Tuesday 11th September 2001 23-30 CET
World Trade Centre/Pentagon Violence
"Poverty is the greatest form of violence" stated Mohandas K Gandhi.
This is most certainly true, for poverty inflicts pain in so many ways.

But violence is not a question of degree...violence is violence and
demands from us a response which, in our human experiencing condition
cannot always be one of expressing lovingness...though there have
been many...great and small..who in this past century have done
just that.

So we look into a shattered World Trade centre dustcloud. We
contemplate the terror aboard those hijacked civil airlines
whose passengers and crew were mercilessly sacrificed to some,
as yet, unknown 'principle of justification'. Oh, that the world might
be saved from such principles and justifications that carry within
them all that speaks against the sanctity of human life.

In these horrendous circumstances it is hard to 'find a blessing'.

I sometimes visit the websites of young 'anti-social/punk orientated' people
in the USA. I have heard the revolt against authority, the cynicism
expressed against social morals and values and the empasised hyprocrisy
of older generations. I see the disrepect verbalised against the world..and
read of the apparent lack of individual responsibility and respect.

A 15 year old of this 'category' writes in this way. Having heard of
the appalling scenario unfolding in America today, his response..his
immediate response..was " I am going down to give blood."

The price of freedom is individual responsibility. In such circumstances
as these we all have the potential for 'being a source of blessings'.
God Bless you Tonio!!!!

"A true disciple feels another's pain as his own" sang Gandhi as a child.
I am not certain if I qualify as a 'disciple', but I am weeping inside for the
pain of all those families, friends, schoolpals......who have lost a loved one
this terrible, inhuman, unimaginably unkind day.

Monday 10th September 2001 11-40 CET
So today I continue the carpentry work I started yesterday, I am renovating and
restyling the middle room upstairs. It continues to rain and I hear the melody of it
playing upon the roof as I work. Crescendoes and gentler passages, it is as though
fingers are playing a 'pastoral' upon some gigantic nature piano. Playing with
strength and also with sensitivity.
The harmony of the sounds and the interplay of lighting effects are truly an
incredible sequence of experiences.
So is life in this 'reality', huh?

Sunday 10th September 2001 20-50 CET
The South African group Ladysmith Black Mombazo, one of the groups
on the Paul Simon 'Gracelands' CD...and I understand Nelson Mandela's
favourite group..... have a beautifully melodic song "Rain rain beautiful
rain". The song, amongst other things, emphasises the value of rain
in a hot, dry land.
They would have loved it here today. The 'Swedish Autumn Monsoon' hit
with full force, coming so heavy the rainwater gutters for the roof could not
cope and mini-waterfalls cascaded down the side of the building - this was
doubtless helped by the abundance of leaves that had gathered in them . So
I got drenched clearing out leaves - but even then the gutters still overflowed!
It was.....hmmm...magnificent :)
We often think it inconvenient, but I wonder where all the forests would bem
where all the berries (blueberry amongst them) would be, where would the lakes
be...if we didn't have this continuing supply of water?

Of course, we (mankind that is) would probably like to reach a point of being
able to control all these things (we seem to think we are clever enough for that)
and that we could turn on rain like a garden sprinkler. I wonder if we are sufficiently
sensitive to the needs of nature to ever be able to do this with any degree of
success.

Maybe it would simply be better if we adapted to the wisdom of nature, helping
for example to channel water to arid areas of the world (creating new micro-climates)
and improving the conditions for so very many human beings. Alas, as yet, we
have not reached a point of accepting even the importance of this - though we have
the technology for it, we lack the will to do it..

Nature, however, continues to provide some form of balance...even if we don't
quite understand the rational.
"Rain rain beautiful rain' simply demonstrates the principle - that it depends where we
stand as to how we view.

Saturday 8th September 2001 11-05 am CET
Postcript
They said to me
"GET A LIFE"
so I got one.
But it was faulty
so I took it back!
I was told
'The only thing that is faulty
is your perception....
Be who you are
not who everyone else wants you to be".

A rose is a rose, an oak tree an oak tree,
all have their unique place.
So do you
existence is incomplete
without YOU
being the special you that you are.

Saturday 8th September 2001 10-45 am CET
OOOps, it's a grotty start to my day today. I feel like I have just finished
fighting with a Centurion tank! So I am slow this morning not exactly being
encouraged by grey skies and rain.
I often take a visit to www.Osho.com and take a 'transformation' meditation
card reading. These I find most helpful in helping me create a 'mind view'
for the day. I am not exactly a devotee of Osho, like many spiritual leaders
I find there is something, now and then, in what they say - or even the
way they say it - which serves as a reminder, a 'refresher'.
Today's reading was entitled 'Atisha's heart medicine' and here's an excerpt
which I trust I may republish having quoted source:
"Atisha's method is just the opposite: when
you breathe in, breathe in all the misery and suffering of all the beings
of the world--past, present and future. And when you breathe out,
breathe out all the joy that you have, all the blissfulness that you have,
all the benediction that you have. Breathe out, pour yourself into
existence. This is the method of compassion: drink in all the suffering
and pour out all the blessings".
That reminded me of childhood and belief-systems that existed
within my family circle....for it reminded me of the old adage/song
'count your blessings, name them one by one'.
So, instead of being in the queue at the complaints department
of God's Creation Industry,inc....... I felt better being in the choir
attempting to count the innumerable blessings of this existing
:):):):):)

Friday 7th September 2001 19-30 CET
The forecast said cloudy and probably, almost certainly, rain.
So we had one or two clouds now and then, and beautiful sunshine.
Still, it must be a tough job trying to predict the subleties of nature,
after all we have a hard enough job trying to do that with people we
live with or know very well....imagine trying to do it with clouds....
even if you have looked at them from both sides now :):)

Oh, I forgot to mention, that two nights ago I rented a video, I do
so a couple of times a month as I do not have (nor do I want anymore)
relevision. Good story, brilliant acting...."Finding Forrester'... was the title.
Sean Connery (from whom I have never yet seen a disappointing movie)
and a young guy Rob Brown. Both are incredible and within minutes you
have lost the feeling of being at a movie, you are a part of their lives. Here's
what the official website says about Rob Brown:

ROB BROWN (Jamal Wallace) was born in Harlem and raised in Brooklyn,
New York. A natural who never studied acting and who has no professional
acting experience, he makes his acting and motion picture debut in Finding Forrester.

Rob celebrated his 16th birthday just before the start of production.
He is in his junior year of high school, where he is a talented athlete who
plays basketball and football.

and here's the official website if you want to look:

http://www.spe.sony.com/movies/findingforrester/

Occasionally, even in the tranquility of this place in Sweden.....I (a little like Forrester)
venture out into the big world......hehehehehehehe
Hey, if you get a chance, don't miss this film...it's amazing for it's exploration
of differing prejudices and for the integrity with which they are overcome.

Love's Independence 6 th September 2001 12-20 CET
It is in the missing that you find what you seek, re-discover what is important to you.The 'frustration' of seperation concentrates, crystalizes, the emotions so that focus is sharpened, awareness accentuated, and that which you seek is found where it always resided... ...deep within yourself.

Is there someone's touch you miss? Examine,then, exactly what characteristics are involved and you will soon discover that all these attributes are your perceptions, your stimulated senses, your emotions, your own reactions to that touch which
you now feel you are missing. It is only possible to 'miss' that which is the stimulative beginning of your own reactivity and participation. Yet, how could you 'miss' something you have never experienced? If experienced, then it is remembered, huh?

Apply this concept to love: you will soon observe that that which you most love about another is their ability/gift to shake your own consciousness into the
awareness of itself. So it is that love can transcend time and distance- for do you cease to love when the recipient of your lovingness is not in the seme room, house or even country?

Your love clearly exists independently and is not reliant upon another's proximity. Only if, or when, you accept the supposed 'finality' of death, only then do you
cease to love....huh?...and this statement, as you probably have already experienced, is not a truism! Even after the 'event of death' we still can love,
do love. Though the 'remembered habit of physical companionship' may fade over time, we still persist in loving - and seem aware of being loved - way beyond
the 'final barrier of death'.

If our love were truly dependent upon another it could probably never survive in such a climate of imperfections and apparent contradictions.

As I have previously written, " Love is YOU when you can find in another the reasons (motivations) to express your lovingness."
4ccc

5th September 09-58 CET
Not one. Cannot see one anywhere. Not a single cloud in a dedazzling blue sky and masses of dancing sunbeams
filtering through the tall birch trees that overlook the lake.
The lake is alive with so many dazzling light reflections it's like a major motorway with a ten mile slow crawl tailback of flashing impatience. Only it's quiet. It's got a rhythm that is stressless and therapeutic.
The sunlight xrays the greens and fading colours adding a
skeletal transluscence that simply amplifies the wonderful, individual structure of each leaf.
There is hardly a breath of wind as bees and other flying insects...especially dragonflies....busy themselves around the morning moisture droplets that glisten with grandeur on many leaftops.
It's a beautiful morning. An inspiring morning.
It's so amazing if we simply take a few quiet minutes to look around...to really see.....

September 4th 2001 17-35 CET
New website now online at http://lo.2ya.com

4th September 2001
The hectic beautiful summer is now over, our home having been blessed with the company of innumerable visitors, precious friends, beloved family and many
other guests...all of whom have found pleasure and peace in the beauty and wonder of this place. All of whom, without exception, have bestowed a benediction of belonging upon us.
The autumn richness has painted the landscape in oppulent, luxuriosly deep, tones which are complimented by the amazing variety of cloud and sky formations that are the symbols of nature's preparations for the coming winter. Already storms have tensioned the trees and vegetation, given advanced warning of the coming loss.
Leaves have started to yawn yellow and doubtless the sap is slowing it's metabolism ready for the iced snow slumbering. There's a chill carrying on the wind on the days when the sun plays hide and seek with the blue grey cumulus congregations, occasionally surrendering supremacy for energy charged milliseconds of awseome natural power and drum rolls that echo incessantly amidst the hills, forests and surface stirred lakes.

It's the period of increasing darkness and therefore is the time for practising 'hibernation' within the cave of my computer and the apparent infinity of the
internet. Thus, the blog restarts and a new website, v 3.01, is born - it will shortly leave the maternity ward.