new blog

Just in case you didn't know, I started a new blog. http://startingitoff.vox.com. Enoy

Thich Nhat Hanh Intro

I am reading "The Sun My Heart" by Thich Nhat Hanh. If you have not heard of him, he is a Buddhist monk from Vietnam. He was chairman of the Vietnamese Buddhist Peace Delegation during the war and was nominated by Dr. Martin Luther King for the Nobel Peace Prize. I really enjoyed the introduction to the book so I thought I would put it in here. He has a very relaxed way of writing that, especially for me, is an easy enjoyable read, sometimes even funny. Here is that intro...

Meditators since the beginning of time have known that they must use their own eyes and the language of their own times to express their insight. Wisdom is a living stream, not an icon to be preserved in a museum. Only when a practitioner finds the spring of wisdom in his or her own life can it flow to future generations. Keeping the torch of wisdom glowing is the work of all of us who know how to clear a path through the forest in order to walk on ahead.

Our insight and our language are inseparable from the times in which we live. For many years now, the East has followed the West down the path of technological and material development, to the point of neglecting it's own spiritual values. In our world, technology is the main force behind economics and politics, but those in the forefront of science have begun to see something similar to what the spiritual disciplines of the East discovered long ago. If we can survive our times, the gap that separates science and spirituality will close, and East and West will meet one another on the path to discover true mind. those in whom the seeds of this endeavor have already been sown can start working towards that convergence right now, using their own daily mindful lives.

This small book was written not to show off any knowledge of the author. (In fact, there is not much for him to show off.) It prefers to be a Friend rather than a book. You can take it with you on the bus or subway as you do your coat or your scarf. It can give you small moments of joy at any time. You may like to read a few lines, then close it and put it back in your pocket, and read another few lines sometime later. If you find a paragraph that is difficult or complicated, just skip over it and try the next one. You can return to it later and maybe you will find that it is not so complicated after all. Chapter Five, which is the last one, is quite pleasant to read. You can start there if you like.

Please draw on your own experience to understand this book. Do not be intimidated by any of the words or ideas. Only as author of the text yourself will you find the joy and the strength necessary to journey from mindfulness to insight.

Goats in Duvall

Today we went to see some goats hat were either rescued or found walking down the middle of the road. It was Janae', Jianna, Dar and me. This couple in Duvall have five goats, a dog and two or three cats, all rescued.

Here is Dar kissing one of the goats.
My favorite animal was Jake, their dog. He has the coolest hair; it reminds me of Fraggle Rock.

Found These At Grandma's

I don't need to say much about this. I will put the descriptions below

First, my mom at age 13.

Second, my sister at age 6.

Get ready Ava, that's going to be you pretty soon.

Swim At Shadow Lake

Shadow Lake.

My Mom, Ava, Andrew, Jianna and I went out to my Grandma and Grandpa's house for a final clean up. There was a lady there who was cleaning out the rest of the house and offered to give us the "a family day". How nice is that? We went for a walk down this long dead end that my Grandma used to walk; there are a bunch of private owned camp spots down there but mostly just a lot of trees. Next we went down to the lake and played and swam. The water was perfect. We spent some time swimming here as kids so it was nice to get in another, and possibly final, swim in there.

We brought a raft to tool around on



I put this picture in because it was the only one I could find that had the dock in it. It is probably as old as I am. I think it used to be a little further out than it is now, it could just be that I was a bit smaller than I am now.

Steve Miller 2008

On Saturday, my best friend Micheal and I went to the Gorge to see Steve Miller.
It was a good show, Joe Cocker opened for him.
This is the 3rd time I've seen Steve Miller there, Micheals 4th
The clouds parted as we came down the East side of the pass. The weather was great, sunny, hot with a cool breeze.

This is Micheal at breakfast the morning after. I ate my eggs off of the frisbee we bought.

Lets skip straight to lunch the next day. We stopped at Lake Easton so Micheal could do some fishing. I read my book and took some pics.

It wouldn't be a concert at the Gorge without a drunk woman dancing on top of a car. I never camped at the Gorge but it was pretty fun.

4th of July - A Little Late

For the weekend of the 4th of July Janae' Jianna and I went to Janae's Dad's (Rod) place in Sumas; "Peaceful Mountain". We were accompanied by Angela, Janae's friend, her son Donovan and her boyfriend Fa'auma (Fuma). We drove up on Thursday, Friday Fuma and I drove over to Shuksan Golf Course to play with Rod and his buddy Mark.

-Left to Right-

Mark, Fuma, Rod, Adam

Perfect weather

We were the only ones out there, so we played for about 6 hours

My best round of golf yet, not that I kept score...

Back at Peaceful Mountain Donovan and Jianna goof off while eating breakfast

On the way out we stopped to visit some more of Rods friends, Sam and Michelle, at the Salmon Shell Ranch, this is their horse. Unfortunately I cannot remember his name, it was a Native American word(s) for white horse. Very gentle horse, Jianna did end up petting him.

Here is Sam with his big gentle friend.
Here is Michelle showing off her patented pose.
They have a beautiful property, just a stone throw away from Canada. We took Chuckanut drive on the way back.
Janae' - Angela
Jianna - Donovan
It was a great weekend, I unplugged for 4 whole days - How Refreshing!

For more info about Peaceful Mountain check out link.

http://peacefulmt.net/index.htm

Getting Caught Up

It's been some time since I posted anything so I thought I would mention a few things that happened in the month of June.

First, and best of all; my Mom and I walked/jogged/ran Tiger Mountain on the 2nd of June. Besides getting out and spending some time together it was nice to keep our minds occupied after Grandma passed away. I got to the top and was alone for a short minute so I sat in the middle of the clearing and a pair of birds and a pair of chipmunks ran around playing like I wasn't even there. I guess they are pretty used to people, it was still cool.

On the 8th, I went sailing with some friends of mine; Jason, Bryant, Barbi and her son. We went from the harbor in Everett to Camano Island. I believe it's called Elger Bay, anyways, my friend Chip rowed his inflatablre raft and we had a BBQ on the back of the boat. It was cold but a lot of fun. Oh yeah, no wind either.

This is Jason.

On the 21st, Faauma and I jumped out of this Plane. 12,000 feet! We went for Faauma's birthday, he was there jumping for my birthday too. It was sick! there is no other way to describe it. I did a double back flip out of the plane and had about a 60 second free fall. Sick!

This is Janae's Friend Angela and her boyfriend Faauma.

Here is me in my gear with my cool ass mohawk.

End of an Era

On June 1, 2008, my Grandmother Martha passed away in her sleep. I call this the end of an era because she was my last living grandparent. She was also the one I was closest to.

One of the things I remember most about Grandpa Trueman and Grandma Martha was how they would stand outside waving goodbye to us as we left. They would wave until we couldn't see them anymore. These pictures were taken from inside the car as we were driving away.

Her death inspired me to go through some of the photo's I have in a shoe box. This is my tribute to the past and to my family, hopefully everyone is represented.

Me sleeping with my Grandpa in 1979.

Staying with the theme of Trueman (Mandy) and Martha...1981

You tell me which one is older??? Can you spot the chest hair in the first of the two Schilling family photo?

This one is from Prosser, I don't recognize these other two kids though...

Eugene and Martha make Andrew and Ava look old in this one.

10,000 points for anyone who knows who this guy is! I'll give you one clue; The picture was taken in the woods.

I just love this one.

I think that none of us in this one look like we do now.

With shades like these I don't know if Matt's building a sand pile or getting ready to weld one.

I had to get Kathleen in here. Also, who would have thought that Ava would be quieter when she was a baby than she is now?

Andrew, When he was still young enough to show Uncle Adam how much he really loved him!

Me and my Grandma at Safeco Field. It reminds me not only of the great time we had at the Mariners game (which we won) but of how she loved to yell at the Mariners, and anyone else, on TV. She would call them "dingbats" and "dumb Swedes". Grandpa would look at her with a loving smile every time.

Since this remembrance was inspired by her I wanted to talk about her briefly...

I read a story about a Vietnamese man who was preparing to move to the West, away from his family. Naturally he would miss his family very much. Before he left his Mother took him by the hand, she said, "Whenever you are lonely, look at your hands and you will know that I am with you." The point she was trying to make was that because she was his Mother, they would always be physically connected, as they would be to the rest of their ancestors, past, present and future. Any time he looked at his hands, or his eyes, or his feet, he would literally see the part of her that she gave to him. We who share a physical connection are fortunate to be able to all remain connected through these means. And fortunately for all of us, Grandma (Martha) lived her life in such a way that she affected everyone she knew. Because of the love she shared with everyone, everyone that knew her was able to gain part of that spirit in their own hearts. So if ever we miss her, we can look into our own heart, reflect upon the seed she planted there, and be with her again.

I love you and miss you Grandma.

Love, Adam