Wednesday

Wednesday is my day to re-group and re-define my week. First I make a plan for getting over the bump of the mid-week, then I re-envision my emotional tone and perspective.

I actually had my bump day yesterday, with a mild case of food poisoning; today I am hoping to recapture my energy. 

Agenda today:

1. Read "The Exquisite Risk"

2. New narrative for concentration

3. Writing themes and passion plan

1. Read "The Exquisite Risk":

I'm reading this small book by Mark Nepo (2005), with the subtitle, Daring to Live an Authentic Life. It's about how to stay awake and open to our experience of life, when our wounds make us numb and hidden. "But we all live on this shore between the depths of being and the dangers of experience."

Chapter 3 is The Nature of the Dance, about the "the vibrant, life-giving act of spirit and how it expresses us. ... the dance of spirit must move through us if we are to know and feel our place in the mysterious scheme of things."

This is all about assuming our presence, being authentic, and expressing our inner world to the outer world. We do this by allowing our inner Being to shape and define our Doing; it's called integrity. "This is the purpose of integrity: to balance the outer forces of existence with the inner forces of spirit." 

Practice saying "The authentic me requires me to Do things this way," but be careful that I'm not just being stubborn! We want to journey and be changed by the journey, but we sometimes travel along without any growth; or we sometimes change because we want to fit in. It is our continual effort to have integrity, and hear the voice of the authentic inner Being that "keeps us close to the pulse of what is sacred." 

Self-expression- sharing what matters - exchanging vitality - is a way of "staying faithful to that place inside that doesn't change. ... In a daily way, the exchange of what matters is the dance by which we stay alive and true."

2. New narrative for concentration:

One of my weekly Creative Perspective tasks is to define a new narrative, today for the habit of concentration. The benefit of concentration is that it minimizes all the worries, restlessness, impatience, craving for comfort, torpor, and apathy that hold me back - it's a way to become aware of these hindrances, set them aside, and refocus, over and over again. "The best approach to strengthening concentration is to take things one moment at a time, being clear and deliberate about what you are doing and why."

This week I intend to embody concentration once or twice a day, by doing a simple activity with focused awareness and great care, slowly and purposefully, one step at a time.

3. Writing themes:

The next few days are the best block of time I have for healthy obsession for my writing project. Today I will set themes and topics for writing and research:

• W: Post Home Hardening
• Th: ECEF
• F: Post
• Sat: Awareness of Water and Draught - Know your water sources
• Sun: Edits and post.
• M: Make a pilgrimage to water
• T: Post
• W: Know the fishes
• Th: Post