SPRING IS LIKE A COMEDY AND TRAGEDY COMBINED AS ONE

There is a brook not far from me i keep an eye on. When i see open water here, i know spring has arrived. This brook slumbers beneath the snow for the months of January and February. It only resurfaces when the temperature of the water from the snow melt higher up is warm enough to start melting the ice that has built up on the rocks, within the pools of water like the one above. The last factor to using this brook as a barometer for when spring has arrived, is the angle of the sun shining upon it for at least three hours of the day, and the shadows are shorter in length.

Suffice to say i have come to know the personality of this brook as a long time friend.. While it cannot predict the extremes of spring storms and temperature swings March is known for, it is a great barometer for knowing when the warmth of spring has tipped the scale away from old man winter grip, even though he still growls with spring storms.

Where did you come from little leaf? Were you buried beneath the snow and now as the snow melts you resurface as if time stood still between oct. 2018 and march of 2019. This leaf glistened as if it was polished. In a sense it has been polished. A winter of ice crystals gently rubbing against this leaf. Now it is polished, also looked like it had a coat of varnish on it. Yet it is so thin you can see right through it. Yes these are the images of spring, it is not just a month known for new leaves on trees and first sign of green grass and dandelions.. 

In town the sidewalks are free of snow but watch out for the ice at night. Spring comes much sooner in urban centers than it does in the woods.. The tree stump above sits upon a hill slightly higher in elevation than the rest of the town. Not far from the road yet it is in the woods and there the snow has only begun to melt. Put this tree stump in town and the snow on top would be gone. our temps are to be in mid forties to low fifties this week so by end of week very possible this snow will be gone and this tree stump with be without its hat. 

For all the beauty we anticipate with arrival of spring. This season is not without its woes. As the rains melt the snows streams rise breaking up the ice. If this happens end of February or first week of march, this is what you see. Debris the water picks up in smaller streams flows into larger rivers. This year it is the larger river that the ice did not break up on, but it did on the smaller streams about three weeks ago creating ice jams. That is what this is debris from one of those smaller ice jams that worked its way down to the winooski river this weekend. 

the tales this container could tell. Where did its journey begin, where will it end?

Usually trash like you see above works its way toward shore. Green up Day in first week of May, volunteers walk the streams and rivers and remove this debris as much as possible. However much of it will lodge in places no one can get to. There it will remain, forever relative to the lifespan of a human.

Still, spring does have its majestic side. This log is trapped by blocks of ice from moving downstream on the North Branch. However with blue skies, wind and sun, you can see the dance of light and ripples in the water playing on the trunk of this old tree.. Somehow nature always knows how to make the best of every situation. She can smile, laugh, and be positive in the midst of what we call sorrow.. as if to say, “hey look, there is always hope!”

By the middle of April gardens will be drying out. some may get planted. In the forest middle of April will still find snow melting, and mud season will be in full bloom. Alas it could be the second week of May before the forest dries out from mud season. Seasonal Streams, seasonal springs and small ponds, will dry up by memorial Day weekend. Yes those of us that live here can tell you where small ponds, springs, small streams are dry nine months of the year, but for three they have water in them. Some last only a month or are gone as soon as the last of the snow has melted.. 

Soon, very soon the leaves of fall that endured the winter will return to the earth. While the green buds of new leaves begin to grow on the trees above them.. April is gray when you look at the mountains, but flowers will bloom. May is the month of spring green leaves will return, and again if you visit you will see why Vermont is called, THE GREEN MOUNTAIN STATE.

END OF BLOG

THE QUANTUM NATURE OF 24 HRS, OR, WHY DOES TIME SEEM TO GO SLOW?

THE QUANTUM NATURE OF 24HRS,

OR, WHY DOES TIME SEEM TO GO SLOW?

Life isn’t a matter of milestones, but of moments. ..

Every second is of infinite value.

Science has its own way of defining time. There is space time curvature. There is the speed of light where as you speed up, everyone else slows down. Actually they speed up, because when you get back your younger, but they are older. Then there is quantum entanglement where two quantum particles are connected in such a way no matter how many light years apart they are, what happens to one particle, immediately effects the state of being of the other. So what is time? 

In life time is something very different than it is to science. Intimate moments that within our minds last forever in feelings, yet at the same time they are moments in time that feel like they didn’t last long enough. hmmm, entanglement seems to have many ways of expressing itself science cannot quantify! Only the heart and mind of the spirit gets it! 

The clock above lies upon the ground but use to be on top of the building in the background. The town in which it exists in,,,,,,decided to preserve it as a memory of times gone by. Yet it ages, and its hands move no more. It is like the speed of light. standing still while we age, move through each day of our lives. The substance it is made of is decaying, and someday it will rust, or rot tell it is no more. Yet the time it keeps, frozen in that one moment, one second, forever.

The sea knows time? My own personal impression is time exists within the sea but not for the sea itself. It was here long before we were, and may be here long after we are gone. She is infinite to us, but defines the lifespan of a fishing boat as, just a few decades. Ahh, so time is really relationships! hmmm, isn’t that entanglement again? She the sea is also love! Often she is described as such, and what is love, the most intimate of relationships!

Sometimes we travel to experience time in different ways. If we wish to go back in time, we may go visit the seashore trolley museum. Time travel within, this point in time, to another point in time, preserved within this point in time, yet both are flowing at the same rate of speed, the constant speed of light, so science says.

YOUR CHOICE, THE HEART AND MIND OF YOUR SPIRIT HAS THE ABILITY TO ALTER THAT REALITY, AS TO HOW IT IS PERCEIVED. SO TIME IS PERCEPTION OF REALITY, WHICH NO ONE IS CERTAIN WHAT THE REAL NATURE OF REALITY IS, BUT QUANTUM PHYSICS SAYS, ITS POSSIBILITIES.

(I LIKE THE LARGER PRINT, EASIER TO READ, MY CHOICE, BUT YOU MAY NOT AGREE) Within that choice is a altered reality, between you and me, yet co existing within the same moment. In the diversity of both experiences we may not be aware of our different perceptions, or if two people are husband and wife, parent and child, they may share the diversity of two different ways of experiencing the same event. Again, entanglement just like in quantum physics.

Since i’m a photographer, artist, but i’m also well versed in the art of science, to anyone very logical thinking but not really a artist within, may find my way of thinking as i write, unpleasant to digest. Some will call my thoughts, bitter to their appetite. That is what quantum physics is to many scientist, bitter truth in its statement that in the end, science is more an expression of art, with the laws of how it was designed built within.

You walk into the old train station and buy your ticket. The conductor dressed as they did back in the fifties or forties, takes your ticket as you climb aboard the trolley. The bell rings and your on your way traveling around twenty thirty miles an hour. You feel the wind blowing through your hair as the trolley sways first to the left then to the right.. you feel a different time, different place within this experience. Yet as you travel you look out and can see signs of the future, of the year 2017, oh but you can feel that sentiment of being in, the 1940’s.

Some of the trolley cars they are still restoring like this double Decker. I walked onto this one and walked up the spiral staircase. The artistic design tells you artist created these with hand-tools and skill they crafted fine art right into the design. I have ridden double decker train cars of today and you will find no such expressions of creativity. They are sterile but pleasant environments.

Life isn’t a matter of milestones, but of moments. ..

Every second is of infinite value.

We end the day with a walk on the beach. The tide is going out and what do i see? Islands of impressions, shapes, infinite grains of sand, each having individuality yet all connected by the flow of saltwater whose sense of time is within each tide. Four tides is a day, Two low, and two high, marks the hours of the tides, just like 24 hrs is a day. Within each hour are waves. Each wave a second, every 20 waves five minutes, yet everywhere you look, you see smaller and smaller fractals of time. Then again maybe its smaller fractals of space, where time surrounds it and time would be experienced as infinity for look at the designs water makes from flowing through the sand. 

When to lovers look at the sky and feel a second as eternity of sharing love, or they so experience a desire to continuing sharing that experience a night together may feel like but a second, for it is in those seconds, love knows no boundaries. How can both be true? How does everything fit into everything without falling apart. The answers are not so much in the law of science, but in the art those laws create we call life, the universe, the earth, nature, it surrounds us. 

You want to know the science of quantum physics, ask a scientist. You want to know the logic of probabilities in quantum physics, ask the couple that just found love. You want to know why quantum physics is the perfect design? ask the artist that knows the creativity of love. 

Personally i will sit upon these sands of time, and contemplate the answers to what is everything while reading a book whose theme is just that. With someone at my side the share the experience with, or not, i will read the book, but learn the answers by watching and listening to the wisdom of the sea.

END OF BLOG

INTIMATE CONVERSATIONS BY THE OCEAN WITH STRANGERS

THE AGE OF ASKING WHY?

ADVENTURES FROM THE SEVENTIES 1972-1976

We don’t know when we are young whom we really are in our personality, thoughts, beliefs, what others see within us. By our teen years most of us know what a shipwreck in life feels like. Small ones at least.

The seventies were strange for me. Some of it was just me trying to understand me. However  just as challenging was trying to understand how others seem to see in me, something i didn’t see in myself. Within my hometown this created a problem. People, other young adults my age didn’t always know how to react to me. So they labeled me with stigmas, there own ideas of how to catalog me and file me away as, whatever that label was.. ANNOYING, to say that was my general reaction, yes, for sure. My response was not anger, more a perception that they were like an annoying noise that just would not go away.

One can be cursed by the town they grew up in if they stay there to long? However i did find a way to escape this prison they put me in. First place i discovered, white mountains of new Hampshire. It was the second place where i could visit, or live there for a summer, or longer to really get away and see how total strangers reacted to me, so i could learn more about whom i was as a person.

Other places were along the coast of Maine, from York, Maine all the way to Biddeford, Maine. In these places i was neither a track star, super smart nor super dumb. I was not weird for my age, a nerd, not a thing to be graded by guys and girls as to popularity in school..No expectations that i was older than my age implied, which meant if i had a day i wanted to just be my age, others frowned upon that as taboo. No expectations of others if i would live up to their impressions after meeting my siblings and parents as to what i should be, instead of asking, whom am i? I was nothing, just a blank page that maybe someone would want to get to know without any expectations, nor preconceived ideas about me.

 

Being born visually impaired certainly brought with it stigmas of expectations of what i wasn’t. Then the epilepsy showed up, and that brought more storms and stigmas into my life. I would hear all the time, “oh you can’t be that. Wait you did that? oh, you should not do that, or, No, i don’t believe you did that.” oh and i loved this one,”four eyes has epilepsy. no way can he know answers to questions like that!”

  The sea asks no one for their name. She sings to anyone that will stop and listen. As you sit upon the rocks you see the waves roll in crashing upon the rocks. Then as the water rushes out of the channel back toward the ocean you hear the rocks underneath rolling back toward the sea.

I always loved walking the marginal way. A one and a half mile walk from the beaches of oqunquit ,around the bend pass the marginal way lighthouse. then a mix of curves, uphills, downhills, but always to my left rocks you can walk out onto and just sit and watch the sea. I have my favorite places i love to stop. If i was to dowse those places i have no doubt the energy is special in those places. The surf is so unique in its dance at these few locations i believe this to affirms the energy is different in these locations.

The picture above is one of the locations i love to sit out toward the end of the rocks, or right above where the tide washes in and just listen to the songs the ocean sings. High tide in this picture it would look like the ocean is right up to the greenery. This is a picture when the ocean is close to low tide. During a full moon low tide i have walked out into what you see as water and gotten to the rocks farthest out. When its high tide with a full moon and a storm tide as well? You can’t even get near these rocks. They are constantly awash in spray from crashing waves.

Yet on summer days, when the sun shines through a partly cloudy sky, and there is no breeze, she the sea can be as smooth as glass. It was here about the second week of May i had decided to go out jogging. I jogged the beach for about a mile then ran across the bridge into town and back out to this spot on the marginal way. I was sitting there taking a breather before i ran back home and a girl came running out to where i was in her jogging clothes and asked if i would mind if she joined me. I said i would enjoy the company and she sat down and for about half a hour neither of us spoke as we just sat and listened to the songs of the ocean.

She took her sweatshirt off and placed it under her head as she laid back and closed her eyes. I knew what she was doing or had a sense of what she was experiencing, for i had done this myself so many times just letting yourself get lost in the songs of the sea. She opened on eye and turned her head toward me and asked, “Why do you like to come and sit here?” I smiled then laughed before i spoke,”I think we both know. To watch the surf, smell the salty air, and just listen to the breaking waves. This place feels magical.” Another hour passed as we just talked about that location, our personal experiences while there and all the adventures we had known. Just two strangers bonded in the moment by our love for the sea.. The conversation was very intimate for two strangers and i would feel confident to say that in no other setting would we have been so intimate in our conversation as two strangers just meeting.

 

Yes! Even with strangers you can share intimate moments when sitting by the sea. Though i sense or feel it is more than that sometimes. I have had many strangers open up to me and talk about their life, about a wide range of very personal stories, something that happens to me even when i’m not at the ocean, but even more so when i am. I believe the ocean reaches inside some people and brings out feelings, thoughts so profound that they wish to share yet away from the sea these same people would struggle and not know how to open up like that. I have seen and talked with people sitting by the sea that suddenly become tense when they realize they are saying things to a stranger they may not even tell their best friend. I always comfort them and with a smile say, Its the sea, don’t worry about it, everything you said, was spoken here, and will stay here. she is the one listening, its not just me. 

Sometimes as the sun is rising i have been sitting by the sea, and someone comes up with a cup of coffee just like i have and again that same intimate conversation will just get drawn out of both of us. Usually that is the only time i would see that person. A few times it was a woman that worked by the sea like i did and after about a week of conversations. We may go out on a date, or just start spending time together doing things we find we have in common.

Here is what i find curious though. that same woman i was having such intimate conversations with about life, life experiences, away from the ocean, it could take another week, maybe two, before our conversations could be as intimate away from the ocean as they were at the ocean.. curious observation? To this day every man, woman, person i became friends with while sitting by the sea, i still have a memory of them. They are within a magical moment that makes them, a friend for life. No doubt as well within my mind, this was all made possible by the songs of the sea. 

END OF BLOG

I CAN SEE THE STORE THROUGH THE WINDOW!

I CAN SEE THE STORE THROUGH THE WINDOW

The day seemed no different than any other day. My day off from work. About 70 degrees out. My plans was to bike to perkins cove and spend the day leisurely enjoying a seaside cove community. Listen to the ocean, smell the tides,, sit or lie upon the beach and read a good book. I didn’t pack a book to read. Part of the adventure was going to be to visit a bookstore i had seen there but never got a chance to visit. Yup, easy, when i get there i will buy a book at the Perkins cove bookstore. Not its real name. However many call it simply, “the cove bookstore”.

I arrived around 10am and parked my bike next to one of the stones with a metal ring embedded in it. After looping my bicycle chain through the loop and clicking the lock shut i walked over to the pier that looks out over these boats. “Strawberry Sunday please,” when it was my turn at the take out window. The pier has wooden benches along every side so i picked the bench next to the boats and leisurely nibbled away at the sundae while watching the activities going on around me.

After throwing away my sundae dish and spoon. I headed over to the bookstore i had been wanting to visit since my last visit to the cove.. A curious adventure about to begin and one i did not see coming until i was well within this little adventure.. 

The building looked normal on the outside. The typical weather worn look of any building that knows the storms of the northeast along the Atlantic ocean. Romantic impressions is what i see when i look at these buildings. Like a lighthouse they bond with the salt air, the ocean waves that can send foamy surf against their walls, sometimes there roofs. They all have a weathered driftwood appearance to them on the outside.

I stand outside the bookstore looking in. To my left looking through small window panes i see the bookstore. On my right i see a small boutique of fashionable clothing you would probably only buy while on vacation at the ocean. Each has a door and while the one to the boutique is unlocked, the one to the bookstore is locked. Yet i can see people inside browsing the aisles of books.

Surveying the building i notice on each side is a door and outdoor stairs with wooden roofs leading up to the second floor. poking my head into the boutique i ask the girl behind the counter, “hi, how do i get into the bookstore?” With a very appealing smile she says,”go to the other side of the building and at the top of the stairs just open the door and walk in.” Sounds simple so i say thank you and follow her instructions.

Only when i get to the top of the stairs there is not one but two doors. I try the first one and find another boutique shop of oils, fragrances, seashells, driftwood, beach towels, and very skimpy bathing suits. I think they may of been bikinis. the very appealing looking woman with a beautiful tan was wearing one. hmm, wear what you sell? yes, she did have bathing suits with really cool patterns and considerably more cloth to them than what she was wearing.  unknown to me i would be meeting this woman again at the very place i lived and we went on quite a few dates before the end of summer. life does have its synchronicity.

With a smile i excuse myself after a brief conversation and open the second door and promtly close it again. I think what i saw was changing rooms. The woman next door sees me standing on the landing and opens the door and says,”nope that is the right door those are the changing rooms where my customers can change into clothing they just bought in my store so they can wear it on the beach while sunbathing if they want to.” “Go back in and to your left you will see a door that says, “to bookstore”, go through that door and down the spiral staircase and you will have found the bookstore!”

By now i’m thinking this bookstore can’t be getting very much business you really do need a map to not only find the place but a map for how to get into the bookstore. I ask the woman bluntly if they do much business. She laughs and explains, usually there is a sign hanging out front with specific directions how to get into the bookstore but the winds of the last storm had blown it down and the owner was getting a new one made to be put up on Monday. The downstairs door is never open on weekends because its to close to the road and the owner says she is concerned for pedestrain safety on weekends so she uses the side entrance.

The spiral staircase is a metal staircase like you would find in a lighthouse. The sounds of a creaky wooden floor as people are walking around i can hear as i reach the bottom of the staircase. To my left a veiled alcove with a sign above it, occult studies. A middle aged woman is behind the counter dressed like she is about to conduct a seance. Yet the music playing is modern seventies rock and roll. I end up buying a carl Jung book on images within our dreams and their meaning. This book needs a companion so i buy another one “Johnathon Livingston Seagull”. As i’m checking out i notice a third one, “Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee” and buy that one to.  The woman puts the books into a paper bag and then asks if i’m interested in the free palmistry reading if you spend more than thirty dollars. Sure why not?

We sit down and she takes my right hand, palm open and starts revealing my future. I will have four children.. I have a broken life line, so i have two lives. I’m a loner with a open eye to the ways of? and i now know how many woman will be in my life. she then looks at me with excitement in her eyes and said there is a special line on my palm that means i have a wonderful gift, do i want to know what it is? “no, i don’t,” is my response. she had gotten to much right already. i was not sure i was ready to be hearing about some unusual gift i may have. Having two lives i already knew, i had almost died once already. Funny when your young as much as you want to know your future, then again, i was old enough, experienced enough to know, somethings are best left to be discovered in life.

As i’m leaving the woman in the boutique upstairs is leaving she is done work for the day. Just like that we get a coffee and sit on the beach watching the waves and talking. It is about 4pm, and i was planning to of been siting on the beach reading a book for at least an hour by now.. Instead i found the bookstore, two boutiques, found my way into the bookstore, heard about my future, and was now talking with a woman over a cup of coffee while sitting on the beach.. maybe i should go back and ask the woman what that special gift is?

 

 

 

END OF BLOG

Halloween, in celebration of life’s mysteries

whom made these, designed them, carefully rock by rock crafted them. When you go for a walk in the woods you are surrounded by mysteries. Most of them are harmless enough. The above is a mystery. Whom put these there. In the three years i’ve been watching i have never seen anyone working on them. Yet they constantly change. What if its not a person.. What if, everyone assumes it is? Then we are walking right by a mysterious mystery that may be more like a place in the woods haunted?

Hubbard Park is full of surprises, or mysteries. Small alters throughout the park. To what i don’t know. Whom put them there i don’t know either.. You never know what you may find. Often its a place you have walked by before and then on one of your treks you notice something different. Is it new? or is it just you didn’t see it before?

Halloween has its positive side. It seeks to make each of us more observant in a run way. And now on to a little story of how to be observant in the woods such a park may be more of a mental exercise. However when you are on a mountain. The challenge can being observant can have dire consequences if you fail!!!!

Its a legend about a group of hikers back around the early 1900’s. They went into the white mountains for a day hike. The trail they decided to hike was not encouraged for beginners. It was highly recommended to have someone along that knew the terrain and trails in the area. As is often the situation, they did not heed the warnings in the trail guide and with a great deal of boosting to friends, set out boldly for their day hike.

Alas what they did not know is the hike they planned was not as it appeared on the map. Oh the paths were there. The distances as listed correct. Even the trail markers are just as described. There is no way you can show on a map the growth of the forest that one will find themselves in.. 

The hike they had chosen consisted of three loops. Each loop was linked to the previous loop they had been hiking on. Every loop had a waterfall on it and each one about three miles in length.. 

This is where there fate was sealed. It is believed they made it all the way through all three loops as the evidence from pictures they found in one of cameras shows the third waterfall. They never got back out farther than the second loop.. While the trail markers clearly mark each loop at the junctions. They only show which loop is in which direction. Consequently you can literally walk in circles around the loops and become utterly lost in your sense of direction.

What the trail guide could not show, was the growth of the forest these trails cut through. A growth so thick that only with a great deal of effort could you ever go off trail. To make it out they needed to get back to the first loop. find the place they entered, and look for a trail marker on a tree that pointed up the mountain.

They would then go in that direction and for almost a quarter of a mile they would be  walking over very old tree roots which is part of the trail out of the loops. Only if they had done that would they have found if only they could of seen through the thick growth of the forest floor. The trail out leads parallels a section of the first loop for around a quarter of a mile then veers left onto a old logging road that backtracks into a ravine where the trail then follows a brook back down to the base of the mountain.

This can often be true when in the woods. You can be on the wrong trail right next to the one you are looking for but from the angle you are looking out into the forest you just can’t see it. Even late spring weather on the white mountains can be brutally cold. If my memory has not failed me. Two died of exposure that night. The other two were found alive but died from complications of exposure to the the elements. 

Why didn’t they just go back to a waterfall and follow the brook out? As i mentioned, this section of forest had extremely dense growth.  It is said hikers bring back stories of walking the loops and hearing what sounds like someone walking on the trail in front of them, and sometimes behind them. Yet when they shout out to try and communicate with them, they never get a response. Some claim they hear the words, “we are lost!!” 

The exit trail has sense been changed. They added trails from each loop to the main trail back down the mountain. Each loop very well marked with signs to make sure any one that loses there sense of direction quickly finds information to help them not get lost. 

end of blog

kavanaugh vs ford, docket number?

kavanaugh vs ford, docket number?

If your looking for a good Halloween story, Trump comments and actions in October makes for great horror and scary tales around the campfire.. all the things a energy vampire that becomes president must do to feed his hunger of watching others in pain from his lies, his bullying, belittling tactics, on these he thrives, for without them, he is nothing. Not even a man, not even alive, without the energy of others pain, he dies within. That is Mr. Trump, how miserable his spirit must be. It knows not what is good, knows not love, knows not how to respect anyone, always always, haunted by his own fears each day.

We watched this week as kavanaugh and ford, gave testimony before the senate. Technically neither should of ever ended up before the senate for the reason of the topic being discussed if not for a letter Ford wrote about concerns she had over kavanaugh temperament, character as a candidate for justice on the supreme court. However as is typical of Washington, what was suppose to be keep private got leaked to the press for sake of someones political agenda..

My personal opinion is it is republicans that leaked this letter, but how did they get a copy of it? This was useful to them to create a mudslinging smear campaign against Ford, as to kavanaugh, he was not smeared, he was accused by Ford of trying to rape her… a very personal, confrontation criminal in nature that a judicial court should of handled, not the senate!!! Imagine how this looked to anyone that knows the powers of government to see the senate acting as a judge on the issue of if a woman was raped? at same time they consider the man a candidate for supreme court justice!!!!

Like vultures the republicans watched to see if Mrs. Ford could pull off a credible testimony. When they saw she was succeeding it was to painful for them to bear the burden of and they felt compelled to intervene. They could not touch her testimony so they played out a circus drama play with Kavanaugh of a man intentionally smeared by a woman accusations as a great injustice to him, and him alone. pitiful to watch old men of the senate in suites and ties playing the card of poor kavanaugh in front of the whole nation.

What is the reality? Did the actions of a young kavanaugh in high school become relevant to his ability to be a supreme court judge? In vermont we have a law that any person that gets a record before age of 18 can have that record expunged after the age of 18.. however it is relevant as to what was the crime committed as to if this is possible. sexual crimes stay on a persons records.. So could i use this law as an example to understand if the behavior of kavanaugh as ford described it is relevant? alas without proof of the behavior all i have is the accusation. which he denied was his behavior.

If it could be proven, it would however be relevant!!!! There are some mistakes so severe they cannot be erased, only considered in looking at qualifications for a job, which is what this really was, a job interview. At least that is what it was suppose to be. Instead republicans used it to declare men can have inappropriate behavior in high school or college and they are to be forgiven no matter what even if the job is supreme court judge.  proven by the fact mr trump in a campaign rally smeared ford bullying her, belittling her testimony that only days before he called credible? yes he did, but clearly that was a lie, his true nature was the comments at the rally.

the senate decided that kavanaugh was the victim, ford had falsely accused him, trump manipulated the fbi investigation so it would not find any evidence of the event, then appointed him to the supreme court. reality is, this was going to happen no matter what was said unless overwhelming evidence could be found to prove her story,, and no kavanaugh behavior in testimony was of no consequence. you see ford is the only one that had to hold it together during her testimony. such a beautiful plan, even if she did they would make sure no evidence would ever be found!!! however they did get the fuel they needed to energize their base, and it was all fabricated by republicans as the set in which this drama played out.

 

any questions that really did stay relevant to kavanaugh attitude as a judge, never got asked. you see his record alone is not enough, as important as past can be, it is the present that matters most. the past simply is evidence of how he thinks votes or rules as judge on issues. this is what they didn’t want you to hear and ford provided the catalyst so you would never know the truth.

that truth is about how the supreme court must be kept balanced between all the judges so it is neither to conservative nor liberal or no issue can get a fair trial. ford is the injustice to kavanaugh as the republicans are concerned so you don’t have to know his views on roe vs wade, on public school education, on human rights in general. all the issues he should of been asked questions about never got asked.

IT IS ABOSOLUTELY TRUE NO EVIDENCE WAS ALLOWED THAT MAY PROVE FORD STORY IS TRUE. NOTICE I DID SAY, NOT ALLOWED, SO I DON’T KNOW IF IT EXISTS BECAUSE TRUMP INTERVENED AND MANIPULATED THE FBI PROBE AS SUCH ITS NOT THAT IT DOESN’T EXIST, IT NEVER WAS ALLOWED TO EXIST. SAD BUT TRUE.

THE PERFECT STORM OF A POLARIZED SENATE, WHERE REPUBLICAN IS REPUBLICAN AND DEMOCRAT IS DEMOCRAT MEANS NO PARTY MEMBER CAN REALLY VOTE AGAINST THEIR PARTY.  THIS IS ESPECIALLY TRUE FOR REPUBLICANS.

WE LEARNED REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS ARE NOT LIKE THESE TREES, THEY CANNOT WORK TOGETHER, ONLY AGAINST EACH OTHER EACH WITH AN OFFENSIVE OR DEFENSIVE AGENDA, BUT NOT TOGETHER.

WE LEARNED OLD REPUBLICAN MEN MADE IT CLEAR THEY DO NOT HAVE ANY RESPECT FOR WOMAN. THEY EVEN WENT AS FAR AS TO SUGGEST ONLY MEN ARE INNOCENT TELL PROVEN GUILTY. FORD WAS GUILTY SINCE THEY DID SAY THIS HAPPENED TO HER AND DECLARED HOWEVER THE PERSON RESPONSIBLE COULD NOT BE KNOWN BY THE EVIDENCE.

I ACCEPT ALL PERSONS ARE INNOCENT TELL PROVEN GUILTY AND GENDER DOES NOT MATTER, MY OPINION.

THE MESSAGE IS CLEAR, WOMAN ARE NOT RESPECTED BY REPUBLICANS, THEY HAVE NO RIGHTS, NOR DOES THE REPUBLICAN PARTY INTEND TO LEAVE WHAT RIGHTS LAW SAYS THEY HAVE IN PLACE, FOR THAT MATTER CHILDREN RIGHTS MAY BE OVERTURNED, WE ALL ARE AT RISK OF LOSING OUR RIGHTS TO A REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT ,SENATE, CONGRESS, SUPREME COURT.

MY OPINIONS ONLY… JUST TO BE FAIR, DEMOCRATS HAVE PLENTY OF THERE OWN MORBID POLITICS, BUT NONE SO FAR THREATENING THE RIGHTS, OUR RIGHTS LIKE THE REPUBLICANS HAVE LAUNCHED A ATTACK UPON. I DO THINK DEMOCRATS HAVE A STRONG TENDENCY TO GO TO FAR TO THE LEFT.

ALAS I’M SURE SOME WILL READ THIS AND SAY OH HES JUST AGAINST REPUBLICANS.. NO, I SINCERELY DO NOT BELIEVE NOR TRUST THEM AS BEING TRUE IN THEIR AGENDA TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES AND ITS CITIZENS.. I WOULD AGREE DEMOCRATS HAVE ISSUES TO AND THEY ARE QUITE DIFFERENT AND JUST AS IMPORTANT… BUT BY FAR MORE RESPECTFUL OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND PERSONAL DIGNITY. I REMEMBER WHEN REPUBLICANS USE TO BE LIKE THAT, AS I JUST SAID, USE TO BE.

MY ATTITUDE TOWARD TRUMP, IGNORE HIM TELL AFTER THE ELECTIONS, TAKE NOTHING HE SAYS SERIOUSLY,, THERE JUST LIES AND SLANDER TO GET YOU TO RESPOND SO HE CAN BELITTLE YOU, SOME OF HIS COMMENTS YOU MUST HEAR AND RESPOND TO BUT AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE, JUST IGNORE HIM, WORK ON CAMPAIGNING AND GETTING PEOPLE TO GO VOTE.

DO NOT DESPAIR IF A TRUMP REPUBLICAN HATES YOU, I DON’T THINK THEY EVEN RESPECT EACH OTHER, THEY THRIVE OFF OF HATRED, AND BELITTLING OTHERS AS A PARTY.

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BUT SHE WALKED RIGHT PAST US AND SAID “HI”

BUT SHE WALKED RIGHT PAST US AND SAID, “HI”

I love stories like this as part of the legends and folklore of the mountains where I  go for walks, hikes. These kind of events thankfully don’t happen that often, although probably more often than most people realize. You get up to what feels like a normal day. Your excited to get started with the adventures planned for the day. You have some idea of what to expect and even some idea of what can be unpredictable in the days adventures.. You pack your backpack to be prepared for anything, however some events, nothing in your backpack can help you in some scenarios you may encounter while hiking up a mountain.

This is Mt. Washington, one of the most famous mountains in the northeast. It looks beautiful from a distance. You see that line going up the ridge, that is the cog railway. It goes up the ridge and turns right then finishes its journey at the summit. All mountains have a illusion to them as to the difficulty they appear to have in terrain from a distance, and what you will actually encounter.

The scenic vista, inspiring, that is if it still exists. This one does not, the old man in the mountain, fell apart many years ago now. He was in a sense the gateway to the mountains, the guardian to the mountains, the elder. Now he is remembered in spirit only. I grew up with him, never a thought that during my lifetime he would disappear.

There is always a rustic charm in the mountains, as beautiful as these landscapes are, when nature shows her wrath, a bridge like this may be submerged beneath flood waters. This bridge has been submerged several times by flood waters, yet remains standing as a testimony to a excellent design in how it was built, even if it is out of wood, this bridge has survived floods metal bridges did not. I will give you a hint, the reason why is in the design itself, if you know what to look for.

One of the most famous hotels of the white mountains, and also known for being haunted. Just don’t stay in certain rooms and you will be fine. Don’t visit the dining room at 1AM. you may not be alone!

The Tuckerman Ravine Hut. Magical in how once you reach this hut from here to the summit, no matter which trail you take the experiences beyond this point is the real challenges of just how dangerous this mountain can be!!

Testimony to the fact this mountain can kill with complete indifference to whom a person is. If you are not prepared for the challenges she will throw at you, your on this list as a statistic.

Lions Head Waterfall. One of Mount Washington most haunted area, trails famous with stories of strange events. I loved exploring this area not just because of its challenges, but its mysteries as well.

Your never alone even when you are hiking alone on the lions head trail. No one knows her name, some say its a man not a woman. You will be hiking along and maybe you get tired, you sit down and are resting.

you hear a sound from up the trail and suddenly she appears. Her smile and upbeat attitude suggests she totally enjoying her hike. No lack of energy but when she sees you she asks you if its okay if she joins you. The conversation is upbeat and her general attitude is refreshing and you feel stronger and ready to hike again. She wishes you a good day on the trails and continues down the path. You can hear her as she descends and then, nothing, just this gentle breeze blowing through the trees.

When you get back to the hut you tell the caretakers and staff in general about your experience and ask if she has checked in. You just want to know she’s okay.

 

Finally one of the caretakers of the hut taps you on the shoulder and says, “see that old man sitting over there? You need to go talk with him.”

You sit down and he gives you this subtle smile, gentle handshake and then sits back in his chair. “You saw her didn’t you?” “ahh whom?” “Molly, shes usually got a blue backpack, long hair, dressed in running clothes but wearing hiking sneakers. always has a smile and even water to share if needed. she is one of us, one of the caretakers.”

The young man can tell while the old man pauses there is more hes going to say.” He looks out the window as he says,”shes a ghost. She worked at this hut about fifty years ago. Fell of a ledge and died. We know she hikes a different trail every day. Sometimes you only hear her going by, other times, like with you, she appears and visits. We don’t know how many hikers she’s helped in distress, only that she does.”

The young man gets up goes over and gets a coffee and comes back and sits down. The old man leans across the table and asks,” did she give you anything? check your belongings.

In one of his backpack pockets a blue button and a map. More like a sketch of a trail located not far from the very hut he is sitting in.

The old man sighs and says,” go find that trail and start walking along it, she will find you again. Son, don’t plan on coming back, but don’t worry, she will tell you everything you need to know about what its like to be a ghost upon this mountain. “

some hikers she just helps them when there in distress, like needing water. Others she saves their lives. Others, she helps them move on, she is the caretaker, guide that looks after the dead of this mountain, as much as the living.

Never avoid her she has a good heart, just hope after you do meet her, you don’t find a blue button in your possession.

My friends and I think we met Molly a few times back in the sixties. Thankfully we never got a blue button. Nor did we ever meet the old man, we heard about him, saw where he sits, and the its in a chair next to the fire place, always empty when we saw it.

oh yes, very true, there are wonderous trails on this mountain, but some, its best you never find. Some you may find, but you may not end up where the map says the trail leads to, then again you may, with many strange experiences in between, no those won’t be on the map.

Falling through Spatial Portals

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This thought was shared with me as a brain teaser.. “Can you trust everything you see with your eyes?”

What if what you see is not here but someplace else.. What if what you see is not real at all? If driving a car and you see what looks like water in the road, as you get closer it disappears and you realize it was a mirage. 

I had no hindrance with acceptance that visually we can see illusions. However what if what you see is real, but its not located where you see it, but is actually located, somewhere else?

Is the sun there? Maybe its the moon? Maybe your on a planet somewhere else in the Milky Way and this is one of those planets moons? This becomes the puzzling problem many people report when hiking mountains. Especially in unknown landscape when fog is present or its a gloomy day with clouds moving over the slopes, summit of a mountain as if they are a living breathing entity.

I remember one friend that invited me to go with them on a Saturday for a hike up a mountain known for weird experiences. I had to work so I could not go. I met him again about midweek and this was his story.

I was just over half way up the mountain and noticed how the clouds were rapidly moving across the summit. The fog was flowing up the mountain hugging the ridges, yet the fog was flowing down the mountain in the valleys. So I got out my map, made sure of where I was going, got my bearings at the trail head where it intersected with four other trails and continued my journey.. up the mountain toward the summit.

I reached this section of the path that was leading me up toward the summit, but dips into a small ravine, traverses through it, crossing the brook at the bottom, and then climbs more steeply on the other side up to the ridge. then just like we have done before you follow the ridge to the summit. The ravine was filled with fog rolling down the mountain, the ridge had fog, or clouds flowing up to the summit. There was this line about half way up the slope going out of this small ravine where the fog just kind of churned or swirled.

It was amazing how I walked underneath the fog ceiling while going down slope into the ravine then walked into it as I got about half way down the slope. Pea soup fog made it eerie and even the brook at the bottom of the ravine looked ghostly, you could hear it more than see it tell I was actually crossing it on stepping stones. Just like we have experienced before everything becomes shades of gray in the fog.

On the other side the trail split again, left was down the mountain, right up the ravine to a steep wall with a treacherous trail up to the summit. I turned right since the map showed another short trail out of the ravine up to the ridge. A short distance from where i was I would find a diagonal trail up to the ridge.. with a trail marker on a tree pointing in the direction I wanted to go.

That’s when I saw it, a face in the gray shadows of the fog. He just stood there unmoving, and then he seemed to be pointing to something. As I got closer my fear subsided as I realized, oh that is just a tree. Yet it left a impression on me of heightened senses. I could feel something eerie with a profound sense of, just move and get out of there. Sure enough the trail was there he had been pointing to and so I headed out on that trail. Immediately it started going uphill so I was certain it was the trail to the ridge..

Sometimes our world can seem like a world that we know everything inside of it. Everything we think we know, but now not so sure we know! It is somehow, strange, otherworldly? Something like the gloom of gray everywhere seems to distort the senses, but we are confident it is just an effect of the fog until? Alas the tales those that know, can come back and tell.

My friend stopped talking long enough to take a sip of his coffee, seemed to be thinking about what to say next, then asked me, “how long does it take to climb the other side of that ravine?” I knew this path to the summit well since we had hiked it several times, “about a half hour,” was my reply. He closed his eyes then opened them again and said, “It took me almost two hours to get to the ridge!”

“Impossible,” I replied, “its a straight line at a slant over rugged terrain with difficult footing over rocks and boulders but is no more than a quarter of a mile to the top of the ridge.”

He took a deep breath then continued to tell his story.. I thought i had gotten to the top of the ridge. But the fog was dense and what i found instead was another ravine with some of the tallest very old evergreens i have ever seen growing everywhere i looked. In the shadows of those trees i saw once again the old man pointing down the path into the ravine. His garments were those of a seasoned hiker yet this time i noticed his age looked well beyond the age any person could be to hike this trail. The expression on his face seemed to be ,not malice, but just tired, very tired.

The slope down was steep and the rocks were slippery as if covered by a thin layer of ice. At the bottom was a forest of evergreens with a spectacular brook of cascades running through them. With every footstep i was walking upon a bed of pine needles i felt certain no foot had tread upon for a very long time.. It was amidst this forest i lost the trail and seemed to just wander looking for a safe way to cross the brook.

There were deer just standing there drinking, and a bear on the other side just looked at me, watched me but never moved except for his head, his eyes followed my every move. Then I saw the old man again up slope from me pointing to the brook. I walked toward him and there where he was pointing was a path of stones and boulders by which i could get across. I used my hiking poles for balance and got across the brook. When i turned around the old man was not there. I continued my walk through this forest. Eventually the evergreens thinned, the carpet of pine needles was not so thick and i noticed another path leading up another slope. The fog was now filled with a glowing light i thought may be the sun trying to break though, yet it flowed with from somewhere above through the ravine as if carried by a stiff breeze.

After ascending this slope enough to look out over the tops of the evergreens i found myself in that zone of fog that was neither moving up the mountain nor down, it was sort of moving in many directions. I looked down the path i had just come up and there right below me was the old man..

 

He spoke!! or it was more like the wind blowing through the trees and there creaking as they swayed was the voice i heard. “In death this will be your home just like it was mine.” I ran, I just wanted out, and eventually i found myself in fog flowing up the slope. Not much father i recognized a trail sign and knew i was upon the ridge on the other side of the ravine.

The hike was uneventful after that and not long after i was on trail again the last of the fog flowed past me on its way to the summit and the warmth of the sun was a welcomed sensation.

I really didn’t know what to say so i replied with the only response i could think of. “we all have had our moments where the fog makes us feel as if we are lost in what is familiar .” I could tell this was of no comfort to him. In his mind this was not the fog playing mind tricks, something unexplain-able  had happened to him!! He took another sip of his coffee and then he said, ” i will never hike that mountain again!”

The following summer i was reading the paper and there on the third page was an article with his name in big black letters at the top.. He had fallen from the top of a ravine while hiking in the state of Maine, his body was found amidst a growth of evergreens beside a brook. On the other side, remains of a long time trail guide that had gone missing more than five years ago..

heatwave of July 2018, darn nature has a no return policy!!!!!

Heatwave of July 2018, Darn Nature has a no Return Policy!!!!!!

July 3rd, 2018, now in our fourth day of a heatwave. For three days our temperatures have been in high nineties but it feels above 100!!!!  The humidity has been on a roller coaster ride.. Monday morning there was a breeze  and the humidity wasn’t that bad. Then around eleven am, the breeze was like opening an oven door. Each day the heatwave progresses, while the temperature is dropping, the length of time it stays in the nineties increased from eight hours a day to almost twelve hours a day.. Urban heating having a profound effect as now our building has lost all resiliency to keeping out the heat!!!!!

 Thunderstorms we predicted. I could see them on the weather map. As they crossed the Green Mountains, they simply vanished. A few did make it into northern Vt. Water such as a brook where you can stick your feet into the mountain stream of cold refreshing 50 degree water is a treasure to find and call friend.

They say the temperature will drop into the eighties, sixties at night by Thursday. I keep watching and the weather forecast shows morning thunderstorms. Hopefully those make it over the Green Mountains and bring some relief.

 

Records show it was in the 1960’s the last time the Northeast saw a heatwave of this duration. We have seen many three day heatwaves over the years but not one that lasted for a entire week that started off with temps on the first two days being 100 degrees, with humidity it felt like 105 degrees. We do not have the air conditioning in our buildings to cope with this kind of heat. Our major weather challenge is usually the bitter cold of winter. Our summers are not usually this extreme. Its only July, what will the rest of the summer be like?

Three more days of what feels like a very long journey indeed before we see relief.

Burlington Vt. set a record. The city has always cooled on summer nights to below 78 degrees except on the night that record was set. During this heatwave they set a new record. It did not get below 81 degrees for what is called the daily low. What Vermonters are use to is lows at night in sixties, seventies is considered a high temp at night. The low for the night, is in the range of our average high for the day!!

When your in your sixties one fact is very clear. you just don’t handle extreme heat in same way you did when younger.. Fair to say no biking, no walks, you just hover around any source of relief. A short walk to rite aid about a quarter of a mile away turns into a walk over dragon breath sidewalks with heat beneath you, above you, surrounding you and the effect is you can feel your body just can’t adjust the way it use to.. Fans and air conditioning becomes the new adventure..

Some that live up here think we deserve this because of our long winters.. I think with our winters being long and often 40 below zero we deserve, less extreme summers,, Highs no more than 82 degrees,, lows at night in 60’s.. our difference in temperatures this year between seasonal highs and lows, 150 degrees,, An ideal swing would be a hundred degree difference?

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ALL THINGS GOOD ARE CREATED AS AN EXPRESSION OF ART WITH THE PURPOSE OF HEALING?

THE LANGUAGE OF GOOD SOCIAL POLICY IS IN: HEALING IS AN ART

OUR SOCIETY IS SICK, VERY SICK, but most of us have lived this way so long we do not even realize just how sick our society is. Yes, it can be true that just because your the land of the free and home of the brave, known for being a democracy, none of those claims mean we can’t be a very sick society.

Pollution, like the above which is a beach ball in the river, with a one inch by six inch board next to it with nails in it. Both pushed by river currents up against the shore of the river right beneath one of the bridges. Neither probably on purpose, but even pollution by accident in a world as populated as ours can, and does, overwhelm natures ability to cope!

Most humans go about their daily life so busy, consumed by thoughts of needs in the moment they never see, never look over the bridge into the river to know, such images of pollution even exists.

NOW IMAGINE, YES PLEASE USE YOUR IMAGINATION, WALKING ACROSS THAT SAME BRIDGE. SUDDENLY A LOUD BOOMING VOICE IS HEARD FROM THE RIVER BELOW, “WILL SOMEONE PLEASE STOP AND REMOVE THIS BEACH BALL AND BOARD FROM THE SURFACE OF MY WATERS PLEASE?” IMAGINE A WORLD IN WHICH NATURE SPOKE THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, AND EVERY OTHER LANGUAGE KNOWN TO HUMANS. IMAGINE WHAT SHE WOULD SAY TO US!

The reality is she does speak to us! However, she does not speak in our language, but expects us to listen and learn her language. She asks to much you say! How ironic, that humans that would not be on this earth, that could not even survive without Mother Nature, complaining that she asks to much!!!!!!!

Her wisdom she shares, and oh what wonderful lessons of wisdom she teaches! Yet it is in such means as the crocus above she talks to us, teaches us, about her ways, and tries to teach us, what is best for us in what we need to learn, in what is the best attitudes, behaviors to have in life. IF ONLY, IF ONLY, WE CARED ENOUGH TO LISTEN?

ALL THINGS GOOD ARE CREATED AS AN EXPRESSION OF ART WITH THE PURPOSE OF HEALING?

She doesn’t deserve the strife we bring into her life. She gives life, nurtures life, yet what do we give her in return? Our ways are like a disease to her, and relentlessly she shows us patience, yet there are signs, significant signs that we are a disease she can ill afford to tolerate much longer? What is the future? Will we destroy her? Or will she finally act to heal herself of this disease called the human species? She can you know, at any moment she can destroy us, she can there is no doubt, the question is, will she?

Her ways are to constantly create expression of art that bring life to this planet, nurture the life she has already created… She constantly creates and heals that which she created from imbalances that occur, diseases that inflict the health of her creation. Oh she can be destructive such as severe storms, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, or so they seem to us to be destructive. Yet that is our perception of her storms, in these storms, she sees something else entirely, TRANSFORMATION WHICH BRINGS ABOUT LOSS OF WHAT WAS, BUT THE PROMISE OF WHAT WILL BE NEW? You see its all a matter of perspective, hers or ours.

Recently i was attending a meeting, the topic was healthcare policy transformation. In this presentation was something profound spoken of, yet done so in such a way I doubt few noticed just how profound a message had just been delivered in the presentation. A message I have longed to hear, but usually never do. FQHC, Federally Qualified Health Centers were presenting on how they were doing transnational work within the community to cope with healthcare issues that exist within the state of Vermont, Burlington Vt. specifically.

Every program they talked about that had been extremely successful had three key elements in it: healthcare services were treated as services delivered as an art of expression where healing was the goal.

healthcare services that serve was number one

the services were delivered as an expression of art was number two

the main purpose of the both was to heal and synchronized as such to accomplish this goal.

Here is the irony. There was nothing new in the recipe. What was new is that our society finally was using it and finding it to be successful. The wisdom they spoke of, nature has taught us, made available to us to be learned with the dawn of each new day! We had just never bothered to listen and learn. It seems as if the human species is like the child that just refuses to learn that something doesn’t work because they want to do it their way! Yea that is us, where the child that touchs something hot, gets burned, and turns right around insisting we can do this, touch that same thing that is hot, and gets burned again, then cries as if an injustice has been done!

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. Albert Einstein

Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature. Gerard De Nerval

Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you. Frank Lloyd Wright

and this little blog is done, may some understand the message and see the light of the truth within?

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