today is friday

From Way of the Peaceful Warrior, by Dan Millman:

An old man and his son worked a small farm, with only one horse to pull the plow. One day, the horse ran away.
"How terrible," sympathized the neighbors. "What bad luck."
"Who knows whether it is bad luck or good luck," the farmer replied.
A week later, the horse returned from the mountains, leading five wild mares into the barn.
"What wonderful luck!" said the neighbors.
"Good luck? Bad luck? Who knows?" answered the old man.
The next day, the son, trying to tame one of the horses, fell and broke his lg.
"How terrible. What bad luck!"
"Bad luck? Good luck?"
The army came to all the farms to take the young men for war, but the farmer's son was of no use to them, so he was spared.
"Good? Bad?"

* * *

heh. it makes me chuckle.

오늘은 오랜만에 조금만 걷고 뛰었다.
벨락까지 가는 길이 1.1 마일이라던데...
역시 다리보다는 심장과 폐가 먼저 힘들어하더라.
그래도.. 오랜만에 몸도 움직여주고. 좋았다.
간도.. 그리고 장도 느껴지고.
바람도 살며시 불고..
아름다왔다.

요즘에 세도나에 길 공사하느라고 트래일 입구들이 다 막힌거 같아.
거이 Village of Oak Creek까지 가서야 벨락 트래일 중에 하나가 시작하는 곳이 있더라.

이제는 무릅도 조금만 더 있으면 다 나아질 것 같고..

mortality.

i've mentioned before.. somewhere, once upon a time.
i thought about what makes us laugh, and the conclusion i came to was.. 1) what's familiar, 2) what's absurd... and charles said, way back when, that it was the unexpected-- if charlie chaplin falls into the manhole, it's not that funny. but when he steps over the manhole and slips on a banana peel--that's funny.
but i think we laugh at things we recognize, when we think, yeah, i know!!
and at things that are just ridiculous.

anyway. oftentimes ilchi lee says things that are just so familiar, and so true, and that totally make you laugh!

i was thinking about mortality... ilchi lee has been speaking a lot about successful aging lately, and you can't talk about successful aging without addressing the issue of death.

it's like he says..

everybody knows--if you were born, you're gonna die.

but it's so true...

if you say to somebody (heaven forbid, an older person!!), you're going to die, chances are they're going to laugh. i mean, of course it depends on the context and delivery, but the point is that it's not a big deal.
but if you said to someone... you're going to die tomorrow. ..or next week.
then it's not so funny.

i guess what i'm trying to articulate is that, most of the time, people just go through their lives without being fully aware of their mortality. but you have to think about how you're going to die.

how do i want to die???

am i going to wish i had more time, and be full of regret?

or am i going to die comfortable and satisfied?

am i going to feel like.. i wasted a lot of time..

or...

will i feel like i did a lot, but none of it meant anything?

am i going to feel hollow? or will i feel content? ..and ready to move on?

it just puts everything into perspective.

it's like.. well. i should probably follow some of my own good advice... so i should practice-- when i'm faced with a problem or dilemma or what have you, i gotta ask myself-- if i died tomorrow, how much would this matter?

ilchi lee gave this really awesome lecture last sunday at the tenth anniversary festival of the sedona mago retreat center. he talked about life and death, the soul, and chunhwa.

i really hope we can share with a lot of people... it's like.... when you've got something really great, you want to share it. it's human nature. so when you've got the best thing in the world, in unlimited quantity... then you can enjoy the pleasure of sharing.