Island Of Misfits

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Us being Good may not meet their criteria for a good citizen as per their definition.
"Citizen" is a relative term. And subjective.

I believe there are basically two kinds of people - Good ones and Evil ones.

Good people make mistakes and own up to them, then try not to duplicate it.

Evil people are just...EVIL. They strive to duplicate it at every opportunity.

I'd rather like to think I'm not counted among the scumbags. Best I can do.
 

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Snoop Dog Just said he stopped smoking cannabis
More for the rest of us.

Good morning Island brethren! Back to sun worship day already? Where does time fly to?
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Mostly cloudy with rain here today, starting at 40F and predicted to reach 51F.

Portland leaf day, a perfect example of planning and efficiency! They distributed a leaf pickup by area schedule, stating next Saturday was our pickup day. They then published online that it was yesterday, so we all got our piles ready and moved our cars, only to have them pickup leaves on the other side of our street, but not our side. City planning at its finest, but alas, confusing...............
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Somebody came to one of my high school classes once. Had us all lay down on the floor and close our eyes, then started describing the stress leaving our bodies, from the toes up. It actually worked - I could feel my body relaxing.

I still practice it on occasion, though my head's so full of my life's misdeeds it sometimes takes a shot or two of bourbon to really work! lol
Meditation is different. In Transendental meditation I focused on a mantra, and with Zazen I focus on my breathing. All I do is pay 100% attention to my breathing and anytime that I become aware that I'm thinking instead, I simply acknowledge that I am thinking and go back to watching my breathing.

That exercises our ability live in the present instead of becoming a thought and living in our heads in the future or past.

IE: A man religiously meditated twice a day without fail and one morning as he sat meditating, he thought of his lazy wife still lying in bed and how more pious and evolved he was than her. At that moment his wife was doing the better meditation, because she was just sleeping.
 
Meditation is different. In Transendental meditation I focused on a mantra, and with Zazen I focus on my breathing. All I do is pay 100% attention to my breathing and anytime that I become aware that I'm thinking instead, I simply acknowledge that I am thinking and go back to watching my breathing.

That exercises our ability live in the present instead of becoming a thought and living in our heads in the future or past.

IE: A man religiously meditated twice a day without fail and one morning as he sat meditating, he thought of his lazy wife still lying in bed and how more pious and evolved he was than her. At that moment his wife was doing the better meditation, because she was just sleeping.
I don't know about true meditation. I just know that when I allow myself to de-stress as I described, it's pretty relaxing.

Then something always seems to snap me out of it violently. Like the time I was visiting an aunt and uncle who lived on a lake in Florida. It was pre-daylight, and I had a hot cup of coffee and a doobie as I sat there in a lawn chair awaiting the sunrise. An alligator popped its head up about 15-20 yards off the shoreline and its eyes were glowing orange in the pre-dawn light as it watched me.

I watched those glowing eyes out in the black water as other folks living around the lake were slowly waking up and starting to move around, and a stoned vision came to my mind of an ancient Seminole Indian village waking up - I could hear people murmuring, somebody coughing and the sounds of breakfast being started at several different points of direction from where I sat, and it was a wonderfully peaceful, almost primal moment for me.

It was when I was in my deepest, warmest reverie of the moment that an unseen pair of (presumably) Navy Fighter Jets from the East Coast SCREAMED ACROSS THE LAKE AT TREE-TOP LEVEL, AFTERBURNERS BLASTING THE AIR AND YANKING ME IMMEDIATELY FROM MY AIMLESS MENTAL MEANDERINGS!

Shoot...even the 'gator went back under water at the racket! lol
 
I don't know about true meditation. I just know that when I allow myself to de-stress as I described, it's pretty relaxing.

Then something always seems to snap me out of it violently. Like the time I was visiting an aunt and uncle who lived on a lake in Florida. It was pre-daylight, and I had a hot cup of coffee and a doobie as I sat there in a lawn chair awaiting the sunrise. An alligator popped its head up about 15-20 yards off the shoreline and its eyes were glowing orange in the pre-dawn light as it watched me.

I watched those glowing eyes out in the black water as other folks living around the lake were slowly waking up and starting to move around, and a stoned vision came to my mind of an ancient Seminole Indian village waking up - I could hear people murmuring, somebody coughing and the sounds of breakfast being started at several different points of direction from where I sat, and it was a wonderfully peaceful, almost primal moment for me.

It was when I was in my deepest, warmest reverie of the moment that an unseen pair of (presumably) Navy Fighter Jets from the East Coast SCREAMED ACROSS THE LAKE AT TREE-TOP LEVEL, AFTERBURNERS BLASTING THE AIR AND YANKING ME IMMEDIATELY FROM MY AIMLESS MENTAL MEANDERINGS!

Shoot...even the 'gator went back under water at the racket! lol
FFS!
 
I don't know about true meditation. I just know that when I allow myself to de-stress as I described, it's pretty relaxing.

Then something always seems to snap me out of it violently. Like the time I was visiting an aunt and uncle who lived on a lake in Florida. It was pre-daylight, and I had a hot cup of coffee and a doobie as I sat there in a lawn chair awaiting the sunrise. An alligator popped its head up about 15-20 yards off the shoreline and its eyes were glowing orange in the pre-dawn light as it watched me.

I watched those glowing eyes out in the black water as other folks living around the lake were slowly waking up and starting to move around, and a stoned vision came to my mind of an ancient Seminole Indian village waking up - I could hear people murmuring, somebody coughing and the sounds of breakfast being started at several different points of direction from where I sat, and it was a wonderfully peaceful, almost primal moment for me.

It was when I was in my deepest, warmest reverie of the moment that an unseen pair of (presumably) Navy Fighter Jets from the East Coast SCREAMED ACROSS THE LAKE AT TREE-TOP LEVEL, AFTERBURNERS BLASTING THE AIR AND YANKING ME IMMEDIATELY FROM MY AIMLESS MENTAL MEANDERINGS!

Shoot...even the 'gator went back under water at the racket! lol
It would take a seriously proficient meditator to maintain meditation with a pair of fighter jets blasting over at tree top level, but optimally you would notice them, without being distracted. To my everlasting shame, I'm personally not good enough to do so.............

One of my favorite moments is when I quit meditating and open my eyes. It makes my perception of colors more vivid, so everything seems brighter and more colorful for a bit.
 

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