A Watchful Buddha

This imposing Buddha keeps watch over the remains of the deceased in the Memorial Shrine at the Land of Medicine Buddha, set deep amongst the redwoods in the beautiful Santa Cruz Mountains of California. A small group of friends and I had gone there for an overnight retreat and found tremendous refreshment in the peace and tranquility of this center for Mahayana Buddhism. The centerpiece of our stay was a walk along the 8 Verses Pilgrimage Trail. At each stop, we read the verse and corresponding commentary aloud, spent a few minutes in silent contemplation, then shared the meaning we had found. Some of the messages were hard to take, calling for transformation on our parts, but the journey was made easier by our companionship. Perhaps that's the overarching lesson I learned, for the thousandth time, that day: I need not walk through life's struggles alone, nor will I ever lack a friend with whom to share life's many joys.

http://tinyurl.com/ykqhhk8

Woodland Ferns

During the summer of 1997, I had the good fortune to attend a 3-day photography workshop given by Galen Rowell in Glacier National Park. The weather was terrible- overcast at best, rainy most of the time. Our rolls of film were driven down to Kalispell each night to be processed and returned for the next day's critique. I must have spent more than an hour in the rainy woods, staring at the ferns, composing, recomposing, waiting, when a bit of light broke through and I snapped this picture. Feedback from Galen on our photos was gentle but tough and I dreaded what he'd say when my shots came up for review. I was shocked when, except for suggesting some different framing, he actually seemed to like my ferns. It was then I thought, maybe I can do this photography thing.

http://tinyurl.com/yazcng5

Antisocial (Warning: RANT)

Ever since Google Buzz was released last week, my frustration with the social networking landscape has had me sketching on the shower walls and scribbling on scraps of paper trying to make sense of my online world. This morning’s shower insight calmed me a bit. Just as I don’t hang out in every physical venue that I might, or go to every networking event that I could, perhaps I shouldn’t be so bothered by the multiple, disjoint conversations that spring up on the same online article or post. Just because I have a conversation with some friends on Monday about the rogue wave that hit spectators during Mavericks doesn’t mean my colleagues need to become part of that same stream on Tuesday when we discuss the same topic. Similarly, if I comment on someone’s blog but I miss the insightful commentary taking place about it on Buzz, who cares? And if my brilliant observation on Facebook is invisible to my followers on Twitter, who cares?

Clearly I care, otherwise I wouldn’t be ranting. I care because we have the potential to facilitate broader conversations, increase understanding, and ease discovery. I care because I’d like to have one coherent online presence from where anyone could subscribe to any public feed that I generate – feeds that would include not only content I generate, but commentary I make. I’d like the industry to stop building over-featured gated communities, lean into the issues of identity, trust, and interaction, and foster an ecosystem of tools that set us free instead of tying us in knots. I think anything short of that is antisocial.

Update: Join the conversation over on Buzz. See, you'd never have known it was there if I hadn't told you! Argh!

Photo Friday: Romeo's Pier, near Pillar Point

I love the marsh inside the breakwater near Pillar Point. There's a peacefulness on foggy days that seeps into my soul. The aging structure of the pier seems to be returning to the source of all things, as moss covers the roof, paint flakes and fades away, and the gulls claim it as their own.

http://tinyurl.com/ycwek73