I had pretty much forgotten about Zaadz until yesterday when I got an email from them and didn’t immediately archive it. I always get a bunch from one of the groups I’m in, and I just mark them as read and archive them away in the vault of my email archives. This one for whatever caught my eye. I surfed Zaadz a little last night and plan to do some more tonight. If you haven’t joined up yet, you should! See you there!
Falling off the cliff
Floating higher and higher
Falling then rising
Haiku are fun (is the plural of haiku ‘haiku’ or ‘haikus’? I don’t know.)
I’ve been reading a bit lately. A lot of Wikipedia and random Internet postings as on the Tarot, astrology, and occultism. I’ve also been reading a book by some sketchy character named Zolar and am starting The Book of Thoth by Aleister Crowley. It an interesting rabbit hole. Lots of numbers and letters and random connections. I wonder where the rabbit hole goes in the end.
I mostly started this exploration after reading up a little on Danny Carey, the fantastic drummer of Tool. Their album 10,000 Days is quite amazing. So anyways, Danny Carey is big into Crowley and occultism and what not and then I started reading. And then I found about 10,000 articles on Wikipedia that I had never found before… It went downhill from there.
I started my first day at a new job today. It was somewhat of a relief to get out of the atmosphere of the last days of my former job. Not because I didn’t like the job or because I didn’t like the people, but because the company had decided to merge my division with a recent acquisition, and as a result, our entire product line was being thrown away. The product line I had spent countless hours working on. So, rather than find another job in the company, I moved to an ad agency in town.
So far it’s a really nice encouraging atmosphere. It’s a small team with big dreams. It seems like the sky is the limit and that is very encouraging. I’ll post some once some of my work goes live.
On a spiritual note, I’ve been re-reading a great book on Feng Shui named “Clearing Your Clutter with Feng Shui” by Karen Kingston. It’s a great book (as is the other one on Feng Shui by the same author. It really makes you think about simple ways to make your area a better place to live. I would recommend reading it even if you don’t consider yourself a clutterholic.
This evening I looked in the mirror and saw a stranger. It puzzled me for a second until I realized it was me. I stared at my image for a few minutes and pondered the idea that I am encapsulated inside of this shell. It was a weird feeling. I’ve been thinking about it sense then. It made me remember the form of meditation that asks the question “what am I?” I really felt for that moment that I understood that I am not my body or any of its attributes. I simply am.
I have been listening to a lot of jazz lately. Mostly avant-garde and free jazz. It’s interesting, the connection between music and spirituality. Playing and listening to improvised music opens up a whole realm of being that you can’t get to normally. I think I will write more on that next time.
Anyway, I’m trying to start an avant-garde/free jazz band. I play drums, and I would like to have at least a bass and piano, though any instruments would work, I think. Influences include the Coltrane Quintet, Joel Futterman Trio, Medeski, Martin, and Wood, and The Bad Plus. Leave a comment if you’re interested in playing, listening, or just reminiscing about great music.