Self-Sufficiency – Darrell G Yardley

Old Man on a Bike

Post author:Darrell Yardley
Post published:May 11, 2021
Post category:Climate Change Life Style Choices Self-Sufficiency The Secular Hermit

My e-bike, Burley trailer, and me. After a year's delay from the pandemic, I am back to going to an"all bicycling" lifestyle mode, selling my truck (F150), which is my…

Burnout and Taking Control of Your Life

Post author:Darrell Yardley
Post published:February 9, 2021
Post category:Personal Growth/Individuation Self-Sufficiency

Many years ago, I had an associate dean in our college say to me, "When you can't walk away from something, it controls you. You don't control it." I've thought…

e-Biking It!

Post author:Darrell Yardley
Post published:January 26, 2021
Post category:Bicycle Log Climate Change Self-Sufficiency The Secular Hermit

I'm such a wuss! The hills and mountains around here were striking at my undoing in terms of bicycling. Around here in town, I'm good. It is pretty flat. However,…

Pear Preserves and What Happened to All the Canning Lids?

Post author:Darrell Yardley
Post published:October 1, 2020
Post category:Cooking Self-Sufficiency

I like pear preserves occasionally with my biscuits. It is not an every-biscuit thing, just occasionally the mood hits. (Same with sorghum molasses.) Last year, when I couldn't find any…

Backyard Chickens

Post author:Darrell Yardley
Post published:September 21, 2020
Post category:Self-Sufficiency

This is my newest self-sufficiency project: six chick hens, four of which are Rhode Island Reds and two Barred Rocks (for a little variety). It will be 6 months though…

Chop water, carry wood is a blog by Darrell G. Yardley, PhD, LPC, focusing on wide variety of topics on spirituality and science, Zen Buddhism, secular religious naturalism, Native American spirituality, and science (psychology, evolution, genetics, neurobiology, chaos theory). Defining spirituality as a combination of the cultivation of inner-peace and personal growth.

Promoting simplicity, mindfulness, self-sufficiency, self-reliance, self-actualization, inner-peace, personal growth, and eco-responsibility. My credo is: reduce, repair, repurpose, recycle, and compost. I will take up a range of topics including gardening, bicycling, and whatever topics are on my mind.

Having just finished my second book, The Guru on the Mountain, which shortly will be available on Amazon.com, I am working toward another with a working title, Buddha on a Bike, about my increased interest and involvement in bicycling, the adventures thereon, and relevant to the above topics.

The blog’s title is a wordplay based on an old Zen proverb: “Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.”

What does it mean? There are several layers of meaning to this old, pithy saying. One one level it means that the world does not change when we become “enlightened”. We still must do the work we need to do from moment to moment. The world doesn’t change, but we do, or rather, our perspective and response to the world changes. After enlightenment, the world is still just, the world. It just is. At another level, it is telling us to be fully present in each moment, i.e. to be mindful, no matter what our task.

It is about living your regular life, but from a different perspective and understanding. A spiritual life does not require that we shave our heads, live in the desert, give up all possessions, etc. We can live our regular life, only different; with mindfulness, less attachment, letting go into each moment, then letting it go into the next, realizing that all is impermanent. Being more relaxed, less uptight, realizing that nothing is permanent, everything changes. Less judgmental.

My wordplay is that you can’t of course, chop water, not unless of course it is its solid form of ice. So, my wordplay is a paradox built upon the Zen paradox, known as koans. Koans are Zen word puzzles that are directed to helping students (that be all of us) to obtain enlightenment.

Hopefully my words will help you in this endeavor in your own journey. If not, at least maybe a little enjoyment. Gassho