Winter Scenes of New York

The artists must see all things as if he were seeing them for the first time. All his life he must see as he did when he was a child. - Henri Matisse

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Rural Scenes

" I believe all suffering is caused by ignorance. People inflict pain on others in the selfish pursuit of their happiness or satisfaction. Yet true happiness comes from a sense of peace and contentment, which in turn must be achieved through the cultivation of altruism, of love and compassion, and elimination of ignorance, selfishness, and greed. " -Dalai Lama

" Creo que todo sufrimiento es causado por la ignorancia. Las personas infligen dolor a otros en la búsqueda egoísta de la felicidad o satisfacción. Sin embargo, la verdadera felicidad proviene de una sensación de paz y satisfacción, que a su vez debe ser alcanzada a través del cultivo del altruismo, del amor y la compasión y la eliminación de la ignorancia, el egoísmo y la codicia. " -Dalai Lama

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Referendum

Rio de Janeiro Square

In line to vote Marcelo Ebrard, City Mayor until last December. (In 2010, Ebrard was nominated as the "world's best mayor" by the Project World Mayor. From 2009 to 2012, he was the Chair of the World Mayors Council on Climate Change.)

MEXICO CITY – Every day before dawn, dozens of men appear in the Mexican capital’s hip Condesa and Roma neighborhoods and block off parking spaces along entire streets using water jugs, cardboard boxes, buckets, crates and even blocks of cement.

As visitors start arriving for the district’s restaurants, organic food stores, boutiques and art galleries, the men collect 20 to 40 pesos ($1.50-$3), remove the obstructions and let drivers park.

Here and in other well-to-do areas of traffic-choked Mexico City, authorities are trying to take back the streets by installing parking meters. They say the meters will make the area safer and more orderly, as well as encouraging less driving, which will be a boon for a polluted city with more than 4 million cars.

Residents of Condesa and Roma, a bohemian neighborhoods, decided in a referendum this Sunday whether they want the meters on their streets. 

[The News] Published on Monday, 21 January 2013.

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Opuntia

Opuntia, also known as nopales or paddle cactus, is a genus in the cactus family, Cactaceae.

Currently, only prickly pears are included in this genus of about 200 species distributed throughout most of the Americas. 

The most commonly culinary species is the Indian Fig Opuntia (O. ficus-indica). Most culinary uses of the term "prickly pear" refer to this species. Prickly pears are also known as "tuna", "nopal" or nopales, from the Nahuatl word nōpalli for the pads, or nostle, from the Nahuatl word nōchtli for the fruit; or paddle cactus.

The genus is named for the Ancient Greek city of Opus where, according to Theophrastus, an edible plant grew which could be propagated by rooting its leaves. [Wiki]

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Sphinx

Isn’t life more than that? Doesn’t existence itself rise above all the things that

happen—the goods, the bads, the rights, the wrongs, the judgments? Isn’t it a

kindness to be here? Isn’t this a special moment—this moment called being alive?

How aware am I of it? How much do I recognize it?

What am I concerned about today? Am I the least bit concerned about something

that is finer than the finest hair—something that cannot be measured in width,

height, or weight and that is the only difference between me and that headstone?

Do you know what it is? It’s the breath that comes in and out of me.

You cannot take a picture of it. You cannot paint it. You cannot make a statue of it.

You cannot give it, buy it, trade it, or sell it. And it makes all the difference between

you and your headstone. Because breath comes, you’re intelligent. Because it comes,

you are Mr. So-and-So, Mrs. So-and-So, Miss So-and-So, Dr. So-and-So, Captain

So-and-So, Professor So-and-So. And thanks to this gift of breath, you have the

capability to understand, to question, to reason, to observe, and to learn.

—Prem Rawat

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Placid Sands

"The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware."
- Henry Miller

THE CURRENT CHALLENGE

Fri Jan 18, 2012

This week's challenge:
'Serene'.

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