Glimpse of a Hermits Life Redux

*Yes this should be a footnote, but I am a rule breaker so I am putting this up here instead.  Rarely do I pull a blog.  Rarely do I edit.  But when I read this particular blog I saw some egregious mistakes that I had to correct.  I also want to convey just how excited I am by all of the things I have been learning.

 For so very long I have looked down, or at least at eye level.  Water has always been my baptismal font into humanity.  It may remain that way, but I have discovered another way.  I had to look up and beyond anything my eyes could see to feel a connection to the here and now.

 A connection that feels so profound I do not know why everyone isn't drinking my Kool Aid!  The further I go in my research the more I can see a connection between science and faith.
I am far from the first one to see such a connection. Nor am I ready to genuflect to the skies.

 A monk some 400 years ago deeply loved God.  His name was Giordano Bruno.  He was burned at the stake.  Not a pleasant or fast way to die, much less humane.

His crime?  He believed Earth was not the center of the Universe.  His love of science only resolved further his love of God.  They were not separate.  Unless you happened to live in a time where the Catholic Church believed they were the center of the universe.  A side note: It took until 1992 to admit that even Copernicus was correct, however Bruno is still listed as a heretic.

Yes, yes I digress.  It is something that so excites me I want to share it.  And I do not have to share the facts, or what some might find mundane.

I can share all this with a smile.  With an act of kindness, with a wave hello, or a hug.

Maybe in my next blog I will talk about how trees and plants communicate with each other and how we share our DNA.

For now, I will remain (as I was recently deemed) Your beautiful Buddhist Nerd



This has been a particularly unusual summer for me.  I did not walk any train tracks with my friends resulting in finding a dead body and thus the meaning of friendships.

I did not go to the beach and let my feet get sucked further in the sand, resulting in undertow fascination.

I did not step on to a plane, train, or even used my barely running car.  I have not even walked barefoot in the yard, or had a debate on humidity.

For some reason people love to claim they have the most humidity. (Unless you live in New Orleans you are best to keep quiet on the subject of frizzy hair).

My kayak dry docked, fat bathing suit has yet see water.

 So what have I been doing all summer?

My head has been swimming with ideas, creations, and research.

Asking questions I never asked before.   So many questions I feel like a four year old asking "why?" about everything!

The start of the summer was Mathematics.  What a  beautiful a language and  I can only grasp an infinitesimal part of it.

 I can tell you that now when I look at my cat half curled , feet sticking out I see an imaginary Fibonacci Sequence drawn around him.

After some period of time, math lead me to Astro Physics. Seems like a logical jump.

 Each day I am learning something new and different and mesmerizing.  Everything is so amazing I am itching to bore my friends about it all at a dinner party (A dinner party I would a) Not be invited to, and b) Not attend, hermit that I am).

As I have previously written about, I have also been meditating.

I began to meditate to feel connected with the earth and my fellow earthlings.  I meditate to clear my mind, or take a mental vacation.  Each time is different.

I had yet to feel connected to anything but my nostrils until I had a rather profound self discovery.

Meditation is repetition of sound, thought, or breath to get to a place where you can see your thoughts, love them and let them go, or sit with the painful ones, as I have said before.

My meditation has changed.  I close my eyes and immediately I am engulfed in the Universe.  Galaxies, dark matter, neutrinos, antineutrinos, the icy rings of Saturn, black holes, white holes, string theory, and the list goes on.

I am in a parediolia state.  I see things that are there, and are not there at the same time.

It is a place that is both full of light and stygian at the same time.

The more we learn, the more we are able to say we do not know for sure.

It is within this vast space (literally) that I am able to feel connected to my fellow beings.  I feel at one with all of it, with the questions, with the trees, with the feel of earth, and the unknowing and brutal space above.

I do not call it the heavens, because trust me if you had any idea what goes on beyond our white puffy clouds, it is anything but heavenly and serene.  It is bombastic and brutal, and always changing.

That is the good stuff.  The stuff I feel at one with.

Glimpsing the universe or multiverse, how can I not take a moment to smile at the clerk working hard and wish them a great day.

To the other hermits that I connect with, how can I not sit and listen to what interests them?

My summer has been spent asking the big and little questions.

Why are we here?

Where do we come from?

My mother used to say I was planned.  I do not believe her.  All evidence points to she may have wanted another baby, but my father did not.

As to why are we here?  Why not?

The puffy clouds part and the sun shines through making our skin warm, and people smile.  The song "Let the sun shine in..." is much more poetic than, "Let the conduction, radiation and convection shine in."

This summer I have remained a hermit, mainly out of lack of finances.

But I did find a way to travel.  Through space, through thought, and more thought, and back again.

All to connect with myself.

And you.