sonora2sonoma

I headed out yesterday to do errands. After taking my computer to the shop for repairs for the third time in a week because it’s been refusing to start, I had a disappointing lunch at a Mexican restaurant in Santa Rosa–a particular mistake I won’t repeat again! I then placed my trust in Siri to guide me to an art supply store in Santa Rosa, having forgotten the reasons that had led me in the past to liken such pursuits to throwing away money on the  Roulette tables in Las Vegas. After much uncertainty, re-traced routes and muttered invectives,  I finally located the place and  found it manned by an employee with a keen understanding of his job description which, unfortunately for me, did not cover the particular matter that had brought me to his door. Returning home, rejected and defeated, I failed to notice for another hour or two that  the crock pot of beans never got turned on before I’d set out for town that morning, the upshot being that another dish needed to be prepared for dinner on short notice.

I went outside to get some air and, as I cast my eyes about in appreciation of all the budding greenery surrounding me, I noticed two vultures perched atop my chimney. Ever the photographer, I fetched my camera, 400 mm lens and tripod and set about making pictures. The vultures weren’t in a hurry and hung around, seemingly bored, while I took shot after shot, trying to get the perfect image. Toward the end, one of the vultures shat on my roof as I was taking his photo. How many of us can make such a claim and, more importantly, why would one do so in the first place? Yet, here I am, yammering about it anyway! The way the day had been going, it just seemed like it fit somehow!  I felt momentarily like  a character in a Far Side cartoon and that maybe the universe was trying to tell me something. My house was beginning to look like a prop in a segment of The Addams Family. The vulture’s deposit seemed like an exclamation point, a fitting wrap-up to a day filled with unanticipated and perverse prepositional phrases, surreptitious semi-colons,  unsolicited interjections and questionable question marks . . . lots and lots of question marks.

Thwarted plans? I thought, uncooked beans? chimney vultures? . . . wait a minute! That’s how bad mindsets begin. Feed that kind of stuff and it only gets hungrier! Time for a refrain! Plans can be rescheduled, beans can be cooked longer. Siri remains suspect, but a bad meal out can be instructive going forward. It’s all in how you look at it!

A discovery in this morning’s email seemed particularly apropos . . .

Mental formations specifically means negative states of mind such as jealousy, worry, and so on.… We don’t seek to suppress them, judge them, or push them away. Simply recognizing their presence is sufficient.  Thich Nhat Hahn

The synchronicity in its timing makes it more meaningful. As for the chimney vultures, though, that’s still pretty weird!

April 4, 2018

Petaluma, CA