Blue Skies Smilin' at Me on a Nearly Wordless Wednesday

Blue skies earrings on etsy.

The Buddha Story Continues: Fading Pleasures

Everyone at the palace tried to entertain the prince, with dancing and stories and music and beautiful women.  But nothing brought a smile to his face.  He could not get past the haunting images of sickness and old age and death.

One of his ministers tried talking with him.  "Siddhartha," he said.  "It is not right to watch all this dancing and revelry around you, and not join in.  What troubles you?"

"It is not that I do not like the beautiful people and gardens and wonderful things I see here.  But I no longer find pleasure in them, for I cannot erase from my mind the things I have seen.  Then I think of how quickly beauty can disappear, how soon good health can flee, how quickly old age and death approach. In the midst of such unhappiness, how can I revel in pleasures that fade so quickly?"

The minister protested, but Siddhartha continued.

"Until I can find a way out of all this suffering, worldly pleasures do not interest me."

The minister returned to the palace and reported to the king, telling him of young Siddhartha's questions and thoughts.

And his father was filled with grief.  How could he keep his son in the kingdom with him?  What in the vast world would make the young prince happy?

Next time, A Vision of Peace.

If you missed the earlier chapters, they can be found here:

Birthday of the Buddha
The Buddha Story Continued
The Young Prince
The Marriage Contest
The Pleasure Palaces
A Song Of Beauty
An Unexpected Sight 
The Second Journey


Buddha charms here and here.

A wonderfully detailed story of the Buddha here.

The Kind Hawk - a Hopi Legend

Long ago, in a Hopi village, a little boy lived with his mother, who loved him very much.  She dressed him in a beautiful shirt and moccasins, covered with the most intricate embroidery.

  

 One day, the boy went out to play.  he started to wander far from the village, across the plains.  There, he was spotted by another tribe.  The raced in and carried him off.  The other tribe brought the boy to their camp.  Once there, the women took his shirt and moccasins, and gave them to the Chief's son.  While the other children played all day, the little Hopi boy worked and worked.  They gave him little to ea.  Soon the boy grew thin and ill.


Near the camp, there was a high bluff.  And atop the high bluff there lived a hawk.  Each day the hawk looked out at the world, spread beneath him.  And each day the hawk coasted on the thermals, and gliding over the camp where the boy worked and worked.  One day, when all the tribe members were gathered at the Chief's lodge, the hawk swooped down and hovered over the boy's head.

The boy was frightened.  The past weeks had been difficult and sad for him.  He could not imagine life becoming even worse.  "Please do not kill me!" he begged the hawk.


The hawk reassured him.  "I mean you no harm," he told the boy.  "I have watched you and seen your troubles.  Hop on my back.  Hold onto my wings and I will fly you away from this place."

The boy jumped on the hawk's back.  Anything, he reasoned, would be better than his life here.  He held on tight.  The hawk flew up in the air.  With the boy on his back, the hawk glided over the place where the tribe members were gathered.  When they saw the boy on the hawk's back they were amazed and angry.

The hawk flew to the highest bluff and set the boy down.  "Wait here," he told him.  


Then the hawk flew back to the village.  He swooped straight to the Chief's son and, using his fierce beak, pulled the shirt right off him.  This he carried to the boy.  Then the hawk returned to the camp.  He dived straight for the moccasins, pulling them right off the feet of the Chief's son.  With these, the hawk returned to the bluff and the boy.


There, the hawk dressed the boy.  Then he fed him meat of a jack rabbit, and other fine foods.  Finally, with the boy dressed and fed, the hawk flew him back to his mother.


And then, without waiting for thanks or praise, he flew back to his bluff and looked out at the world again.

Netsuke pendants on etsy

Mr. Mistoffelees in His Beady Persona

by T.S. Eliot

You ought to know Mr. Mistoffelees!
The Original Conjuring Cat--
(There can be no doubt about that).
Please listen to me and don't scoff. All his
Inventions are off his own bat.

 There's no such Cat in the metropolis;
He holds all the patent monopolies
For performing surprising illusions
And creating eccentric confusions.
At prestidigitation
And at legerdemain
He'll defy examination
And deceive you again.
The greatest magicians have something to learn
From Mr. Mistoffelees' Conjuring Turn.

Presto!
Away we go!
And we all say: OH!
Well I never!
Was there ever
A Cat so clever
As Magical Mr. Mistoffelees!

He is quiet and small, he is black
From his ears to the tip of his tail;
He can creep through the tiniest crack,
He can walk on the narrowest rail.

He can pick any card from a pack,
He is equally cunning with dice;

He is always deceiving you into believing
That he's only hunting for mice.

He can play any trick with a cork
Or a spoon and a bit of fish-paste;
If you look for a knife or a fork
And you think it is merely misplaced--
You have seen it one moment, and then it is gone!
But you'll find it next week lying out on the lawn. 

 And we all say: OH!
Well I never!
Was there ever
A Cat so clever
As Magical Mr. Mistoffelees!

 His manner is vague and aloof,
You would think there was nobody shyer--
But his voice has been heard on the roof
When he was curled up by the fire.

And he's sometimes been heard by the fire
When he was about on the roof--
(At least we all heard that somebody purred)
Which is incontestable proof

 Of his singular magical powers:
And I have known the family to call
Him in from the garden for hours,
While he was asleep in the hall.
And not long ago this phenomenal Cat
Produced seven kittens right out of a hat!

 (From the Illustrated Work of Erroll Le Cain)

 And we all said: OH!
Well I never!
Did you ever
Know a Cat so clever
As Magical Mr. Mistoffelees!

(From Edward Gorey's "Elephant House")

Tuxedo cats on etsy

Tuxedo cats on eBay 

Heartline Bear Heads Up Constellation

There are probably more bear legends and fairy tales than there are grizzlies left in the Continental United States. Most of them involve killing a bear, or a bear killing off a village which, while enlightening in certain ways, is a bit too grizzly (no pun intended) for my Living-in-the-World-of-Charms philosophy. So the bear legend I'll tell you is based on good old Greek mythology. There are, of course, many versions of this myth, as well.

It is the story of Callisto, who was a beautiful nymph and servant of the hunter Artemis. (This particular Callisto had nothing to do with Xena, the Warrior Princess. Trust me on this one.) As such, she took a vow to remain a virgin.

She was so beautiful that Zeus saw her and fell in love, in that I-want-her-even-though-my-wife-Hera-will-be-royally-pissed kind of way.

Smooth god that he was, Zeus took on the form of Artemis, and had his way with the lovely Callisto. This, of course, made Artemis extremely angry, and he banished poor Callisto, who was now pregnant with Zeus' child.


This made Zeus' wife Hera even angrier. When Callisto gave birth to her son, whom she named Arcas, Hera turned Callisto into a bear. The unfortunate Callisto ran, or lumbered, away into the forest.

Time passed. A lot of time. Arcas grew up and, ironically, became a hunter. One day, as he was hunting in the forest (yes, the same forest), his mother Callisto (who was still a bear) heard his voice. She rushed out to meet him for what could be yet another ill-fated birth-mother-meets-son reunion.

And Arcas, being a hunter, rushed to smite her dead with his bow and arrow.


Zeus, who hopefully felt a teensy bit guilty for all the misfortune that had befallen Callisto because of his godlike lust, rushed to intervene, turning Arcas into a bear, as well. (We can hope Hera was busy elsewhere.)

He sent both mother and son ~ Callisto and Arcas ~ into the sky to become the Greater and Lesser Bears, known as Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.

According to the myth (or one version of it), this explains why the tails of both Ursa Major and Ursa Minor are so long. It seems that Zeus was in a bit of a rush. He grabbed them by their tails and swung them around over his head, finally flinging them into the sky. Bears, or at least humans turned to bears by gods, have extremely elastic tails.

The bears on this bracelet, by the way, do not have long elastic tails. Their tails are aventurine,

and mother of pearl,

and sterling silver.

So I guess they were never mortals turned to bears.


The bracelet can be found on eBay.