Changing Places

OuijaBush

How can divination
Exceed imagination?

You may be contemplating a very bold move in your life. It might be taking a chance on love. It might be deciding to move across the world to begin a new career. It might be combining things that have never been put together before to make a new invention. What you’re contemplating is so surprising to you that you wonder whether or not to do it.

Traditionally, people turned to divination. But how can any system of divination really help you? Whether it is turtle shells, yarrow stalks, crystal balls, psychics, or spirit possession, are the forces “out there” really going to provide any true reassurance? Depending on divination means giving up control over your own life. It’s also avoiding responsibility — you are able to say it wasn’t your fault if things don’t work out.

Imaginative action is very important in life. Without it, we are less than human. For imagination to come into being, we need decisiveness and control. Unless we have these two factors, we cannot manifest the concentration to bring something new into being. We should not surrender our right to decide the course of our lives to vague propitiations of the unknown. We should explore every new possibility that appeals to us and, with wise action, build the force of our characters.

Deng Ming Tao, 365 Tao

“>in divination<
Harry: Wait, I've got two neptunes, that cant be right!
Ron: >imitating professor trelwany< Ahh! Two neptunes is a sure sign a midget in glasses is being born!"

-- J K Rowling

“There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch.” — Bible

“DIVINATION, n. The art of nosing out the occult. Divination is of as many kinds as there are fruit-bearing varieties of the flowering dunce and the early fool.” — Ambrose Bierce

“Few people have the imagination for reality.”
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“We are so obsessed with doing that we have no time and no imagination left for being. As a result, men are valued not for what they are but for what they do or what they have - for their usefulness.”
– Thomas Merton

“Study the situation thoroughly, go over in your imagination the various courses of action possible to you and the consequences which can and may follow from each course. Pick out the course which gives the most promise and go ahead.” –Maxwell Maltz

“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity… and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.” — William Blake

“To open the Eternal Worlds, to open the immortal Eyes
Of Man inwards into the Worlds of Thought: into Eternity
Ever expanding in the Bosom of God, the Human Imagination.”
– William Blake

“Imagination is not something apart and hermetic, not a way of leaving reality behind; it is a way of engaging reality.” — Irving Howe

“Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young.”– William Somerset Maugham

OK, I wasn’t gonna get political with this one, but I found that image while doing my art search and how could I resist? And it does speak to character - everyone read what they wanted into Dubya, but what I saw was someone with a track record of failure and bad character, and so it has proved out.

We all spend a lot of our time trying to figure out the “signs and portents”, whether economic, professional, or personal. Many people turn to their God to try and answer their questions about what to do, many people look to fortune tellers or astrology or another method of divination. One of my favorite things as a kid was a tarot deck. I loved to play with it, and still have a couple of particularly artistic tarot decks that I like. We also played with ouija boards and read our horoscopes and all of that. I really don’t think I ever took much of it seriously. I had a high school friend who did some wonderfully humorous horoscopes and palm reading s for me - his sense of humor was quite bizarre and I loved it.

We never know what is going to come into our lives, or what directions we may take. Many people are afraid of change; I happen to love it. Mostly because I think the only thing we can truly count on is change itself. If we are unhappy, we can know things will change, if we are happy and prosperous, we can keep ourselves prepared for the downside risk. We are organisms that are continuously changing. Every cell in our bodies is constantly being repaired, renewed, or replaced. Why do we expect that our lives should not be constantly changing as well?

If I break down the walls,
I will be surrounded by the garden.
If I break the levee, water will inundate me.
Meditation is not to be separated from life.

The task of following Tao is to cease all distinctions between the self and the outside world. It is only a matter of convenience that we label things inside and outside, subjective and objective. Indeed, it is only at elementary stages that we should talk of a Tao to follow. For true enlightenment is the realization not that there is a Tao to follow but that we ourselves are Tao.

That understanding comes after a simple breaking down of a wall, a shattering of the mistaken notion that there is something inherent in this life that divides us from Tao. Once the wall is broken, we are inundated by Tao. We are Tao.

Do we continue to meditate once we come to this understanding? We still do, but it is no longer a solitary and isolated activity. It is a part of life, as natural as breathing. When you can bring yourself to the understanding that there is no difference between you and Tao and that there is no difference between meditation and “ordinary” activities, then you are well on your way to being one with Tao.

Deng Ming Tao, 365 Tao

“Wisdom is your perspective on life, your sense of balance, your understanding of how the various parts and principles apply and relate to each other. It embraces judgment, discernment, comprehension. It is a gestalt or oneness, and integrated wholeness.” — Stephen R. Covey

“A miracle is nothing more or less than this. Anyone who has come into a knowledge of his true identity, of his oneness with the all-pervading wisdom and power, this makes it possible for laws higher than the ordinary mind knows of to be revealed to him.” — Ralph Waldo Trine

“And in the solitary state of oneness, man can meet himself.”
– William Harper

This is one of those words that gets picked up by the new agers as becoming “One with the Universe” or by religious people as “Becoming One with God”. The simple reality is that so many of us feel disconnected in our lives, or like we are incomplete and there is a void needing to be filled, by someone or something else. But the reality is Oneness is more the feeling of being complete with yourself, no longer needing to look to anything outside of yourself to feel fulfilled.

Psychologically, it’s kind of the pinnacle of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Most people manage to fulfill their basic needs for food, shelter, clothing (at least in our society - in other places it is very different). So survival needs are filled. Then people look for love - usually from others. Then people look for self-fulfillment, or “self-actualization” as Maslow calls it. Once you’ve gotten there, you can consider others needs and help them learn to fulfill them.

You see it again in Joseph Campbell wonderful “Hero with a Thousand Faces” - the difficult part of the hero’s journey seems to be conquering whatever evil he faces, inner or outer demons. But the real, true difficulty is in coming back to the world - completing the journey and knowing there is nothing separating you from yourself, or from anything else. You care for others because you are no longer afraid there is anything to lose, anything they can take away from you. What blocks us from others is the fear of losing a part of ourselves, or a fear of trusting others only to be abandoned by them. But once you overcome those fears, through the process of rebuilding after you have lost something to someone else or been abandoned, then there is no longer anything to fear. You faced your worst fears and survived them. You are complete in youself, so you don’t look for anything from someone else, and you don’t fear that they will take something from you.

It is a wonderful feeling to feel you are one with yourself, that you are connected to the larger world as well and understand the linkages and inter-dependencies. Yes, you learn to meditate even when life is busy and there’s no time to sit by yourself. You meditate while doing other things, what the yogis refer to as “moving meditation”. The point of meditation and of yoga is to bring you to a place where you can be calm and in control no matter what is going on around you - you simply don’t allow the chaos of daily life to affect your mental state. It is a very healing place to be.

So how do you get there? Mostly by practicing meditation and yoga. And spending as much time as possible doing whatever makes you feel connected - whether that is gardening, walking in the world, talking to others, being with animals or pets, or whatever works for you.

Major Republican Donor Indicted in Ohio - Yahoo! News

A coin dealer and major GOP donor at the center of a scandal in Ohio state government was charged Thursday with illegally funneling $45,400 in contributions to
President Bush’s re-election bid.

Tom Noe was accused in a federal indictment of giving money directly or indirectly to 24 friends and associates, who then made the campaign contributions in their own names. In that way, he skirted the $2,000 limit on individual contributions, prosecutors said.

“It’s one of the most blatant and excessive finance schemes we have encountered,” said Noel Hillman, section chief of the U.S.
Department of Justice’s public integrity section.

Calls to the White House and Noe’s attorneys were not immediately returned. Prosecutors said the Bush campaign has cooperated with their investigation.

Noe also is under investigation over an ill-fated $50 million investment in rare coins he managed for the state workers’ compensation fund. Noe has acknowledged that up to $13 million is missing, and Ohio’s attorney general has accused him of stealing as much as $6 million. No charges have been filed in that case, though state officials say they plan to do so.

Prosecutors would not reveal the names of the people to whom Noe gave money to contribute or say if any of them would be charged. The indictment said Noe and those who gave his money to Bush had conspired together to violate the contribution limits.

Two people who received just over $20,000 from Noe recruited others who then gave money in their own names, the indictment said.

The coin dealer personally contributed more than $105,000 to Republicans, including Bush and Gov. Bob Taft, during the last campaign.

An investigation into Noe’s coin investments led to ethics charges against Taft for failing to report golf outings and other gifts. The governor pleaded no contest in August and was fined $4,000.

U.S. Attorney Gregory White said prosecutors were negotiating Noe’s surrender with his lawyer.

Noe’s attorney, Bill Wilkinson, said in a statement that Noe’s surrender was complicated by the fact that Noe was in South Florida and that many courthouses there were still closed because of Hurricane Wilma.

If convicted, Noe faces up to 15 years in prison and fines up to $950,000.

Dem candidates should now refer to their opponents as “The Unindicted Republican Candidate….

Seriously, these people are as corrupt as they come. Culture of Corruption…..

Just voted my Absentee Ballot… sadly, “Hell No!” is not a bubble option….
Oh, and the two I *want* to pass are on the back of the ballot - clever of them, really.

Sigh.

VOTE! Nix the first six!

(If you are against Ah-nuld’s initiatives, that is - otherwise, don’t bother….)

Harriet Miers withdraws her nomination for the Supreme Court

A deviation of a hair’s breadth at the center
Leads to an error of a hundred miles at the rim.
When the effort is so slight,
Why should you hesitate to set things right?

There are many people who endeavor to know Tao. In the greatest sincerity, they take music lessons, read scriptures, learn foreign languages, study nutrition, change their dress, and go to temples — all in the hopes that they will reach Tao. Sadly, they miss it by a hair’s breadth. For a person to awaken to Tao, someone must give them a spark. Perhaps this is what is called direct transmission. It is odd, but this is the only way that knowledge of Tao is passed on.

Book knowledge can help and give one a deep theoretical background, but the true understanding of Tao still comes person to person. There is no other way.

So if you have any true understanding of Tao, you got it from someone. If you meet someone else who needs that spark and you are in the position to give it, then do so. Don’t be selfish. There are so many people out there who want guidance and who cannot get it. If you can make a difference for at least one person, then you have tremendous merit indeed.

“You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.”– Friedrich Nietzsche

“At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.” — Albert Schweitzer

“How hard it is to hide the sparks of nature!” — William Shakespeare

“The spark divine dwells in thee: let it grow.”
– Ella Wheeler Wilcox

“Our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks.”
– Samuel Johnson

“If you have anything really valuable to contribute to the world it will come through the expression of your own personality, that single spark of divinity that sets you off and makes you different from every other living creature.”
– Bruce Barton

“Each of us has a spark of life inside us, and our highest endeavor ought to be to set off that spark in one another.” — Kenny Ausubel

“The really good idea is always traceable back quite a long way, often to a not very good idea which sparked off another idea that was only slightly better, which somebody else misunderstood in such a way that they then said something which was really rather interesting.” — John Cleese

OK, so my Tao posting gets political today. It just seemed… right.

So because Harriet isn’t far enough to the right for the wingers, and because she isn’t really qualified anyway, but only got the nod by being Bush’s suck-up, she withdraws. She misses the dream job of her life for being a hair’s breath away from being “right” at her center….

Yes, it’s fine to give guidance to others. It is not fine to nominate your buddies to positions they aren’t qualified to hold. It is not find to push your own world view, whatever it is, so hard that you can’t accept that other people have a different world view. It is not fine to surround yourself only with people who think like you do, and then be surprised when those people aren’t qualified to do certain jobs that need to be done. It was not right to elect someone as our President who wasn’t qualified for the job, who knows only how to listen to a point of view he already holds and not those of the people who disagree with him. Those who believed him were off by more than a hair’s breath, and now find not only can they not meet their goals, but have screwed up the lives of two thousand of our soldiers and millions of other people as well. Cronies and sycophants are not those who should hold the highest offices in our land. It’s not right.

And I don’t know that it is right to assume that Tao is only passed hand to hand by some Tao gurus. The Tao Te Ching is 81 verses of lovely poetry that presents a neat way of looking at the world, one that allows you to find spirituality in a very simple, direct way. It is not a mysterious virus that you get from others and give to them. I read and write about the Tao because it gives me pleasure to do so, because it makes me think and feel and reconsider how I think and feel. If others learn from what I have to say, great. If they don’t read it, or don’t learn from it, that’s ok as well.

Ah, but I look out my window and see that the bird feeder is empty, and someone would like something to eat. So I’ll probably get some bird food and fill the feeders today. I suppose in that way I will pass some of the Tao along to the birds. And a young kid was passing through yesterday selling magazines, and grateful that I purchased one from him, saying I was the first person who had helped him all day. The neighbor’s daughter delivered the gift wrap I had purchased from her for her school sale, proudly carrying the rolls of gift wrap and handing them to me with a big smile. My yoga class last night was a wonderful sharing of good exercise and good spirits. I’m off this weekend to a friend’s wedding in San Francisco.

Yes, I share the Tao, I give others guidance and help when I can.

The true spark of the Tao? That is bright laughter, the sparkle of the eyes, the understanding and amusement that comes from living in a beautiful, fulfilling world and knowing this is all there will ever be and it is enough. It is enough to wake up to the day and and find opportunities to help others in the world, opportunities to enrich your own life and the lives of those around you. If you enjoy the process of learning about Tao, that is great and wonderful. But don’t think a book will give you the spark of life you can find from those around you.

Yes, I get my sparks where I can, from everyone I can. I love to see someone’s eyes light up when they get a joke I’ve told, or when they learn to look at life with amusement instead of being always overly serious. I’ve collected the little sparks my whole life - from my Dad, my Grandfather, others in my family, my friends, my husband, my kids, people I meet every day - there are sparks everywhere you look. I get them from nature, my pets, those birds who keep showing up even though the feeder isn’t getting filled, and so many other places.

What do I think was really wrong with Harriet Miers? She lacks that spark. No one was impressed with her, no one taken by her so much that they would fight to defend her. Sure, she read all the right books, said all the right things, changed the way she dressed, changed her hair a bit. But only by sucking up to someone was she able to even be considered in the first place, and it wasn’t enough. And it sets off, for me, what is wrong with the entire Republican party today. It is a cobbled-together mess of power lust, wealth, and moral indignation that has no true spark of life to it at all. These people don’t want life to be better for everyone, or even anyone else. They see only their own goals, their own pocket books swelling, their own agendas. And what we need right now, desperately need, are the people who have the spark of life - and want to share it with everyone, not just their buddies.

illustration by Kuniharu Shimizu haiku by soji

Fog makes the world a painting obscure.
Even close trees are half unseen.
But a lonesome crow won’t stop calling:
He objects to being in this dream.

Over and over, the sages tell us that this world is but a dream.

When one awakes on foggy mornings, with the mists obscuring hills and valleys and the trees and village buildings appearing as diaphanous apparitions, we might even agree with them. Didn’t we see this same uncertain mirage in the hills of Vermont? The hollow of the Yangtze River valley? The streets of Paris? Don’t the memories blend with the dream and turn reality into phantasmagoria?

The world is a dream from which there is no escaping.

In this still dream, there is a crow calling. He doesn’t stop. When everything else is frozen in the sepulchral dawn, the bird continues to scream. Maybe he realizes the same dream. He protests loudly.

The ancients hold the outer reality to be unreal. But there is the inner reality too. Some of us do not readily accept the conditions of this existence. We have eyes to see, but we also have voice to refute the existential delusion.

Deng Ming Tao, 365 Tao

“All things appear and disappear because of the concurrence of causes and conditions. Nothing ever exists entirely alone; everything is in relation to everything else.” — Buddha

“What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists? In that case, I definitely overpaid for my carpet” — Woody Allen

“Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion”
– Democritus

“You can become fully conscious only when you are living in the moment. To begin to live in the moment you have to know it exists and understand it. To understand it you have to observe it in relation to yourself and in relation to life. When you understand it, when you become conscious, you will see it is all that exists. To see this is to glimpse reality. ” — Barry Long

“There is no God, no universe, no human race, no earthly life, no heaven, no hell. It is all a dream, a grotesque and foolish dream. Nothing exists but you. And you are but a thought –a vagrant thought, a useless thought, a homeless thought, wandering forlorn among the empty eternities!”
– Mark Twain

“Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mind-bog-gglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as the final and clinching proof of the non-existence of God.
The argument goes something like this: `I refuse to prove that I exist,’ says God, `for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.’
`But,’ says Man, `The Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn’t it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don’t. QED.’
`Oh dear,’ says God, `I hadn’t thought of that,’ and promptly vanished in a puff of logic.
`Oh, that was easy,’ says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets
himself killed on the next zebra crossing.”
— Douglas Adams

“I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world”
– Walt Whitman

The problem with arguing about existance is that the evidence is in front of you - things you see, touch, taste, feel, hear. There’s little point in worrying about reality except as a philosophical exercise, which is what turns most people off about philosophy anyway.

It’s fun to look at from a molecular level though, and see that most of what we call real is just empty space, and inside those atoms there is - more empty space. Huh. So when you get down at that level, it’s fun to play with the bits and see what’s really there. On a day-to-day basis though, not so much. We kinda have to deal with what is here and now in our bit of reality.

So, perhaps the best approach is to be like the obnoxious crow, and shout your barbaric yawp already. You’re here, so enjoy it.

Wal-Mart Memo Suggests Ways to Cut Employee Benefit Costs - New York Times

An internal memo sent to Wal-Mart’s board of directors proposes numerous ways to hold down spending on health care and other benefits while seeking to minimize damage to the retailer’s reputation. Among the recommendations are hiring more part-time workers and discouraging unhealthy people from working at Wal-Mart.

In the memorandum, M. Susan Chambers, Wal-Mart’s executive vice president for benefits, also recommends reducing 401(k) contributions and wooing younger, and presumably healthier, workers by offering education benefits. The memo voices concern that workers with seven years’ seniority earn more than workers with one year’s seniority, but are no more productive.

To discourage unhealthy job applicants, Ms. Chambers suggests that Wal-Mart arrange for “all jobs to include some physical activity (e.g., all cashiers do some cart-gathering).”

The memo acknowledged that Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, had to walk a fine line in restraining benefit costs because critics had attacked it for being stingy on wages and health coverage. Ms. Chambers acknowledged that 46 percent of the children of Wal-Mart’s 1.33 million United States employees were uninsured or on Medicaid.

Scum sucking maggots.

Update:

Michael informs me in his comment that I have unjustly defamed the scum sucking maggots of the world. Indeed…. apologies to any actual scum sucking maggots I may have offended.

Walmart is far worse than the insects of the earth. Insects are useful creatures. Walmart is a parasitic organism that preys on the poor to feed the greed of the wealthy inheritors of its evil empire.

Oh, and GET THE MOVIE and show it - often…

http://www.walmartmovie.com/teaser_qhi.php

Today in Iraq
10/25/05 2,000 UNITED STATES TROOPS DEAD IN IRAQ

On September seventh of last year we crossed the grim toll of one thousand U.S. troops killed in Iraq. Today, just a little over a year later we hit the two thousand mark. President Bush is still in denial about anyone being hurt or killed American or Iraqi.

Ryan Anthony Beaupre, 30, Marine Captain, Mar 21, 2003

Therrel Shane Childers, 30, Marine 2nd Lieutenant, Mar 21, 2003

Jose Antonio Gutierrez, 22, Marine Lance Corporal, Mar 21, 2003

Brian Matthew Kennedy, 25, Marine Corporal, Mar 21, 2003

Kendall Damon Waters-Bey, 29, Marine Staff Sergeant, Mar 21, 2003

…

Jacob D. Dones, 21, Army Sergeant, Oct 20, 2005

Dennis P. Merck, 38, Army National Guard Staff Sergeant, Oct 20, 2005

Richard T. Pummill, 27, Marine Staff Sergeant, Oct 20, 2005

Andrew D. Russoli, 21, Marine Lance Corporal, Oct 20, 2005

Steven W. Szwydek, 20, Marine Lance Corporal, Oct 20, 2005

Kenneth J. Butler, 19, Marine Lance Corporal, Oct 21, 2005

Seamus M. Davey, 25, Marine Reserve Corporal, Oct 21, 2005

Christopher W. Thompson, 25, Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class, Oct 21, 2005

With photos at the NY Times

US News Article | Reuters.com

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A toy car and a cookie prompted a bomb scare at San Diego airport on Tuesday when they were mistaken for possible bomb-making parts in a passenger’s luggage.

Officials closed the commuter terminal at San Diego International Airport and evacuated passengers for about an hour after baggage screeners using X-ray equipment raised a red flag.

“Both of those items together on the screen gave the appearance of an … improvised explosive device,” Transport Security Administration spokeswoman Jennifer Peppin said.

Peppin said that, seen on the X-ray, the cookie resembled organic material that could be a raw component of a homemade bomb. Inspectors may also have spotted batteries or wire in the child’s toy car, she said.

A handful of flights were delayed until the contents of the suspect bag proved harmless.

The scare followed bomb threats phoned in around dawn on Tuesday to two airports north of San Diego — Long Beach and Orange County’s John Wayne airport in the Los Angeles area. Both airports were searched but nothing was found.

OK, so terrorists - make sure you shape those explosive charges like cookies and toys! Oh, and get a six year old to carry them for you…

Reminds me of when they wanted to cut open my sister-in-law’s stuffed teddy bear…

What an insane country we live in.

Eric Morris, I Ching hexagram 8, Pi - Holding together (Union)

Unless you are pious,
You cannot gain a foothold in Tao.
Unless you go beyond rules,
You haven’t gained the middle.
Unless you can be creative,
You aren’t traversing Tao.
Unless the road always stretches out before you,
You are not walking the true Tao.

When people start on a spiritual path, they are anxious to learn all the rules. This is understandable, even necessary. Often we need stern measures to set ourselves right.

But dogmatism is not spirituality. Sometimes, it is necessary to break rules. The task is to know how to go against doctrine in a way that actually fulfills the spirit of that doctrine. It is only at this point that one matures as a follower of Tao.

The next stage is complete creativity. You have so internalized doctrine that you need not think of it, yet everything you do will be spontaneously correct. There are many stages after that, stages not documented but there for you to explore on your own.

Those who follow Tao recognize that all people go through stages of development. Many people leave their spiritual communities when they outgrow them. The path of Tao has been conceived so that one never outgrows it. One can outgrow a particular stage, but when that happens, there is another one to be entered. In this way, following Tao is always vital.

Deng Ming Tao, 365 Tao

“The stages of the Noble Path are: Right View, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Behavior, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration.”
– Buddha

“Every philosophy is the philosophy of some stage of life.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche

“All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages” — William Shakespeare

“If life is just a stage, then we are all running around ad-libbing, with absolutely no clue what the plot is. Maybe that’s why we don’t know whether it’s a comedy or tragedy.” — Bill Watterson

“We come fresh to the different stages of life, and in each of them we are quite inexperienced, no matter how old we are” — François de la Rochefoucauld

“Old age, believe me, is a good and pleasant thing. It is true you are gently shouldered off the stage, but then you are given such a comfortable front stall as spectator.”
– Confucius

“Aging is not ‘lost youth’ but a new stage of opportunity and strength”
– Betty Friedan

“We see that the apparent contradictions and perplexities in every religion mark but different stages of growth. The end of all religions is the realizing of God in the soul . That is the one universal religion.”
– Swami Vivekananda

“Although we human beings have our own personal life, we are yet in large measure the representatives, the victims and promoters of a collective spirit whose years are counted in centuries. We can well think all our lives long that we are following our own noses, and may never discover that we are, for the most part, supernumeraries on the stage of the world theatre.” — Carl Gustav Jung

A man is born gentle and weak.
At his death he is hard and stiff.
Green plants are tender and filled with sap.
At their death they are withered and dry.
Therefore the stiff and unbending is the disciple of death.
The gentle and yielding is the disciple of life.
Thus an army without flexibility never wins a battle.
A tree that is unbending is easily broken.
The hard and strong will fall.
The soft and weak will overcome.

Tao Te Ching, 76

I’ve never been one to enjoy dogma. I really like karma, though. People who are dogmatic and unyielding are not usually of interest to me, no matter what stage of life I was in.

I think I pretty much always questioned religious teachings. As a young child I sort of believed them, but I think once I got beyond a certain age religion and God became like Santa Claus to me - I might still pretend there is a Santa that exists independently of me and other people too, but I know where the presents come from.

My mom’s faith was always very strong, and in many ways, it turned me off. I would see her turn things over to religion that to me were things someone ought to be doing something about. As if God would come solve all her problems somehow, and she didn’t have to change how she acted. When my dad died, I saw some differences in how she handled things, but that period passed all too briefly, and by the end, she was once again just letting things slide on by her - including her health, her home, and my sister and nephew’s problems. My nephew and my sister became so dependent on her that it was difficult to get them to start handling their own lives when she died.

I know religion is a great help and comfort to many, even most, people. It is difficult to walk an independent path, and for that reason, Tao is not for everyone. But the path you can find with Tao, while it can be lonely, brings a real peace and trust in the real world that other spiritual paths may not. It’s fine to follow rules if they work for you and make sense to you, and don’t interfere with other people’s lives. But to demand that others must follow your path is not spiritual, and to demand that your own life be ruled by dogma that harms you or makes you uncomfortable is not spiritual either. I find many, many people who have religion, but no spirit. I much prefer those who live the other way around.

USATODAY.com - Illegal workers found at La. base

Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Jamie Zuieback said Sunday that the agency was asked to come to Belle Chasse Naval Air Station on Thursday by base officials. Zuieback said 10 workers were found who were not authorized to work in the United States. They were denied base access, and the agency is investigating “the circumstance surrounding their employment,” she said.

Navy spokesman Lt. (j.g.) Sean Robertson said that 13 individuals had been barred from the base. Neither he nor Zuieback could explain the discrepancy between the numbers.

The action came amid growing complaints from area electricians who say they lost their jobs at the base to lower-wage workers.

Robert “Tiger” Hammond, president of the Greater New Orleans AFL-CIO, said about 75 union electricians lost their jobs after the Bush administration temporarily suspended the Davis-Bacon Act, which guarantees the prevailing local wage for workers hired under federal contracts.

It was unclear who employed the undocumented workers. Zuieback would not give the name of the employer. Robertson said they worked for BE&K, an Alabama-based contractor, and Texas-based BMS Catastrophe.

BE&K spokeswoman Susan Wasley said no company employee had been cited, removed or barred from the base. “We haven’t done anything wrong,” she said.

BMS Catastrophe did not return calls for comment.

BE&K is a subcontractor for Halliburton, which is doing the bulk of the reconstruction work at the base. It was not clear whether BMS Catastrophe also is a Halliburton subcontractor.

OK, so bad enough they don’t hire locals, but then they bring in ILLEGAL workers - for a NAVY BASE?

Give me a break - I never know what’s worse, the corruption or the incompetence….

we make money not art: Vehicle piloted by a fish

Seith Weiner has created a vehicle piloted by a fish and propelled by 2 drive wheels, each driven by its own servomotor. The fish steers the vessel by its movements. A camera above the cockpit tracks the movements of the Terranaut (that’s the name of the fish-pilot). Its location is then wirelessly transmitted to a remote processing station where the data is converted into motion commands and transmitted back to the motion controller of the vehicle.

Its about time!

Escher, Reptiles

Don’t be afraid to explore;
Without exploration there are no discoveries.
Don’t be afraid of partial solutions;
Without the tentative there is no accomplishment.

Indecision and procrastination are corrosive habits. Those who wait for every little thing to be perfect before they embark on a project or who dislike the compromise of a partial solution are among the least happy. Ideal circumstances are seldom given to anyone for an undertaking. Instead there is uncertainty in every situation. The wise are those who can wrest great advantage from circumstances opaque to everyone else.

Wanting everything in life to be perfect before you take action is like wanting to reach a destination without travel. For those who follow Tao, travel is every bit as important as the destination. One step after another : That is still central to the wisdom of Tao.

Every day passes whether you participate or not. If you are not careful, years will go by and you will only have regrets. If you cannot solve a problem all at once, at least make a stab at it. Reduce your problems into smaller, more manageable packages, and you can make measurable progress toward achievement. If you wait for everything to be perfect according to your preconceived plans, then you may well wait forever. If you go out and work with the current of life, you may find that success comes from building upon small things.

Deng Ming Tao, 365 Tao

I used to be very perfectionistic and a procrastinator. These days, perfection is no longer a concern for me, and I tend to do things rather than put them off. The biggest reason for this change for me was actually because of having children, because I no longer had the time or energy to do things to perfection!

I grew up with two mixed messages on perfection. From my mom, I would hear the “four A’s and a B” tape, questioning why I had gotten a B even though all my other grades were As. From my dad, I would work on house projects with him and if I made a mistake, it was, “Well, only you and I will know about it.” It took a long time to get over the perfectionistic message and accept that making mistakes was all right, and part of learning.

There are no perfect solutions to the problems in our lives, no matter how much we long for them. Better to do what you can and work to make it even better than to believe you can’t do anything at all.

Renoir, Seated Bather

Cat sits in the sun.
Dog sits in the grass.
Turtle sits on the rock.
Frog sits on the lily pad.
Why aren’t people so smart?

Those who follow Tao are fond of pointing out the wisdom of animals. When they see a cat sitting motionless in the sun or a turtle who stretches her head upward in a still pose, they say that these animals are meditating. They know how to be still and conserve their internal energy. They do not dissipate themselves in useless activity but instead withdraw into themselves to recharge.

It is only people who label meditation as some sort of odd religious activity. This is not the actual case. Something like meditation happens when we sleep, or when we are absorbed in reading a book, or when we “daydream” and become so lost in a thought or an image that we do not notice what is going on around us.

There is no reason to think of meditation as something out of the ordinary. Quite the opposite. Meditation is the purest and most natural expression we can have. When you next look at a cat or a dog sitting still, and admire the naturalness of their actions, think then of your own life. Don’t meditate because it is a part of your schedule or is demanded by your particular philosophy. Meditate because this is natural.

Deng Ming Tao, 365 Tao

Nan-yueh Huai-jang (677-744)

There’s a great story in Wu’s Golden Age of Zen of how Huai-jang, who had been a disciple of Hui-neng, paid a visit to the young Ma-tsu:

“Before he [Ma-tsu] was twenty, he was already a professed monk. After his profession, he went to the Nan-yueh Mountain, where he practiced by himself sitting-in-meditation. At that time Huai-jang was the Abbot of the Prajna Temple on Nan-yueh Mountain. Seeing Ma-tsu, he recognized him by intuition as a vessel of the Dharma. So he visited him in his cell, asking, ‘In practicing sitting-in-meditation, what does Your Reverence aspire to attain?’ ‘To attain Buddhahood!’ was the answer. Huai-jang then took up a piece of brick and began to grind it against a rock in front of Ma-tsu’s cell. After some moments Ma-tsu became curious and asked, ‘What are you grinding it for?’ ‘I want to grind it into a mirror,’ Huai-jang replied. Greatly amused, Ma-tsu said, ‘How can you hope to grind a piece of brick into a mirror?’ Huai-jang fired back, ‘Since a piece of brick cannot be ground into a mirror, how then can you sit yourself into a Buddha?’

“I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion” — Henry David Thoreau

Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you” — Nathaniel Hawthorne

“If people sat outside and looked at the stars each night, I’ll bet they’d live a lot differently.” — Bill Watterson

“We spend most of our time and energy in a kind of horizontal thinking. We move along the surface of things… but there are times when we stop. We sit sill. We lose ourselves in a pile of leaves or its memory. We listen and breezes from a whole other world begin to whisper.” — James Carroll

“We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of the dream. Wandering by lone sea breakers, and sitting by desolate streams. World losers and world forsakers, for whom the pale moon gleams. Yet we are movers and the shakers of the world forever it seems.” — Arthur William Edgar O’Shaughnessy

“All men’s miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.”
– Blaise Pascal

“We dance around the ring and suppose, but the secret sits in the middle and knows”
– Robert Frost

“Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still.”
– T.S. Eliot

“Sit in reverie, and watch the changing color of the waves that break upon the idle seashore of the mind” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I sit a lot, of course — in front of my computer. I am rarely able to just sit and do nothing at all. I think it is part of being an American - we are always supposed to be busy people, always doing something. People will usually ask, after who you are, “And what do you do?” We are not allowed to simply be in our society. We must be productive, useful people or we are made to feel we are nothing at all.

I think this is a major sickness in our society. Even when people have nothing to do, they have to be entertained - watching television or listening to their ipods on the train or bus, instead of just being content to observe the world around them. I am always struck when I walk into someone’s house and the only thing of any interest in a room is the gigantic television screen - like something right out of 1984.

My animals are quite smart about sitting. The cats love to sit in the window and soak up sunshine, or in my lap to soak up my warmth. The dogs usually prefer lying down to sitting, but they do their own meditation while lying around my feet. My own meditations are typically sitting in the garden, staring at the flowers or hummingbirds or just enjoying the warmth of the sun, when it is out, which it certainly isn’t today.

Today I think I shall do my sitting at Panera, enjoying some soup for lunch. I’ll probably take a book along so I don’t look like I’m just staring at people, but the real fun is watching other people.

I have to admit, meditation is difficult for me. And I don’t think it should be. It should be easy and natural, but it isn’t. So, I enjoy the Tao in my own way. Because, really, sitting isn’t the point. The point is to feel your inner self connected with the Tao. If sitting and meditating is what helps you feel connected, then great. If it isn’t, then find what does help. And then try the meditation again, and see how different it feels.

Bill Dan Rock Balancing

Summer withered grass to flaxen yellow,
Scorched leaves to brittle paper,
Dried lakes to cracked clay.
Chill autumn brought little relief –
Only frosted the devastation.
But with the early gentle rains,
The earth’s fissures softened
And desiccated plants began to dissolve.
Slowly, balance comes once again.

Many cultures describe old people as having seen many winters. Those elders have seen many cycles come and go, and their wisdom comes from long observation of life’s rising and falling.

If we have a long-range view, then we realize that equilibrium comes in the course of nature’s progression. Nature does not achieve balance by keeping to one level. Rather, elements and seasons alternate with one another in succession. Balance, as defined by Tao, is not stasis but a dynamic process of many overlapping alternations; even if some phases seem wildly excessive, they are balanced by others.

Everything has its place. Everything has its season. As events turn, balance is to know what is here, what is coming, and how to be in perfect harmony with it. Then one attains a state of sublimity that cannot be challenged.

“The best and safest thing is to keep a balance in your life, acknowledge the great powers around us and in us. If you can do that, and live that way, you are really a wise man.” — Euripides

“There’s no secret to balance. You just have to feel the waves” — Frank Herbert

“The universe, they said, depended for its operation on the balance of four forces which they identified as charm, persuasion, uncertainty and bloody-mindedness.”
– Terry Pratchett

“True stability results when presumed order and presumed disorder are balanced. A truly stable system expects the unexpected, is prepared to be disrupted, waits to be transformed.” — Tom Robbins

We enjoyed a beautiful October rain here in San Diego. The hills around us are now starting to turn from a parched brown to their lovely sage green. My garden is sproting a number of rose blooms. and the grass is a lovely dark green. Summer’s over.

I look for balance in everything - my personal life, the garden, the world around me, the political scene. I see a lot of instability right now, so many things that are unsustainable in the way we deal with environmental issues and politics. Right now, the strongest hurricane ever measured in the Atlantic ocean is churning near Cuba. Right now, our political administration awaits possible indictments for outing a CIA agent. Right now, we teeter on an economic edge, waiting for any blow that could sink us into a recession or depression. Right now, the wealthiest among us are doing great, while the poorest struggle to survive in an ever more out of balance economic system. This is why I’m following politics and the economy — so I know what is ahead, even though people tell me it doesn’t matter who is in office, it doesn’t matter what is happening in the economy. These things do matter.

Change is in the air. The seasons are changing, the cold of winter is ahead. It will most likely be a very wet, rainy season here. Time to get ready. My street is being slurry-sealed today, so at least I know our roads here will be in good shape. Soon I’ll get my garden cleaned up, ready for winter. My new doors are in, the last of the big inside home projects complete. We still need to do the rain gutters and fix the block wall outside. I seem to be trying to add my winter layer of fat, so I’ve got to watch that! Our bodies know what’s ahead, even as we remain unaware that balance returns.

M.C. Escher, Butterfly

You hurt me years ago;
My wounds bled for years.
Now you are back,
But I am not the same.

In the past, warriors fought by striking the same points that acupuncturists use. One famous swordsman nearly died in a duel in which his opponent attacked him in such a way. After that, the swordsman became a wanderer and tried to renounce the martial life. Years later, his enemy found him and challenged him to duel again. They fought. In the first flurry of blows, the aggressor stepped back in surprise. The swordsman smiled and said, “I trained for twenty years to move my vulnerable spots.” With that, he was finally able to triumph.

Spirituality is a process of inner healing. The wounds of the past can be the greatest obstacles for self-cultivation unless we find them all and heal them. This task can take years, but we must accomplish it.

In many cases, our wounds were inflicted by other people — enemies. This is subtle. Our enemies can be others on the street, or people much more intimate with us : parents, teachers, siblings, lovers, friends.

If we move away from such people and succeed in our practice, they will have no chance to come back in our lives. How can they? We change whatever made us vulnerable in the first place.

Deng Ming Tao, 365 Tao

“When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness.”
– Joseph Campbell

“Sometimes a breakdown can be the beginning of a kind of breakthrough, a way of living in advance through a trauma that prepares you for a future of radical transformation.” — Cherrie Moraga

“Whoever undertakes to create soon finds himself engaged in creating himself. Self-transformation and the transformation of others have constituted the radical interest of our century, whether in painting, psychiatry, or political action.” — Harold Rosenberg

“Politics in the United States consists of the struggle between those whose change has been arrested by success or failure, on one side, and those who are still engaged in changing themselves, on the other. Agitators of arrested metamorphosis versus agitators of continued metamorphosis. The former have the advantage of numbers (since most people accept themselves as successes or failures quite early), the latter of vitality and visibility (since self-transformation, though it begins from within, with ideology, religion, drugs, tends to express itself publicly through costume and jargon).”
– Harold Rosenberg

After a bitter quarrel, some resentment must remain.
What can one do about it?
Therefore the sage keeps his half of the bargain but does not exact his due.
A man of Virtue performs his part;
But a man without Virtue requires others to fulfil their obligations.
The Tao of heaven is impartial.
It stays with good men all the time.

Tao Te Ching, 79

Ah, this one hits deep today… probably to the very heart of what first led me to the Tao.

I have been hurt three times by good friends stepping out of my life. Two were male friends I had fallen in love with, and was involved way too deeply with for friendship, so I suppose it is understandable that they walked away, although it hurt very much. One was a female friend who walked away after I called her on her gossipping behavior about me and one of the male friends. That was actually the deepest blow. I have few female friends in my life and to lose one was devastating. Plus, with the way I had acted and the way people responded to me, it was simply a very difficult period of life for me. I pretty much fell apart.

The good news when that happens is, you may get a chance to rebuild, and become someone who is put together slightly differently. I wouldn’t say I have really changed, I would say that what is vulnerable about me has changed. I certainly am not vulnerable in the same places. For one thing, medication controls what I discovered was actually a chemical imbalance problem that led to my obsessive behavior about love and friendship. For another, my own personality has integrated to a more complete whole that simply doesn’t need the level of friendship that is important to most people. I don’t need daily involvement with other people to feel I’m a good person, I simply know that I am, and my own company is almost always sufficient. Other people have become a bonus in my life, not a necessity.

I don’t expect those people will ever be in my life again- which was one of my deepest regrets for so long. But then, I realized what I loved about them will always be with me, since in reality, what I loved in them was what they brought out in me and led me to feel. And that, they could never take away. The best things that we love in others are really a part of ourselves, that we hold forever in our hearts and minds. And what we discover is that we have no need to fear others or interacting with them, since what we actually feared was our own fears, not anything they did to us or we did to them. They may still have their fears of people like me, but I’ve moved beyond fear. And that is a wonderful place to be.

Update: This post keeps growing, but I had to add this:

“When you remember me, it means that you have carried something of who I am with you, that I have left some mark of who I am on who you are. It means that you can summon me back to your mind even though countless years and miles may stand between us. It means that if we meet again, you will know me. It means that even after I die, you can still see my face and hear my voice and speak to me in your heart.

For as long as you remember me, I am never entirely lost. When I’m feeling most ghost-like, it is your remembering me that helps remind me that I actually exist. When I’m feeling sad, it’s my consolation. When I’m feeling happy, it’s part of why I feel that way.

If you forget me, one of the ways I remember who I am will be gone. If you forget, part of who I am will be gone. When you remember me, it means that you have carried something of who I am with you, that I have left some mark of who I am on who you are. It means that you can summon me back to your mind even though countless years and miles may stand between us. It means that if we meet again, you will know me. It means that even after I die, you can still see my face and hear my voice and speak to me in your heart.

“Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” the good thief said from his cross (Luke 23:42). There are perhaps no more human words in all of Scripture, no prayer we can pray so well. ”

Frederick Buechner

Another update: Adding a poem from Personal Tao:

Fire Juggling

Risking everything that I am
to become myself

Juggling balls of fire
where the fire is my own spirit

Transformation is never easy
Watching who you are crumble
While growing into the wonder of something new

– Casey Kochmer

Kate McCavitt, Merge

Take the sun. Put it in your heart.
Take the moon. Pull it to your belly.
Draw down the Big Dipper.
Merge with the Northern Star.

We have gone from distant views of gods to a more inner-oriented one. In the past, our relationship was viewed vertically : People were in a subordinate position and the gods were supreme. Without much effort, we can see that this point of view was a reflection of feudalistic definitions and childlike emotions.

By contrast, those who follow Tao declare that gods do not exist.

To think this blasphemous is to miss the point. Rather, those who follow Tao seek a relationship with the divine in which there is no division. They are seeking a state of oneness.

If people are one with their god, then it stands to reason that there is no division between them. If there is no division between them, then they are god and god is them. This doesn’t mean that a person can do all the things that gods are supposedly able to do. Instead, they attain a state of being and understanding where there are no distinctions, fears, or uncertainties about what is divine.

That is why we sometimes contemplate bringing the stars into our very being. We want to merge with Tao. In essence, we become Tao and Tao becomes us.

Deng Ming Tao, 365 Tao

Empty yourself of everything.
Let the mind rest at peace.
The ten thousand things rise and fall while the Self watches their return.
They grow and flourish and then return to the source.
Returning to the source is stillness, which is the way of nature.
The way of nature is unchanging.
Knowing constancy is insight.
Not knowing constancy leads to disaster.
Knowing constancy, the mind is open.
With an open mind, you will be openhearted.
Being openhearted, you will act royally.
Being royal, you will attain the divine.
Being divine, you will be at one with the Tao.
Being at one with the Tao is eternal.
And though the body dies, the Tao will never pass away.

Tao Te Ching, 16

Have you ever had one of those days when everything goes your way, your work feels effortless, you know what is coming next and things flow smoothly all day? That is the experience of being with the Tao. When you feel yourself as a part of everything around you and stop trying to fight with the world, you move to a state of being at peace with everything. The feeling of oneness can be overwhelming, as if you have stopped existing as a separate entity at all.

When we are separated from the Tao, we feel out of sorts, cranky, angry and exhausted. Everything requires effort, everything is a burden. When I feel this way, I like to get out in the garden and reconnect, or just go someplace quiet and regain my focus.

For today, though, there is painting to do…. and not the fun kind, but the work kind. Off to paint doors!

Single line drawn from one ocular corner to the other.
White clouds firmly tethered to shadows.
What is close at hand must first appear on the horizon.
What is cast upon us always has a source.

Life need not be the travesty of confusion and disorganization that it seems to be for so many people. When one feels this way, it is nearly always due to two things : Either one isn’t even looking, or one’s vantage point is too low.

Those who follow Tao position themselves on high vantage points. Life never surprises them. Whatever is in their lives today, they foresaw many days before. Whatever is on the horizon, they take the time to prepare for. Such people are called wise, not because they have special abilities but because they take the care to view things from a high place.

Those who follow Tao also realize that all phenomena have a source. Just as shadows on the ground are cast because clouds float between the earth and the sun, so too are the events outside of ourselves cast into our minds. A reaction in our minds is like a shadow cast by an external event.

We can understand such phenomena clearly if we stand at a place where we can see them coming. We need to remember to deal with them not simply by how we feel, but also by looking at their external form, and even checking to see their source. If we take care to do this, then we shall never be deterred.

Deng Ming Tao, 365 Tao

“No matter how far a person can go the horizon is still way beyond you.” — Zora Neale Hurston

“One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon-instead of enjoying the roses blooming outside our windows today.” — Dale Carnegie

“We should, all of us, be filled with gratitude and humility for our present progress and prosperity. We should be filled with awe and joy at what lies over the horizon. And we should be filled with absolute determination to make the most of it.” — Bill Clinton

“October is the fallen leaf, but it is also a wider horizon more clearly seen. It is the distant hills once more in sight, and the enduring constellations above them once again.” — Hal Borland

There are far too many of us who don’t even bother to look for what’s ahead of us. So many people seem to just live their lives as if it is a series of events that simply happen to them unexpectedly. But if you look for the patterns in their lives, you can see them repeated over and over.

Other people do plan ahead, but still fail to prepare for things that seem obvious in retrospect. I remeber walking through Washington D.C. a few weeks before the 9/11 attacks, and seeing the large concrete barriers around many of the buildings. My husband and I talked about them, and my comment was, “Well, if someone wanted to attack them, why wouldn’t they just simply fly a plane into the building? It’s not like anyone else couldn’t have noted the same thing, and in fact, many people in the government had planned and prepared to handle just such an attack, but they were ignored by those in charge.

It isn’t as if we can’t see things coming, if we are looking for them. Sailing ships always had their crow’s nest, where someone was posted to keep a watchful eye on the horizon. We don’t have crow’s nests, and may not live in a high vantage point, but mentally, we can try to have our inner eye looking for what is ahead of us, and preparing us to deal with it.

Some things in life are simply inevitable - our eventual death, for instance. After my mother’s death, and the resulting frustration for me of dealing with so many things like clearing out her house, finding all the assets, planning for the care of my sister and nephew, and a still unssettled estate, my husband and I had our own wills and trust set up, to make sure whoever has to handle things when we are gone has an easier time. We talked about getting rid of all the household goods and just moving into a furnished apartment when we get older. I don’t know that we will go that extreme, but it sure seemed like a good idea when clearing out so many decades of mom’s stuff.

Hopefullly dealing with those issues will be a long way out past the horizon for the moment. Other things can be planned for now, though. Cutting back on spending, keeping some extra cash on hand, planning for emergencies, knowing what to do if one happens, being trained in CPR and first aid are all examples of things people can do to plan ahead. It’s easy to just say, “Oh, no one could have expected this”. Easy, but foolish. And in many cases, unture. People do expect and prepare for many unfortunate events.

But what about fortunate events? How many people plan for love to come into their lives, especially inconvenient love? How many plan for their jobs and careers, instead of simply reacting to whatever comes along? I always knew I would be married with two children one day. I don’t know how I knew that, but I always did. I have usually been able to predict the course of any relationship I was in. I enjoyed them anyway, even the ones I knew would fail. The one lost friendship I didn’t predict was the one that devastated me completely. yet even then, I knew it was coming, but simply supressed my own realization of it. And in every case of lost friendships, and even of death, I knew well in advance that they would occur, even if I wouldn’t acknowledge it.

We supress so much of what we can really know, if we are really careful to listen to the clues life provides us. But so many times, we don’t really want to know.

We talk about those who have good luck in their lives, but what we don’t recognize is, maybe they just planned well.

And some things should be surprises. Even if you have to plan them.