BC Autumn Photos, fond and spiritual memories

The Autumn in British Columbia is so beautiful. I’ve taken pictures in my walks and travels and put some up with the journal entries. I just thought today I’d put up some of my favourites here. I often upload photos straight to Facebook. They are there but they’re not in this ‘blog’, my journal.  Sometimes I just open the blog to a year before  any date I’m at to see what I was doing this time last year.  A journal is marvellous thing. I am blessed with work, and family and friends and Gilbert, my cockapoo.

I would have a better attitude, know more joy, be more loving. But I learned that one could be a ‘monk’ and stay removed from this world or ‘participate’.  The idea of ‘detach with love’ expressed the notion of wearing life as a ‘loose robe’ rather than a tight fitting straight jacket.  

All the character defects and addictions are about being attached to this world. CS Lewis says ‘stop looking for the architect in the wall’.  I’m just amazed at the wonder and beauty of creation.  In the Celtic Christian tradition one knows God through the trinity of scripture and gospel, the message of nature and science, so called creation theology, and guided spirituality.  

St. John of the Cross was St. Theresa, the great Christian mystic’s ‘spiritual director’.  Dr. James Houston who taught Christian Spirituality at Regent College emphasized the need for a spiritual director. My deeply wise and loving friend, Kirk has Prem as his spiritual guide. Alcoholics Anonymous and the other 12 step spiritual programs  recommend each person have a sponsor. This is essentially a ‘buddy system’.  The Catholics call the other, the great ‘mystery’.  The Cloud of Unconsciousness refers to the inner world of grace and mystery.  We joke and say our minds are bad neighbourhoods and we shouldn’t go there alone. 

 Trungpa the  Buddhist spiritual leader describes the western mind as grasping and damaged by ‘consumerism’ hence approaching spirituality as ‘spiritual consumerism’.   Alone one can be a ‘fool on the hill’.   Thomas Merton, the  catholic monk who studied with the eastern monks noted they were never alone but always lived in loose community like the early mystical Desert Fathers of the Christianity.  The church is a ‘community’ of fellow travellers.  Pilgrim’s Progress is an early sometimes humorous tale of the  Christian path.  

The mystical experience has been called the Way, the Flow, the 4th dimension. Dr. Carl Jung called it the latter and Spiritual Followers of the 12 steps described the natural high that came from being released from the ‘bondage of self’ and ‘addiction’ to the  ‘false god’ of ‘attachment to the things of this world’ as ‘rocketed into the fourth dimension. A natural high is best seen in the joy of a baby.  

Buber described the journey from “I and It”,  to “I and you”  to “I and Thou”. To the spiritual all is God and I am but an observer.  The sacredness of creation is always there to be seen in its beauty and wonder if only one humbles oneself and lets oneself be lifted, as on ‘eagles wings’.  

I like photography. I like even more sketching and painting.  When I have more free time I love to sketch.  These ‘states’ of mind are different from the ‘monkey mind’ of day to day creation, doing , and struggling, being like the Martha of the of the Martha and Mary of the Bible.  It’s so easy to  forget  leave enough time for reflection and joy.  Prayer is talking to God. Meditation is listening to God.  

 Anxiety has been said to be ‘a measure of one’s distance from God , and equally a measure of one’s humanity’.  I pray, Thy will, not my will be done but very quickly I’m grabbing the steering wheel.  Paramahansa Yoganada taught that there were many ways to get on a plane but unfortunately most didn’t involve a pilot. I always think of that when addicts tell me ‘they got high’.  I much prefer the  military pastors  depiction of Jesus as the ‘sky pilot’.  

Beauty is uplifting. It gives me a positive feeling to see the wonders that God has made. The miracle of this existence is so intelligent and sacred. I like to capture pictures of nature and those around me that have as such ‘touched my soul’.

Sunny Saturday Morning, October, 2019

Laura is over. Gilbert is ecstatic.  He loves whenever the pack increases in size. He’s a bigger dog then. But Laura is his human mother and has been with him since I brought him home. He can’t get enough of her when she is with us. If we kiss or hug he’s squirming to be in the middle of the group hug. When I’m not vying for her attention he’s lying right up against her upside down demanding his tummy be rubbed.

Last night he took over half the bed on her side and I was left with a sliver of bed. I don’t know why but 5 am was suddenly ‘playtime’. He’d slept enough and was all for crawling across us licking our faces and rolling about on the bed kicking his legs to the ceiling. We were allowed to go back to sleep around 5 30.  

I woke at 930.  The two of them were snuggled together at my side. I crawled off my sliver of the bed and made it to the washroom.  Then meditation. Then stretching. Finally sit ups. The things Stan Jung rehabilitation chiropractor recommended,really have work to improve my mobility and prevent recurrence of strain.  Just like Laura’s bosses say,  rheumtologists, Dr. Klingoff’s and Dr. Gilles, the emphasis is maintaining ‘core strength”.  I always remember the two years I did Tai Chi formally and for two years after when I was more intimittent I didn’t experience back strain at all.. Now I’m doing yoga again. It’s the stretching Stan says is critical and he’s right.

I’m meditating with the breathing exercises I learned from Self Realization Fellowship, Paramahansa Yoganda taught ,coupled with the prayers I learned in Theology. I love the prayer Jesus taught “our father’, but also the Jesus prayer of the Desert Fathers.  My mind wanders to things I want to do, plans for the day, and like a toddler I bring the focus back to the centre.  The centre of the centre of the centre.  There’s a place I find. It’s calm and holy, a sacred pure place I return to like a favourite musical sound.  I focus like a arrow shooting at a target, understanding why the word ‘to sin’ means to ‘miss the mark’. It’s like threading a needle. Then I’m centered and enough. I’ve met with God. My back and legs and body ache a bit. I could sit in a regular chair as opposed to cross legged but the position is good for my knees.  All day I’ll pray, as well. 

Laura amused me yesterday recapping the story of Julia Roberts in the movie, Eat, Pray, Love.  We were skipping through Netflix and saw the title.  In the end we watched three episodes of Black Mirror, the great British series that’s a cross between Hitchcock and Twilight Zone with futuristic gadgets and notions.

It was a long week. I worked each day and at night visitted my friend John in hospital. He’s such a great guy.  Spiritual and wise. Struggling with impending grief. Adapting to changes beyond his control.

 I took my truck in and rode the motorcycle home when I left it. I called a taxi to return for pick up a few days later. It’s a new space heater. A recall matter. I put the heavy tailgate on but have to hook up the camera today.  I kept thinking of trading my Mini Cooper for the Mini Country man but so far have resisted. I’d have better vision and my knee wouldn’t hurt. Then the knee is healing and I wouldn’t need the new car. I’m commuting less too. The car is for the city and the truck is for the country. With it’s 8 foot box for the camper and hauling the RV it’s not suited for travel in Vancouver’s congested construction site.  I do like vehicles.  I am resisting the temptation. Every month I do, the cost is less. I’ve been responsible with banking but it’s strange trying to put away savings not knowing how long one will live, whether thegovernment will destroy the economy more, what one will need, how much to sacrifice for tomorrow from today when the government punishes those who are responsible in the old traditional way and rewards the irresponsible.  They’re calling the pension a government ‘benefit’ and giving the same to those who shirked. Sloth and corruption are the way of Canada today.  I digress.

“It’s a lovely sunny day,” Laura said cheerily coming in from walking Gilbert. “I met the fellow who rides the Harley with the little dog at the end of the street. He said he’s just riding his bike to the store. Doesn’t like riding when it’s cold. It’s cold but sunny. I think his little dog is a girl.” 

We talked a bit about neighbours.  Mack showed me an picture of an Akita dog he’s meeting to consider bringing home. The parents are moving to Europe and can’t take their dog with them to the new jobs.  Gilbert met a beautiful bull dog yesterday. Emory, Dave’s dog, is his favourite friend but there’s some competition from Bella the new puppy our other friends have brought home to join Stella. .  Dog world. 

Last night I roasted more Ethiopian green beans. The coffee this morning is exquisite. 

The plan is to get the guns back to storage. I’m done hunting for the year and will be glad to have my rifle and shot gun in locked gun storage. I have to take in the Harley to store it at Trev for the winter too.   On the way back I want to exchange dollars for rupees. We’re going to India in 2 weeks and I’m already excited.  I’ve files to be digitalized and that is a pressing task.  Downsizing and minimizing and organizing the clutter.  I love every step I make in that direction, lightening up.  

A new day begins. Thank you God for all your blessings.

Confused and Disappointed by Canadian election 2019

“Steal a little and they put you in jail, steal a lot and they make you king.”

I am deeply disappointed by the election.  PM Trudeau represents everything I utterly abhor.

These are a short list of the more reprehensible behaviours he has done:

1. Paid a terrorist 10 million dollars after that terrorist murdered an American soldier hero who had children and saved the lives of children.

2. Paid other terrorists millions of dollars

3. Destroyed freedom of speech in Canada by introducing laws like M103 which make it’ hate speech’ to criticize Muslim groups like ISIS

4 Said his father was right to use his political influence to get his brother off a dope possession charge, Pierre Trudeau talked to the Attorney General to keep his son out of jail. My friend caught with a joint went to jail was gang raped, tried to escape, was raped by a guard, tried to escape, spent 7 years in jail, came out a gang member and last I heard had murdered people, all because the children of the PM don’t share the same experience as the rest of us so there are two realities.  The world of the elite and the rest of us.  It’s one thing to not talk about it but it’s another thing to essential ‘brag’ about it as Justin Trudeau did.

4. He molested a 17 year old girl at school and we hear about it through the American newspapers because he bought the Canadian Press so we no longer have Freedom of Press.  He raged in Parliament hitting a woman and claimed to be a ‘feminist’. He then fired his leading woman when she disagreed with his criminal behaviour.  

5. He beat up an aboriginal in a mock fight then beat up the leading political female in public all the while he claimed to support women and aboriginal rights, both of who are worse off today than they were before his reign.

6. He celebrated the rule of dictators singing the praises of the murdering Communist Chinese and the murdering Communist Cubans.

7. He’s the greatest hypocrite I have ever known.

8. He’s proclaimed his marital infidelities to the world. There are countless pictures of him looking at the breasts of women he is talking to, the most egregious one, being of him ogling Ivanka’s breasts, sitting beside her father.  

9.  He is a shill for One World Government under the combined UN Sharia Law organization, communists and dictators.  

10. He promotes the fallacy that the world is dying and climate change will be catastrophic in 10 years when there is no reason to believe that the changes will be catastrophic in a thousand years. 

11. He’s actually very stupid.  He wears a prompter in parliament and on other major occasions leaving us to all wonder who is he the mouth piece for. Is George Soros or Xi Ling actually telling him what words to parrot. Whenever he is speaking off the cuff he sounds miserably impaired and it doesn’t matter if you put a chalk board with a bunch of equations behind him he has repeatedly demonstrated that on occasion he can’t hold spit in his mouth.  So the idea of affirmative action seems appalling in the PM office.

12. He is so utterly anti Christian and so openly pro muslim.

13. His favouritism is always a divide and conquer tactic

14. His preference for Quebec and his constant support of the corrupt mafia and biker gangs and dirty corporations in Quebec is deeply disturbing since he is so abusive and disgusting towards Western Canada. If I lived in Quebec and had all the priviledges that the elite province Quebec has given it’s colonial rule of Western Canada and the rape of the resources I’d accept that I was a pig but the gaslighting of the ‘poor Quebec’, we are the victims, is just too painful. Western Canada is a slave to Eastern Canada.  The problem is the attitude of hypocricy and the promise of electoral reform but the refusal of these bullies to do anything but economically rape and pillage all the while acting like they are some kind of ‘good’ people.

15. He’s stoned. He and his family were doing dope illegally and I like many others stopped because we thought it was wrong, ethically and morally to break the law and support criminal institutions. By contrasted he has never apologized or made amends or in anyway accepted the vast damage he has done to so many. As an example he is a principle cause in the epidemic of death by fentanyl.  ‘The PM does drugs. He broke the law. Soon Fentanyl will be legal and everything will be okay. Fentanyl today is just like Marijuana in his day.  Maybe I’ll be PM one day. Doctors like you who don’t do drugs are losers. You should be like Justin Trudeau. He’s a rock star and you should like my mother.”   I hear this every day I go to work and ask a child to stop doing drugs to save his life. And he makes my life of doing medicine look ludicrous.

60% of Canadians believe in this liar, cheat, promise breaker, druggie, womanizer, hypocrite, elite unethical playboy.  

I feel like I’m in a scene of Black Mirror some variation of One Flew Over the Cuckoos nest or Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I feel I’m the last Boy Scout and pray like millions prayed when the Communists and Fascists took over their countries because of mass marketting, denial of freedom of speech and denial of freedom of press. All dictatorships and communist take overs have begun with mass disarmament of the citizens and punishment of law abiding citizens.  So I’m not a little afraid looking at the future of more taxation, black marketeer ing, lies, destruction of the middle classes, and all of what I’ve seen transpiring.  The Canada, land of the free, is gone.  

I am disappointed.  The good news is that the majority of people who live in Western Canada are like me deeply disappointed by the craven perversion of Ottawa today with its swaggering priviledge, deceit, abuse and economic rape of the country forcing indentednesss on the children and grandchildren of the nation for decades to come.  

I don’t know where to live.  Those who fleed their countries claiming they wanted Canada have taken CAnada back to the dark ages. To them this country is ‘free’ compared to those countries they fleed. They said they didn’t like the corruption of their countries especially in the Middle East and Central America but here for their own sake they have supported the greatest corruption Canada has ever known.

I’m disappointed. I’d love to go to some place where Canada is, not was. 

Gratitude October 2019

Thank you Lord for this day. Thank you for the warmth of the blankets, the bed, the dreams, the wakening. Thank you for the indoor plumbing and running water. Thank you for the Ethiopian coffee, the Canadian cream and Okanagan honey. Thank you for the local yoghurt and the Nature Valley Almond bars. Thank you for Gilbert. He snuggled up to me as I sat on the Turkish camel hair rug in preparation for prayer and meditation. Thank you for the African incense.

Thank you pre dawn darkness and the gently lightening sky. Thank you for the breath. Thank you the Lord’s Prayer. Thank you for Jesus. Thank you for the Gospel. Thank you for Salvation. Thank you for the promise and the history. Thank you for religion which holds the spirituality and saves it for the world when the world no longer cares for the spiritual. Thank you for the church which is the library for the soul. Thank you for the celebration. Thank you for the feast. Thank you for sacrifice and discipline and character. Thank you for Love. Without love where would we be now.

Thank you for Israel the birthplace of our lord. Thank you for the Christian diaspora and the spread of the world religion to all the world.  Thank you for the invitation to worship. Thank you for the dance. Thank you for St. Theresa, Brother Lawrence, Merton, C.S.Lewis, St. John of the Cross, Rev. Carl Ridd, Father John, Father Mark, Father Peter and Emile.  Thank you for all the guides and teachers. Thank you for James Houston. Thank you for my friend Dr. John. Thank you for the present and deceased.

Thank you for the meditation, St. Augustine, Yoganadana,  Herbert Benson, all the teachers of mindfulness and breathing. Thank you for the attention of the waiting, the patience and stillness. BE STill and Know that I am God.  Thank you for Autobiography of a Yogi. Thank you for Tao. Thank you for the 8 fold path. Thank you for India and thank you for China before the barbarian communists destroyed intelligence and genius in that once great and deep land. Thank you for Tibet. Thank you for Scotland. Thank you for Ireland. Thank you for Brazil and Chile. Thank you for Saipan. Thank you for the oceans and sailing. Thank you for the open road.

Thank you for Gilbert who brings me a yellow squeaky ball knowing I’ll want to play once I’ve done the morning exercises and stretches. Thank you Lord that I can still kneel and stand. Thank you for the movement in my body and that minimum of pain. I pray for my knee and the traumatic arthritis which my grandmother would have shook off as just rheumatism.  Thank you for my grandparents, their stoic examples and their laughter. Thank you for history.

Thank you for Apple. Thank you for Ipad. Thank you for Kodak. Thank you for Paul Simon and Leonard Cohen. Thank you for photographs and the new IPhone camera.  Thank you for my Mini car. Thank you for reliability.  Thank you for the sunshine now. Thank you for the rain and change. Thank you for the blessings. Thank you for the groups and work. Thank you for the co workers and colleagues and the lovely caring community I work in. Thank you for the training and my teachers. Thank you for all the times I’ve been of service.

Thank you Lord for all of this and so much more.  May I know you better today. May I see you, feel you, smell you, hear you. May I intuit your presence in all my moments today.  May I know you more fully, more deeply. Thy will be done, not my will.  Guide me. Show me. Lead me. Quo Vadis.  

BC Hunting, Thanksgiving Hunt, 2019

I had planned to go out Princeton Osoyoos way.  The weather reports of snow in the interior had me thinking I wanted to stay south. I still am getting used to the truck and camper, not wanting to go somewhere I don’t know.  It was a steep learning curve getting used to the height and width and turning with the extra length.

I’ve hunted the Thanksgiving Long Weekend for decades. Bill Mewhort and I used to hunt North Vancouver Island together.  Each year we’d plan a big Mule Deer Hunt or moose hunt on the mainland.  He knows folk in the Clinton area so hunts private land in the wilderness.  We had some good times then and shot some fine game.  I shot my first moose with Bill too.

The last year I’ve been bringing Laura up here. First it was tents and wild horses rode by her.  Then it was the smaller RV’s. I had a variety of electric bikes, scooters and quads. I’d leave her while Gilbert and I went off each day, often getting deer but mostly getting grouse.  Last year we had the old camper and it as near about here I drove off with the jacks down almost tearing that camper in two. Insurance claimed at the end of the year that the damage was old damage. I couldn’t see how that could be considering the trouble I caused. I backed into an overhanging tree as well.

This camper is a bit smaller, newer and better built. It was used as rental for a year before I got it.  I love it.

Yesterday I thought I had all the time in the world.  I drove up listening to a William Johnston’s Pearly Gates western on the truck stereo. Time flies with that kind of exciting entertainment and Sage and fall colours in the back ground. Cowboy country.  

I didn’t get here until after dark, Dark did come quickly but there was a full moon. 

The difficulty setting up was rain, fresh cow paddies and puddles.  I got situated okay but one jack has gone down 2 inches in the soggy ground. Gilbert tried to roll in cow paddy but I caught him just in time.  He loves it here. I was reading another western too.

I had a herb liver pate on fresh Cobs bread with ginger ale and a chocolate bar before bed. Gilbert was pooped with steeping and the drive and all the little stops.  He didn’t even bother me to bring him up on the bed but went to sleep in his little bed.

I was up at 6 am.  Dreamed I was with Sean Connery and Liam Nielsen and we were shape shifting as wolves and bear as disguises.  Good omen.  

I had coffee and blueberry scones from Cobs. I was slow gearing up. I could have got going before light but felt leisurely.  I was hiking out of the camp before 8 am.  I definitely went old school.  Stalking through the bush on deer trails and cow trails in the rain, I even sat on a green garbage bag and drank coffee in ambush.  12 km of stalking and walking. I got turned around and actually had to use Google Earth to find my way back.  Coming back to the road I turned the wrong way and added 6 km to my hike. I saw cows.  I saw squirrels.  That was all. Then it was all I could do to drag myself home.

Two trucks kindly stopped to see if I was okay or wanted a lift. A  handsome young man in cammo and a beautiful woman looking Town and Country with a great black lab. The next was three guys hunting. All good neighbours.

Gilbert was glad to see me. I‘d let him out this morning. Now he had to go around and sniff all the same places.  HE just had to roll on his back in the grsss.I think it’s the dried cow paddy he’s after.  A scent he can’t resist.  His other favourite is old dried fish.

I got my clothes off. Everything was wet and heavy.  I loved the wood pants. It was the perfect combination of gear for the day.  I wasn’t  chilly and I was n’t over heated.  Just right. 

Now I’m in sweats and tshirt and slippers.  I’ve had a bologna sandwich and yoghurt and coffee. I’ve fed Gilbert another Litle Caesar and some small milk bone treats. We’ve played ball.

I’m considering a nap.  Reading and looking out the window is great.  I love the camper.  I’m meaning on taking the motor  bike off the truck and making the rounds but after 12 km this desk jockey body is voting for nap. 

Lots of other hunters. So busy. The area has really built up since I first canme here. Lots of new houses and ranches.  I think I like it too because it reminds me a bit of Northern Manitoba here.  My grandfather and father would like it here. 

Hanoi Pho, HomeStyle Vietnamese Restaurant, DTES

I had a great lunch at Hanoi Pho, 406 E Hastings St. 2 blocks from Main Street.  The interior was clean and pleasant, uplifting. The service was superb. The food was the best. We had springs rolls to begin.  My friend had Wonton which he loved. I had the Beef Stew and rice. It was perfect.  I loved the meal and restaurant.

Part of it was it’s location.  It’s like the Heatley a couple of blocks further up. Bits of light on the fringe of the darkness of the DTES.  Forest trying to grow in the desert of humanity. Businesses showing that there’s still people who care.  

Just blocks away slum landlords, street people, drug dealers, filth, tragedy and sadness. Yet here I felt like I’d found an oasis. 

Good food, good vibes.  A truly lovely restaurant. A really great lunch. 

It’s so easy to look at the ugly and miss  the goodness, humanity and real quality. 

Autumn Brunette River Walks with Gilbert 2019

Gilbert and I make regular walks along the Brunette River. Sometimes we even have the pleasure of Laura’s company. I take a camera or my cell phone because there’s always lovely pictures of the trail, the river, flowers and birds that live in this area. There’s joggers, cyclists and others walking dogs. It’s rather a busy place, not crowded by any means, but with regular traffic.  I like that. It feels safe.  I just wanted to add here some of the pictures I most enjoyed this  autumn.