If your personal life had an HR department…

If you had to actually do paperwork to go on a date, this might be what you’d have to fill out. This cuts through all the hogwash that is those dating websites and gets down to the points you really want to know.

Below is a thumbnail that is a link to a pdf. Make sure you look at the pdf, it keeps getting better.

Click on the image to view the pdf.

What Burning Man means to me.

Beat X-ing (the giant cone built on a golf car) and the Beat Police.

Beat X-ing and the Beat Police. The giant orange cone which is built upon a golf cart frame, is an art car that Loopy, Douglass, and I and several other camp mates created for Burning Man 2007.

Since the Man burnt at Burning Man last night, I thought I’d take a moment to reflect on it.

I chose not to go to Burning Man this year. I decided to go on this road trip and see some things on my list of things to see and to work on myself and work on some projects that I had wanted to start. For various reasons, it took this road trip to get clarity and motivation and space and time to work on those projects, this blog being one of them. Who knew blogging took so much time?

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Guardians of Being

I think I now understand one of the reasons I like dogs. They are ‘guardians of being’ as Eckhart Tolle says. They are only concerned about the present and are present in everything they do. Whether it is drinking water, or chasing a squirrel, or smelling the 6 inches in front of their nose while they are on a walk. They aren’t worried about tomorrow or the test they took yesterday or anything in the past or future.

They care about NOW! This is what I hear/see/interpret when I pay attention to them:

What are you doing now? Are you going to play with me? Are you going to take me for a walk? Are you going to take me outside? Are you going to sleep? Are you going to just SIT there? Are you going to feed me? How about a treat? I like treats. I’ll do stuff for you if you give me a treat. Come on just do something with me, like now already!

Eckhart Tolle responded to a question from Grace in Pleasanton, California, who asked: “Since I’ve been an owner of a dog I find myself so much more in the present. My question is, why am I naturally so much more present with animals than I’m sometimes dealing with people?” 

Well, the animal does not provoke thought activity because the dog is not thinking. When the dog looks at you, the dog is not thinking what kind of person you are, the dog is not judging you, there’s— the dog is at a stage of consciousness prior to the arrival of thought. So the dog is—and that state has certain similarities with the state of presence, in which is the state of going beyond thinking—where we are going.

From Chapter 4 of Eckhart Tolle and Oprah Winfrey’s Webcast

I was packing up the motorhome the other night after horseback riding, getting ready to pull out early in the morning so i can make it to the 8:30am river raft trip down the snake river here in the Tetons. The dogs watched me do the dishes, take out the trash, put all my dirty clothes in the hamper, take a shower, shave, eat, etc…. and then they wanted to play. They were tired of seeing me do stuff and didn’t care that we had just gone for a long walk. hey wanted to play tug of war, fetch, hide the bone, etc. NOW. stop all this commotion, stop worrying about getting up early again, and play with us!!!!!

Dogs force us to be present. Thanks Izze and Dusty!