Scorched Earth

Where: Dry river bed, Gorge of Inferno, Vall de Laguar, Spain
When: January 28, 2009
What I Like: The angle, the subject, the spiky bush on the left, and how it's branches and shadows echo the sun's rays, the textures.
What I Don't Like: I'd like to bump up the exposure a touch. But mostly I like it.

"We have to give up our slavish obedience to whatever system of pain avoidance we have devised and realize that we can't escape discomfort simply by running faster and trying harder. The faster we run from our pain, the more our pain overtakes us. When what we depended on to give our life meaning doesn't work any more, what are we going to do?

...Sitting is not about finding a happy, blissful state. [These] states may occur in sitting, when we've really experienced our pain over and over, so that finally there's just letting go. That surrender and opening into something fresh and new is the consequence of experiencing pain, not a consequence of finding a place where we can shut the pain out."

-- Charlotte Joko Beck, Nothing Special: Living Zen

Struggling with pain and the avoidance of the experience of pain today, my mind bouncing off the discomfort manically, in a frantic attempt to avoid feeling how sore and tired I am right now. I'm working to stay present - allowing myself to drift the way my mind wants to results in getting sucked into imaginary fights in my head, gripping and tension in my body, and sudden fits of frustration and crankiness. Staying aware of that process is exhausting though.