Consider T’ai Tsung, considered to be the founder along with his father, of the T’ang dynasty, one of China’s greatest ruling houses. Here was a man who instantly faced the dynamic possibilities, even with all of their difficulties, and moved to do what had to be done in the context of his place and his time, in a disintegrating and even dying empire, and, by so doing, gave birth to a great new dynasty—the Tang Dynasty. Under his reign, planning and action were one. His entire life is the story of a genius handling of the basics and the dynamics—building one and using the other to its greatest effect.
William M. Boast
(A Tribute to Paul Chivington)
These three aspen trees
to the right of me
are in tribute to a man
I once knew— a man of science
AND a man of great Spirit.
We called him, Paul.
He was a modern missionary of sorts
taking us on visits
to holograms and multiverses.
I, on my bench, sit in his shadow
wondering what remembrances
I will leave.
And I can’t help but wonder
if he feels my deep gratitude
for the rich ground
he has left behind.
May I do half as well.
Thank you, Paul, for being
such a magnificent Paul.
Benjamin H. Martin
If you are flawed, create the alternative—generate fire—go past your own puberty and use that fire to create life. Know that only in creating can you make it unconscious and spontaneous. To ever do life or beauty or joy or love mechanically will be disaster. Sulphur and Mercury in fire.
William Boast
As my father was dying, I managed to be alone with him, and took this time to give him my own blessing. The oil from the last rites he had received from the hospital priest was still moist as I traced the Christuman star on his forehead and spoke a prayer. As I was tracing that star, I could feel the same lines being burned into my own forehead, and I marveled.
Earl Behnke
St. Kateri Tekakwitha (1656-1680): daughter of a Mohawk chief, zealous convert to Christianity fled her own people to Quebec where she lived a life of prayer, penance and work. First American Indian to be beatified.
Woodie Guthrie born 1912 in Oklahoma, died 1967: depression era singer, songwriter and collector of songs
Songs: This Is Your Land, Roll on Columbia, Pastures of Plenty
The mullein is an object lesson of transformation as it first takes shape in low growing rosettes of feltlike leaves forming the most maternal of shapes. Bowled at the bottom, the wooly leaves fan out into a big melon-shaped configuration. The mullein will take root in the rockiest of soils and then spread out as if it was the crowning bow on a big package. Because of its bluish gray-green, beefy leaves, mullein are somewhat lost on the landscape overshadowed by seemingly more aggressive plants. Yet, something triggers the mullein and there is a turning point in its lifecycle when it draws up into itself all its beefy leaves and then weaves an impressive spike taken up by a yellow torch of five-petaled flowers extending at least the last foot of the stalk. What once was fanned out, somewhat hidden low to the ground becomes a streamlined stalk reaching as high as five to six feet with a seed-laden array of yellow blooms. It is estimated that a single plant can produce 100,000 to 180,000 seeds which may remain viable for more than 100 years. Suddenly, the plant you might have dubbed a mother plant in its early stages has become the most father of them all.
Often the mullein is the first plant to take root in areas devastated by forest fires or where the soil has been disturbed in some way removing trees and foliage that would shade an area. When the ground receives light, mullein seeds that have been dormant in the soil for years will begin to grow. Later when grasses begin to take over, mulleins die out leaving only their dead flower stalks. The mullein can be said to be an heroic plant of sorts, ready to transform itself into a budding stalk of potential; made tall in stature because of a striving for beauty and life that will outlive itself.
Benjamin H Martin
On This Day…
Buddhist Ulambana-Obon: In remembrance of the ancestors Shinto Obon
