What kind of relationship do you have with your mind? Do you let it get out of control with thought after thought all day long? Are you addicted to thinking?

I wonder if there is a 12 step program to get your thought addiction under control…

I hadn’t thought of that! Enjoy…and remember, it’s ok to snicker or guffaw every now and then!

Feelin’ kinda guilty about not saying howdy for awhile, so thought I’d better check in and let ya’all know I’m still in Sagely training up here in the northern Colorado mountains!

My friend Curly came out a few days ago to say hi, and he wanted to show you how handsome he is…:-)

More cool mountain musing and mirth videos to come soon!

Mtn Jim

Sometimes you just gotta have a little fun.   Or, maybe a lotta fun.   OK, maybe have fun about half the time to just balance things out.

Or maybe it’s just that this high Rocky Mountain thin air can get to me at times…whatever!   I promise to write something a little more serious next time–maybe.

Anyway, ergo henceforward and forthwith…

It’s Sunday morning at the Dragon’s Tail Cathedral in the northern Colorado Rocky mountains.   A time of gathering of the flock.   The purpose is to celebrate creation and to breathe deeply the wonders of the universe.

The faithful have gathered and are busy enjoying the fruits of the never ending feast of the dance of life and death.   Anticipating the veritable cornucopia of treasures and delights to come, with the understanding that endings will come to make way for new beginnings…

Happy birthday all that is!

I’m sorry.   Please forgive me.   Thank you.   I love you.

Reverent Mtn Jim

This is part 2 of three in my Ride Home series.   You can see part 1 in my post titled “Enjoy the Ride”.

It takes me about an hour and fifteen minutes to drive from work to home (42 miles) when the roads are “good”.   The last five miles, which you’re seeing in this video series, takes 15-20 minutes, depending on how many “distractions” occur.   You can see one of those distractions in my post titled “Living the Wild Life”.

Do you think it would be worth it to make that long drive to live in a place like this?   Heck, I think that last five miles alone is worth the “price of admission”.   I only have to make that drive three days a week.   But as much as I enjoy the ride, it would be real nice to only have to do it once every two weeks or so…

I’m workin’ on that!   Meanwhile, stay tuned for part 3, and enjoy riding along with me on this little jaunt…:-)

I’ve got this theory…the more fresh air oxygen you can get to your brain, the better your imagination can flourish.  What do you think?

I live at about 7,000 feet altitude in the mountains of northern Colorado.  Although the air is a little “thinner” here than somewhere like Los Angeles, it doesn’t get any fresher or pure than Rocky Mountain air.  I could probably become a Breatharian, it has so much energy! LOL

So I went on this little hike up the Dragon’s Tail on the winter solstice day ’09.  Imagination stimulation occurred.  And the results are forthwith…anxiously awaited by my new “Facebook Slut” friend Sarah Demelltime honorary Queen of the Funny Fairies for her post Clown Chakra
…enjoy!

One of the things that seem really conducive to this mountain living environment is philosophy.  I’ve always been interested in philosophy, but much more so since moving to the mountains.  Philosophy and a closeness with nature seem to go hand in hand.

In particular, I’ve been very attracted to the Taoist philosophy lately.  One of the books that has been my close companion for awhile now is Stephen Mitchell’s “The Second Book of the Tao”.  Chuang-tzu is my favorite Taoist philosopher.  Here’s how Stephen describes him (and how I would love to be described also!):

“Chuang-tzu has been called a mystical anarchist…and, given the least semblance of control, he offers a whole world of irreverence and subversion.  But if you look more closely, you’ll see that he is neither a mystic nor an anarchist.  He’s simply someone who doesn’t linger in any mental construct about reality, someone who lives as effortless action and peace of heart, because he has freed himself from his own beliefs.  What he subverts is conventional thinking, with its hierarchies of judgment, its fors and againsts, betters and worses, insides and outsides, and its delusion that life is random, unfair, and somehow not good enough.”

I recorded a little video excerpt from the book just for you today while out hiking and “philosophizing” at one of my favorite mountain power spots…enjoy!

Has the “newness” of the new year 2010 started to wear off already?  I saw a lot of enthusiasm the first few days…

Is the fantasy slowly turning into the reality already?

The concept of “new” fascinates me.  You know, the “new” year, the “new” decade, etc., etc.  What makes that word do so well in marketing?  What’s the psychology behind it?

I think we have an inbuilt need for newness.   Is it related to the fear of boredom?  Probably.  Truth is…maybe we need both!  Newness wears off and transitions around the yin/yang circle into it’s complementary opposite.

And then all of a sudden we’re starting a new year again!

Fact is, today is the first day of the next year of your existence.  Every day.   How can we appreciate and keep in our awareness that kind of newness every day?

May this kind of greeting be in your hearts every day of your life!..

One of the majorly cool things about living in the mountains is the opportunity to participate in some really lively debates with some of my “neighbors”.  And man, they can get pretty wild expressing their opinions!

Just yesterday morning on the commute home from work two of my wild and crazy neighbors were having this active discussion of the issues just before breakfast…

And if a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words is a video worth?

Hi.  I’ve just opened a new bank account for you.  But it’s not your typical account…there’s no dinero in it.

Instead,  you have an unknown amount of an interesting currency known as life units.  Think of it as kinda like a trust fund set up for you by a very wealthy relative.

There are a couple of things different about it though.  This wealthy relation of yours is a bit quirky.  He’s never gonna tell you how much is in the account.

You’ll get very reliable disbursements on a regular basis,  but you have to use them as they’re disbursed.  You can’t save them,  or borrow more.

You do,  however,  have total control over how you spend them.

When the units in this account are gone…POOF…so are you.