Becoming B

Good morning from the front of fire 147. It's Friday. Ready for a day off. That's not until Sunday. Between now and then I look forward to more of the unpredictable. Conversations at work that I never thought I'd have. A smile and a wave from a customer. Or a spring sound that I hear only this time of year. Time' is short this morning. Off to the mail trail. Hope you have a great day! 2.28.25

I've been asked to do a podcast interview on the importance of local nurseries and native plants. I am excited and nervous. I listen to hours of podcasts a day. Now I will possibly be the one interviewed. I will post details when we get it worked out. Off to the mail trail. Fire 146 2.27.25

Every bitcoin purchase I have ever made felt like bad timing in the short-term, and fantastic timing in the long-term! Just a reminder that it’s impossible for anyone to time the market. ~ Joel Bomgar

“There are only two types of people in the world, those that understand the benefit of Bitcoin and are trying to get more integrated with it, and those that don’t understand it yet, but they will.” ~ Michael Saylor #Bitcoin

I'm a lifelong Democrat left of center-left Indian boy who grew up in rural, white, and conservative Eastern Washington State. So I have friends and family across the political spectrum—from MAGA to Marxist. And, anecdotally speaking, the happiest people in my life, regardless of political affiliation, are the ones who are part of a spiritual community, exercise regularly, spend time in the outdoors, socialize with extended family, and are in longterm romantic relationships. The unhappiest people in my life are the most politically active, whether by word, thought, deed, or online obsession. ~ Sherman Alexie

6:13 AM. Good morning. :-) Fire 145 2.26.25

For me it's Bitcoin or bust at this point. #Bitcoin

When it comes to my financial future I think of one thing: Bitcoin. The rest is just noise. #Bitcoin

Good morning from the front of fire 144. It's 31 degrees out there. 50 degrees warmer than it was last Tuesday at this time. Yesterday I was delivering mail in Earl at dusk. I heard a robin calling. Thinking more and more about plants and whatever else will be waking up. Ah, the taste of warm weather after a long winter. 2.25.25

#Bitcoin

There is a secret medicine given only to those who hurt so hard they can't hope. The hopers would feel slighted if they knew. ~ Rumi

11:25 AM. Sun shining. 34 degrees. Spring sounds. Snow to slush to wet black top on the roads. My 15 year old son drives me to buy eggs. We have chickens. Most of them to old to lay. The others that lay aren't laying yet. On the way there we talk about town roads. Who got killed on that hill. The stop sign where mom found an abandoned car until she saw a hand pop up. Then it wasn't abandoned anymore. We drive by the house on the hill. The hill his great grandparents gave away to friends on a drunk one night. That's the story anyways. A pileated woodpecker flies from tree to tree next to us. A man walks his two dogs with a whistle around his neck. Looks like a gym teacher. I paid two bucks for the dozen eggs. They're supposed to be four. While delivering their mail I bought a dozen one day; another the next. I only had a five dollar bill a day to slip through the slot underneath the padlock. They owed me two. We're even now. Home now with the eggs. My driver is going to cook us breakfast before we look at a house his older brother and wife might buy. The pallets you see will be covered in native plants in a couple of months. And people will hopefully drive up our driveway with fantasies of gardens full of wildflowers covered in butterflies and bees of all kinds. 2.23.25

7:50 AM. A day off. In front of the fire. I have a podcast I listened to yesterday on my mind. It was with Laurence Hillman. He's an astrologer among many other things. His father was James Hillman. The renegade psychologist that I mention here once and awhile. Before I started delivering mail full time I would spend hours a day with James Hillman's work. It fired me. Anyway, I bring this up because I'm not your typical man. And it bugs me once and awhile. Mostly, I think, because I have been trying to understand our political climate for the past 5 years. I listen to a lot of podcasts with a political slant that I wouldn't have thought about listening to prior to 2020. But listening to Laurence Hillman calmed it a bit. He did a lot of framing of things into left and right brain thinking. When I sit in front of these fires I think I'm mostly in right brain mode. It's timeless and I'm reflective, like the moon. I'm always wondering where the moon is in the morning. I like the framing because it puts aside the questions of masculinity and femininity. We all have left and right brains. And of course the two work together. But in our culture we're mostly raised to use our left brains measuring the world with math and science as we use advanced technology. As we do this we leave the soul behind. The part of us that once, and still does at times, relates to an animated world. Another author I mention here a lot is Daniel Quinn. And I reflect on how his work has had a deep impact on me since my mid twenties. In fact, a local journalist once asked me why I was obsessed with Quinn's work. It sort of pissed me off. I see Quinn's work as a teaching tool. Like anybody else I presume, I want people to have the best tools available for the job. In this case, the job is saving the world. We don't ever ask people that suggest this or that tool or technology if they are obsessed. I'm sort of the same way with Bitcoin. What Quinn's work did for me was wake me up again to a world that is sacred, alive, and like you and I, has a will of its own. So here I am looking at my right brain with my right brain this morning. Fire 142 2.23.25

In 30 minutes I get into my pickup and drive to work. I have to be there on time. Then I will be as efficient as I can be. As I drive from mailbox to mailbox in my community. I do this 6 days a week. Which is supposed to be 5 for me. The one who walks with me longs for things by this time of the week. One is sitting on a log under an oak tree. Where I can be reminded what it is to be free. Fire 141 2.22.25

If you want to learn how to govern, avoid being clever or rich. The simplest pattern is the clearest. Content with an ordinary life, you can show all people the way back to their own true nature. ~ The Tao Te Ching (Photo from the meadow in memory of my Dad)

Fire in front of me. Clock ticking away. I don't know what to say. That's ok. Because this is just play. I'll be back later in the day. Hope you have a great day! Fire 139 2.20.25

"Trust in human nature is acceptance of the good-and-bad of it, and it is hard to trust those who do not admit their own weakness." ~ Alan Watts I have noticed when I decide to make a big change in my life my mind throws up roadblocks. The Buddhists have a name for this: Monkey Mind Sometimes it tells me if I could go back and change the past my life would be so much better. And I could achieve what I want achieve. My weakness is sometimes I believe it when I know the past isn't real. Fire 138 2.19.25

Good morning from the front of fire 137. It's 20 below out there at 5:35 AM. I leave for the mail trail in an hour. I am refreshed. Two days off with plenty of sleep. Hoping my jeep starts and doesn't break in this extreme cold. Everything seems to become brittle when it's this cold. When I logged we'd slam cut trees around with steel blades on the front of our machines. On mornings like this sometimes the thick steel would crack and break. It surprised me when I first saw this. I thought steel was indestructible. Sometimes I would get up on cold mornings like this and my Grandpa would tell me to go back to bed. The machines won't start, he'd say. And if they do, by the time we'd get 'em going we wouldn't make any money anyway. My Grandpa's cousin, who worked with us, was around 60 at the time. He'd been through the Korean War. Worked on airplanes most of his life as an airplane mechanic . . . would say, "this weather isn't fit for man nor beast." ### I was all geared up to copy a calming Rumi quote I opened a book to first thing this morning. I'd share it here, I thought, some people like to start there day off with wisdom. I know I do. But I'm almost out of writing time. So I'll pick a line or two that really speaks to me. It's been awhile since I've read Rumi. "Remember the deep root of your being, the presence of your lord. Give your life to the one who already owns your breath and your moments. If you don't, you will be like the one who takes his precious dagger and hammers it into his kitchen wall for a peg to hold his dipper gourd. You will be wasting valuable keenness and foolishly ignoring your dignity and purpose." Ok, that was 4 lines. Off to the cold that awaits me. 2.18.25

I started giving the kids a weekly allowance in Bitcoin. I call it Bitcoin Sunday. We sit down, I get my phone out, bring up the exchange, and buy it. They write down in a ledger how much is being purchased for them. We add up the entries and see if it's worth more or less than the dollars they stuck into it. Lately it's been down. 2.17.25 #Bitcoin

8:35 AM. Later than usual again. It's my second day off from mail delivery. 15 below zero. The fire in front of me burns bright and hot. Looking forward to another day staying close to home with the family. Tomorrow I will travel every road in my community. As much as I miss being home with my family on the land I feel lucky to deliver mail in my community. I am serving my community. In the end, that's what we're here for, isn't it? To serve each other and a higher power. Last night, around 11, Hayden {15yrs. old} and I drove over to my mom's to fill her outdoor wood boiler. It's about 4 miles over there. He drove. The sky was lit by the waning moon hanging in the eastern sky. The large fields they irrigate in the summer glowed as we drove past them on County E. I was refreshed and wide awake. There are times when we drive over there in the evening that I'll sleep. Work wipes me out. On the way home I was going to listen to a Bitcoin update. But the algorithm threw up a Zen video on the dying process. So I asked Hayden if he'd mind listening. Not at all, he said. In my fantasies of fatherhood prior to it I never imagined driving home listening to monk talk about watching his 108 year old teacher die in front of him. Again, I sometimes wonder what the kid thinks of his old man. I hope he turns out ok. He's not being raised in a conventional setting after all. I started giving the kids a weekly allowance in Bitcoin. I call it Bitcoin Sunday. We sit down, I get my phone out, bring up the exchange, and buy it. They write down in a ledger how much is being purchased for them. We add up the entries and see if it's worth more or less than the dollars they stuck into it. Lately it's been down. My neighbor texted out of the blue the other day. She was checking in to see how we were handling the extreme cold and wanted to know how our other neighbor was doing. He had a bad stroke last July and is not able to come home yet. So I gave her an update. Well, that's it for this morning's musing. Just living life. I hope you have a great day! Fire 136 2.17.24