Try to tighten these muscled: what a meaningful morning

I began a book last night as suggested by my new therapist; it's the kind of book that gives a light to your life. I need light like a drowning fly needs a raft. I am excited because it's a 30 day book of spiritual writing, it ends with making an intention mandala. I am a huge "fan' of mandalas. I use quotations around the word " fan" just like I'd use them to call myself a "writer" or an "artist" or even more far fetched is calling myself a "yogi" or an "athlete."

What do you like to do for fun, my boss's pt asks her as I type this blog on my smart phone. I meant to document a dialogue BC why not. I lifted her off the seat of her Honda Odyssey and a man approaching asks if I need help. No I say, we look sloppy but we do this a lot. He adds that he has helped people like her, his wife is actually recovering from a stroke. She had four brain amuerisms and survived then had a stroke and is mementally all there, just learning to use her limbs again. I looked him in the eye and said "holy moly. You have been through a lot."

Is everything copy? The receptionist saw me looking at the clock a d says time passes, with you? More on that later

A Monk, A Nun and A Professor: My Path To Nonviolence

I saw His Holiness The Dalai Lama speaking with a panel of beautiful people in Fayetteville, Arkansas several years ago, I was invited by an old friend from college who had recently begun school at The University of Arkansas. What an honor. I built my weekend up for weeks before going and I was ready for a breakthrough. I needed a big transformation and I was sure that it would happen and it did. Kind of.
I tell the story like this: I was in Fayateville on a huge campus with my blind friend from college, who is from India. (Describing him as blind may be politically incorrect or offensive, I really am not sure). More on that later.

I am reading His Holiness the Dalai Lama's bestselling book which was written in 1988, "The Art of Happiness," and I am struck with how

We Are A Death Denying Society.

Before breakfast, returning home from work or school and when going to bed are all opportune timed for meditation.

I'm reading "The Foundation" of a book called "50 Mindful Steps to Self-Esteem," while walking on my treadmill and thumb typing a blog post ony smart phone. Don't worry, I'm at a 2.0 speed, ain't no rest for the weary. I like Janette Marotta's explanation of what the Buddha describes as the three basic truths of our existence; you may know these but my books on buddhism only look scholarly on my bookshelves. Most of them, I will be eager to promote Pema Chodron's work on letting go when things fall apart anytime, she got me through a week of breakup with a man that I loved very much. Nothing is permanent, lean in and befriend your own fear; sit with the unknowing and do not reach for security for you will not find what you need elsewhere, I think that's what I'd say about the beauty of her work. Marotta, PhD, says that "When you learn to embrace all parts of yourself -accept yourself unconditionally -your inherent worth comes to the surface. You're open and unbuttoned by your heavy defenses, you're able to truly be there for yourself and others." (P.3)

"Being there for ourselves and for others." I remember seeing Pema Chodron's interview on PBS years ago and being mesmerized at the thought of a woman, married in America going through an unwanted divorce from a cheating husband and coming out a full on practice and preaching Buddhist Monk. I do not want that for mus elf but we need to learn from these leaders on her team.

I am beginning a practice of mindfulness because it's been a long time coming and because I am so empty inside that my Dad is agreeing to foot the bill for a year of intensive Dialectical Behavioral Therapy and my homework is to learn a skill called "Mindfulness." Here I go, signing off after 30 minutes of walking on a treadmill, which is called "exercise" and which is a key component of living a life well (it falls under a skill called "PLEASE" in DBT).

"Choose the rut you take, for you will be in it for the next forty years." -Richard Gilpan