will be naturally slow down, and their mind will gradually be quieting down too. At the same time, they will be more responsive to the instructor’s words on how to relax themselves through the shifting of body weight. Wild Goose Qigong is a medical qigong. We practice it because of its health benefits. When we have better qi flow, our blood circulation will improve. We will have more oxygen supply to our brain. Our mind will be more alert. We will get stronger, and we will have more physical strength, etc.."
-   Bingkun Hu, Ph.D., A Safe and Delightful Approach to Good Health   

We All Are One

"Oh-oh, we all are one, we are the same person
I'll be you (Oh, yeah), you'll be me
We all are one, same universal world
I'll be you, you'll be me

No matter where we are born, we are human beings
The same chemistry
With emotions and feelings, all corresponding in love
Compatible

You can't get around it, no matter how hard you try
You better believe it
And if you should find out that you are no different than I
Reply

We all are one (We are)
We are the (Same) same person
I'll be you, you'll be me (I'll be me, you'll be you)
We all are (We are) one, same universal world
I'll be you, you'll be me

The only difference I can see
Is in the conscience, and the shade of our skin
Doesn't matter, we laugh, we chatter
Don't we smile, we all live for

And the feelings that make all those faces, always renew
So true, so true
And would you believe that I have all those same feelings, too
The same as you

We all are one
We are the same person
I'll be you, you'll be me (I'll be me, you'll be you)
We all are (We are) one, same universal world
I'll be you, you'll be me

We all are one (We are)
We are the same person
I'll be you, you'll be me (I'll be me, you'll be you)
We all are are (We are), same universal world
I'll be you, you'll be me

Look at the children, they're having fun
With no regards to why
They all look different, but deep inside
Their feelings of love they don't hide, they don't hide

They don't hide
They don't hide

We all are one, we are the same person
I'll be you, you'll be me (Oh, yeah)
We all are one, same universal world
I'll be you, you'll be me

We all are (We are) one
We are the same person
I'll be you, you'll be me (No matter where you go)
We all are one (We are), same universal (Same person)
I'll be you, you'll be me (Oh, yeah)

We all are one (You know, I know, we all know)
We are the same person (Oh, yeah)
I'll be you, you'll be me (Oh, yeah)
We all are one (Emotions and feelings)
Same universal (All corresponding to love)
I'll be you, you'll be me."  

-  Jimmy Cliff, 2010

Brother Iron and Sister Steel Memories

In 1974 I got interested in weight training and bodybuilding.  I enjoyed reading articles and books by Dave Draper (1942-2021), Franco Columbo (1941-2019), Joe Weider (1919-2013), Bill Pearl (1930-), and Arnold Schwarzenegger (1941-), and many others.  Many thanks to my inspirational brothers in the iron game who have joined our ancestors.  

In Los Angeles, I worked out at Jack La Laine gyms, and in Red Bluff CA the Tehama Family Fitness Center, and now in Vancouver WA at the local LA Fitness gym.  I also have dumb-bells to use at home.  

Visit his Bodybuilding, Weight Training, Nutrition Guidelines from Mr. Universe Dave Draper.  

Dave Draper offered a brief and interesting free weekly email newsletter until 2021.  

For more information on strength training and bodybuilding for persons over fifty,
check out my webpage on the subject.   


Brother Iron, Sister Steel: A Bodybuilder's Book  By Dave Draper.  OnTarget Publications, 2001, 337 pages.

An Enduring State of Satisfaction

Yesterday, I really enjoyed reading:  Happiness: A Philosopher's Guide.  By Frederic Lenoir, Ph.D.  Melville House, 2015.  208 pages. A very readable introduction to many different theories and viewpoints about the nature of happiness. 
{A Cloud Hands Blog repost from April 2020.}

"At the same time, as the great Scottish philosopher David Hume notes, "The great end of all human industry, is the attainment of happiness.  For this were arts invented, sciences cultivated, laws ordained, and societies modeled, by the most profound wisdom of patriots and legislators."  The whole of history is made up of dreams or utopias drawn up by individuals and societies.  It is because human beings have sought a better life and done all in their power to achieve it that all the progress of mankind has been accomplished.  The same is true of our personal lives: it's because we want to make progress, to be happier, that our lives improve and give us ever more satisfaction.  The obsession with happiness or the quest for a too-perfect happiness can produce the opposite result.  The art of happiness consists entirely in not setting goals that are too high, unattainable and overwhelming.  It's a good idea to set more gradual goals, to reach them step by step, to persevere without getting stressed while being able sometimes to let go and accept life's failures and ups and downs.  Montaigne and the Taoist sages understood this clearly and expressed it well: we need to allow our attention to act effortlessly; never to confront a situation with the aim of forcing it; to be able to act and not to act.  In short, to hope for happiness and pursue it while being supple and patient, without any excessive expectations, without stress, with hearts and minds in a state of constant openness."
-  Happiness: A Philosopher's Guide.  By Frederic Lenoir, p. 106.  

"I would say that happiness is the awareness of an overall and enduring state of satisfaction in a meaningful existence founded on truth.   Obviously, the contents of this satisfaction vary from one individual to another, and depend on their sensibility, their aspirations and the phase of their life they are going through.  Without hiding the unpredictable and fragile nature of happiness, the aim of wisdom is to try and make it as deep and permanent as possible, irrespective of the ups and downs of existence, external events and the pleasant or unpleasant events of everyday life."
-  Frederic Lenoir, p. 35  

Hypertext Notebooks by Michael Garofalo:

Happiness: Quotes, Good Reads, Sayings   

Virtue Ethics

How to Live a Good Life: Advice From Wise Persons  

Green Things Growing

A repost from April, 2012:

Karen and I enjoyed gardening from 7 am until 3 pm on Sunday.  It was a clear skied day with bright sunshine and temperatures in the mid 70's.  It was delightful fun but tiring. 

We had not been able to garden much because it had been raining for a long time, our lawn mowers needed repairs, and other duties had kept us working indoors. 
We cleared our sunny vegetable garden of all weeds, and will plant next weekend.  Our frost date is April 15th in Red Bluff, so we don't plant summer vegetables in the open outdoors until after April 15th. 

The Spirit of Gardening

"If your purse no longer bulges
and you've lost your golden treasure,
If times you think you're lonely
and have hungry grown for pleasure,
Don't sit by your hearth and grumble,
don't let mind and spirit harden.
If it's thrills of joy you wish for
get to work and plant a garden!

If it's drama that you sigh for,
plant a garden and you'll get it
You will know the thrill of battle
fighting foes that will beset it
If you long for entertainment and
for pageantry most glowing,
Plant a garden and this summer spend
your time with green things growing."
-  Edgar Guest, Plant a Garden

April: Quotes, Poems, Sayings

Our small front lawn area on Saturday before mowing:

Wudang Chi Kung: The Eight Section Brocade Chi Kung

"The Eight Verses of Wudang Mountain Badunjin :

1. Lift the ground and hold the sky to take care of the three internal cavities
2. Draw a bow to the left and right, just like shooting a vulture
3. Lift the hand up singly to tone and caress the spleen and the stomach
4. Look backwards to cure the five strains and seven injuries
5. Reach down the leg by both hands to strengthen the kidney and the reproductive organ
6. Swivel the head and rock the bottom to calm down
7. Rotate fists and stare to add stamina
8. Vibrate the back seven times to expel illness


The first segment takes care of the three chiaos (internal organs), the second segment strengthens the heart and the lung, the third regulates the spleen and the stomach, the fourth cures strains and injuries, the fifth toughens the kidney and reproductive organ, the sixth calms the nervous system, the seventh increases stamina, the eighth gets rid of illnesses. It has materialised the merging of the theory and movements of Badunjin with clinical sports, as well as specified the importance of life-nourishment and health-preservation. Badunjin Qigong, uplifted by the modern medical confirmation from Chinese and western professionals and scholars, continues to be revitalised and made to perfection. Thus it has been made even more suitable and practical to serve the needs of the modern era, and advances with time.

The theory and movements of Wudang Badunjin is thorough; it is safe and easy to learn, and has a wide application on medical cure. Externally, it exercises the skin, muscles, tendons and bones; internally, it strengthens the organs, improves the circulatory system, and consolidates the spirit of well being. Its movements involve breathing naturally, and are smart & light, continuous and lively, elegant and beautiful, stretchy and graceful, alternating relaxing with tightening, synchronising harmoniously, can be fast or slow but with distinct rhythm, can be complicated or simple, active or quiet, and cohere the opening with the closing. It stresses on the mutual use of toughness and gentleness, the training of the internal and external body parts, the merging of activity and quietness, the balancing of the left and the right, the top and the bottom, alternating the real and the virtual, and nourishing both the body and the spirit. The amount of exercise and the length of the practice session can be adjusted anytime, and it can be practised alongside with other exercises. Age, sex, body nature, location, equipment, time, season, etc do not restrict the practice. It can be practised individually, with the whole family, or with a group. The all-encompassing effect and value of its body-strengthening and medical aspects is evergreen."
-  Wudang Mountain Badunjin Qigong 20Kb. Original (in Chinese) written in Hong Kong by Woo Kwong Fat, the 28th Generation Master of Dragon Gate Branch, Wudang Mountain.

Wudang Qigong

Eight Section Brocade Qigong (Baduanjin)

Snowing in April

This week, day after day, cloudy, overcast, gray, and raining.  Today it snowed all morning.

Dipping for Smelt along the Cowlitz River

"Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife says the 2022 smelt run is expected to be larger than the year before. Dipnetters caught about 90,750 pounds in the five-hour fishery window in 2021, the state reports.

Columbia River smelt are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act due to declines in run size in the last decade, which is why recreational fishing is limited to years in which the run size is exceptionally large. Smelt have a range from Long Beach, California, to Chignik Lagoon, Alaska, but the Columbia River has a specific kind of smelt, also called hooligan or eulachon."
-  Vancouver Columbia Newspaper, 4/8/2022

Eulachon smelt runs in the late winter were very important to the many Native Americans living along the lower Columbia River for over 2,000 years until 1800.  These small fish were prized for their high oily fat content and ease of catching.  Sadly, after 1800, nearly 90% of the Native Americans along the lower Columbia River (e.g. Chinook, Clapsop, Cowlitz) died of newly introduced communicable diseases.  

Today, I plan to do some sightseeing along the Cowlitz River from Longview to Castle Rock.

On the Mend - Hopefully

I have not been feeling well for the last month, and really feeling sick last week. 
Medical tests don't, thus far, indicate a serious disease.  
We cancelled our trip to San Diego this week, and will visit later in the year.
I felt better yesterday and today.
Hopefully ... on the mend.