W. Lee Baker Author Musings

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January 30, 2018 By W. Lee Baker

Move Along, Please

How do you do with change? Just try to avoid it and you may be run over or left behind! We now travel from coast to coast in 5 hours, not 5 months in a horse drawn wagon, if you would arrive at all. We no longer die easily of simple diseases. A little device placed on the end of your finger will tell how much oxygen is in your blood. Another can tell if there is something wrong with your heartbeat. This is pretty easy to accept.

The movement of history is the constant movement of new against old. We know so much more than before; knowledge is not held in some monastery. What we believed long ago may not serve us well anymore. It was wise to find out about germs or that the sun doesn’t revolve around the earth. Still, we have not learned to see each other’s differences without fear closing us off. We wave our national banners with pride and menace. We still disagree and argue to the point of killing each other, sometimes in large numbers in war. Armies are taught that the enemy is less human than they are. Makes things easier.

Each one of us wants a life with security, laughter and the ease of mind that comes with those. Why is that so easily ignored when someone decides they want more than they need, at a cost to many others? Sorry, deep and almost rhetorical question.

Can we accept the basic idea that we are mostly the same, wanting security, peace and happiness? We wouldn’t want to do harm to others once we realize that they have the same dreams as us. That might even be better than repeating history. Real advancement beyond the barbaric past.

Learn something new, study another culture, go into a different part of town. Stretch and enjoy!

Filed Under: Noticing in everyday life, Spirituality, Uncategorized

MEDITATIONS

John Burroughs

To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter; to be thrilled by the stars at night: to be elated over a bird’s nest or a wildflower in spring… these are some of the rewards of the simple life.

John Burroughs
Rumi

We began as mineral. We emerged into plant life, and into the animal state, and then into being human, and always we have forgotten our former states, except in early spring when we slightly recall being green again.

Rumi
Hermann Hesse

For me, trees have always been the most penetrating preachers. I revere them when they live in tribes and families, in forests and groves. And even more I revere them when they stand alone. They are like lonely persons. Not like hermits who have stolen away out of some weakness, but like great, solitary men, like Beethoven and Nietzsche.

Hermann Hesse
Dalai Lama

When the days become longer and there is more sunshine, the grass becomes fresh and, consequently, we feel very happy. On the other hand, in autumn, one leaf falls down and another leaf falls down. The beautiful plants become as if dead and we do not feel very happy. Why? I think it is because deep down our human nature likes construction, and does not like destruction.

Dalai Lama
Ray Stevens - 1939

Everything is beautiful in its own way. Like the starry summer night, or a snow-covered winter’s day. And everybody’s beautiful in their own way. Under God’s heaven, the world’s gonna find the way. There is none so blind as he who will not see. We must not close our minds, we must let our thoughts be free. For every hour that passes by, we know the world gets a little bit older,it’s time to realize that beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder.

Ray Stevens - 1939
Native American

We return thanks to our mother, the earth, which sustains us. We return thanks to the rivers and streams, which supply us with water. We return thanks to all herbs, which furnish medicines for the cure of our diseases. We return thanks to the moon and stars, which have given to us their light when the sun was gone. We return thanks to the sun, that has looked upon the earth with a beneficent eye. Lastly, we return thanks to the Great Spirit, in whom is embodied all goodness, and who directs all things for the good of her children.

Native American
Rainer Maria Rilke

If you trust in Nature, in the small Things that hardly anyone sees and that can so suddenly become huge, immeasurable; if you have this love for what is humble and try very simply, as someone who serves, to win the confidence of what seems poor, then everything will become easier for you.

Rainer Maria Rilke
Stuart Wilde ~ 1946

Watch nature, because it is your greatest teacher. It moves and flows and moves on again. There is an incredible beauty out there in the mountains, in the forests, to teach you it’s silence, it’s beauty, it’s humility. Stay aligned to that.

Stuart Wilde ~ 1946

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FROM W LEE BAKER

I am a testimonial to waking up from the deep sleep buried in clouds of doubt. I wandered lost until I found my way into this life, and I am ever thankful and reverent of the mistakes and losses along the way. Now I hope to offer inspiration to others who find this story.

– W Lee Baker

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