Middle season #24 -2024

 

The task you’re avoiding

 What is the 2-minute version of the task I’m avoiding?

From James Clear’s newsletter 

Booknotes for Vincent and Theo by Deborah Heiligman

 

39. The book is organized into sections called "galleries," as though you're walking through a museum.  Some chapters have organizing structures inside them.  One chapter is called Vincent Walking and has two separate walks he does.  Chapter 7 "Vincent: the Readheaded boy" has a series of subtitles that look like painting titles: Vincent, Book in hand, bincent, Dreaming.  Chapter 11 is called "Theo: Some Croquis"...  The author helps with: "A croquis is a sketch. Artists make croquis for different reasons. While learning how to draw the human figure, an artist uses a croquis to concentrate on a different part of the body, a different pose: how an arm bends throwing a ball, what the hand looks like when grasping a painbrush or a fishing pole or a lover's hand.... Sometimes the artist uses croquis for subjects who won't or can't stay still -- like a feral cat or a small child, someone whose whole being cannot be capture on paper in one steady view.  So, like Theo.  [then the author begins her four named Croquis of Theo, I-IV

49 Love how author uses "walks" in a literal and figurative sense: In the years to come, Vincent will take many long walks, for many different reasons, in different moods. It will be years before he figures out where he's going.  He will often crave company, demand help, plead for both. on this day he knows where he's going, and he's carryig his own parcel.

128 (good paragraph) So with passion and perseverance, he spends day after day filling pages of notebooks made of old Dutch paper like the one he boughs from bookseller in Brussels. He sketches in graphite and reed pen. He experiments with watercolor and sepia ink. He copies plates from Charles Bargue's  Cours de dessin (Drawing Course). He's attacking art with the force and fury of a storm, and the tenacity of a tradesman learning a craft.  By late August he has news to report to Theo: "You should know that I'm sketching large drawings after Millet. ... Well, if you saw them perhaps you wouldn't be too unhappy with them."

list of painters: Jean-francois Millet, Jules Breton,  Onece in Paris: Degas, Mary Cassaatt, Gauguin, Renoir, Pissarro, Berhe Morisot, Monet (he take Vincent to Impressionist exhibit) Also Seurat and Paul Signac, also Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Emile Bernard. then huge impression: Adolphe Monticelli

173. First oil painting - View of the Sea at Scheveningen; By October he's drawn one hundred studies of figures -- all since Theo's August visit.  He can't quite capture on paper what he has in his head, but he's learning. "Success is sometimes the outcome of a whole string of failures," he tells Theo.

211 - Vincent will not be deterred by the criticism. He tells Van Rappard, "I keep on making what I can't do yet in order to learn to be able to do it."

248 sentence: They are so different, but their differences, when they are on the same path, complement each other, fill in spaces.  Another sentence: Vincent is experimenting with different styles: aspects of pointillism, mixed with the more graphic approach of the Japanese paintings he loves.  He uses some of his drawing technqieus in his painting, too -- dashes and strokes, working to find the paiting style that he likes best.  In May he starting loading his brush again, making thicker, fuller strokes.  From the middle of May to the end of July he paints almost forty scenes of parks full of bright colors and thick paint.

278. In the time he will spend in Arles -- 444 days -- he'll make two hundred paintings and one hundred drawings, a hug number for an artist. He'll paint landscapes, still lifes, scenes of cafes at night, furniture, rooms, flowering trees, flowers -- he is about to begin painting his favorite again, sunflowers.

• March 30, 1853 - Vincent born
• 1873 - starts to work at Groupil; firesd 1876
• 1877 - attends theology school
• Feb 20, 1888 - moves to Arles
• Oct 23, 1888 - Paul Gauguin arrives in ARles, moves in with him
• Dec 23, 1888 - they fight, V cuts off ear; 
• May 1889 - V packs paitins he made in ARles and sends to Theo -- they are superb
• May 8, 1889 - checksk into Saint Paul de Mausole asylum in St. Remy de provence
• April 1890 - send paintings to Theo, including Almond tree in bloom for his godson
• May 20, 1890 - V moves to Auvers-sur-Oise, meets Dr. Gachet
• July 27, 1890 - V shoots hismelf; 
• July 29, 1890 - V dies
• Jan 25, 1891 - Theo dies

References for each chapter -- filled with letters

Surprise dates

Kasamatsu Shiro  "Waves of Petals" 1956

 Rob walker's newsletter.  A mission for going on dates:

The mission idea is great as a date idea. One year, we visited all the coffee houses in Madison. The next summer, we went to all the county parks. Another year, we did surprise dates, where we would take turns planning a date and keeping it secret so that the other person had no idea what would happen. Other years, we have selected a dating theme like movies and matching meal. We have been dating for ten years because it's fun to have a mission to accomplish together.

Love this idea of planning surprise dates for each other, and also making quests. A couple of years ago my husband and I started going on X dates for X years to celebrate our anniversary. We started it when we were coming up on our 15th anniversary. This year it's 17 and we're in the midst of our 17 dates now. … We build the list together with some low-key dates like a bike ride to a wildlife refuge with a picnic, some special meals out, some travel.

Act as if what you do matters

Scenes in the Four Seasons, by Mori Ippo, 1871

 Act as if what you do matters. It does.

- William James

Choose the story you tell about it

James Clear Newsletter:

“You can’t change your past, but you can reframe it.

Find the lesson in it. Find the opportunity in it. Pull the teachable moment out of it and share with others.

You can’t choose your history, but you can choose the story you tell about it.”

More good sense from James Clear.  It's been said (better) before, but it's still true -- and true in the "Top 10 Life Lessons" kind of true. 

What would it mean to be done for the day?

                  Gustav Klimt, On Lake Attersee

From Oliver Burkeman newsletter  

What would it mean to be done for the day?”

As the psychotherapist David Maloney explains in this excellent video – all his videos are excellent, in my view – it’s vital to be able to “reach a point in the day when you feel finished.” Few of us arrive there regularly, he notes, but we can and should – not only because life’s more pleasant that way, but also because you’ll be much more productive in the long term. When you end the day feeling like there’s vastly more you ought to have done, you’re telling your nervous system it can’t take a break; and you’re reinforcing an idea of your work as an oppressive and insatiable force. And all of that invites a counter-reaction of procrastination: due to fear, or defiance, or a mixture of both, it gets harder and harder to make yourself work.

 I suspect all this is rather worse for we “knowledge workers”, who fiddle about with symbols on screens, than (say) a small-scale arable farmer. For the latter, it’s hard to ignore the fact that the potential work-to-be-done extends onwards into the future forever, or the fact that you’re a limited human who can only be expected to plough so many acres by nightfall. But if the crop you’re tending is emails, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that the work is endless – and easy to imagine that some wildly impossible target, such as answering a hundred in an hour, might in fact be within your capacities. 

What you realise, the moment you ask “what would it mean to be done for the day?”, is that the answer can’t possibly involve doing all the things that need doing – even though that’s the subconscious goal with which many of us approach life, driving ourselves crazy in the process. If there are a thousand things that need doing, you’re going to need to arrive at some definition of “finished” that doesn’t encompass them all. Maybe it’s two hours on your main current project, and three detailed emails you’ve been meaning to write, plus a couple of quicker tasks? Your definition of “done” may be very different, of course, depending on your work, energy levels, and existing commitments. But merely by asking the question you’ll be leaving behind the daily quest to do more than you can – which systematically prevents you taking satisfaction in whatever you do manage to accomplish

-

Asking this question daily is a training in patience, because when you start getting serious about what you can reasonably expect from yourself, it’ll be painful how short the list is. For the first few days, you’ll probably fail to finish even that list! And so the days go by, and your lists get even shorter, until eventually you find yourself getting through them, and permitting yourself the feeling of doneness. At this point, you have the enjoyable sensation of exerting greater agency over your life: instead of demanding that the world send you a signal that it’s time to stop for the day – which it never will – you decide that henceforth that’s a determination you’ll be making. You’re in the driving seat. And being in the driving seat means, among other things, getting more done, with less psychodrama – even though, in order to get there, you had to be willing to aim to do much less each day.

Something in all this evokes the religious tradition of the Sabbath, in which you down tools not because the work is finished, but just because it’s Friday night or Sunday morning, and so it’s time to stop anyway. “Stopping anyway” – stopping in the knowledge that for finite humans, the work is never done – reorients you to the depth of the present moment. It helps you stop ceaselessly chasing the imaginary future point at which everything will have been handled, so that life can really begin. It’s a reminder that life has already really begun: that this it. And it permits you to sit back and receive life for an hour or two – to enjoy it confident in the knowledge that you did what you could today, and that when tomorrow rolls around, you’ll do what you can then, too.

Create twenty-five of what you need

Arthur Wesley Dow, Ipswich Prints: Lily, 1901

From  James Clear newsletter:

“Inspiration comes on the twenty-fifth attempt, not the first. If you want to make something excellent, don’t wait for a brilliant idea to strike. Create twenty-five of what you need and one will be great. Inspiration reveals itself after you get the average ideas out of the way, not before you take the first step.”

This idea is similar to things I've seen by Kevin Kelly, and Creativity is Volume Work, and other places.

Reasons to Live by Ruth Awad

Reasons to Live

Because if you can survive
the violet night, you can survive

the next, and the fig tree will ache
with sweetness for you in sunlight that arrives

first at your window, quietly pawing
even when you can’t stand it,

and you’ll heavy the whining floorboards
of the house you filled with animals

as hurt and lost as you, and the bearded irises will form
fully in their roots, their golden manes

swaying with the want of spring—
live, live, live, live!—

one day you’ll put your hands in the earth
and understand an afterlife isn’t promised,

but the spray of scorpion grass keeps growing,
and the dogs will sing their whole bodies

in praise of you, and the redbuds will lay
down their pink crowns, and the rivers

will set their stones and ribbons
at your door if only

you’ll let the world
soften you with its touching

Middle Season #23 - 2024

 

impatiens last the whole summer, my front yard with allium in the foreground, rudbeckia and cardinal flower in the background - all very lush right now, the rose along the back fence newly blooming this week, and the fall crop of raspberries coming in a handful at a time.

This past week has been the peak of cherry tomato picking.  By the 20th, the daily handful/s are diminishing.  For a few days, more than a handful.  Peak maybe on 16 or 17th of August

Impressions of Asheville

Impressions of Asheville Spring Break Trip. 

(I noticed that I made this list in my journal, but it never ended up in here.)

1. All Day Darling:  The attitude of the workers at All Day Darling - positive, calm, happy; Granola and yogurt parfait at ADD; Blueberry strawberry smoothie; ADD owner reading "The Ottomans," eating veggie frittata and green salad and talking to lots of customers
2. Carl Sandburg house - late life (60s) move; NOT retirement, but change in life
3. Arboretum hike - old man with beard finishing 15 mile run; lots of runners, walkers, bikers
4. Fancy Sierra Nevada Brewery; crudites and beet hummus; tall pines; a music venue
5. River Arts District: working artists in converted warehouses; Appalacian Trail girl painter; 
6. Rattlesnake Lodge hike; (*there's a website about the history of the home at the top) group of friends hiking; sun warmth; smell of pine; swimming pool/tennis court in the mountain forest; Dr. Ambler
7. Black Mountain. buy smart wool gloves; weekly runs and "contests" on board; including sidewinder and 100-mil; most of shop @ long distance trail running (lots of vests on sale);
8. Rhubarb restaurant - more our speed; have whole trout
9. Different kinds of breweries - Green Man OG and newer restaurant; the Wedge v. New Belgium
10. Each day: some culture, some hiking, some brewery/restaurant
11. Berea: bike shop, 
12. Craft Museum:
13. 
    

Which activities are the best expression of you?

 

Study for “Homage to the Square” by Josef Albers

From James Clear's newsletter

Which activities are the best expression of you? Can you spend five minutes doing one of them today?

Fall in Love with the Struggle

Roadway with Underpass by Vincent van Gogh https://guggenheim.org/artwork/1483

From Instagram, my emphasis

"It's hard" - that's the point.

"It's uncomfortable" - that's the point.

"I'm tired" - that's the point.

"It hurts" - that's the point.

"I'm scared" - that's the point.

We weren't built for easy. We were made to do hard shit, not avoid it. In a world obsessed with comfort, we forget the value of struggle. Push harder. Step out of your comfort zone. That's how you grow and evolve.

Fatigue is the price of progress. Pain is a part of the process. Fear is a natural response to the unknown. It means you're about to do something great. Life is not meant to be a series of easy, comfortable moments.

It's a gift filled with challenges that shape you into the best version of yourself. Fall in love with the struggle.

That's the point.

Same church, different pew from The Comfort Crisis.  That book is about physical discomfort, (but the quote that I have in that post is even about watching cable news which confirms your way of seeing the world.) But I'm beginning to see it in relation to Thubten's Chodron's thinking about feeling and confronting fear.

Here's a related post I did a year ago called "Seek out Discomfort" which pulls together a number of different writers on similar topic.  There I have this from Chodron: 

Bodhichitta training offers no promise of happy endings. Rather, this "I" who wants to find security - who wants something to hold on to -- can finally learn to grow up. The central question of a warrior's training is not how we avoid uncertainty and fear but how we relate to discomfort. How do we practice with difficulty, with our emotions, with the unpredictable encounters of an ordinary day? 

Every sentence has to be three words long

The Entrance Hall of Saint-Paul Hospital, 1889

Linked from Kleon's newsletter.  From AARP magazine article called "everyone has a story to tell."

Take any ten years of your life and reduce them to two pages. Every sentence has to be three words long—not two, not four, but three words long.

You discover there’s nowhere to hide in three-word sentences. (“Walk by river. Stare at emptiness. Demons still around.”) You also discover that you can’t include everything, but half of writing is deciding what to leave out.

Learning what to leave out is not the same thing as putting in only what’s important. Sometimes it’s what you’re not saying that gives a piece its shape. And it’s surprising what people include. Marriage, divorce, love, sex—yes, there’s all of that, but often what takes up precious space is sleeping on grass, or an ancient memory of blue Popsicle juice running down your sticky chin.

When you have those two pages, run your mind over everything the way a safecracker turns the tumblers with sandpapered fingers to feel the clicks. If there is one sentence that hums, or gives off sparks, you’ve hit the jackpot.

Write another two pages starting right there.

21 More Ways to Start Writing

I give assignments in my writing classes because it’s hard to make something up out of the clear blue sky. Two pages is all I ask, and it doesn’t have to be a story. It doesn’t have to be an anything. I have learned we do better when we’re not trying too hard—there is nothing more deadening to creativity than the grim determination to write.

1. Write two pages of apologies.
2. Write two pages of instructions to the child you once were.
3. Write two pages in which something is broken.
4. Write two pages about an unwelcome surprise.
5. Write two pages about a jinx.
6. Write two pages in which something is too small.
7. Write two pages about a proposal of marriage.
8. Write two pages in which you do something wrong you do not regret.
9. Write two pages about an untrainable animal.
10. Write two pages that take place in the woods.
11. Write two pages in which you were unmasked.
12. Write two pages about scolding a child.
13. Write two pages about sitting in someone’s lap.
14. Write two pages on being too cold.
15. Write two pages on a tantrum you regret.
16. Write two pages on taking your time.
17. Write two pages about a bad haircut.
18. Write two pages in which someone kills something by accident.
19. Write two pages that end “I could go on and on.”
20. Write two pages in which a child comforts an adult.
21. Write two pages on what you can’t remember. My father, Lewis Thomas, began his memoir, The Youngest Science, “I have always had a bad memory; as far back as I can remember. It’s not that I forget things outright; I forget where I put them. I need props.”
22. Write two pages about something you wish you didn’t know
23. Write two pages about something you regret revealing
24. Write an ode to a part of your body.
25. Write two pages about your treasures.
26. Write two pages about the softest thing.
27. Write two pages about where you would fly if you could.
28. Write two pages about the moment you knew something was over.
29. Write two pages that end with “You can’t get away from it.”
30. Write two pages of something that makes you laugh every time.

If you let it alone

.                                                  Andy Goldsworthy Four More Wool Works

Dumfriesshire, July 2024

 

Kleon links to this AARP article by Abigail Thomas (Lewis Thomas's daughter)

A lot of writing consists of waiting around for the aquarium to settle so you can see the fish. Walking around muttering seems to hasten the process. Taking public transportation nowhere helps. Looking out the bus window lets the back of your mind move forward. Don’t listen to anything but natural sound. Don’t look at anything you have to turn on. This is about the pleasure of silence. This is not meditating; this is reacquainting yourself with yourself. Something interesting might enter your head if you let it alone.

The things you don't have that you don't want

Church by Vasily Kandinsky https://

 

Singer and songwriter Bob Dylan on the advice his father gave him:

“Even if you don’t have all the things you want, be grateful for the things you don’t have that you don’t want.”

(from 3-2-1 Newsletter)

Collective Effervescence

 From Adam Grant

We find our greatest bliss in moments of collective effervescence. It’s a concept coined in the early 20th century by the pioneering sociologist Émile Durkheim to describe the sense of energy and harmony people feel when they come together in a group around a shared purpose. Collective effervescence is the synchrony you feel when you slide into rhythm with strangers on a dance floor, colleagues in a brainstorming session, cousins at a religious service or teammates on a soccer field. And during this pandemic, it’s been largely absent from our lives.

Collective effervescence happens when joie de vivre spreads through a group. Before Covid, research showed that more than three-quarters of people found collective effervescence at least once a week and almost a third experienced it at least once a day. They felt it when they sang in choruses and ran in races, and in quieter moments of connection at coffee shops and in yoga classes.

Emotions are like contagious diseases: They can spread from person to person. “Emotional contagion is when we are literally infected with other people’s emotions,” my colleague Sigal Barsade, a Wharton management professor and a leading researcher on the topic, has explained. “In almost all of our studies, what we have found is that people don’t realize it’s happening.”

What wonderful things is this Dali going to accomplish today?

 Every morning when I awake, I experience an exquisite joy - the joy of being Salvador Dalí - and I ask myself in rapture, ‘What wonderful things is this Dalí going to accomplish today?’ - Salvador Dalí

related... James Clear's question from 10/17/24:

When you woke up this morning, did you expect today to have many joys or many frustrations?

Love after love by Derek Walcott

 

Love after Love

Derek Walcott

The time will comewhen, with elation,you will greet yourself arrivingat your own door, in your own mirrorand each will smile at the other's welcome,and say, sit here. Eat.You will love again the stranger who was your self.Give wine. Give bread, Give back your heartto itself, to the stranger who has loved youall your life, whom you ignoredfor another, who knows you by heart.Take down the love letters from the bookshelfthe photographs, the desperate notes,peel your own image from the mirror.Sit. Feast on your life.

Middle Season #22 - 2024

 

Subvert the Dominant Paradigm

 From here

“A new idea is first condemned as ridiculous and then dismissed as trivial, until finally, it becomes what everybody knows.” —William James (1842-1910)1

Indeed, those creative individuals who advance the frontier of any subject are often, particularly in the initial stages of developing and sharing new paradigms, regarded with disdain by the mainstream authorities. Because the conventional establishment defends its ingrained ideas, the cutting edge of any discipline—science and medicine included—is aptly named and can be painful.

Add more here!

also: “the way to subvert the dominant paradigm is to have more fun than they do and make sure they know it.”

― Jason F. McLennan, Zugunruhe: The Inner Migration To Profound Environmental Change

Saying no can be real work

Benjamin Franklin tracking progress on his virtues. Asterisks indicate when he violated a virtue.
Source: “The Autobiography of Ben Franklin,” Part II, page 39

From a recent James Clear 3-2-1 Newsletter:

If you’d like to get better at saying no, try this:

Keep a list of things you say no to. Whenever you ignore a distraction or turn down an opportunity, add it to the list. As the list grows, you begin to feel a sense of accomplishment for your ability to say no and remain focused on what matters.

Turn each no into an achievement.

I had been thinking along the same lines, but about temptations.  Losing weight, for instance, seems to be more about saying no to a late night snack, or a second helping, or double-sized order, than it is about 800-meter repeats on the track.  

Saying no to taking part in gossip or belittling conversation is important.

Saying no to intrusive thoughts is the real highlight, real "work" of many forms of meditation.

But often, saying no isn't marked or celebrated in the same way that "getting in a workout" is recorded.  Saying no to the Oreo is left unremarked... and is often as hard as lacing up the Nikes.

In Ben Franklin's habit tracker, you mark when you FAIL to do something.  (In the website where I found the image above (journalinghabit.com) the phrase "violated a virtue" is used.). And it's easy to track each violation -- a dot for each Oreo!  But, I also like the idea of marking when you do resist something that is better to leave alone.  

Using ChatGPT to help craft messages

I hope you're doing well. I've been thinking about you a lot and just wanted to let you know that I'm here for you, no matter what. I understand if you need space, but please know that my door is always open if you ever want to talk, need support, or just want to catch up. Your well-being is really important to me, and I'm committed to working on our relationship whenever you're ready. 

------

I hope you're doing well. I just wanted to let you know that I’m thinking about you and always wishing you the best. I understand that things have been difficult between us, and I respect your feelings and need for space.

If there’s ever anything you need or if you want to talk, I’m here for you, no pressure at all. Take care of yourself, and know that my door is always open.

---

I hope you're doing well. I understand that receiving a message from me might bring up a lot of different feelings, and I respect that. I just want you to know that I’m thinking about you and always wishing you the best, no matter what.

I recognize that things have been difficult between us, and I want to honor your need for space. If there’s ever anything you need or if you ever feel ready to talk, I’m here. No pressure at all—just know that my door is always open for you.

---

I asked it to revise it in the manner of Jon Kabat-Zinn:

I hope this message finds you well. I understand that hearing from me might stir up a range of emotions, and I want to honor whatever you are feeling in this moment. Please know that I am holding you in my thoughts and sending you my warmest wishes.

I am aware of the pain and difficulty in our relationship, and I deeply respect your need for space and time. Whenever you feel ready or if there is anything you need, I am here. My heart and my door are always open to you, without any pressure.

---

I asked it to revise it per Richard Schwartz:

I hope you're doing well. I know that receiving a message from me might bring up many different feelings, and I want to acknowledge and respect all of those parts within you. I’m holding you in my thoughts and sending you my best wishes.

I recognize the pain and complexity in our relationship, and I understand your need for space. I want you to know that all parts of you are welcome, and if there’s ever anything you need or if any part of you wants to talk, I’m here. There’s no pressure—just a sincere offer to connect whenever you feel ready.

Take care of yourself and all your parts.

Problems Worth Solving

Interlocked by Josef Albers

From James Clear's Newsletter:

Math teacher Dan Meyer reminds us how to solve problems in the real world:

“What problem have you solved, ever, that was worth solving where you knew all the given information in advance? No problem worth solving is like that. In the real world, you have a surplus of information and you have to filter it, or you don’t have sufficient information and you have to go find some.”

Source: ​Math class needs a makeover

 Too much information, not enough information... I'd add "bad information" or "biased" or "partial" information.

I don't know what to do with this quotation now... but it makes me think of teaching and engaging kids.  These types of problems are more engaging.  They are also a good habit to get into: seeking out problems that are worth solving.

​

Flavor of the Week by Roz Chast

 

"Flavor of the Week" by Roz Chast

From "Cover Story" in NYer.

"The artist’s enticing (and not so enticing) tweaks to one of summer’s enduring pleasures."

“There are a lot of things I like about ice-cream stores aside from the ice cream itself,” Chast said. “I like looking at the different colors and patterns of all the bins. I like comparing cones: wafer flat-bottom or pointy classic? And the names of the flavors: the more preposterous and baroque, the better.”

Proud of this conversation

Study for “Homage to the Square: Consent” by Josef Albers 

 

From James clear atomic habits

What conversation will you be proud of yourself for having even if it doesn’t end with the outcome you want? Go have that conversation.

Decay

Francis Bacon - Chimpanzee 1955

Had this thought today while riding my bike home from the dentist after getting a crown and my jaw smarting:

you're more physically functioning now than you'll ever be.  Teeth, eyes, joints, brain: they'll all falter and fail.  You'd better make use of your body while it's still functioning pretty well.

Additional thought: you'd better start doing stuff regularly to slow down the decay

Writing is making sense of life

 

Fiesta by Agnes Martin

“Writing is making sense of life.” —Nadine Gordimer

A Pair of Tanagers by Mark Jarman

 A Pair of Tanagers

The scarlet male, his green mate, their black wings
Inside the A/C unit in the dul dirt:

They look at first like a child's abandoned toys.
But ants and iridescent flies have found them,

Working along the seams of the shut beaks
And the dark indentations of the eyelids.

You want to give somehthing like this a moral:
Like, the woods these days are full of hard illusions.

Or, never fly north if you think you're flying south,
Or, stay above rooftops; if you meet yourself

Coming, it's too late;; death is a big surprise.
And their death together certainly startles us.

Stopped short. But how recently in the rain forest,
How recently in the place they were first named,

Reflected on the Amazon, the Orinoco,
Headlong from Brazil, into our window.

You want to give something like this a moral
Or see it as an omen, a portent.

And then, the long journeying comes to mind,
Together such a distance, to this end.

Review on my 54th Birthday

Birthday Review. 

 Phil Zimbardo says you should ask yourself "who am I?" 20x

1. teacher
2. husband
3. son
4. brother
5. liberal
6. suburbanite
7. guitar player
8. american
9. atheist
10. runner
11. reader
12. biker
13. meditator
14. cook
15. baker
16. explorer
17. advocate
18. photographer
19. blogger
20. writer: songs? poems?

(note: Here is a More/Less list I created in Jan 2022)

Chat GPT helped me create these annual review questions, inspired by my teachers of this past year.

1. Mindfulness and Presence (Jon Kabat-Zinn)

   • How have I incorporated mindfulness into my daily life over the past year?  
   • I tried this year to continue my daily meditations with the Insight Timer's actual timer, set for 10 minutes.  By July, I had returned to the idea of having an "assigned" meditation per day of the week.  In the past, I did TEACHERS on different days of the week - Tara Brach, Joseph Goldstein, etc.  This time, I sketched out different TYPES of meditation for different days of the week - Loving kindness, body scan, IFS. I kept Sundays for watching JKZ
   • I continue to try to "Note 10 things" each day.  Often, after a run, I'll sit on a bench and wait until my attention is taken by 10 new things.  I'll write them down in the Apple Notes app.  
   • Ideas for things I can do more of in terms of mindfulness: mindful listening to music, to Jennie (focusing on my posture, or maybe on specific questions), reach out more regularly with friends/check in, be more mindful in terms of eating -- adding vegetables and fruit, having vegetables and fruit at hand at all times, ending soda and beer -- which I have reduced a lot, but not completely.
   • When did I feel most present and aware? What can I learn from those moments?
   • What are my biggest distractions, and how can I reduce their impact on my mindfulness?

2. Compassion and Interbeing (Thich Nhat Hanh)

   • How have I practiced compassion towards myself and others this year?
   • I am trying to reflect on a different core idea each month.  July's focus is "compassion."  In July I even have a "column" for it in my daily journal.  So, I'm trying to make this a part of my daily reflection, daily life.
   • In what ways have I cultivated a sense of interbeing with the world around me?
   • One thing I remember about interbeing is TNH saying: you should be able to see the clouds in the bread that you eat.  
   • This year I came across the teacher Gregg Krech.  His Naikan practice is related to interbeing.  Basically, instead of saying what you're grateful for, you think about "what have you received" -- and that can be from animate or inanimate things.  All of these things can lead to a great appreciation for interbeing.  
   • Ideas for improvement: I can add to my weekly (monthly?) calendar a time to do a formal Naikan practice.  I can add to my daily list of things I'm grateful for (a person, a thing, something about myself), one more specific Naikan-like question:  what have I received?
   • How can I deepen my practice of loving-kindness and understanding?
   • I have re-committed (since the beginning of July) to doing LKM on Wednesday mornings.  My main teacher in this is Sharon Salzburg.

3. Inner Peace and Ethical Living (Thubten Chodron)

   • What steps have I taken to cultivate inner peace and mental clarity?
   • JKZ talks about "putting out the welcome mat" for all things that are going on in your body/mind.  Chodron talks about how we veer from confronting things in our life.  She would say, feel the thing, sit with the discomfort for a moment, rather than immediately fleeing/hiding.  IFS seems to me to be a process/ exercise to get access to the "true you" underneath all the protectors and managers.  Recently, I have been listening to Ally (?) Boothroyd on Insight Timer who walks through a practice that is for deep alert rest -- a Ctrl-Alt-Delete.  Right now, the Chodron and Boothroyd seem to be key.  
   • Ideas for improvement: I've just begun the Boothroyd.  How can I put the Chodron into action?  
   • How have my actions aligned with my ethical values and principles?
   • What habits or behaviors can I change to better support my spiritual growth?

4. Future Thinking and Innovation (Kevin Kelly)

   • How have I embraced new technologies or ideas to enhance my life and well-being?
   • What steps have I taken to adapt to the changing world around me?
   • How can I better prepare myself for the future while staying grounded in the present?

5. Embracing Uncertainty and Impermanence (Pema Chodron)

   • How have I embraced uncertainty and change in my life this past year?
   • When faced with difficulties, how did I practice staying present and open?
   • What moments of discomfort have I learned from, and how have they shaped me?

6. Cultivating Resilience and Compassion (Pema Chodron)

   • How have I practiced compassion for myself during challenging times?
   • In what ways have I built resilience in the face of life's ups and downs?
   • How can I develop a deeper sense of patience and kindness towards myself and others?

7. Letting Go and Moving Forward (Pema Chodron)

   • What attachments or expectations have I let go of this year?
   • How can I continue to practice letting go of what no longer serves me?
   • What new opportunities or perspectives have arisen from letting go?

8. Personal Growth and Reflection

   • What were my biggest challenges this year, and how did I overcome them?
   • What achievements or milestones am I most proud of from the past year?
   • How have my relationships evolved, and what have I learned from them?

9. Health and Well-being

   • How have I taken care of my physical health and well-being?
   • What changes can I make to improve my diet, exercise, and overall lifestyle?
   • How do I balance work, rest, and play to ensure a healthy life?

10. Contribution and Legacy

    • How have I contributed to my community or society in meaningful ways?
    • What legacy do I want to leave, and how can I work towards that vision?
    • How can I inspire and support others in their own journeys?

11. Gratitude and Appreciation

    • What am I most grateful for over the past year?
    • Who has had a positive impact on my life, and how can I express my appreciation?
    • How can I cultivate a daily practice of gratitude moving forward?
    • I'm already doing this!  

12. Something about creativity, creating, doing something new. (ask ChatGPT to think about Alastair Humphries?)

    • What a

These questions should help you reflect deeply on various aspects of your life, inspired by the wisdom of the individuals who have influenced you.

Birthday Thoughts in 2014

 I'm entering old journals into DRL Spreadsheet.  Here's what I recorded on August 1, 2014:

1. Tweet out 180 links this year al linked to a specific CPP (charlotte danielson domain)

2. writing - a) make a permanent record of old journals electronically, b) write about being a department chair

3. music. Why am I not learning a song a week?  Why can I not read music?  Or know notes on guitar fretboard yet?  why am I not WRITING a song a week

4. Health. nagging injuries... plantar fascitis

5. Habits. build a series of 10-day habits

6. Notice 10 things every day.