Pariyatti

Matthew 21:22 promises us, “Whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, ye shall receive.” Now I grant you that few people read the Bible these days, perhaps because they took Matthew too literally. But it doesn't matter, because today the good news of the Bible has been replaced by the Gospel according to Wellness. Pursuit of a good life has been replaced by the pursuit of the perfect life. “Everything ye pursue to become better, smarter, buffer, younger, more assertive, more caring, more inclusive, more diverse leads thee to a perfect life.”...

narrated by Ian McCrorie · 2023 · 5 minutes 37 seconds

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Our cottage is on a small lake on the Canadian Shield. Our shoreline is very rocky, with large boulders deposited there as the glaciers retreated 10,000 years ago. Amazingly this shoreline provides sufficient sustenance for trees to grow and, in their own way, thrive. They protrude out perpendicularly from crevices between the rocks before turning upwards to catch a modicum of sunlight and spread their gnarly majesty....

narrated by Ian McCrorie · 2023 · 2 minutes 58 seconds

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One summer I drove a truck for an oil company. Two of us installed the oil tanks for furnaces in the basement of houses. It was dirty work. The basements were often unheated. They were seldom clean. One day, it was particularly cold and rainy. We entered through the back door into the kitchen. On my way to the basement stairs I came upon the owners, two unwed older sisters having a breakfast of tea and toast. The tea had just been poured, and...

narrated by Ian McCrorie · 2023 · 4 minutes 51 seconds

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Doing non-doing deconditions the mind so that a happy life, defined by the Stoics as true, virtuous, and natural, arises like a phoenix from the ashes of the conditioned mind. Since the real shift is within you, your new life may retain all the appearances of your old life. After all, the difference, they say, between heaven and hell is a mere sixteenth of an inch, surely an imperceptible amount of change in the grand scheme of things....

narrated by Ian McCrorie · 2023 · 4 minutes 22 seconds

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In Korea it is considered rude to speak immediately after someone else has just spoken. Korean culture demands a slight pause to indicate the listeners have fully digested and appreciated the input. It gives them pause for thought. This promotes civilized dialogue in which everyone’s view is respected. It also calms blind reactions to some perceived fault in the argument. A pause is a conscious decision to...

narrated by Ian McCrorie · 2023 · 2 minutes 31 seconds

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Years ago, when I would walk around my house late at night after everyone else was asleep, it felt like I had always lived there. I liked that it felt that way. As my oldest son said when he was three, “It feels as perfect as right.” I knew where the hardwood floors creaked, and I avoided those spots so I wouldn’t wake the baby who, like me, was a light sleeper. My wife and my five-year-old, he of the aphorism above, slept the sleep of the dead. I could drop a refrigerator on the creaky spots and they wouldn't stir....

narrated by Ian McCrorie · 2023 · 4 minutes 24 seconds

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I loved the water buffalo I encountered in India. Despite their girth and their horns, they were very gentle creatures. They calmly abided all and sundry afflictions, heat, mosquitoes, and monsoon rains without so much as a by-your-leave. Other than whisking away unwanted bitey things with their tails, they endured, and they did so ever so calmly....

narrated by Ian McCrorie · 2023 · 2 minutes 29 seconds

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I loved to go fishing with my father, because he was a terrible fisherman. He never caught anything. I was fine with this. I didn't like to put a worm on the hook. I didn't like taking the hook out of the fish's mouth, and I certainly couldn't bash the head of the fish against the seat of the boat to kill it....

narrated by Ian McCrorie · 2023 · 5 minutes 47 seconds

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I think there is a place in our lives for tradition and even ritual. They keep our lives simple and understandable. In our family we have pancakes every Sunday and tea every evening. We go for walks together. We spend a month every summer at our cottage. We watch a movie every Friday night....

narrated by Ian McCrorie · 2023 · 4 minutes 14 seconds

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The summer after high school, Tony, his younger brother Chris, and I set out in an old Vauxhall held together with spit and bailing wire for points west on the Trans-Canada Highway. We camped the entire way and cooked over an open fire. Once we reached the Pacific, we headed south to the Oregon hills before turning east and eventually home and university. On the way we camped near Mount Rushmore, hoping to see the famous presidential sculptures the next morning....

narrated by Ian McCrorie · 2023 · 4 minutes 22 seconds

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