Brown Motion

This Saturday my kid and I took part in a meditative hiking experience.  At the foothills of Mt. Diablo, the tallest eminence in the eastern bay area of San Francisco the hike was organized by a non profit seeking to preserve the wilderness. This parcel we hiked on is about couple thousand acres and the sun was beginning to warm the morning as 25 souls gathered to be part of the walk.  The non profit purchased this parcel with private donations from a ranching family and has used the reserve to educate citizens and save it from the pressure of over development. You see the memorial stone of the Italian immigrant family who sold their land to the non profit at the entrance to the land. After a brief intro to the agenda for the morning from the lady leader of our meditation and hike we set off. The hike began in a sub division with nice homes nestled on a plateau.  We mostly marched single file on a fire road and then into brush and thistles that were growing...

I seek it.  I thrive with it.  It recharges me. Amidst others of my species, even the near ones there is a limit.  While my most loved ones provide the emotional structure and scaffolding from which I nourish, they too can in return draw from me and in that it is tiring. Solitude is blissful.  It allows the mind to wander or not at all.  One leg in front of another and nature doing its work is the best case scenario. So I set out early this Sunday to a hill not far.  It was amazing to watch the early fog rise and then get chewed up as the thermals began to form and the breeze further broke up the clumps of moisture. My hike began with meeting a horse.  A 15 year old and its 60 year old lady owner.  Grazing in the parking lot.  The horse I later would realize was having a morning snack before his partner rode him up the hill I was about to climb. Not many folks out early although some ardent ones were returning by the time I got ...

A three-day long weekend with very cold temperatures outside with snow on the hills at a 1,000 feet.  Made for an interesting picture with palm trees against a snow laden backdrop.  That also meant a couple of indoor activities that are my favorite. No brainer action movies with loud explosions and some taste bud titillating food every couple hours.  So with that in mind we started the evening festivity with the latest installment of the superhero girl from Sweden.  Originally imagined by now dead author Stieg Larsson the famous trilogy was continued in the form of other titles from another author.  Directed by an Uruguayan director this fourth installment is at times cliched but nonetheless mind bending stunt machine till the end. Starring a British actor called Claire Foy who by virtue of her goth like lifestyle does not say much but just hacks and attacks, is a force in the film.  The movie was accompanied by some warm Indian Samosa (flaky stuffe...

Saturday brought an early morning fog typical of late summer in Northern California and we decided to hit the road to take in sights in our neighborhood - that being something in a couple hundred mile radius.  Oh the joys of driving the American highways and byways.  After traveling for 10 km an hour on average for the last month in a cramped vehicle in the disaster that is India, I was itching to let the six cylinders of our mini SUV open up and take me for a ride. So we settled on several spots in Mendocino County (200 miles due north of us) to check out a few items not previously visited after hearing about it from some friends who recently did. Heading around 70 miles north out of San Francisco on the 101, you drive into the town of Ukiah.  Considered one of the most livable cities in America it is a town built on lumber - industry that is. We broke journey here to visit a Buddhist monastery called 'city of ten thousand Buddhas...