Suiseki is the Japanese art of stone appreciation and may also refer to the objects of the appreciation, the stones. Suiseki may take many forms including those that bear a resemblance to human figures, animal figures, landscape forms, and those which are purely abstract.

Natural stone and rock formations, with no artificial carvings, are preferred. Suiseki are sometimes carved and then thrown back into a lake so that any markings can be washed away with time. The stones can be any color, and contrasting colors are not uncommon.

The size of the stone can be quite varied. They can weigh hundreds of pounds or less than an ounce. Subtlety of color, shape, and markings is also desired, as is beauty of texture and shape. Suiseki are usually reminiscent of someone or something, or may convey a spiritual nature that moves viewers in some way.

One of the most important aspects of suiseki is the great care which is taken in displaying stones. They are usually set upon a stable surface, such as a rosewood pedestal that has been carved specifically for the stone. Suiseki should always be the predominant element and the container or surroundings should never detract from the stone.

Gravenstein is a variety of apple native to Grasten in South Jutland, Denmark. The variety was discovered in 1669 as a chance seedling, although there is some evidence that the variety originated in Italy and traveled north. The skin is a delicately waxy yellow-green with crimson spots and reddish lines, but the apple may also occur in a classically red variation.

The Gravenstein was introduced to western North America in the early 19th century, perhaps by Russian fur traders, who are said to have planted a tree at Fort Ross in 1811. The Gravenstein apple was introduced to the Canadian province of Nova Scotia in the 19th century. Charles Rammage Prescott, the father of the Nova Scotian apple industry, grew Nova Scotia’s first Gravensteins in his orchard at Acacia Grove. By 1859, Gravenstein trees were commonly cultivated on Nova Scotian farms. The Gravenstein apple is still considered the choicest apple by many Nova Scotians.

The Gravenstein apple is considered by many to be one of the best all-around apples with a sweet, tart flavor and is especially good for baking and cooking. It is picked in July and August and is known as a good cooking apple, especially for apple sauce and apple cider. It does not keep well, so it is available only in season. In addition, their short stems and variable ripening times make harvesting and selling difficult.

The red Gravensteins, are considered a sport rather than a true variety. The flesh is juicy, finely grained, and light yellow. Trees are among the largest of standard root varieties, with a strong branching structure. The wood is brownish-red and the leaves are large, shiny, and dark green. It grows best in moderate, damp, loamy soil with minimal soil drying during the summer months. Locations close to watercourses and edges of ponds are preferred. Gravensteins will not thrive in areas of high groundwater and require moderate protection against wind.

During the first half of the 20th century, Gravensteins were the major variety of apples grown in western Sonoma County, and were the source for apple sauce and dried apples for the U.S. troops in World War II. Most of the orchards in Sonoma County are now gone due to a combination of suburban development, a shift to wine production, and economic changes in the apple industry. Only six commercial growers and one commercial processor remain in Sonoma County as of 2006. In 2005, Slow Food USA declared the Gravenstein apple a heritage food and included it in their Ark of taste. Slow Food USA reports that production in Sonoma County is currently 15,000 tons of Gravensteins a year.

A yawn involves a deep inhalation accompanied by a gaping mouth, squinted eyes and sometimes stretching. The average yawn lasts six seconds and is commonly related to situations of boredom or tiredness. However, it also occurs upon waking up, and athletes and musicians have been observed yawning before performing.

Yawning is associated with tiredness, stress, overwork, lack of stimulation, or boredom. Yawning can also be a powerful non verbal message with several possible meanings, depending on the circumstances. In humans, yawning has an infectious quality. Seeing a person yawning, or just thinking of yawning, can trigger yawning which is a typical example of positive feedback. The exact causes of yawning are still undetermined. The claim that yawning is caused by lack of oxygen has not been substantiated scientifically. Another speculated reason for yawning is nervousness and is also claimed to help increase the state of alertness of a person. Paratroopers have been noted to yawn in the moments before they exit an aircraft.

The yawn reflex is often described as contagious. If one person yawns, this may cause another person to sympathetically yawn. Observing another person’s yawning face, thinking about yawning, or even reading this blog entry, can cause you or another person to yawn. The cause for contagious yawning may lie with mirror neurons in the frontal cortex, which upon being exposed to a stimulus from the same species can activate similar regions in the brain.

Mirror neurons have been proposed as a driving force for imitation which lies at the root of much human learning such as language. Yawning may be an offshoot of the same imitative impulse. A 2007 study found that children with autism do not increase their yawning frequency after seeing videos of other people yawning. This supports the claim that contagious yawning is based on the capacity for empathy.

Recently, researchers from the University of Albany proposed that yawning may be a means to keep the brain cool. Mammalian brains operate best within a narrow temperature range. In two experiments, they demonstrated that subjects with cold packs attached to their foreheads and when asked to breathe nasally exhibited reduced contagious yawning when watching videos of people yawning. A similar recent hypothesis is that yawning is used for regulation of body temperature.

Another hypothesis is that yawns are caused by the same neurotransmitters in the brain that affect emotions, mood, appetite, and other phenomena. These chemicals include serotonin, dopamine, glutamic acid, and nitric oxide. As more or less of these compounds are activated in the brain, the frequency of yawning increases. Conversely, a greater presence in the brain of opiate neurotransmitters such as endorphins reduces the frequency of yawning.

Anecdotal reports by users of psilocybin mushrooms often describe a marked stimulation of yawning while intoxicated, especially while undergoing the most intense portion of the psilocybin experience. While opioids have been demonstrated to reduce this yawning provoked by psilocybin, it is not clear that the same pathways that induce yawning as a symptom of opioid abstinence in habituated users are the mode of action in yawning in mushroom users. 

Recent research carried out by Catriona Morrison, a lecturer in psychology at the University of Leeds, involving monitoring the behavior of students kept waiting in a reception area, indicates a connection between empathic ability and yawning. She found that contagious yawning indicates empathy and an appreciation of other people’s behavioral and physiological state.

Yet another theory is that yawning occurs to stabilize pressure on either side of the ear drum. The deep intake of air can sometimes cause a popping sound that only the yawner can hear. This is the pressure on the middle ear such as inside an airplane and when travelling up and down hills, which cause the eardrums to be bent instead of flat. Some people yawn when storms approach, which is a sure sign that changes in pressure affect them.

Some movements in psychotherapy believe that yawning, along with laughter and crying, are means of discharging painful emotion, and therefore can be encouraged in order to promote physical and emotional changes.

Certain superstitions surround the act of yawning. The most common of these is the belief that it is necessary to cover one’s mouth when one is yawning in order to prevent one’s soul from escaping the body. The Ancient Greeks believed that yawning was not a sign of boredom, but that a person’s soul was trying to escape from its body, so that it may rest with the gods in the skies. This belief was also shared by the Maya.

Yesterday I attended a memorial service for a member of my church community that had made her transition last month. I had taken a class during the past winter that she had helped facilitate, and I was in several of the groups she had helped to lead. I knew her as an accepting, grounded and creative individual with a wonderful sense of humor and lighthearted attitude.

The service was very empowering, and allowed me to understand the many ways she had touched many people’s lives. It was incredible to see how we in the church community supported the family members as we reminisced about things we had done together and experiences we had. Although the focus of the event was the individual that was no longer with us, the service was all about us and the family. 

I always thought I would see her again, and that we would be able to connect in many ways during the coming years. But she lost her life partner of many years during the previous month, and she took her own life after that. She could not stand to be alone. Most of the people at the service understood this and did not question what she did. We all knew the deep pain she was experiencing.

The emptiness we feel when we lose a loved one is insurmountable. Life lacks purpose and meaning following a loss, and we know for certain that there will always be an empty part of our lives that will never return. We can do everything possible to distract, replace and renew but that missing part of ourselves is always there. It never goes away.

I can understand how she felt, and it fills me with compassion to imagine the constant emptiness she must have experienced. I’m sure many people in the community tried to help her through the loss, and it must have been extremely difficult to pull her through the troubled times she had. There is so little we can do to make a difference for another when a loss occurs, but it is also all we can do.

It is so important for us to appreciate the love we have in our lives right now and to relish every moment of it. We must allow our souls to be filled with the goodness of the many hearts around us, and we must keep the fire alive within our selves and all around us. The spirit flowing through us lives forever and is eternally present in all things. The divine intelligence only knows an eternal love and guiding presence. It is here with us now and forever.

I have learned a few nuggets of truth in my existence here on planet earth, in this universe, in this realm of consciousness. Not all of them have been great discoveries. Some of them have been disappointments and failures, but they have been critical to the understanding of this life. However, there is one thing that has always been shown to me. It has always impressed me with the undeniable fact of what it is.

This one thing is acceptance. I really have no choice in what happens or how my life progresses. It goes along with the mantra to accept the things that I can’t change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference. Indeed, this is an acceptance of self, a deep appreciation of who I am and the will to believe in what I can or can not do.

There are many things that I know I can do, and I let myself influence the universe in certain ways so that conditions will manifest. But when I start to push real hard to make certain things occur, it inevitably leads to disappointment. Like many people, I want things to happen right away, believing that when certain conditions are met everything will be fine.

Strangely enough, as soon as I accomplish these self centered goals, something else comes up. I want to be free again, and think that if I have something else or change things again they will make everything OK again. It’s like filling a vessel with a big hole in the bottom. Constantly trying to make it full as it drains out everything I put into it.

There is no solution for this. It is a constant cycle of wanting and getting. It is the primal instinct of survival, and when I let it take me over I am left with a worn out shell of what I was meant to be. When I center myself in the truth of my existence and recognize the core of being, I become free of the cycle. 

We must have a beginner’s mind, free from possessing anything, a mind that knows everything is in flowing change. Nothing exists but momentarily in its present form and color. One thing flows into another and cannot be grasped.