The Fire Bird

There is a phoenix inside of you. Know what to do when the flame erupts.

Dana Bate
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Hello Ken
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The phoenix is a fabled bird with brightly colored feathers. Legend has it that the phoenix lives for a long time but then one day it builds a nest. Sitting in the nest it catches fire and nest and bird are both destroyed in the fire and reduced to ashes. But out of the ashes comes an egg. The egg is hatched and the phoenix emerges to live again.

There are times in life when things don't feel right. Our mood is dark and gloomy, perhaps we are having twinges of fear and don't know why. We are disturbed and confused.

Then we try to do things to compensate and erase the gloom. We may listen to some of our favorite music or go for a walk, do some shopping, or pick up a book or magazine and try to read ourselves out of our morose mood. But those things don't help.

Some people will go off to the doctor and get a prescription for pep pills of some kind, some mood altering substance, or some will drink liquor or take illegal drugs, or some similar extreme and excessive behavior all in the attempt to ignore the signs from within ourselves that something important is taking place.

THE NEST Transitions are never easy. They usually begin with an unsettling dissatisfaction with things and at first it is hard to determine what we are dissatisfied with. We may not know until a crises occurs if we keep pushing our uncomfortable feelings out of the way. But the omens are insistent enough that we finally have to pay attention to them.

THE FIRE "Put off the old man...put on the new." When it becomes clear what the transition is that is taking place we discover changes in our lives. Old things about ourselves that we are reluctant to discard suddenly become useless and are cast off and thrown into the fire. It's difficult. Memories will remind us of the fine, former feathers we used to display. Forget them.

THE EGG Then the period of adjustment comes. We have to get used to ourselves in a new light of understanding. We may feel a sense of loss. Uncomfortable memories wail come to remind usof who we used to be and will make us want to recapture some of that life.

THE BIRTH There is a definite gestation going on now and the new person is about to emerge with a fine new set of feathers and a new life. Most of the old life is still with us but now we have a different point of view about things that are important to it. When the new birth is accomplished flap your wings in joy. The gloomy days are over.

Check you Hands of the Vagabond http://vagabondhand.blogspot.com/

Dana Bate - The Vagabond
Never Give Up

Solving The Puzzle

Some of the mountains I have climbed turned out to be made of Paper Mache, while some of the simple jig saw puzzles of life seem to have an infinite number of pieces.

Dana Bate
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Hello Atlantica, Bolivia
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One of the most amusing exercises in the arena of mental competition is when a philosopher or other thinker propounds a solid, sturdy idea and creates a phalanx of those who are armed and ready to prove him wrong and is met by another one just as determined to prove he's right. A whistle is blown and the fight is on. What makes it even more interesting is that there is no end game.

People are still trying to prove the Socrates was right, or wrong. But Socrates said "For knowledge too cannot continue to be knowledge unless continuing always to abide and exist. But if the very nature of knowledge changes, at the time when the change occurs there will be no knowledge, and if the transition is always going on, there will always be no knowledge, and, according to this view, there will be no one to know and nothing to be known."

Well !! That sort of erases the lines on the playing field and takes down the goal posts. So why are we trying to know things if all we know is there is nothing to be known? (I'm sure Socrates had a sense of humor, a guy I would have liked.)

The gray bearded, brass knuckle fact is that everything is in transition. Does that mean we should stop trying to know anything since there is nothing that can be known. If that's so then we should close all the schools, burn the books, bury the paintings, lock up the labs, stop playing music and, in short, stop thinking. I once read about a Swami in India who spent his life staring at the sun until he was totally blind because the sun was the only thing that didn't change.

I also remembering reading a solipsistic music critic of the 17th Century who said that all the possible combinations of tones had already been invented and there would be nothing new in the field of music. That was before Bach, Handel, Haydn. Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, Mahler, Wagner, Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, Ellington and Brubeck.

A physicist was asked if he didn't find it frustrating that the theories of natural law kept changing with new discoveries. He replied that that's what made it so exciting. An old cactus in the desert will suddenly sprout a blossom. A new galaxy will be discovered. An eagles egg will crack open and a new life will emerge into the world.

One should not claim that the mountain is solid, impenetrable rock and not Paper Mache until one climbs it, as Socrates and many other have done. He who collects the largest number of jig saw puzzle pieces may know a lot more than I do, but he will never know it all.

DB - The Vagabond
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Never Give Up
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SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)

NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.

Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?

dbdacoba@aol.com

6 answers so far

I eagerly await your answer.

DB
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Transitions

Time changes everything except something within us which is always surprised by change,

Thomas Hardy
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With apologies to Ecclesiastes:

There is a time to think and a time stop thinking.
There is a time to pick up and a time to scatter.
There is a time to remember and a time to forget.
There is a time to wonder and a time to decide.
There is a time to get dressed and a time to get undressed.
There is a time to consider our responsibilities and a time to be irresponsible.
There is a time to wash the dishes and a time to leave them in the sink.
There is a time to hope and a time to feel hopeless.
There is a time to cut the hair and a time to let it grow.
There is a time to give up and a time to try again.
There is a time to diet and a time to eat that piece of cake.
There is a time to spend money and a time to save it.
There is a time to bow your head and a time to lift it up.
There is a time to laugh and a time to weep.
There is a time to do the laundry and a time to leave it where it is.
There is a time to ponder immortality and a time to take a nap.
There is a time to pray and a time to curse.
There is a time to walk and a time to sit still.
There is a time to know yourself and a time to be confused.
There is a time to frolic and a time to meditate.
There is a time to resist and a time to relent.
There is a time to learn and a time to unlearn.
There is a time to work and a time to rest.
There is a time to turn on the light and a time to turn it off.
There is a time to speak and a time to keep your mouth shut.
There is a time to tend your garden and a time to let nature do it.
There is a time to play your flute and a time to leave in it its case.
There is a time to plan your future and a time to live for the moment.
There is a time to see clearly and a time to be bewildered.
There is a time to sleep and a time to stay awake.
There is a time to go out and a time to stay at home.
There is a time to write and a time to stop writing.


The Vagabond
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SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)

In your opinion what is the most amazing thing that could happen during this decade? Make it as outrageous as you want but keep it within the realm of what you consider a possibility.

Only 5 responses so far.

Answers will be published the first day of Summer.

dbdacoba@aol.com

DB - The Vagabond
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