Writing and Trash (Hopefully the writing is not trash!)

Well, I struggled with copying and pasting and rewriting as long as I could stand it. Did make it till well after noon today and that's an improvement over yesterday.------ Then, took off with a plastic garbage bag to pick up trash in the ditches along our road. Filled the bag quickly so I'll return with another tomorrow to finish the job.------This writing stuff is amazing - it's so difficult to stay focused on the main point. Ticks me off since one of my major mantras is "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing." From Stephen Covey years ago. Still, it's tough - I've done too much blogging and journalling, I guess, where I just ramble along. Surely is nice to have this outlet for that - and especially to hear that someone is actually reading this! ----- It is so warm today I was out with no jacket! February 25 - we're well on our way to spring. If I remember correctly, March 15 is the average last frost date. So, even I can exist in the cold another couple of weeks if necessary.-----The warmth of the sun has been such a delight today. If the wind were a bit slower, I'd take a sunbath! Maybe tomorrow.

Synchronicity and Happy Retreat Days at Seabrook

New routine. Turning off phones in the mornings now to write. I've got many new ideas from my editor and friends and need quiet to put them into use. So, I'm late today - not quite noon, but I burned out - so here's my wisdom for today. Actually, not much wisdom left - just a big blank spot where my brain resides! One fun bit of synchronicity - reached into a row of spiral bound books and pulled one out that turned out to be something VERY useful right that moment! It was my journalling just before and after Bob's death which I will use in trying to describe how I manage to enjoy living alone happily - in particular how I felt and what I did at that crucial time in the story. Frankly, I didn't remember journaling then - but I'm glad I did.-------Here's another photo from the beach retreat last weekend - I love this photo of me and Jan doing a tree pose together! In the cold at sunrise!

Tax day

On my way to Atlanta to see tax preparer! What a joy to have someone else do it for me! More tomorrow! Especially nice to be able to see sons Tate and Luke while I'm in the area.

Spring is springing

My computer is very slow this morning - a lesson in patience. Perhaps my mind is just fast. There is no need for speed this morning. Yesterday, however, was a full one. Among the unusual happenings - I had a drug test! The Family Y requires that for my employment. First time I've applied for a job in 35 years! The attendant assured me that it is not unusual now for employers to require a drug test before hiring. Times do change! ------I've just fixed a few photos with Picnik so I'll share with you. The sunrise one at Seabrook Island is the only one I've ever taken or remember seeing with the full circle of the sun showing.--------- The bluebirds are back checking out their house. I forgot to clean it out - wonder if they'll nest there again? Guess I better leave it alone now and just wait and see. Maybe they like it better with the old furniture? Two geese just flew in. The red maples are showing red. On the back road, Edgefield Road at Kinard Road, on my way home Saturday, I saw a huge bank of forsythia in full bloom - a golden treat! Spring is springing!

Seabrook Eldering Reunion

Wow! Just saw the sun rise from the beach here at Seabrook! What a scene! Sorry I can't send you a photo - forgot to bring the cable with me - will later. This is a super experience - lots of going deeper and finding knowings that won't come to the surface at home where everyday activities demand attention. Now I know why writers go somewhere else to write rather than doing it at home. One of the exciting things we've done here is draw a labyrinth on the beach. Now I know how to do it in a way that guarantees success and can show others. Sara and I will do that when we get to Folly Beach the end of April. The "council" meetings we've been doing are revealing - that's the best word I can think of for now - revealing of many things one cannot discover without mirroring from others. Now it's tea time and breakfast and a morning with Jan, Sara, Karen, and JacqueB. I'm planning to drive back to the Pond late today so I'll be available tomorrow. Happy Sunday to you!

Very soon I'll leave for Seabrook Island and a weekend retreat with soul friends. I doubt I'll be in a bathing suit, but the weather is predicted to be sunny and warm. My Happy By Myself ms arrived back from writing coach yesterday! What a life-changing event! Lisa's evaluation inspired me to get truly serious about this book. So, now the real work begins and I'm eager to get started - but first, I'll clear the slate - and establish a routine - and just LOVE IT! I've been writing all my life and published quite a few academic and lay writings during my forestry career but now I'm writing about LIFE! Actually Lisa brought it out loud and clear that what the book is really about is the 6 activities and 6 needs I've been writing and speaking about since 1996. Strange but that surprised me - it seems like old stuff to me - but to her it was exciting. So, I'll rethink my approach. That really is the heart of the book, of course. Or it should be, she thinks! I'll still post often, but you may get bored with all the writing stuff I'm bound to be thinking of.

Noticing

Missed posting yesterday. It was the third day of tax records organization and now I'm nearly ready for my meeting with my tax preparer. I'll let it sit over the weekend and then another quick check before going to Atlanta on Wednesday to meet with him. Right now, life is very full again. I love it that way - particularly with today pretty much free to just be most of the time in preparation for the Elder Vision Quest reunion over the weekend. The weather is cooperating so we can spend time on the beach!! Hallelujah! One of my favorite places to be. ------ Time to mow the liriope so I'll see if I can get the lawn mower cranked up ---- Fog on the Pond this morning. There's something peaceful about the scene. All is still. I can see the reflection of my candle in the window and it flickers. Otherwise, stillness. Around mid-day I hope it's warm enough to sit on the porch - if not, it will be warm enough to sit out in the sunshine and walk the labyrinth. Spring is not far off. What a joyous time of year when things come back to life again - just as they do every year. But for the next few weeks, it's not for sure - just some tiny suggestions where a new shoot peeks out from under the leaves and weeds left in the beds. What fun! At the coast I expect to see more evidence of new growth - it's usually a bit ahead of us here in the foothills. So, what shall be my new growth? I'll dwell on that this weekend so I don't let an opportunity slip by unnoticed.

A Doctor in Yoga Class!

Whoops! Missed posting yesterday. It was an exciting busy one. Yoga class at the Y - new student - a practicing medical doctor who after class asked for my card and schedules at the Yogatorium for himself and a friend. I have LONG hoped for a practicing doctor in my class! What a joy it is to now have the chance to demonstrate the benefits of yoga to one!!! --------Big news - my editor is mailing her work on the first third of my book to me today! So, I'll have plenty to do when that arrives. Spent a whole bunch of time trying to answer the question "How will your book change lives?" to enter a contest where the winner will receive a $10,000 publishing contract. Win or lose, it was a great opportunity to try to find concise words (130 characters) to answer the question. Had some nice help from friends.Then, I'll have to learn how to use Twitter to enter the contest! Another fun challenge. Challenges, that's what keeps life interesting. -------But, in the meantime, I'm going on a retreat at Seabrook Island this weekend with 7 women AND the weather will be GOOD! Not really cold like the last retreat. When I return, I'll be ready to tackle the book again. Happy Valentine's Day After!

Right Living - Combining Meditations

Sunday 8:30 service this morning was inspiring - as it often is when Pastor Gragg speaks. I heard righteousness (I call it right living) on the outside AND on the inside. For a practicing yogini that fits well. I hadn't been to church in a while so it was particularly comforting to be there - the church I grew up in and only returned to 6 years ago. Yes, comforting is the right word.-------No one showed up for the 3:00 Saturday yoga session and I turned it into a super experience. I had, in preparation for the session, done a walking meditation from Insight Meditation kit and then sat in one based on body sensations. The two together were good companions. I'll do that again. I was surprised to read later in the workbook the suggestion that they be paired! Synchronicity? -------I now have comments from two friends on my book. Both are very useful. Susan really hit the nail on the head by suggesting it become two books - a memoir and a self-help. That would certainly settle the question of --what genre is it? I've got lots to think about now!!! But first, another cup of tea and a bit of knitting.

Life is Like a Spinning Top

Maureen was here yesterday for a yoga session alone with me. It is always fun to be able to work with a student one-on-one and try new asanas and be able to converse as we go along. I'm already looking forward to today's session and expect again no more than a couple students. Don't get me wrong - I like teaching large groups, also! Any teaching of yoga is FUN. ------ The funeral for Faye's mother is today. My heart is with her and the whole family. The death of one's mother takes us very deep into ourselves with feelings arising that may never ever before have surfaced. It is a time for quiet and reflection and enjoying memories. It is a time for sadness (at least in our culture) and recognition of our own mortality. Yesterday my reading included a comparison of our lives to a spinning top. Remember those toys? Some you could push a handle down many times till the spring got tight and then turn loose and it would spin on its own for a time. Another kind my father was very good at using involved wrapping a string around the top (wooden, usually) and then rapidly pulling the string as he dropped the top to the table or floor and it spun around on its own. My reading compared this to our lives - we spin around and then life simply stops - unpredictably. Watching the top spinning, you could see it begin to slow down and then wobble a bit and finally go down on its side. I'm tempted to go on writing about this, but I think you might enjoy it more using your own thoughts.

Truthfulness (satya)

Great day yesterday. A turning point. Most of you know I've been dealing with IBS for many years now - beginning in 1985 with the removal of my gall bladder. I finally made the call for an appointment with a medical doctor in Asheville who combines alternative medicine in his practice. I know such a move is controversial, but my medical doctors have only this to offer - "until something hurts, we can't know what to fix." I don't want to wait until something hurts. So, I made the leap. ------ The yama I'm concentrating on this month is satya or truthfulness. In reading this morning I learned an intention about satya about which I was unaware. "One's truthfulness toward self and others not only ennobles one's personal actions but also removes the pressure to deceive that those around us may feel." Can that be so? In my efforts to improve my own actions, I never thought about the fact that such might also improve the actions of others. This is heavy stuff. Sorry if it isn't pleasant to read. I spent much of yesterday watching the stuff going on in Egypt and it stirred up some deep feelings. Today I'll go to the laundromat and read and knit and let it all settle in. HAPPY DAY TO YOU!

Projecting and Judging

Snow again but just a dusting compared to the earlier one.

Still, such serenity! Hard to feel anything but peaceful with views like these! I wish it had not fallen while I was asleep so I could have watched it come down. ------This morning Satchidananda writes about projecting. I have only in the last five years become aware of this psychological phenomenon - I project my own images onto others. I've been surrounded with psychotherapists of one kind or another (I can count 5) and am now very much aware that when I judge others (which is very often) I am truly judging myself! "Not every hole has a snake" is the old country proverb Satchidananda writes. Do I expect a snake in every hole? I'm afraid I do, at least at times when I lose my new understanding. The only psychology class I ever had was a "Marriage and the Family" one after I'd been married more than ten years - longer than the professor - and I don't recall the idea of projection, although it probably did arise. I still don't understand the why of this, but I definitely see it is so - at least for me. The whole idea of judging is one I'm trying to eliminate, but not very successfully. Still, it's on my list of stuff to avoid. Do you project?

Meditate to Train the Mind to Stay Focused

Well, yesterday didn't work out quite like I predicted. Busy all day long - two classes at the church last evening - BUT I did just this morning manage to answer my phone with a Send!!!!! No problem. So, call me - now I think I know how to answer it! ---bright sunshine this morning over the Pond. Ducks are out swimming all around the place. Great Blue Heron visited a couple days ago but don't see him this morning.---I've gotten the wanderlust again as I nearly always do in the winter. Thinking of returning to Santa Fe in the late summer. I just didn't get enough of it last year. But, I'll let things rattle around in my head a bit longer and make a commitment before the month is out. What a joy to have so many options available. ------ I've promised myself to get my tax records together before Sunday night so I'll at least try to get started on that project today. I've learned from the past that I just can't get it all together in less than two or three days of effort. So, this is a good time to do it, but I'll first do a bit of knitting just for the fun of it. I do love starting my days with fun things of some kind. Whoops! forgot my daily reading of Satchidananda's wisdom. -------He writes - stay focused on one thing at a time - that is one good reason for meditating - to train the mind to stay focused on one thing at a time. I'm trying but I've still got a long way to go!

Answer the phone by Send????

Warmer weather is on its way! But first, snow showers Thursday morning! Yoga classes are growing - all is well with me. How blessed I am to be healthy, wealthy and getting wise, at least occasionally I think something wise! Where did that come from - that "healthy, wealthy, and wise" - I've heard it all my life. Guess I'll Google it. Amazing what we can learn and how easily these days. Except how to use my new cell phone. Who in the world would have ever thought you answer a call by pushing "Send". That's nuts!!!! I've been trying to use the phone for a couple weeks now and still can't remember to do that. I'm tempted to go back to my old one - except that I can't find it - I stashed it somewhere I thought it would be useful - Oh, in my car's glove compartment. Maybe later I'll retrieve it and give up on the new one. One thing is for sure - my brain is getting overloaded with all the new stuff I'm attempting to keep up with! Just for today, I think I'll get back to my knitting and watch a soap opera or my Netflix movie - an old one, which I saw once before, but that makes it even better - much more relaxing - maybe this time I'll hear more of the dialogue along with the pictures! Enough of this garbage. Have a happy day!

Back at Blogging

Six days since I've written! Where have I been? Here all the time. Beginning last Tuesday, however, I began preparing for the visit of my Pod sisters which means cleaning house. I don't do that very often - ususally just three times a year when they visit or when someone else does. Five of us were here, 3 missing. Nancy had planned to come but learned just last Thursday that her Mother has inoperable pancreatic cancer and stayed in Atlanta to be with her, of course. The bonding of the Pod sisters is truly beautiful. How very fortunate I am to be a part of the group. Mothers of two of the five have already transitioned and mothers of the other three are all fighting serious health issues. Even so, we shared many joyful moments in addition to the sad ones. ------ I've signed up for a "writing family history" continuing education class during the month of March and am eager for that experience. It's truly a short course - only 4 or 5 Mondays and it's over, but perhaps I'll learn enough to encourage me to put some more down on paper rather than saying "some day." -----One of the four cats that live next door is running the labyrinth - actually chasing something, not meditating. The surface of the Pond is like glass, not a single ripple, but a fine mist rolling across. More rain showers expected. Tea is finished. Time for breakfast and later yoga at the Y. Have a joy filled day!

An Ordinary Day

Twelve people at the Y class yesterday - and again 3 new ones. How rewarding it is to see new ones showing up each week! -----My physical was great! All the blood work is good and nothing to say except get a TAPD vaccination (tetanus and whooping cough) which I did - by the way, the last two doctor visits I've had to pay out of my pocket for the first time in many years! Not much, thank goodness, but still, times are changing. $19 to the dentist and $52 yesterday for the vaccination. Anyway, I'm good to go for another year. ----Waiting for the plumber now to fix the leak in the commode at the cabin and check my hot water heater. I had been tentatively planning to go to Yogaville in March for an Ayurveda Yoga Therapy training with Mukunda Stiles. BUT, finally I checked and discovered it just won't work , It's at least a 7-hour drive and I can't go early and split the driving - so I'll look for something else more feasible - perhaps another trip to Santa Fe in late summer----I turned in my employment papers yesterday to the Y which commits me now to a Monday morning class there. Kind of nice to have the structure of yoga classes to build my retirement life around. I learned early on that at least some structure is very important to my wellbeing. As you can see, no earthshaking thoughts this morning - just ordinary life. Some of these days are welcome!