September 3, 2018 by L.E. Hansen

Visiting La Crosse

‘Tis the first home, the foundation. This strange little city making its way along the Mississippi River. Here’s where the memories are stored. (Some of them might be a bit waterlogged.)

Bob Good Photography Studios A few snaps from the bike trails between Downtown La-X and the Trempealeau Hotel. Some of the City trails are currently flooded out but the Great River State Trail was amazing!

Here’s the start up…an old wood bridge to begin the trail

Passing on to the green

Through the green

Passing by ponds

And Swamps

The swamps will be filled with cat-‘o-nine tails come autumn

Ah, the goal—time for a brew

And then the sunset

Is there a more beautiful place? Can there be?

August 31, 2018 by L.E. Hansen

In The Wild

Clouded leopards are from the cloud forests of Southeast Asia and are one of the most ancient of cat species. But they are neither a true great cat nor a true small cat, because they can’t roar or purr.

History Daily

I worry about things like this as I don’t know how to find an answer. The question is this: How do such creatures then communicate with one another? I don’t mean face to face, body language will then work. But distances? How does one cat call out to another? Do they make any noise? Do they let out a loud piercing scream from great distances? This information is so incomplete.

I’m off now to do some google work that will likely get me lost and cost the whole day. But I do want to know more about this beautiful creature.

By the way, perhaps it is our definitions that are lacking if this is not a true cat? Maybe that should be revised. Sure looks like a cat to me!

August 29, 2018 by L.E. Hansen

Yes, But

Photo by Bent Schultz

“One night after a dharma talk, I asked Suzuki Roshi a question about life and death. The answer he gave made my fear of death, for that moment, pop like a bubble. He looked at me and said, “You will always exist in the universe in some form.” ~David Chadwick

Yes but. In some form certainly. Everything decomposes and becomes food or fodder, air or soil, ocean or pond… Energy. Then isn’t the real question the one of consciousness? Even if there is reincarnation into a new being—either better or the worse for karma—will the you that is you now, the You asking the question, still exist? If not, it seems irrelevant to me as you, the current You, won’t know.

August 27, 2018 by L.E. Hansen

Memories Stored

Evangelical Pastafarianism

How do we store our memories? I love this photo as it so depicts the way many of us store our photos, and sometimes letters or thoughts. I’ve written in the margins not only to comment or argue with the writer, but also to capture the way the author’s words or sentences send me on a rollercoaster of my own.

The other day I came across a card my mother sent some many years ago. It was in a book I’d gone back to for a needed quote. I can tell the span of years wherein her thoughts were sent to me by the ones she includes in her comments. Or by the questions: How is Angela doing in first grade? How is the dog doing? All healed from the operation? Did you make the spice tea for the theatre group? And oh my! what a flood of memories those words unleashed. Overwhelming.

Sure I have boxes of photos, some actual albums and dates and times and events. But how sweet to open a past loved book, and find within, the stored memories of a life lived long ago. It’s like a phone call from the past. For a few brief minutes we are transported to that world and we see that face, hear the laughter, and feel the kisses deep.