ASIATIC DAYFLOWER

Commelina communis

Multi purpose plant for food, medicine, dyes, and more

This shy, persistent beauty is one of my favorites.  Every day a new flower opens, and the color is what I call 'heavenly blue'.  It's the flower of my childhood when we played on the old Croton acqueduct behind the house in Yonkers, New York. The Asiatic dayflower is considered a weed both in areas where it was introduced and in certain parts of its native range. The flowers' interactions with pollinators have been well studied and have helped to support important hypotheses about pollination in the field of plant ecology. Recent research has also revealed that the Asiatic dayflower can bioaccumulate a number of metals, making it a candidate for revegetating and essentially cleaning spoiled copper mines. Several animals and fungi use the plant as a food source, with a few species feeding upon it exclusively.

LINKS
http://www.eattheweeds.com/commelina-diffusa-what-a-day-for-a-day-flower-2/ 

• 5.1 Medicine and food
• 5.2 Pigment and dye

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commelina_communis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croton_Aqueduct

NOTE
My computer died Friday and went to hospital Saturday
(https://www.rossmanngroup.com/) 

After an attempt to replace the core, and that only uncovering worse problems, the verdict was it is essentially not fixable BUT through the miracle of coincidence a replacement Mac laptop was found and offered as a kindness. So I'm back on line, and the screen is larger which is a bonus. I lost the ability to download photographs. It's still there I just don't know how to access it. E-mailed a friend who set me up originally and who will visit Today or Tuesday. Meanwhile, this new/old one is the same operating system (expires 2011 warranty just like my old one but good for many years he thinks) and all my data was transferred. I'm set for the time being to continue rowing this boat down our mutual blog stream.

~*~

Special thanks to dear Jude hill who made it possible.

HUMAN FLOURISHING

Eudaimonia
(Greek: εὐδαιμονία)
Commonly translated as happiness or welfare; however, "human flourishing" has been proposed as a more accurate translation.

Metta
(by Sharon Salzberg)
http://www.vipassana.com/meditation/facets_of_metta.php

At Tibet House
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibet_House

Conscious Yoga
(the sky mid-morning)

Yoga for Mental Wellness
Twice weekly in the morning
this wonderful way of practicing.

Meditation

New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care
I have, along with many others, entered the 'Commit to Sit' initiative for ninety days beginning January 14th-ending April 4th. Each day prompts are sent from "The Whole Hearted Way" by Eihei Dogen, translated by Kosho Uchiyama Roshi, and we sit wherever we happen to be, knowing the entire community is with us wherever they are.

Generosity
(A surprise birthday gift from Cynthia Craig)
We meet at 'Windthread', Grace Forest's blog.  These Medicines are fine organic herbal products sent by one who is concerned with the well being of others.

http://www.takingrootvt.com/

Three Postcards
(Buddhist Images)
Milarepa

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milarepa 

Hayagriva

http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/sculptures-statues-figures/a-gilt-bronze-figure-of-hayagriva-tibet-5716011-details.aspx
 
Mount Meru

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Meru

Friday

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday#Etymology

~*~

N0 TIME

If time does not exist

when did this building rise to ten floors ?

 Did this store vacate overnight?

 Was this building ever occupied?

 Was this street corner suddenly a movie set?

 *

If time doesn't exist, do my lists matter,

is the calendar relevant, and does Buddha know?

 Did the phone ring, and was the message true?

 *

If Time doesn't exist, did Shiva ride a bull?

 Is poor-folks food real?

Is health food healthy?

 

 Will Calms be my forte',

and what did the snail mail guardian guard?

Has harry Potter learned to fly?

 *

Time, which does not exist, stood still

at Broome Street Temple

 A mother bowed her head

 Her child gazed at me,

then headed to the music.

 Timeless chanting began,

 and the tabla kept time,

though time did not exist.

*
http://www.broomestreettemple.org/

 ~*~
Julian Barbour explores the history of scientific thought on the concept of time and presents his own interpretations of what time is.

 ~*~

WORD MEDICINE

The Truly Great

I think continually of those who were truly great.
Who, from the womb, remembered the soul's history
Through corridors of light, where the hours are suns,
Endless and singing. Whose lovely ambition
Was that their lips, still touched with fire,
Should tell of the Spirit, clothed from head to foot in song.
And who hoarded from the Spring branches
The desires falling across their bod ies like blossoms.

What is precious, is never to forget
The essential delight of the blood drawn from ageless springs
Breaking through rocks in worlds before our earth.
Never to deny its pleasure in the morning simple light
Nor its grave evening demand for love.
Never to allow gradually the traffic to smother
With noise and fog, the flowering of the spirit.

Near the snow, near the sun, in the highest fields,
See how these names are fêted by the waving grass
And by the streamers of white cloud
And whispers of wind in the listening sky.
The names of those who in their lives fought for life,
Who wore at their hearts the fire's centre.
Born of the sun, they travelled a short while toward the sun
And left the vivid air signed with their honour.

~Stephen Spender~

posted by R. Nemo Hill yesterday