groundhog day

It looks, it smells, it feels like springtime.  The air is warm and moist, not cold and dry, with a green and earthy scent instead of the odor of decaying vegetation usually present during the fall and winter months.  The daffodils have sent up green shoots, responding to the sunshine and the unseasonably warm temperatures.  The birds are twitterpated, but skeptical.  I bet even Punxsutawny Phil was confused and confuzzled in his prognostications.

The Great Groundhog has predicted 6 more weeks of winter.  What winter?

nothin’

rambling, chattering mind
moving off in all directions at once
words, words, and more words
float by
disconnected
vast, empty, barren
crowded, jammed, overflowing
i got nothin’

A small stone for day 24.

I can’t tell if there is too much going on in my head or nothing at all.  This was the best I could do today.  The photo is from last year’s winter trip to Erie, Pennsylvania.  Lake Erie was frozen.  The stretch of white and blue was vast and appeared empty from a distance, but once my eyes adjusted to the almost monochromatic scene, details started to appear and I could see that there was a lot going on.

The middle way

As human beings, not only do we seek resolution, but we also feel that we deserve resolution.  However, not only do we not deserve resolution, we suffer from resolution.  We don’t deserve resolution; we deserve something better than that. We deserve our birthright, which is the middle way, an open state of mind that can relax with paradox and ambiguity.

~ Pema Chödrön