Literally translated thanks to Google, this means “Step with care.” The sign is on the bus I ride on each day, and there is no English version. It reminds me of the beautiful religion, Jainism. Followers of Jainism (ideally) tred with care, mindful of the creatures on the ground who might be hurt. I try to in daily life as well. Construed more broadly, “Pise con cuidado” could be applied to any kind of interaction and approach to life. Be mindful of those around, be kind.
I love all these articles that keep popping up about chickens! Here is one published today. Here is one that mentions the joy, fun, and wonder of chickens. Another old one. Some advice on raising chickens in one very practical article. One on raising chickens in tough times. These are some photos of chickens I’ve taken in the past:
Beautiful! Definitely worth watching:
I cannot bring myself to kill mosquitoes (which, in part, draws me to explore Buddhism and Jainism), so in China – where there are a lot of mosquitoes – my housemate would always be the one killing them.
Below is a fun video (the title of which is awfully misleading). I dislike that Bill Moyer/others sort of suggests that not killing mosquitoes is a radical and unnecessary extension of environmentalism. While both are based on empathy and respect, I believe that the consciousness in not killing a mosquito more closely and specifically represents the Buddhist way of living a peaceful life. It is not an extreme tangent of the more general save-the-environment attitude – which of course is a good attitude to have, but one that seems somehow less conscious if it does not embrace all of life…and so we must have the consciousness of not killing a mosquito in the same way we approach the environment as a whole, applying the very basic principal of recognizing a small being to recognizing the whole being of the earth and all around…and so environmentalism could in fact be seen as an extension of our attention to a little mosquito and all other little and large lives.
I lately have loved to learn about the Buddha’s original teachings and have compiled a list of various things/characteristics I now associate with Buddhism. I am typing this up having, in the last few weeks, heard a talk introducing Buddhism at the local temple, read the chapter on Buddhism in Huston Smith’s “The Illustrated World’s Religions,” and seen PBS’s two-hour documentary “The Buddha.”
Make-A-Crane 
