From: April 17, 2007
Small Blessings
~Lobo~
“Me And You And A Dog Named Boo”
Me and you and a dog named Boo,
Travellin’ and a-livin’ off the land.
Me and you and a dog named Boo,
How I love bein’ a free man.
I’ll never forget that day we motored stately into big L.A.
The lights of the city put settlin’ down in my brain.
Though it’s only been a month or so, that old car’s buggin’ us to go.
You gotta get away and get back on the road again.
The lights of the city put settlin’ down in my brain.
Though it’s only been a month or so, that old car’s buggin’ us to go.
You gotta get away and get back on the road again.
I took a trip to Los Angeles yesterday, dropping off cactus salsa to show people how great it tastes. When I go to talk up cactus to the different restaurants and food stores, I find people have some interest in what life is like here on the Central Coast. While I find the movement and vitality of the city to be interesting and different from my usual everyday life down on the farm, I suppose the city dwellers like to visit a nice quiet place for their change.
Someone said yesterday that Hollywood is exciting, but a nice quiet place to live must be nice. I told him that to me the entire Los Angeles area is like dessert for me. Home is the meat and potatoes, and my weekly trips to LA are the times to have the frosting I so enjoy.
That fellow then asked me if I thought I was lucky…”yes” I replied, “I am exceedingly lucky in life.”
“What was your first lucky moment?”
“The moment I was born an American, that automatically put me into the top ten percent of the world’s economy.”
Driving home I thought of the question some more, and had time to reflect on my particular good fortune in life. Passing the small town of Summerland just south of Santa Barbara I decided that the afternoon is still nice and warm, I’d pull over and jog on the beach. So pulling into the parking lot of a beach I know, I strolled along the strand walking with the sun to my back, warm on me. I thought of how I am doing just what I want in life, I drive around and talk to people. People are a great joy to me, the vibrant spectacle of humanity is all pushed into Los Angeles. I can walk around LA and hear a dozen languages and talk to people from all over the world. I can then drive back home to the sanctuary and refuge of Rivenrock, to blissfully walk among the cactus on the terraced hill. I have my games I play with the gophers, where they try to outwit my traps. I have the cactus to tend, and customers to attend to. And Vickie and I have our fun lives together. And all this with the opportunity to just pull over and walk along the beach on a bright sunny warm springtime late afternoon. I can do what I want when I want. My life is my own.
So walking along the beach with these happy thoughts in my head, I saw two film crews filming on the beach. One looked to be a student film, and the other was an advert for Jade Creek Arabian Horse Ranch. They had two beautiful horses that are both National Champions being filmed and photographed as they ran long the beach. I’m not a livestock person, nor a cowboy, but I could tell that these were special horses. They were beautiful, their long manes and tails trimmed and shiny, short hair of beautiful sheen, and the conformation of the bodies showed excellent breeding. It was then that I had my first regret of the day, I had left my camera in the truck as I did not want to ruin it in the water.
The fellow who had asked me about my luck had also asked me if I had any regrets in life… I met a wise woman once who told me that one cannot live with past regrets, all things that did not turn out well must be learned from, and then the trauma of it discarded to make way for good memories. I have the beauty of those horses locked in my mind now, but I’d have enjoyed being able to show them here. I will soon lose the regrets of no camera, but each day I can rise and give thanks for another day with all its attendant issues and blessings. All of it comes to all of us, it is up to us how we regard it, and what effect it has on us. We can take the small blessings and enjoy and savor each one, or we can pass the good things by and live with our regrets. Yesterday’s thoughts move to that warm sun, the beautiful horses, the beauty of the glassy waves and the cute little plovers and terns running around the beach, and of course to the beauty in all the people I saw in the city and the beach yesterday. Any of those small blessings outweigh the regrets caused by a camera left behind.
Yes, I am lucky, I have been blessed.
Lau Tzu
Tao teh Ching
Chapter 29
Do you wish to change the world?
If you wish to change the world
to fit your desires,
you will not succeed.
The world is shaped by the Way;
and the self cannot shape it.
If you tamper with it, you’ll ruin it.
If you treat it like an object, you’ll lose it.
The world is as it is, so;
Some will be leaders, while others will be followers.
Some will be warm, while others will be cold.
Some will be strong, while others will be weak.
Some will get to where they are going,
while others will fall by the side of the road.
The Master sees things as they are,
without trying to control them,
He lets them go their own way.
He avoides extremes,
and resides at the center of the Way.