Front Porch Psychology...mindfulness

 As Kurt Vonnegut famously wrote, “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” 

Lemme Think About It...

"Why do you give your two cents worth when it's only a penny for your thoughts?"

From The Far Side Of The Glass

We have an inborn tendency to establish types in our minds and to divide mankind according to them. [But] however advantageous and revealing such categories may be, no matter whether they spring from purely personal experience or from attempting a scientific establishment of types, at times it is a good and fruitful exercise to take a cross section of experience in another way and discover that each person bears traces of every type within himself and that diverse characters and temperaments can be found as alternating characteristics within a single individual. Hesse Notes

From The Study...a conversation of possibilities

There is no discrete self or ego living like a minotaur in the labyrinth of the brain. And the feeling that there is—the sense of being perched somewhere behind your eyes, looking out at a world that is separate from yourself—can be altered or entirely extinguished. Although such experiences of “self-transcendence” are generally thought about in religious terms, there is nothing, in principle, irrational about them. From both a scientific and a philosophical point of view, they represent a clearer understanding of the way things are. Sam Harris

From The Road...The Delta Snake Review Series

Form The Road...

A homeless woman, looking about late 60s, was walking through the parking lot with a rolling suitcase.

Like more than a few homeless, it wasn't obvious until she asked a passing woman for spare change. The woman looked sympathetic, and began a long dialogue about the various public agencies that helped the homeless, where there were shelters, about how to rise above the condition (sounded good on paper), and how she hoped that the cash would help. By the end of the talk, the lecturer was erect and one could say distant, the pupil looked as limp as a 7th grader listening to a one hour lecture on the three branches of government.

Keep in mind, I'm not making a judgement as to the giver's motives or psychology. It's all through my eyes, and simply described.

But, there is another way of seeing the incident.

I saw a sincere soul, but one who only had a rudimentary idea of who she was talking to, and a destitute woman who looked she could be somebody's treasured grandmother.

I sized the woman up as a homeless person, who avoids the camps (and the frequent rape of lone women) as her possessions were with her in the worn suitcase, her smell indicated that she slept outside (strong scent of cement and grass), but hadn't dropped into apathy yet (neat appearance and well groomed hair).

I've oversimplified of course, for the sake of narrative flow, but having seen women who lived in camps, it was obvious she was different.

The woman who gave her some cash was probably a good heart, and most are.

I'll fill in some details though, and consider it a deepening of knowledge about the human side of homelessness.

Rattling off a list of agencies and shelters generally does no good for someone who doesn't own a car. Many of the shelters are full to capacity, and aren't always safe for a lone woman to approach without one. I'm sure some shelters would disagree, but it's true.

You need a car to visit the various agencies and shelters to find the ones that can help you. Plus many homeless pretty much know all that info, they exchange that kind of information all the time (including which ones to avoid).

When the woman came over to me, and asked for spare change, I gave what in my pocket. She needed cash, and I assumed she would ask for advice if needed.

I got a smile and thanks instead, and it broke my heart to see such a gentle soul asking for change in a Silicon Valley parking lot full of prosperous people. I still think of her once in a while, and hope there's some love in her life, we homeless always pray for each other.

His name is Al Handa...a man without a home, describing the homeless in his Delta Snake Review Blog...a homeless journal of sorts. Hope you enjoy this new series.

Lessons From The Sane Asylum...

            "In the end we are are all figments of our own imagination.
           We imagine our own realities, and this is mine at
the moment."

An evening walk...

                                                      I step with the grace of smiles
                                                     for I see beauty all around me
                                                           I see the glory of life
                                                       and for that I am happy...

  

What beauty shines in dappled light,
In misty morning air?
What beauty's cloaked in foggy mist,
Waiting to be shone?
The light it changes endlessly,
No view is ever twice,
Sun and rain and mist and fog,
The ever changing light...

Stopped To Ponder...Again

Step by step
Walk by walk
They keep us moving till we stop

Stop to ponder, and ask away
" Where am I now, what is this place"

as life is
times flies and flies
and as we look back
and ponder why
Why do I, have so little to show?
Why do I, have so little life?
As memories are full of "if then"
Lessons, in wisdom
Are yours dearest friend

But you don't see, the treasure you hold
So I stop and know
Its now, not then
That I'm surrounded by wonders, that I'll soak in...

Lemme Think About It...Remembering

My forgetter's getting better.                                But my rememberer is broke To you that may seem funny But, to me, that is no joke. For when I'm 'here' I'm wondering If I really should be 'there' And, when I try to think it through, I haven't got a prayer! Often times I walk into a room, Say "what am I here for?" I wrack my brain, but all in vain A zero, is my score.     At times I put something away Where it is safe, but, Gee! The person it is safest from Is, generally, me! When shopping I may see someone, Say "Hi" and have a chat, Then, when the person walks away I ask myself, "who was that?" Yes, my forgetter's getting better While my rememberer is broke, And it's driving me plumb crazy And that isn't any joke. P.S. Send this to everyone you know . . . because I don't remember who sent it to me!

Stopped To Ponder...

Things are pretty, graceful, rich, elegant, handsome, but, until they speak to the imagination, not yet beautiful.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Case of the nothing's...

Yep, no post today...went to see a man about a horse...
Catch you later...Doc

Lemme Think About It...

You were not born yesterday, unless I am wrong, in which case, welcome to the world, little baby, and congratulations on learning to read so early in life.

Front Porch Psychology Series...

"The desire for more positive experience is itself a negative experience. And, paradoxically, the acceptance of one’s negative experience is itself a positive experience." Mark Manson, The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck.

"A Case Of The Nothing's..."

Some days I just don't want to post anything... I get a little like Jes B Rambling and work on doing nothing for a while. Some times I'm over it in about a day but, there have been occasions where I have been hit with the nothing's and they last a week or two...now it's not fair to the sane asylum residents who just might wonder over this way. I need to let you know that today I just don't give a damn and will do nothing...only fair. So here's the deal, when you see the picture below as the daily post you know I have a bad case of the nothing's...but know I am hoping for you the same...:)Doc