Mindfulness–Days Of The Week–Condensed

[*NEW! Two Versions!* Click here for the unabridged version]

Tuesday

• 2014-02-11–on wonders of life, how the senses developed over billions of years.

Wednesday

‘Interbeing’, coined by Thich Naht Hanh , is achieved with mindfulness, which helps ‘us cultivate concentration and insight which free us from fear and the illusion of a separate self.’ There are five basic mindfulness trainings.

Thich Naht Hanh inspired Jon Kabat-Zinn, who started mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR).

• 2014-02-12–joanna lumley continues down the nile, past the seated statues at abu simbel, and into the nubian desert.

Thursday

• 2014-02-13–poetry by mary oliver. i’m concerned that in the last twenty years my thinking has become more propositional (fact-based) and less implicational. unbalanced. maybe i should redress that imbalance. kabat-zinn, for example, quotes poems. i’ll start with this one. meanwhile, the roads to revolution in the art of russia started centuries ago.

Friday (Valentine’s Day)

• 2014-02-14–reading phyllis loves kelly by phyllis gotlieb. sue provided a very yummy dinner of salad, sprouts, and spicy squash followed by chocolate i scream, as well as dark chocolate from tcho–mm-mm-mm!

Saturday

some short poems of love by phyllis gotlieb:

The world is a desperate place
that’s not garnished with velvet & lace
but its corners of night
turn to arches of light
by the warmth of the love in a face

you look at life and feel too well
the winter’s iron claw
love, look again and then recall
the oldest living law:
that all renews, in grass or flesh
somewhere, somehow, in awe

• 2014-02-15–sno to t-o; who are archy and mehitabel? more poetry: ‘Archy is a cockroach with the soul of a poet, and Mehitabel is an alley cat…. Together, cockroach and cat are the foundation of one of the most engaging collections of light poetry.’

Sunday

This just in: ‘We can get discouraged if we think we are at a standstill. But we also have to be patient when we feel we are not growing. In winter, it seems that the trees aren’t growing; they are waiting for the sun; they have to be pruned. So we need reminding too of the value of waiting.’–Jean Vanier

• 2014-02-16–maybe understanding happens piecemeal: ‘It’s like a schoolhouse/of little words,/thousands of words./First you figure out what each one means by itself,/… Then you begin, slowly, to read the whole story.’–from ‘breakage‘ by mary oliver. as she says, things happen ‘slowly’, which is hard on my impetuous self. oliver writes (in ‘the moths’), ‘If you notice anything,/it leads you to notice/more/and more.’ right now, if i notice things, and people especially, it might make a difference later; certainly now.

i’m reading about jesus walking on water, that sort of thing. my concern is that we expect extraordinary miracles but we don’t see everyday things–the dog, the cat, each other–as miraculous.

listening to a podcast of caputo, derrida, and weak theology.

bg and pf in the morning, usj in the evening.

Monday

• 2014-02-17–bb came by. sno back. the castles of ludwig ii of bavaria ‘were described at the time as “so ridiculous they are beyond all taste”…. This handsome boy-king was loved by his people, betrayed by his cabinet and found dead in tragic and mysterious circumstances.’ the agenda featured five guests originally from lebanon, albania, india, ghana, and south korea, as it asked, even in a very multicultural city like toronto, ‘Is having an accent an obstacle or a benefit in day to day life?’