Taste
Our sense of taste is the repository of pleasures we remember - what we found lovely or delicious in the past impacts us in our choices going forward. Hence the concept of comfort food and the frenzied search for immediate gratification. We are approaching this season of needing comfort and so indulge and enjoy a bit too much, applying a memory salve to the inevitable emotional stress.
Longevity
Remaining invested in whatever life we have created for ourselves is the secret to longevity.
When we are overwhelmed with regret and anger we don't last all that long.
Blame
What is this strange human tendency to blame someone "other" for what goes wrong with our lives? If you don't "go along" with what your family or peers believe, you become suspect. Pressure is on to comply to the wildest lies, sign on to the most bizarre theories, and then blame anybody who doesn't agree with you. Exploring cause seems never to go far enough in explaining or solving this dilemma. Going more deeply into a problem often leads to a confusing morass of possibilities and a frustrating search for truths obscured by lies and believed by those who feel oppressed. How people see us and how they treat us based on their own perceptions is the foundation of human relationship. The projection of authenticity vs. some gross misconception is the challenge and cause of much suffering in the search for individual actionable identity.
Computer Living
This digital world has driven out all sense of adventure. Attempts at improving quality of life are confronted with pointless diversions, barriers that bring befuddling chaos, stress and frustration. New devices to process work are required and the learning curve for incorporating them into life is so confusing, one can’t even understand the language asking for response. In the attempt to make life easier, our old fears rise up telling us everything we do is in vain, deeply flawed, unacceptable and rejected by the outside world. There is a creeping demand to give over to machines for everything - all forms of communication - and, ironically, we end up creating a world that feels largely disconnected.
Shungite
On the way home from the podiatrist I would often stop to see Ching at SunWind on Grand at Mulberry to become educated about minerals in her stunning shop featuring a staggering array of jewelry, stones and small sculptures. She is being forced out of that location, so on my last visit I was compelled to buy a black moon shaped pendant of Shungite. Made of 99% carbon reportedly 2 billion years old (before there was organic life on the planet) Shungite is thought to be from a meteorite found only in Shunga, a village in Karelia, Russia. It consists of nearly all the minerals on the periodic table, most notably fullerenes, 3-D spherical molecules made of 60 carbon atoms that are hollow and sometimes called buckyballs. It is believed Shungite has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, is helpful for relieving stress, and is believed to soak up negative energy and balance emotions. All jewelry should have such protective capacity.