Though Peter missed much from his home, maintaining the machines that ran along endless rows of sorghum was not one of them. Attending to old men in a cold climate paid ten times more and required only occasionally leaving a comfortable chair.
The weather changes to match our dry sense of humour and in the process disrupts our traditional cuisine. We must adapt as we always have.
“It teaches stillness, and from the stillness comes movement.”
Though there are many similar waves, no two are the same. When one approaches its destination, it rises up to reveal its final form, only to collapse back in upon itself.
The clamour of excited children distracted Andy from the catalogue that lay open on the counter before him. Half a dozen freshly sun-creamed children were clambering over the steps of the harbour pontoon propelled by the prospect of crabbing.
Where does the time go? Well a few years were spent in the fine city of Norwich, to which I’ve returned this anniversaire for both an outing and a trip down memory lane.
Remember the first mobile phone you held? The internet’s first whisper? For a time, the digital revolution seemed extraordinary, efficient, cool; and for motorbikes, precisely governed by a myriad of electrical sensors and simple, solid state, controllers.
Beyond consumerism there’s the the kindness we’re already capable of showing to ourselves and others.
Stonehenge is thought to be 5000 year old and was built with muscle and tools of stone, wood and sinew. Imagine moving a 3 ton block 230 km across country with that kind of tech. We might only guess at how long it took – and there are 43 of them.
Don’t we take health for granted; busying ourselves with distractions, until something happens to remind us how fragile and contingent things are.
Whilst it’s easy to conceive of moving up the spiritual ladder a rung at a time until you find yourself floating on a cloud with yogic superpowers, that’s unlikely, right?
I can’t remember exactly why I started to look for a rowing boat, or looking for very long before I found one. More vivid is the long, hot drive down to collect it.
Both Hinduism and Buddhism take a longer perspective upon mortality by viewing death not as the final act, but as a necessary step along the way. Beyond heaven and hell, salvation and damnation, this seems one of the more useful contributions from religion: the reassurance that to move on, all things must pass.
The previous instalment in this series explored the fifth limb of yoga: introspection (pratyahara), that post compared our mental experience to a stream of loosely connected and often repetitive thoughts. Dharana, the sixth limb, then considers how to deal with that torrent and focus awareness elsewhere.
