windthread

still thinking about yesterday, today.  about that Burn Box, about what all it is to Live with Goats.  another post is coming soon about all that.

and i loaded up the bits and pieces of the 8ft fence panel that WAS Buckwheat's shade house roof until he totally demolished it with his horns and i broke it down piece by piece because parts were to awkward for me to get up and over his fence…did that some weeks ago.  and today was the day to load into truck and take to the dump, which i did, only to see the chain across and the sign saying Closed Due To High Winds.  turned around and came home.

but most of the day was absorbed in very small small stitches.

most of which you cannot see because they are invisible.   also began the Kantha in the middle.  was hoping to get further along, but i didn't.  But this Altar Cloth is really interesting to me.  as i have said, my wish is to do only So much with them, only go So far.  Leaving them to their Own way of being.  but this one….i found myself thinking about the words of Chogyam Trungpa as he taught about the concept of Basic Goodness.  so i found that book and re read:

"Imagine that you are sitting naked on the ground, with your bare bottom touching the earth.  Since you are not wearing a scarf or hat, you are also exposed to heaven above.  You are sandwiched between heaven and earth:  a naked man or woman, sitting between heaven and earth.

Earth is always earth.  The earth will let anyone sit on it, and earth never gives way….Likewise, sky is always sky….Whether it is snowing or raining or the sun is shining, whether it is daytime or nighttime, the sky is always there.  In that sense, we know that heaven and earth are trustworthy.

The logic of basic goodness is very similar.  When we speak of basic goodness, we are not talking about having allegiance to good and rejecting bad.  Basic Goodness is good because it is un-conditional, or fundamental.  It is there already, in the same way that heaven and earth are there already.  We don't reject our atmosphere.  We don't reject the sun and the moon, the clouds and the sky.  We accept them. ….Basic goodness is that basic, that unconditional.  It is not a "for" or "against" view, in the same way that sunlight is not "for" or "against".

The natural law and order of this world is not "for" or "against".  Fundamentally, there is nothing that either threatens  us or promotes our point of view.  The four seasons occur free from anyone's demand or vote.  Hope and fear cannot alter the seasons.  There is day, there is night.  There is darkness at night and light during the day, and no one has to turn a switch on and off.  There is a natural order that allows us to survive and that is basically good, good in that it  is there and it works and it is efficient."    Shambhala  The Sacred Path of the Warrior,   Chogyam Trungpa.

i read this first in 1984.  i have read it different times since.  the pages got worn and bent.  but just these words i had read many many times.  and today, stitching this cloth, i saw that what i was "saying" is these words.  about basic goodness.  Night Day.  and how each day is Singular and can hold this basic goodness.

so…it was a very good day, this day.