2011.12.20 _ 1

Happy day 1, everybody! Curious to see me posting the first comment, past 10 pm in Holland. :-) Just before dinner I finally found half an hour time to sit. A deep sense of completeness, enoughness, of nothing needing to be done. Sitting without any technique can be very inspiring, as it was today, although it also can easily lead to getting lost in endless distracting thoughts.

A very busy day today. At the end of it I still had to do both writing and meditating. Decided to do writing first. Thought about what to say and how to say it. Then a bit later, some more thoughts popped up and I wrote them down too. Of course, that is why it is important to start writing even when I feel I am not very productive, it gets the brain in the right state. (Yes, I meditated too, afterwards.)

I like meditation to be a rest from doing, self-improving and trying to get somewhere, so I like what Pema mentions. A Zen teacher I know tells us to just keep coming back to the present moment during meditation, and I guess that is a pretty techniqueless technique:)

Startled out of dreams by a voice calling my name. House was silent. The dam of time exploded and I knew from how far back the sound was reaching me. It was 04.38. #timestamp

[Wrote this on Ommwriter's lilac screen with bells at the end of the afternoon. Thanks for the tip Eos and Eliza]. edited 23:00, 20 Dec 2011

Thich Nhat Hanh suggests we put our faith in practice rather than ideas. I am hoping to join you all this time around. We'll see if I can.

Today, rather than running for coffee when feeling an energy lull, I took a short nap, and for the second day in a row, after waking, I went back to sleep for a while (easier now that school is on break). No 'less' was so-called accomplished. ( Ommwriter is a treasure - thanks again Eos - My daughter told me about something called "write or die" which forces you to keep a certain pace or begins to eat your words... seems the opposite of being gentle with oneself which Ommwriter encourages... walking into a soft snowy pause) edited 01:38, 21 Dec 2011

Took twenty minutes "off duty" in the middle of the day, while the rest of the family napped. I lay on my bed and did a body inventory, then let myself fall back into not-thinking and watched my breath until it was time to go out again. Perhaps it was just jetlag but I found it very easy to just drift (i.e. the monkeys were quiet).

Back, what a nice respite, unexpected, but class tonight has hopefully put me back on course, finding what I have missed in Tai Chi, found a new place when I meditated, will look for it again next time :) edited 04:03, 21 Dec 2011

Hello Adams, lovely to have you on board! Welcome back and thank you to everyone who is starting again.

Am becoming more and more enamoured with botanical painting and drawing as a way to keep centered and focused; it is so like meditating but fewer words run through my head as I try and recreate the particular green on the underside of a particular leaf. The holly was a three-week labour of love. I move on to apple blossoms next.
Going throught the moves of Tai Chi this morning; feeling increasingly strong and comfortable in my body.
I'm going to try ommwriter. Thank you Eos and Eliza edited 06:22, 21 Dec 2011

Late check-in. Some formal sitting (body there not moving / mind not so tethered) before evening PaB session.