The magic of libraries

"The world is very stressful. The library makes me feel at peace and curious and in control of my time. I love that it’s a public space where I can also have a private moment. We can be alone together. To me, that is sacred.” —Andy Crocker

Neighborhood Things on a rainy day

I slept well last night. I only made it through half the ShoGun episode before I knew it was time to go to bed. I laid down and closed my eyes, and had a moment of wondering if I would be up and down again like the night before, and then *poof* I was asleep. This is good; this is the Way.

FitBit says I slept from 10:30 to 6:45, which is a nice solid sleep schedule (I stopped using an alarm of any sort when my then-current FitBit died in March of 2020). I felt refreshed but not exactly lively when I woke up, which is pretty solid for a "waking up" space. While I was making tea, I noticed a couple now-empty boxes that need to go out, and I decided to take advantage of the break in the rain to take them to the dumpster, then kept walking afterwards to the courthouse and back. It's supposed to start thunderstorming again soon and then last all day, as if the rainy weather is only pausing to gather itself into a proper storm. 

On my walk, I passed a bailiff who came out to raise the flag and a few other court workers making their way in from one parking lot or another, and each one said a brief variant of "Good morning," or "have a nice day" or "get those steps in while it's still dry."  I find this incidental connectedness restorative and lovely. It reminds me of the intro to Sesame Street, when the camera pans across regular neighborhood people doing their regular neighborhood things, waving at the camera as it comes up and then moves along. We are here; we are seen; we are part of Neighborhood Things.

The windows of the Loft are more directly in line with a church nearby, and while I sit in the library, I can hear the bells toll the hour and the half-hour. I like this as a way of marking my time in the day. The tea is ready and the bells are letting me know that it's time for the workaday tasks. I feel centered and whole.

This is the Way.

❤️ 

It begins

I've been in the new place for about a week now, and I set the white bookcases up behind the sofa, wanting to brighten the space. I had aligned them against the wall in a straight line (as one does), and it was decidedly blah. The light seemed to all get sucked into the corner under the stairs and just kind of die. I was too tired to solution the problem, and simply went to bed, thinking that maybe the whole arrangement needed to be shifted and rethought, which would involve moving all the bookcases, a prospect I wasn't in the mood to entertain.

Then this morning I took one of the narrow bookcases and set it at an angle, making a corner. I stepped back into the kitchen to make tea and looked back into the living room, and the effect was just what I was after. The white bookcase picked up the ambient light and reflected it back into the space in a way that is welcoming and lovely. Hurray for small successes in the adventures of moving. 

Of course this means I need a couple more bookcases, because when would it ever not mean that?

Rabbit (y)ear(s)

Spent the morning at the gym with a friend and then we put together IKEA bookcases, had an amazing lunch, and then went out for ice cream and played chess.

May everything always be wonderful!

The Fight is Already Won

Truth

Truth is like a lion.

You don’t have to defend it.

Let it loose.

It will defend itself.

The can be only one answer

“There can be only one answer, and that is: Keep going. Keep supporting Ukraine, keep delivering weapons, keep working on accountability, keep working on humanitarian aid.”
                          ---- Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra

Drink your tea slowly

Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the whole earth revolves.
-Thich Nhat Hanh
 

 

Oh, I would Walk 500 Miles

Since June, I’ve been getting up and walking before logging in, and this is good for my soul — the benefits to my body all day are just extra. In August, I switched my schedule to be an hour earlier so that I could walk for as long as I wanted, without watching the clock, and sure enough it wasn’t long before I was back to my old regular mile-a-day habit at dawn. And any day that starts with the sauna can’t be bad.

Lately the days have been very long, and there seems to be a ton of chaos and emotionality everywhere, so a couple weeks ago, I added in an evening trip to the sauna as well, and this has had the predictable wonderful affects on my sleep being actually restful as well as restoring my sense of being grounded.

Today after another Very Long Tuesday, I walked in the evening, racking up another mile before heading to the sauna. This is the Way of Peace, friends.

So just for fun, and because it’s September and because all things autumnal make me think of Hobbits, I dusted off my old Walk to Mordor log. The first leg is from Bag End to Rivendell.

Day 1: 1.5 miles. Go through the gate into a lane. Head west.

Day 2: 1.5 miles in the morning. Leave the lane, follow the hedgerows south.

             1.0 mile in the evening. Cross the water on a plank bridge.

Welcome to September.

It’s going to be quite a journey.

Peace is a choice

The Art of War

If you sit by the river long enough, you'll see the body of your enemy float by.

Japanese Proverb

Glaciers

The most intense conflicts, if overcome, leave behind a sense of security and calm that is not easily disturbed. — Carl Jung

Nagata

The Universe never tells us if we did right or wrong. It’s more important to try to help people than to know that you did. More important that someone else’s life gets better than for you to feel good about yourself. You never know the effect you might have on someone, not really. Maybe one core thing you said haunts them forever. Maybe one moment of kindness gives them comfort or courage. Maybe you said the one thing they needed to hear. It doesn’t matter if you ever know. You just have to try. 

—-Naomi Nagata, The Expanse

Scholars

Writing that shuts out the world is as good as dead.

To be a scholar, we must seek the truth, and share it. 

The point is to change the world.

Ultimate Wisdom

 

I continually chose to know I was going to be enough. I could have chosen that pressure, and I chose not to have it.

Carrie-Anne Moss on the ‘Matrix’ Movies and Playing an Action Hero in Her 50s 

Eclipse at the Cabin in the North

I'm back at the Cabin in the North, just in time for the solar eclipse, and everything feels right.

Solstice Presence

What is revealed in the dark, when we sit in stillness, our backs turned against the cold?
How far have we come under the last thirteen moons?
What path is illuminated by the stars of the new year?

The dark chill time of the year is upon us, and the candles flicker valiantly against the gathering gloom. I have within me an ember that glows and carries a soulful solace.

Solstice is a time of ending, not with a sense of loss, but with a sense of finishing a chapter.
It’s a potent time of discernment for me, a time of reflecting back on the path I have walked and looking ahead with intention.

Heart and Soul are the core of this challenge as I wrap up so many things, projects as well as presents, with a sense of presence.

Grab a cup of tea and join me for a spell. 
This is a journey of inner warmth. 

Let This Darkness Be a Bell Tower

Quiet friend who has come so far,

 

feel how your breathing makes more space around you.
Let this darkness be a bell tower
and you the bell. As you ring,

 

what batters you becomes your strength.
Move back and forth into the change.
What is it like, such intensity of pain?
If the drink is bitter, turn yourself to wine.

 

In this uncontainable night,
be the mystery at the crossroads of your senses,
the meaning discovered there.

 

And if the world has ceased to hear you,
say to the silent earth: I flow.
To the rushing water, speak: I am.

 

Sonnets to Orpheus II, 29

—— Rainer Maria Rilke

Sunday Reflection

 

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Week 3 Reflection

Mind
*Writing. The dissertation is 21,730 words. Slowly, steadily, this will get written. This is the Way of Writing. I wrote a draft of a proposal for a conference, and  have notes for the draft for an internship. Also I found a job posting that seems to fit with my skills and alignment, so I’ll be adding that to the Writing list for the coming week. I asked for letters of recommendation, and that’s a huge thing for me.
*I’ve been leading and responding to Class discussion posts this week, following up on the analysis I turned in (also this week). I like what I do.  This is the Way of the Student.
*I haven’t touched statistics this week, and that’s all okay.
*I opened up my dogsitting calendar again, and have a client scheduled for this coming weekend.

 

Body
*Body recovery efforts are working. My feet still ache at the end of a shift, but much less so. I had Yet Another™️ boundary discussion about scheduling, and changes were made to reflect that. This is the Way of Work-Life Balance.
*I haven’t eaten out as much this week, and I even cooked once. This is good. I picked up yogurt and pomegranate to help keep me on track. I really like vanilla yogurt with pomegranate arils, freshly grated ginger, and honey. It’s kind of amazing. I am drinking milk, but not as much as I once did, and I could stand to pump it up a bit again, especially on work days.
*Supplements seemed to really help. The next step is to stop and see if the boost was enough to level up or if I need to refill the tank a bit more. We were specifically targeting circulation, generally, and joint aches and inflammation specifically, and I think they really helped.
*Saturday vegetable pickup happened
*Milk was not picked up.
*Acupuncture focused on my skull and brain and neurology. I think there is some major healing going on, and honestly I had given up on that as a possibility. It’s nice to be wrong.
*No salt float since Sunday
*No gym time, but lots of steps at the pharmacy.

 

Heart 
*Women's weekly meeting on Monday evening happened.
*Pinball League on Monday after the Meeting, and more connections were made.
*Jedi Council meeting on Wednesday afternoon.
*Philosophy Writers group is really more a connection than a mind thing. One of the philosophers and I met after the meeting and traded work, and this feels good.

 

Soul 
*Meditation happened mostly in a chair after work, whether I wanted to take the time out or not. My acupuncturist and I laughed about the result of a meditation practice is that sometimes the meditation takes you, instead of the other way around. 
*Sleep has been consistently restorative, and I’m blessed. No headaches since last Friday, and this feels especially encouraging. 

I feel like I found my way through some pretty substantial conflict this week, again. Court, non-court, the session with Vivian, the kerfuffle at the pharmacy on Monday. It’s all good. Even the tension with unexpected legal expenses hasn’t ruffled me as much as it once did. I don’t know what the source of the difference is; i certainly don’t feel as though I’ve “worked hard and earned it” or anything but I think that’s what being a Druid is about: cultivating that which cannot be earned, exactly.

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Lest we forget

"Nothing is more barbarous than war. Nothing is more cruel ... Nothing is more pitiful than a nation being swept along by fools." 

~ Daisaku Ikeda 

 Choose Peace