Monthly Archives: October 2018

Book Review, Colorado, Psychology, Religion, Sociology

MUSINGS FOR MONDAY 29TH, OCTOBER 2018

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“You must do the things you think you cannot do.”                        Eleanor Roosevelt

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.  You are able to say to yourself, “I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that come along.””  Eleanor Roosevelt

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”    Eleanor Roosevelt

 

Fort Collins Sunsets – great afternoon and evening running this week!!

Well it is the end of and the beginning of another week.  This blog post was a little late in getting out due to working at the day job over the weekend AND studying for a class required by said day job.  I pull 12 hour shifts and it does not leave much time to do anything else.  Especially if you want to ensure you get an adequate amount of sleep.  It just amazes me how often I would short myself on sleep and then wonder why I got sick.  And why I thought this was a normal occurrence?!  I have become one of those anal people that track everything, including sleep.  Seven to eight hours is now the norm.  And guess what?  I do not get sick as often as I have in the past.  A definite decrease in the number of colds and viral illnesses, etc.…  I also attribute this to eating a much healthier diet than I did in the past too.  But that is a topic for another Blog post.

A great book out there on this subject.  And one, I would say needs to be put in that “read a second time category” is called “Why We Sleep” by Matthew Walker, PhD.

You can find this book at Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Sleep-Unlocking-Dreams/dp/1501144324/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1539802696&sr=8-3&keywords=why+we+sleep&dpID=51dUdCh2ZdL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch

One of the things the author goes over is sleep and how it is affected by alcohol.  It really changed my perspective on having a drink, be it beer or wine, with dinner.  I have stopped doing this except for every once in a great, great while. (like once per month) Also, he talks about how our memory is affected by the lack of REM sleep due to alcohol intake.  I call this a “hard truth” because if you are like me you grew up with alcohol being a part of family traditions so to speak and it is hard to get away from.  After reading the book, I think of all the nights of burning the candle at both ends, drinking, staying up late, etc.… and how in reality this was a total waste of time.  I truly believe that it prematurely aged me physically.  Unfortunately, there is nothing I can do about changing the past but to go forward with better lifestyle habits.

And for shift workers that do night shifts.  In my opinion they do not get paid enough.  Truly, for all the individuals that work nights, I would go as far as to say you need to get paid time and half.  Great book.  Well worth the read or two.

 

Another book that I think is a good read is called the “The Book of Joy” by Douglas Carlton Abrams, the Dalai Lama, and Desmond Tutu.  It is basically an interview and discourse between two “Spiritual masters” that have very different back grounds but do share the one common element of having faced and survived significant adversity in their lives.  The Dalai Lama’s persecution by the Chinese and Desmond Tutu’s struggle with the South African Government and Apartheid.

 

One of the reasons I believe the book is interesting is that they both come from two different religious backgrounds.  One is Buddhist and one is Christian.  When asked questions, their answers are not that far apart from each other.  Obliviously there are some major “religious dogma” differences but philosophically they are very close in the advice they give.  The other part of this book that I found inspiring was how they came to grips with the adversity and still found joy and what appears to be lasting happiness.  I listened to the book as an audio book while running but it might be better to purchase it as regular print so that you can go back and reread a section or two.

You can find the book at Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/Book-Joy-Lasting-Happiness-Changing/dp/0399185046/ref=sr_1_1/135-8262170-6644902?ie=UTF8&qid=1540750504&sr=8-1&keywords=dalai+lama+joy+book

 

Almost done with the current drawing.  Getting closer…  Lol.

Winter is coming and the squirrels are scarfing food where ever they can find it.  Lol

Well that is about it for me.  Hope you get a change to read the above two books.  They are defiantly worth the effort.  Have a great week and may life be good for you.   See you out there on the trails!!

Art, Book Review, Meditations, Psychology

MUSINGS FOR MONDAY 15TH, OCTOBER 2018

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“My goal is to be better than I was yesterday.  To improve myself.  To enrich my life.  I am running my own race.  I compete with no one but myself.  This is my journey.”  – Unknown?

First snow for winter 2018 – about 8 inches at our location.

Well it has been another good week.  Winter has made an appearance in Colorado.  With the cold came the added bonus of moisture and that is something we needed on the Front Range.  Fort Collins is considered High Plains Desert and we were about 5 inches behind in total moisture content.  So, any that fell this past week was a really good thing.  When you only get about 14 inches total per year, five inches is a lot to be missing.  The only down side for me was not being able to work on outdoor projects around the house but this turned out to be nothing too serious.  I will take the snow and rain that fell last week and this weekend.

I was reading a book from the author Seth Godin.  I had not heard of him and found a quote by him just by accident.

“Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don’t need to escape from.”

I thought this was kind of interesting.  If you are like me you are always looking for the next vacation.  Where to go and what to do.  So, this quote got me to thinking.  We are always trying to do something different.  Never being truly where we are at the moment.  Thinking ahead to what is next and around the corner.  Now this can be a good thing but doing it all the time is not the road I believe that leads to happiness.  Maybe we have it all wrong.  This quote got me to reevaluate my life to see what I needed to keep and what I needed to cut.  You might find it surprising that something on the surface you will think that you need to cut but it may not be that way down deep.  It might be the best thing to keep.

You can find the book at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Icarus-Deception-How-High-Will/dp/1591846072/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1539652230&sr=8-1&keywords=icarus+deception

The book is good enough to be placed in the “It warrants a second read category”.  A part of the book that really resonated with me was Seth talking about “Being your own boss.”  Whether you are self-employed or not.  I think that we see this quote a lot.  And only think of it in terms of having our own business.  But do we really know what it means to be our own boss?  That was the question I found most intriguing.  I will say it a second time, “Do we really know what it means to be our own boss?” What I found was that my understanding of the phrase was very limited.

What a difference a day makes!!  View from the Powerline Trail in Fort Collins.

Now I am in the fifth decade of my life and I can look back at all the bosses I have had – some good, some that were excellent and some that…, well they were not that great.  Think about that for a moment.  If you are like me you have had a multitude of bosses.  What were they really like?  How did you perform with each boss?  Did you enjoy going to work?  Did the type of boss influence how you felt about work?  Did it affect your job performance?  NOW see yourself as “your own boss.”  And ask yourself “What Kind of Boss Do You Want to Be?”  You don’t have to be self-employed to ask this question.  That idea of asking the question even if you are not self-employed changed the perspective dramatically for me.

One of the Prospect Ponds.

Think about this, if you were given the responsibility of managing one employee.  To control everything in their life.  And your sole job was to make the business and that one employee as successful as possible.  What would you do?  How would you act towards that one employee?  Would you be the best boss that you could be?  Or would you be the boss that everyone wants to get away from? No one wants to work for?  Good questions and worth pondering.

Poudre River Trail.

NOW see yourself as that one employee.  That’s right, you are the employee and you are your own boss.  They are one and the same.  If you are like me, this changes the whole perspective.  I want to be the best possible boss that I can be.  And in turn I want to be the model employee, the best employee, for that boss!  If you can put yourself in the duel role of boss and employee, at the same time, it will change how you see and perceive your life.  What a daunting and awesome responsibility.  How would it change your behavior toward yourself and others?  It is one of those things that I wish I could have understood much sooner in life.  As the old saying goes “We are our own worst enemies.”  All of us.  Understanding of “You are your own boss” is one way to get past this worst enemy conundrum.  I believe that this is a step in the right direction on the path to happiness.

September 20th

October 5th

October 15th, 2018

Well that is about it for me.  The latest heart picture is getting closer to completion.  Hope everyone had a great weekend.  Maybe I will see you out there on the trails!!  Adios amigos!!

Art, Book Review, Colorado, Meditations, Psychology, Truth and Perception

MUSINGS FOR MONDAY 8TH, OCTOBER 2018

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“Buddhism does not advocate faith in the sense of believing something because it is written in a book, attributed to a prophet, or taught to you by some authority figure.  The meaning of faith here is closer to confidence.  It is knowing that something is true because you have seen it work, because you have observed that very thing within yourself.  In the same way, morality is not a ritualistic obedience to a code of behavior imposed by an external authority.  It is rather a healthy habit pattern that you have consciously and voluntarily chosen to impose upon yourself because you recognize its superiority to your present behavior.” 

– Mindfulness in Plain English, by Bhante Gunaratana

FALL 2018 – LEAVES ARE CHANGING IN FORT COLLINS!!

Well it has been a good week.  Again, I really cannot complain.  Life is good.  It is not perfect, but what is?  Everything is changing and nothing is static for long.  Change is the only constant.

LAST CORD OF A 4 CORD TOTAL!!

I have continued this week to put up firewood for the winter.  Four cords total.  Good to get it done early and to be ready when the snow and cold temperatures come.

JULY 26TH

AUGUST 13TH

SEPTEMBER 3RD

OCTOBER 5TH

Finished the deck above the garage, but still working on the structure above the garage deck.  This has taken me some time.  As you can see by the dates and the above photos.  But when it is done I think it will be worth the effort.  I will show some photos when it is finally finished.  Trying to get it done before Thanksgiving. Lol.

I have started to reread a book this year called:  MINDFULNESS in PLAIN ENGLISH, by Bhante Gunaratana.  This will be the fourth time I have read it.  It is an excellent book on Meditation and Mindfulness.  This is one of those books that rereading it at least once a year is something you want to make a habit of.  It is that good.  Truly if you want to be able to enjoy life more, no matter what your circumstances are or what is going on in the world, this could be the single most important book you could read this year.  The book is a very readable down to earth look at what meditation is and is not.  A nuts and bolts book that “Westerners” can understand.

The book itself is about 196 pages not counting the Index.  Every time I have read this book I come across something new or more likely, “understand” better what the author is talking about.  I am not a religious or spiritual person.  In fact, I am an Atheist.  And that is what drew me to Buddhism.  I know that might sound funny to some but I see Buddhism as a form of philosophy that has been tried and tested over millennia with no “Divine Authority Needed.”  The purpose of meditation is personal transformation.  The person that goes into “meditation” so to speak is not the same person that comes out.  You can use these same techniques in meditation no matter what religion you are.  Or you don’t even have to have a religion like me.  It will work for anyone if they give it thoughtful consideration.  Just to be clear I am talking about vipassana meditation.

From the book: “In vipassana meditation we cultivate this special way of seeing life.  We train ourselves to see reality exactly as it is, and we call this special mode of perception mindfulness.  This process of mindfulness is really quite different from what we usually do.  We usually do not look into what is actually there in front of us.  We see life through a screen of thoughts and concepts, and we mistake those mental objects for reality.  We get so caught up in this endless thought-stream that reality flows by unnoticed.  We spend our time engrossed in activity, caught up in eternal pursuit of pleasure and gratification and eternal flight from pain and unpleasantness.  We spend all of our energies trying to make ourselves feel better, trying to bury our fears, endlessly seeking security.  Meanwhile, the world of real experience flows by untouched and untasted.  In vipassana meditation we train ourselves to ignore the constant impulses to be more comfortable, and we dive into reality instead.  The irony of it is that real peace comes only when you stop chasing it.”

I think of the above as “turning in” to what is happening around you.  Not to try and run from unpleasant situations or thoughts but turning in towards them.  This is not a doctrine you need to drill into yourself, but an observable reality that with practice you can see for yourself.  The idea is to make the “mindfulness” so common place that you do it without really thinking about it, no matter the situation.  This part of mindfulness that has taken me a long time to master and I am still working on it.  The idea of: “Don’t confuse Training Conditions with Real World Situations/Actions.”  When the proverbial “Shit hits the fan” conditions occur in my life – I still fall back into old habit patterns and forget all about mindfulness practice.

From the Book: “One of the most difficult things to learn is that mindfulness is not dependent on any emotional or mental state.  We have certain images of meditation.  Meditation is something done in quiet caves by tranquil people who move slowly.  Those are training conditions.  They are set up to foster concentration and to learn the skill of mindfulness.  Once you have learned that skill, however, you can dispense with the training restrictions, and you should.  You don’t need to move at a snail’s pace to be mindful.  You don’t even need to be calm.  You can be mindful while solving problems in intensive calculus.  You can be mindful in the middle of a football scrimmage.  You can even be mindful in the midst of a raging fury.  Mental and physical activities are no bar to mindfulness.  If you find your mind extremely active, then simply observe the nature and degree of that activity.  It is just a part of the passing show within.” 

You can download the book as PDF off the web.  Yes, it is free. (my first time to read it) I found that it was so good, I went ahead and bought a copy from Amazon.  https://www.amazon.com/Mindfulness-Plain-English-Revised-Expanded/dp/0861713214/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0/145-7252461-2444901?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=68396RBSG0293KGXVV6C

Well that is about it for me this week.  But one last thing.  The most recent heart picture is coming along.  Slowly but surely.

SEPTEMBER 20TH

OCTOBER 5TH

Take care my friends and I hope see you out there on the trails!!