Today, a short post, because there is much and more to do before I leave Fairfield in three hours or so.
Leaving my friends is always a sad affair. It is so nice to be with them. It feels like living in a little protective cocoon of love. That's Fairfield for me. Though like a cocoon, I tend to not get much work-related stuff done while I'm here. It's so easy to just do the minimum and spend the rest of the time with friends. The part of me that is Bilbo Baggins before he met Gandalf would like nothing better than to stay in this comfy Shire and well-equipped hobbit hole, visiting friends and going on strolls.
It's not quite right to say I hear the call of adventure and the itch to travel. It's just that I want to achieve my main goal of Self-realization, and also hone my gifts to be as useful to the world as I can. And that requires doing things and being places other that fun homey Shire activities. Maybe someday I'll be able to return, like Bilbo.
For now
I must away, ere break of day,
to find my long-forgotten gold
;-)
Take care friends and family, and know that I love you deeply
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
Sunday, June 26, 2016
Teenage Mutant Ninja Rabbit and Graduate School
I didn't get to my sit spot till later than usual this morning (everything is later than usual here in Fairfield Iowa, with all my old friends. I have a harder time pulling myself away and doing work, or going to sleep. Perhaps this is one of the hidden benefits of living most of the time in a city when I don't like cities: there's not much I'm interested in doing for fun, so I just work ;)
In any case, as I was sitting quietly this morning, communing with the universe and enjoying nature I saw my first teenage bunny. What does a teenage bunny look like, you ask? Well, I didn't know either, till this morning. It was just a little bigger than a baby bunny, except it had huge, long, gangly hind legs. They were as long as an adult rabbit, but thinner. It made the rabbit stand an extra inch off the ground because its legs were too long for it. I stifled my laughter so I could keep looking at it to make sure I was seeing what I thought I was seeing.
I wonder if it has acne beneath its fur too? And I wonder why I've never seen a teenage rabbit before? Maybe it's a really short phase of their life. Though, considering how fast they multiply it would seem that they never really grow out of it.
That's all for now. Need to eat lunch and get back to writing my personal statement/essay for graduate school! I'm applying to Antioch, New England, for a Masters in Education. I visited them, and I would have a hard time designing a better fit for myself. They are small, surrounded by beautiful nature, very hands on, interested in mindfulness (which seems to be the scientifically acceptable word for meditation and spirituality) and have programs in sustainable living and nature-based education. The application is due by the end of the month. Send me your prayers if you feel so inclined ^_^
Truth and Love,
Isaac
In any case, as I was sitting quietly this morning, communing with the universe and enjoying nature I saw my first teenage bunny. What does a teenage bunny look like, you ask? Well, I didn't know either, till this morning. It was just a little bigger than a baby bunny, except it had huge, long, gangly hind legs. They were as long as an adult rabbit, but thinner. It made the rabbit stand an extra inch off the ground because its legs were too long for it. I stifled my laughter so I could keep looking at it to make sure I was seeing what I thought I was seeing.
I wonder if it has acne beneath its fur too? And I wonder why I've never seen a teenage rabbit before? Maybe it's a really short phase of their life. Though, considering how fast they multiply it would seem that they never really grow out of it.
That's all for now. Need to eat lunch and get back to writing my personal statement/essay for graduate school! I'm applying to Antioch, New England, for a Masters in Education. I visited them, and I would have a hard time designing a better fit for myself. They are small, surrounded by beautiful nature, very hands on, interested in mindfulness (which seems to be the scientifically acceptable word for meditation and spirituality) and have programs in sustainable living and nature-based education. The application is due by the end of the month. Send me your prayers if you feel so inclined ^_^
Truth and Love,
Isaac
Wednesday, June 15, 2016
Wearwolves
P1: I forgot what it’s called. What’s the name of that thing you wear, you know, in this region? (gesturing to groinal area.)
P2: Underwear?
P1: Under… you know, your pants.
P2: Your...shoes?
P1: No, not that kind of under… you know, inside. Inside your pants.
P2: Yeah, underwear.
P1: What is your obsession with hierarchical placement?… Fine, under your navel.
P2: Yes; underwear. It’s underwear.
P1: Beneath your waist! The thing that is under your belly!
P2: ...your junk?
P1: No! Around that! Next to that!
P2: ...Legs?
P1: No, the article of clothing! Clothing! Not body parts.
P2: And it’s not underwear?
P1: Why do you care where it’s not under! It’s not under anything in the world except the upper half of your body!
P2: I don’t care where it’s under or where it’s not under. Stop judging me! I’m telling you, not asking you, that it is underwear! (Gesturing vehemently to crotchal area.)
P1: Who taught you English, a lycanthrope? You say “under there”, not “where”! And I already told you it was under there. You should not be proud that you retained that bit of information when you can’t even speak proper English.
P2: No, it is underwear. It’s not a question--
P1: No, it is a question. You were raised by grammar wolves and “where?” preceded by a locational preposition forms a question not a statement and a fragment at that.
P2: Stop saying nonsense words--
P1: You’re the one demanding I accept your question as a statement that somehow answers my question. I’m not the one saying nonsense--
P2: (pulling down his pants) THIS!--
P1: Oh God I’ve horribly misread this situation he’s triple-strength squirrels and nuts please do not sexually assault me--
P2: IS CALLED (grabbing underwear in shaking fists and yanking it up and towards p1) UNDERWEAR!
P1: (quietly) in the phone book? Maybe under mental health--
P2: THE NAME OF THE ARTICLE OF CLOTHING I AM GRASPING IN MY HANDS RIGHT NOW IS NAMED, QUOTE, UNDERWEAR, UNQUOTE. U-En-Dee-E-Ar-Double-u-E-A-AR! Underwear! Underwear! Underwear!
P1: …
P1: …
(Silence and stillness as p2 pants and p1 stares.)
P1: This is how friendships end, isn’t it?
-fin-
Saturday, June 11, 2016
Something
I must write something. It shall be brief. Prepare yourselves. A couple days ago in my sit spot, as I was surrendering as deeply as I could, I noticed a chipmunk scurrying around what sounded like five feet away from me. Also, two woodpeckers, quite close. Woodpeckers are big birds. And they move very interestingly. Fast-stop, fast-stop. It's been years since I've seen one, though I've heard them plenty.
It is 11:08 as I write this.
Synchronicity. (I like the number 108. It's the number of times I do Japa in the mornings. And I've kind of arbitrarily assigned it importance, so I suppose the universe uses it to communicate with me.)
This morning, as I was walking and trying to figure out what it was that made me switch from productive mode to what I refer to as "eat the marshmallow" mode, I looked down on the sidewalk, and written into the concrete was the word, "Maya."
("Eat the marshmallow" refers to the experiment where kids were left alone in a room with a marshmallow for a length of time, told that if they didn't eat the marshmallow, they would get two when the scientist came back into the room. The children who managed to not eat the marshmallow were followed up years later, and that willpower had a statistically significant impact on how well they did in life.)
Also: I'm going from rather sluggish to super active. Starting this morning. Fun dream involving Tom brown last night, and a sad one with Sai Baba the night before. I love it when my teachers show up in my dreams, even if it's a hard lesson.
And I'm out.
Live in Love, and never think of yourself as fallen or sinful, but as a child of God.
"Act as though everything depends on you, pray as though everything depends on God."
'If you don't believe in God, at least believe in yourself. That power within you is God.'
It is 11:08 as I write this.
Synchronicity. (I like the number 108. It's the number of times I do Japa in the mornings. And I've kind of arbitrarily assigned it importance, so I suppose the universe uses it to communicate with me.)
This morning, as I was walking and trying to figure out what it was that made me switch from productive mode to what I refer to as "eat the marshmallow" mode, I looked down on the sidewalk, and written into the concrete was the word, "Maya."
("Eat the marshmallow" refers to the experiment where kids were left alone in a room with a marshmallow for a length of time, told that if they didn't eat the marshmallow, they would get two when the scientist came back into the room. The children who managed to not eat the marshmallow were followed up years later, and that willpower had a statistically significant impact on how well they did in life.)
Also: I'm going from rather sluggish to super active. Starting this morning. Fun dream involving Tom brown last night, and a sad one with Sai Baba the night before. I love it when my teachers show up in my dreams, even if it's a hard lesson.
And I'm out.
Live in Love, and never think of yourself as fallen or sinful, but as a child of God.
"Act as though everything depends on you, pray as though everything depends on God."
'If you don't believe in God, at least believe in yourself. That power within you is God.'
Thursday, June 2, 2016
General Life Update
I realize I haven't posted yet this week. This is for two reasons: one, I had a post that I wanted to do as a video/spoken word, which will take a bit more time than usual.
Two: I've been quite busy in the last few days, so haven't had time to finish it. So, for now I'll just let you know what I've been busy with and leave it at that. My writing buddy, always comments that I get too heady and abstract and need to ground things in actual life events. So here are some life events.
Let's start with that: my writing buddy is going on hiatus. They don't want to be writing something every week anymore, so that's the end of that. It was useful while it lasted. Though it would have been even better as a larger group. Does anyone know of a writing group that I could join? I can call in via Skype or something like that...
Perhaps I should just search for such groups on craigslist or something. But that sounds like a lot of work, and I don't know what I'd be getting in terms of fellow writers, and as it is I'm quite busy. Why? Lets continue on to the next item on the list:
I'm planning a trip to India. Yes, another one. No, I didn't have plans for it until one of the Sai Baba center members basically insisted I sign up for it (reminding me I could always cancel afterward). Which I'm happy they did. There was an application deadline for the world youth conference that is the ostensible reason I'm going to India, and after I had time to think about it, I decided that I did want to go. All well and good. However, the universe seems to be dropping me hints that I should head to a certain specific holy cave way the heck on the other end of India. Which means another plane trip, and an 8-hour car ride. And then I was planning on spending a few days at the layover point in France and visiting a family friend, but I don't know if flights from the new airport I would be flying out of have a layover at the same place. In any case, this makes for an extremely complicated itinerary.
I need to make these plane reservations right away, because the price is going up every day. I need to make a whole bunch of decisions, none of which I have sufficient information on, and there's no way to get that information, as far as I can tell.
I will probably start that, after this post (so don't expect it to be well edited.) Start, but not finish, because I need to get back to New York this afternoon because I've said I would get to the Thursday evening meetings early, to help people set up. (The women always get their early, but the men not so much, and they need heavy things moved.)
I am at my parents because I needed to move a bunch of stuff from my Queens apartment to my parent's house, in preparation for being away for longer stretches of time. My plants, my alter where I pray and meditate in the mornings. And I packed up most of my other stuff as well, since I'm spending most of my time at home these days, and why not make it easier for myself when I have to move the rest out at the end of my lease. So yesterday I took a train out to my parent's house, drove my dad's car back into the city, finished packing stuff into boxes, loaded up the car, drove it back, and passed out asleep as soon as I could. Today I unloaded the car, moved most of it into the basement, some upstairs, did laundry, set up my alter, watered my plants, started sorting stuff, and then, when I stopped for lunch, realized I was exhausted and decided to do some non-physical stuff for a while. But now I'm traveling back to the city in a few minutes. Woooooooooooo!
This is a lot of traveling, and in the past I'd have been a bit frustrated at the seemingly wasted time, but I'm currently reading a book called "The Pilgrim's Progress" and implementing a spiritual practice that the writer of this journal talks about. Namely, constant prayer (really a form of continuous meditation.) Which is awesome! Now, any time I'm having to "wait" for something, instead, I can be doing spiritual practice. My time goes from being wasted to being utilized in the best possible way. This is very handy since it looks like I'm going to be in for a LOT of travel this summer. Starting basically last week and ending... maybe the end of August. Or maybe not.
OK. Facts! Delicious Facts. Actually, these facts may be a bit dry and in need of some mayo or a pickle to spruce them up, but there is no time for that. I need to leave for the train in 15 minutes and I still need to figure out what stuff I need to bring back into the city, pack it, and eat a gelato popsicle.
Jeranimo!
Isaac
Two: I've been quite busy in the last few days, so haven't had time to finish it. So, for now I'll just let you know what I've been busy with and leave it at that. My writing buddy, always comments that I get too heady and abstract and need to ground things in actual life events. So here are some life events.
Let's start with that: my writing buddy is going on hiatus. They don't want to be writing something every week anymore, so that's the end of that. It was useful while it lasted. Though it would have been even better as a larger group. Does anyone know of a writing group that I could join? I can call in via Skype or something like that...
Perhaps I should just search for such groups on craigslist or something. But that sounds like a lot of work, and I don't know what I'd be getting in terms of fellow writers, and as it is I'm quite busy. Why? Lets continue on to the next item on the list:
I'm planning a trip to India. Yes, another one. No, I didn't have plans for it until one of the Sai Baba center members basically insisted I sign up for it (reminding me I could always cancel afterward). Which I'm happy they did. There was an application deadline for the world youth conference that is the ostensible reason I'm going to India, and after I had time to think about it, I decided that I did want to go. All well and good. However, the universe seems to be dropping me hints that I should head to a certain specific holy cave way the heck on the other end of India. Which means another plane trip, and an 8-hour car ride. And then I was planning on spending a few days at the layover point in France and visiting a family friend, but I don't know if flights from the new airport I would be flying out of have a layover at the same place. In any case, this makes for an extremely complicated itinerary.
I need to make these plane reservations right away, because the price is going up every day. I need to make a whole bunch of decisions, none of which I have sufficient information on, and there's no way to get that information, as far as I can tell.
I will probably start that, after this post (so don't expect it to be well edited.) Start, but not finish, because I need to get back to New York this afternoon because I've said I would get to the Thursday evening meetings early, to help people set up. (The women always get their early, but the men not so much, and they need heavy things moved.)
I am at my parents because I needed to move a bunch of stuff from my Queens apartment to my parent's house, in preparation for being away for longer stretches of time. My plants, my alter where I pray and meditate in the mornings. And I packed up most of my other stuff as well, since I'm spending most of my time at home these days, and why not make it easier for myself when I have to move the rest out at the end of my lease. So yesterday I took a train out to my parent's house, drove my dad's car back into the city, finished packing stuff into boxes, loaded up the car, drove it back, and passed out asleep as soon as I could. Today I unloaded the car, moved most of it into the basement, some upstairs, did laundry, set up my alter, watered my plants, started sorting stuff, and then, when I stopped for lunch, realized I was exhausted and decided to do some non-physical stuff for a while. But now I'm traveling back to the city in a few minutes. Woooooooooooo!
This is a lot of traveling, and in the past I'd have been a bit frustrated at the seemingly wasted time, but I'm currently reading a book called "The Pilgrim's Progress" and implementing a spiritual practice that the writer of this journal talks about. Namely, constant prayer (really a form of continuous meditation.) Which is awesome! Now, any time I'm having to "wait" for something, instead, I can be doing spiritual practice. My time goes from being wasted to being utilized in the best possible way. This is very handy since it looks like I'm going to be in for a LOT of travel this summer. Starting basically last week and ending... maybe the end of August. Or maybe not.
OK. Facts! Delicious Facts. Actually, these facts may be a bit dry and in need of some mayo or a pickle to spruce them up, but there is no time for that. I need to leave for the train in 15 minutes and I still need to figure out what stuff I need to bring back into the city, pack it, and eat a gelato popsicle.
Jeranimo!
Isaac
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