2018.04.19 - Day 36

Alexa just reminded me to order my weeks supply of food from Ramsay's fine foods. Microwaveable food but better than the stuff you get in supermarkets which are loaded with preservatives and other chemicals. I miss being able to cook for myself. I have just discovered that my Dragon voice recognition software seems to work quite well in this window, surprisingly, so have to resist the temptation to talk too much :-)

in the mindfulness course I just finished I noticed the authors talking about "the observer" and coming back to it again and again. But then I wonder what is this observer? Isn't it just a thought too? What is behind this observer? Perhaps this observer can become a block to going deeper?

Eliza - please never stop writing! When you write, you teach without intending to. You do it so well. Unintentional inspiration.

The "one more exercise" turned out to be pretty short. It's a role-playing thought experiment I used to teach that helps you discover where there's room for improvement. There's a whole lengthy scenario that I'll not describe, but the gist is this...

You identify people whose opinions you trust in particular areas of your life, You visualize a future where they can uninhibitedly express those opinions. You compare to what you think they'd say now. And you map the line between as a path for development.

This exercise didn't apply to all the parts of my Imagined Future Self I'd identified, and where it did the answers were clear. Nevertheless it's always a humbling exercise.

Thank you Storm. It feels a little funny to come back to something I never left, or intended to leave, but that is indeed what seems to have happened. :) I treasure that we're all in this together.

I've always wanted to take an intensive acting class, or something along those lines, to map a more precise character story -- so that exercise is fascinating!

Savoring.

A long appointment with my daughter this morning, several tests to map to what may be causing migraines. Allergies, anxiety, wrong neck alignment... all candidates. What I like about these appointments is that they take me into areas of town I really like, that feel more thoughtfully developed than where I've been living, with attention paid to places for walking as much as for cars, and where the old trees have been allowed to keep growing. I'm probably even more sensitive to the walking and biking places since Amsterdam, although it has been many years since I got on a bike with the intention of going somewhere, rather than just going around to get some exercise.

I like coming home to see familiar spaces anew. I had a few 'first jobs' in this "Miracle Mile" area... 2 bakeries (one French and one a hybrid), and a cheese focused catering spot. :) It seems fancy now. Maybe it is fancier than I ever thought of it as, or maybe not. edited 19:26, 19 Apr 2018

Had good intentions, but the day got away from me again. Being able to do one thing at a time seems to require slowing down, and not getting swept up in a rush to get through a backlog of things needing to be done. Glad there are still almost 20 days left to dance with this.

Spent the whole day working on the house. The drying of our landscape is making things easier.
Working along side my nephew is pretty comfortable. We both shift focus rather easily tho so that the gutters got put off. Other things get done tho. We both feel better when the piles get picked up.I am getting my steps in without going for a walk. There is a different set of muscles used to pick up yard debris and haul wood:) Feels good.