A tough morning today, and I'm groping a bit. A minute ago I almost slammed the computer and stalked downstairs to shout "I'm done with writing this memoir, it's too hard."

I just reviewed the 'chronology' I wrote for an exercise last year. It's just as difficult to read as it was to write. I haven't looked at it in months. Set out in that order it ( Read more... )

Final capture for the year:

Spiritual Practice

Turned in another Meditation Report just before departure. In the first 21 days of December I meditated more than 15 times. Several moments of meditation each day since, but no formal sitting. Today we resolved the chair situation, so tomorrow I'll sit again.

Keeping Commitments

I continue to ( Read more... )

It's about to be two in the morning. I turned off the light at 11:30 pm after my second Turkey Day this week. And almost at once found myself lying wide-eyed in the dark, trying to cement into my memory the 'do-list' and 'light-bulb' items that had just sifted up from my dreaming mind. Over the next hour I turned the light on three more times, each ( Read more... )

A post from firedancer has me thinking again about the molecular biology of emotion and (separate but related) the notion of the body as an energy pattern in which we encode, encapsulate, and concretize experience.

Once upon a time I needed to have one of those contrast-dye-injection x-rays. Turns out I have an idiosyncratic and benign reaction to the dye. ( Read more... )

Just read the announcement of my home congregation's Blessing of the Animals ceremony. Some years this has been fun and deeply spiritual, acknowledging our connections to the Web of All Life and recognizing the amazing patience of the animals who make their homes with us, go to the vet because we tell them to, put up with so much nonsense with ( Read more... )

Just back from a much-needed break from life aboard -- a two-night sojourn in (gasp) an Air-Conditioned Hotel Room. We took the dinghy up to town and lucked into a cancellation during the beginning of busy Samana Santa (that's Holy Week, for English-speaking Christians). Pretty bare-bones, as hotel rooms go, but the opportunity for two nights of ( Read more... )

Things I've learned:

Just because something worked last time doesn't mean it will work this time.

Just because something didn't work last time doesn't mean it won't work this time.

It is often possible to reduce a complicated situation to a set of instructions to follow. If doing that works to solve the problem, sometimes it takes all the fun out of ( Read more... )

The voice of anger says 'he's wrong, I'm right, he has to listen to me, I don't have to listen to him ( Read more... )

Light rain falling at 2:45 am ... the spray on my face wakes me, I close the hatch, find the disposable diaper to place where the drip will land next to my knee. DH gets up to check the overhead hatch in the saloon, but forgets the companionway -- after a year on a mooring ball, he's forgotten that we don't face the wind reliably now that we're ( Read more... )

(written Feb 21 while off-line ( Read more... )