Christmas 2021

Soon be 2022! Where did the time go? Where does time go is the question, of course, and that's been explored here in Wear and Dao many times, so let's keep it short and sweet. Linear time is considered an illusion merely to stretch time out ... linearily, if that's a word. It is now, anyway, since as regular readers will know, someone has to coin new words in order to expand the dictionaries, albeit mostly virtual these days. Which is a further issue to explore, briefly, of course, and the question there is an observation that more sophisticated languages contain more nouns than verbs. To put it another way, we English speakers, French, German and others, are deceived every time we employ words which imply a material World, which is false. As Iain McGilchrist and all the other wise teachers point out clearly, that's The Matter With Things! As for linear time, anyone reading The Power of Now by Tolle can tell you that whatever on Earth is going on, it's all happening in the Present moment; Past disappeared and is lived as history now, whilst the Future is all Probability. Clearly, some things are more likely than others, as Quantum Theory teaches us, and taught us more than a century ago, historically. As for Karma, that implies reincarnation, an important concept for Hindus, Buddhists and others, and once other lives are seen, in revelation, Karma comes into being, to keep the humans behaving kindly, not always the case, for fear of retribution by a Higher Power, the Name of Which must never be spoken, but often is ... that's humans for you! If you can accept the Reality of many lives, you realise all these lives are actually happening at once. Which is weird ... if True.

Back to the topic for today, here and now. It's 4 a.m. in the cosy Retreat House on the edge of Stanhope in Weardale, in the hills of North- East England. That's  A Place to Be in the mind of the blogger, and now by a few others, some of whom visit the place, some who agree with the concept in other countries and join the Facebook Group to share ideas, words and images. Which is nice. What is meant, to be honest dear readers, is we agree on many things and our Realities are aligned, more or less. Human beings at their best like a Reality where kindness is key to living a contented Life, however defined, whether short and sweet or longer and still sweet. Who really likes elders who are bitter and wracked with guilt after all? The blogger is well past his sell-by date of three score years and ten these days, and linear time supports the illusion by reducing the capacity of the body to operate efficiently as Time goes by. The wish of wise elders is surely to die without lingering pain, and let the mind deal with the illusion of Suffering.

It's Thursday today, a nothing day when normal working people pretend to work a full day but often don't. Other normal people take longer lunches and wish each other All the Best, Cheers, Happy New Year and all that. We're well past the Winter Solstice and The Light is returning slowly moment by moment. Retired bloggers get up rather early to write this stuff for you, whoever you are. If it amuses you, it amuses me. If nothing else it keeps the mind active, the key to staving off dementia through neuroplasicity and neurogenesis as Iain McGilchrist teaches in The Matter With Things in two thick hardback volumes, soon to be resumed when today's rambling is sent on it's way.

After that, breakfast of porage with stewed fruit, banana and honey is more than probable. It's part of the programme to keep the immune system strong along with other things. A walk is de rigeur in French, a language full of words employed in English of course, thanks partly to the Norman Conquest and basically the close proximity of the two nations in linear time. Reading, writing on other platforms, thinking and when meditation occurs, thinking not, all pass the time ... the illusion.

Yesterday's nothing day was not as planned, though not radically so, and the chances of today's nothing day are limited too. Stepping out into Stanhope ensures something happening in Reality; planning Christmas Lunch for at least two, maybe four other humans here at The Retreat House is a Reality of the Mind and amusing. The plans are still uncertain, and the very thought of all going to plan tomorrow is unthinkable ...

Merry Christmas dear readers, and your Happy New Year can wait another week when nothing much happens in the World of normal people. Boxing Day is already planned for A Stand in the Park in Hexham, so we'll see about that, not to mention the traditional football fixtures, which, believe it or not, this old blogger still checks for Newcastle the local team and Saints the childhood team, both struggling with relegation. All part of Bread and Circuses to keep the masses content with the fascism into which the Old World lurched around March of 2020. Hence The Light distribution and other ways for old folks, once radical resisters of divide and rule, to feel useful still!