TheWayItIs photos on Flickr

One of my casual secretes I rarely dared to share is that I used to be a frequent meditation practitioner. Tight schedule has been very challenging these days.

For me mediation has been a way of reflecting on 'the way it is' rather than reacting on it.

Investigating the mind and grasping the emptiness of it.

Contemplating over the conditioned and impermanent emotions that arises and ceases within our mind.

Trying to reach 'beyond belief'.

But how can one find the unconditional truth from within the realm of a conditioned mind?

View On Black

INFO:

F/4, 8 secs, ISO200 - Hand held illumination by a magnetic torch light.

I just realized that the camera date/time is still as of Nepal :)

Explored! :)

Murmurs in Slow Motion by Feathering the Nest

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A Starling Murmuration in all it's beauty - captured in real time - presented in slow mo ... XXX

just the way it is… by Tom...

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Travo-Tel

2305 El Dorado St.

Stockton, Ca.

As is often the case when I stop to shoot an old flophouse in a seedy neighborhood, I happen to attract the dregs of society…and this trip was no different…while under this baby on the sidewalk, a toothless crackhead yells at me, “Wasn’t it better before”?...I say “Huh”…She responds with, “Before, when the sexy girl in the swimsuit was diving into the water”…completely blown away I return with, “Oh, yeah…much better”…well, armed with that tidbit of earth shaking information, upon arriving home I scoured the world wide web in search of what this classic may have looked like and came up empty…I found an older version but no bathing beauty…bummer…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOeKidp-iWo

45 Some Things... by Thomas Brodahl

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"Standing in line marking time--

Waiting for the welfare dime

'Cause they can't buy a job

The man in the silk suit hurries by

As he catches the poor old ladies' eyes

Just for fun he says "Get a job"

That's just the way it is

Some things will never change

That's just the way it is

But don't you believe them

They say hey little boy you can't go

Where the others go

'Cause you don't look like they do

Said hey old man how can you stand

To think that way

Did you really think about it

Before you made the rules

He said, Son

That's just the way it is

Some things will never change

That's just the way it is

But don't you believe them

Well they passed a law in '64

To give those who ain't got a little more

But it only goes so far

Because the law another's mind

When all it sees at the hiring time

Is the line on the color bar

That's just the way it is

Some things will never change

That's just the way it is

But don't you believe them"

- "The Way It Is" B.R. Hornsby

----------------

These past couple weeks I've been hanging out with 4 generations of my family (85 year old granddad all the way down to my 8 year old brother). Its given me a very interesting look into the evolution of my family, and its very encouraging. I've come home and stirred up a lot of talk of religion and social issues, and the responses have been wide ranging. Always have the youngest taken to the most liberal and reasonable position, while the old linger behind. Its so interesting to see that as much as we dislike things in our world today and as much as we still struggle against injustices, there are encouraging signs that we are moving in the right direction.

The internet has so much to do with this I think. We are getting so international, we are exposed to so many different people and cultures and beliefs, that we cannot for the life of us cling to the narrow-minded beliefs of past generations. We cannot and will not be homophobic, racist, nationalistic, we will not bow to a religion that condemns our brothers and sisters. We have seen too much of the world to be narrowed in our opinion of it. We see that we are all the same. Their pain is our pain. Their struggle is our struggle. Empathy.

The golden rule can only be achieved once you truly see others in yourself, and yourself in others. Our generation has made great steps, and I think the one that comes next will make leaps. They are so much more advanced than we were when we were 10-15. The 60's changed all these things, but this is the first generation to truly get to live the effects of those changes. They've already had informed discussions about all these things. Main-stream media is littered with openly-gay artists, how can you hate the artists whose work moves you? Most boys in America, black or white, want to be LeBron James or Jay-Z, how can you hate someone you want to grow up to be? When you chat to people online in China, Brazil, and Mozambique, how can you say we don't want those people here?

Civil rights are on the march and the kids marching are getting older every year, soon they will be voters. They have the right framework, we just have to help bring other issues into the mix as well, because poverty is a civil rights issue, global warming is a civil rights issue, AIDS is a civil rights issue. We need to bring these issues up, so that 30 years from now there will be a whole generation of people for whom this is just common knowledge. They'll be busy preparing for the next set of challenges.

I think we've got a long way to go on a lot of issues, some more than others, but I think there is hope to be had. The old people say "That's just the way it is" but as long as kids don't believe them, we'll be alright. These kids are already changing the world.

A man who speaks of hope and change is running for president. Lets help speed up the process. Go vote.

OBAMA '08

one night by MASTER P.

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keyshia cole

The Way It Is. by Howard Duncan

59

digital art

Nature in love by ojie_zakaria

10 38

"Be patient wild eyes.Soon will come a storm to tame you.Let her winds surround you. Match her fury and let fires reign.There is no escape.Nature means what she does."

~Source Unknown~

Have a great Saturday & Sunday dear friends!

To Dance Alone by musicmuse_ca

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"The Great Way has no gate;

there are a thousand paths to it.

If you pass through the barrier,

you walk the universe alone."

Wu-Men. a 13th century Chinese monk, translated in "The Enlightened Heart" by Stephen Mitchell

And that's the way it is! by denise

12 94

And that truly is the way it is, entered quietly and leave quietly. No big blow out party, no badge retirement, just turn in the keys, and walk out towards to an unkown horizon. The future can only be bright and I will keep my eyes focused on the goals ahead. So long department, hello future!

winter by Margaret Adie

8 15

alium

_MG_0069 by Chris Collins

5 1

Standing in line, marking time waiting for the welfare dime by Dunk 🐝

1

The Way It Is is a song by American rock group Bruce Hornsby and the Range. It was released in the United States in September 1986 as the second single from their debut album, The Way It Is. The song topped the charts in the US, Canada and the Netherlands in 1986, and peaked inside the top twenty in such countries as Australia, Ireland, Switzerland and the United Kingdom en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Way_It_Is_(song)

Public domain picture via Wikimedia Commons w.wiki/5fPM

thewayitis by Anything photography

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really don't like having to do this, but getting a ton of bad. forgive me please

walking man sitting [explored 16.11.12 ] by bradman334

6 6

old fashioned perspective by nj dodge

3 18

westfield, nj

large view

Keyshia Cole - irving Plaza - NYC - 2014 by SEAN Jamar

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Keyshia Cole - irving Plaza - NYC - 2014 by SEAN Jamar

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Keyshia Cole - irving Plaza - NYC - 2014 by SEAN Jamar

Collect Calls from Jail... by cobalt123

7

A sad commentary on America

This sign was at the corner of Thomas Road and 24th Street in Phoenix. I spotted it earlier in the week and made sure to get back for a snapshot. I bet this entrepreneur is doing a bang-up business.

Keyshia Cole - irving Plaza - NYC - 2014 by SEAN Jamar

Keyshia Cole - Irving Plaza - NYC - 2014 by SEAN Jamar

Keyshia Cole - irving Plaza - NYC - 2014 by SEAN Jamar

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Keyshia Cole - irving Plaza - NYC - 2014 by SEAN Jamar

The Way it Is by Kevin Dooley

2

Harry Nilsson - The Way it Is

Keyshia Cole - irving Plaza - NYC - 2014 by SEAN Jamar

Operation Stack by Steven Brandist

1 5

With the cross kitchen service stopped due to industrial action, these tins simply have to wait and be stacked. They will get moved again in turn when the service resumes (first come, first served).

Knowing the way the people act on the other side of the kitchen, this could take weeks. It's just the way they are over there. They have a history of doing it.

At least the extractor fan will take away the smell of anything burning.

I was going to start my own cross kitchen service, but this was ruled out by the Cooking Commission.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Stack

www.myferrylink.com/

Keyshia Cole - irving Plaza - NYC - 2014 by SEAN Jamar