Entries Tagged 'Living Fully' ↓

Last weekend they hauled some big rocks and a lot of dirt from the big culvert:
 

 
And a tiny bit of light was shining in from the far end (circled in white in the photo):
 

 
This weekend four people, including Andy, hauled out more rocks and dirt.
 

 

 
The light at the far end was growing bigger. The rope in the picture was attached to a little cart that hauled the dirt out:
 

 
And finally, success!
 

 
It sometimes take a lot of work to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Have you ever noticed that?

Update: Andy installed a stake in front of the culvert to prevent further big rocks from going in. It sometimes helps to be proactive. (But there are no guarantees. )
 

 

Just the knowledge that a good book is waiting one at the end of a long day makes that day happier.
—Kathleen Norris

 
Have you read any good books lately? I’ve been reading/listening to a lot of them. Some have been technical books on Photoshop, but mostly they’re history, biographies and memoirs. There are too many to list, but I will single one out: The Unlikely Disciple–A Sinner’s Semester at America’s Holiest University.

The author, Kevin Roose, took a semester out from Brown University and attended Jerry Fawell’s Liberty University, the world’s largest evangelical Christian university. It is sometimes referred to as a “Bible Boot Camp”. It was an easy read and Roose did a great job of talking about his experiences, including making friends and even interviewing Fawell (founder of the Moral Majority) himself, seeing Fawell as a likeable person in spite of his gay bashing. Roose himself is from an untraliberal family and one of his aunts is a gay activist.

I was impressed by Roose’s fairness and willingness to see people as fellow human beings, even though he strongly disagrees with some of their beliefs. I found the book both entertaining and refreshing.

What about you? Have you read any good books lately?

Wilf.

I agree with that, and I’ve been on a meditation retreat for the past few days. I didn’t have to go anywhere to do it, I just immersed myself in Photoshop and spent hours each day playing with new techniques, trying to draw a couple of pictures that came close to what I envisioned. In fact sometimes they didn’t even come close, and that was all right too. I just kept playing until I wound up with something else I liked.

Do you ever meditate? If so what form does it take?

A few weeks ago I wrote about a new adventure inspired by a drawing book:

 
The basic idea of the book was if you want to draw, then start drawing. Take an experimental approach. Be bold and try things. Notice what works and what doesn’t and have fun learning.

It reminded me of Tim Gallwey’s Inner Game approach to life and peak performance. His basic idea is our inner critical voice gets in the way of learning and performance. If we want to improve our skills we need to stop judging harshly and start paying attention to exactly what we’re doing and what the results are. It’s somewhat similar to the NeuroLinguistic Programming idea of

1. Know what you want,
2. Notice exactly what you’re doing,
3. Is what you’re doing getting you closer to what you want?,
4. If not, try something else.

Keen observation is often more helpful than blind striving.

In general I’m more mastery oriented (spending hours and hours learning new skills) instead of achievement oriented, so when I read The Inner Game of Tennis in the mid 1970′s Gallwey’s ideas resonated with me. The approach especially helped when I went back to work after ten years away from physics and computers. Whenever possible I chose challenging problems that I didn’t know the answer to, figuring I’d much rather be scared than bored. So even though there were deadlines attached, I learned to forget about results but instead to be curious about the problems themselves. It meant (1) I didn’t procrastinate to escape feelings of tension, and (2) once I immersed myself in the process and started enjoying the challenge I relaxed enough for the creative part of my brain to start working.

Anyway, that’s what works for me. What works for you?

Откъде да купя икона

cheerfulmonk. Creative Commons license.

 
And it helps to have a guide:
 

 
I bought Drawing for the Artistically Undiscovered years ago, and just looking through it always tickled my funny bone and lifted my spirits. Someday I too wanted to learn to sketch whimsical figures. But until this week I had only done a couple of pages of the exercises. Then I made the commitment and finished every single assignment.

I took the authors’ words to heart:

…you will find yourself frequently unsatisfied with your efforts. Our recommendation? So what. Take a fearless experimental approach. Wield your pen or pencil with spirit and take bold chances. Your successes will shine all the brighter and the rest—nothing but necessary steps to greatness….

Around here we honor mistakes and botched details. Please make many.

Well, yeah. I can do that. So I did.

Two of my favorite exercises were The 3-Headed Red Spotted Gorff and the pigs:
 

 
(The authors provided the legs and body, we filled in the necks and heads.)

The pigs:

 
Not worrying about polishing the finished product was liberating–just go for the general spirit of the subject and move on. I’m hoping to do some quick sketches regularly, and to keep me motivated I’ve gotten more books by Quentin Blake, the illustrator of Drawing for…. Again the idea is to draw boldly and quickly rather than looking for a polished product. I will let you know how it turns out. This week, at least, was a great adventure.

What was your week like? Have you had any adventures lately?

 
Beautiful Oops! is an interactive book for ages 3 and up. So I bought it for myself this week. I love its philosophy–don’t be upset when you make mistakes or things don’t go the way you expect. Instead be creative.

Andy and I have had plenty of practice doing that this year, of course, and I had another chance just yesterday. I was playing around with some new techniques in Photoshop and decided I would try them out on a picture of our shed. I had spent hours and hours organizing the pictures of the land into well-named folders and subfolders and knew exactly where I could find the picture. Oops! All the folders and subfolders were there, but the pictures were gone. What??

Time to trot out the magic words: “What’s the opportunity here? What can I learn from this?” So I went off and did some chores while I pondered the matter. I had checked some of my backups– the files had disappeared weeks ago. It eventually dawned on me I had installed a new photo managing program a few months ago. So I checked the receipt– I had bought it January 9th. Sure enough, the files had disappeared between the backups of January 7th and January 16th. Mystery solved. The program had moved the files to a folder of its own choosing, and since I knew the names of the individual files it was easy enough to track down where that folder was.

For now I’m just going to rebuild my own folder system and put it on an external hard drive so it will be safe. In the future I’ll take the time to understand the new photo management program and see if it’s worth it. Andy loved it when he was using it on the PC and was putting off managing his new pictures until the program was available on the Mac. I bought it for him when the Mac version came out early last year, but he hasn’t gotten back to looking at his pictures yet. At least he’s been warned that his new version doesn’t work exactly the way his old one did.

I wouldn’t exactly call this a beautiful oops!, but it was definitely educational. If nothing else it reinforced the importance of keeping centered and being patient. Any oops! in your life lately?

Художник

Wilf. Used with permission.
 

They know how to mourn the inevitable losses in life. They know how to let go of things they have no control over.
—Traits of Stress-Hardy, Resilient People

I don’t know about you, but this trait takes a lot of practicing on my part. One way I’m doing it is reading books and blogs about dogs. Loving another creature deeply usually means one of you is in for eventual heartbreak. And in the case of a dog or a cat, because they have shorter lifespans, that someone is most likely to be you. That’s no reason for not loving deeply, but it is a good argument for going into the relationship with open eyes and plenty of courage.

That’s why I like Angus’s posts about Wilf and KB’s Romping and Rolling in the Rockies.

Wilf
I’ve written about Wilf before. He’s blind and is gradually dying of melanoma, but is soldiering on and for the most part still enjoying life. He did have a stroke the other night and became disoriented, bumping into things around the house because he lost his mental map of where things are. Angus and his wife took him to the vet to see if it was time to let him pass on, but the vet said not yet. The disorientation was probably bothering them more than Wilf, and that with medicine he should be able to rebuild his mental map in about a week. So they’re enjoying him for a while longer. Again, he doesn’t seem to be suffering and is still able to enjoy simple pleasures.

Romping and Rolling in the Rockies

KB. Creative Commons license.
 

KB. Creative Commons license.
 

KB’s dog K has osteosarcoma, bone cancer. As you can see from the first picture, she has had radiation on her left foreleg, and she’s now being treated with chemotherapy. The cancer will win in the long run, but in the meantime they are celebrating the time they have left. K sleeps a lot more because of the chemo, but she still thoroughly enjoys her morning romps.

As far as I’m concerned, K is a miracle. Her amazing attitude has taught me so much. But, I’d be lying if I said that I don’t occasionally fall into the abyss of despair that my heart dog has incurable cancer. It usually happens when I’m away from K, snowbiking without her even though she was my bike riding companion for more than 7 years. However, I have to keep biking so that my spine doesn’t hurt too much, so I ride even though it makes me sad some days.

Life happens. That’s no reason to let sadness and fear of the future prevent us from living fully today.

Ancient Sanskrit Poem
Both of these posts remind me of the ancient Sanskrit poem:

Look to this day
for it is life.
The very life of life.

In its brief course lie all
the realities and truths of existence
the joy of growth
the splendour of action
the glory of power.

For yesterday is but a memory
and tomorrow is only a vision.
But today well lived
makes every yesterday
a memory of happiness
and every tomorrow a vision of hope.

Look well, therefore, to this day!

It never hurts to be reminded.

For better resolution click on photo.

 
John and Greg started working on the second solar array Friday. Andy didn’t get home until around 6:30 and was concerned I might be worried about him. No problem. I was in bed finishing a two-hour nap.

It had been a gorgeous day and I hadn’t been to the Y for over a month and decided it would lift my spirits to get out for a bit. I used very light weights and did few repetitions…it took only about 10 minutes total…and I probably should have gone straight home afterwards. Instead I mailed something at the post office and picked up a book at the library—way too much. So I when I got home I piled into bed and slept for two hours.

Hmm. It’s becoming more and more clear that I won’t be back to “normal” soon. Assuming my present state isn’t the new normal.

No sense whining about it. In fact, I’m grateful I have a hero and role model–Wilf the Pon. Wilf is a blind, arthritic, (and diabetic as I recall) Polish Lowland Sheepdog who has also been diagnosed with cancer. He keeps soldiering on and mostly manages to enjoy his life.

Wilf still enjoys exploring his world, when his energy is up to it, and he has sense enough to rest and sleep when he needs to. When that happens on a walk he trusts Angus to bring him safely home.

Thank you, Angus, for sharing your family fellow with us. Your posts are making a big difference in my life.

a4gpa. Creative Commons license.

 
What tickles your funny bone? How often is it that other people are tickled too, and how often is it a unique trigger for you?

I came across this quote this week, and it makes me laugh every time I think of it:

The longer I live, the more I am certain that the great difference between the great and insignificant is energy.”
—-Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton

 
I’m sure the quote wasn’t meant to be funny, and that most people in the world wouldn’t have my reaction. But there it is. It makes me laugh. Probably because I’m still regaining my energy from the virus I had a while back. It’s going well, just Mood and Energy Management 101, plus eating and sleeping well, getting appropriate exercise every day, and feeding my sense of humor with movies and reading. Yes, it’s going well, but the idea of having the kind of energy Buxton is talking about is laughable.

So much for private jokes. The other thing that cracked me up this week made Andy laugh too. A TV channel had a lot of sleazy lawyer ads. “Did you take XXX and have any of the following side effects? Let us help you.” Then one ad showed a sad young lady holding up a bandaged finger. She said, “They shouldn’t make paper so sharp. Someone has to pay.” A lawyer in the background said, “If you have been injured, we can help. But you really have to be injured.” As luck would have it I had a paper cut, so from time to time I hold it up to show Andy and say, “Don’t forget, someone has to pay.”

It works for us. What makes you laugh?

 

 
They came up last Monday to start wiring the solar panels. But for some reason they haven’t come back since :
 

 

 
So it’s been a quiet peaceful week. I’ve just about recovered healthwise now, so I’m not complaining at all. What was your week like?