I don't want my four year old (Harry) to go out trick or treating on Halloween. He (we) might be invited so I'm trying to sort my thoughts out.
I didn't go trick or treating when I was a kid, Halloween wasn't celebrated much in my part of North London. Sure, I had heard about it, heard how kids went out trick or treating (along with all the horror stories of razor blades hidden in apples) in the USA, but it never occured to me to do the same.
So why should Harry get involved in what is, in reality, a pretty threatinging activity ('give me sweets or I will do X')? What's more, I can bet the parents that follow the younger kids round from house to house wouldn't like it if Harry actually played the game and lobbed a rotten egg at someone's door if they hadn't offered up the requested booty.
No, instead it's a case of going from door to door demanding sugar. I don't see anything I like in this, begging for sugar? Sorry, I just can't do it.
So, how about we do it properly? Forget trick or treat, let's organise a full-on kids' pagan party!
Yeah, get a BIG bonfire going in the back garden, make some REALLY scary masks (not those crapola ones from Woolworths), put some LOUD Shamanic drumming on the CD player (or even better hire some drummers, they can sit in the corner of the garden with a couple of litres of cider) and chant the night away! The kids will love dancing around the fire in masks, chanting into the dark skies...
This would be a real Halloween party, why, we could even try and summon up one of Great Cthulhu's crowd, they would adore the Fens, all that lovely water.
And after the kids have gone to bed...the parents could really get going...
I've just booked onto my first ever retreat! A weekend at the Amaravati Buddhist Monastery in Hertfordshire. I'm really excited about this. Ok, it's only three days, but still, a great taster and a chance to really get down to work.
I'm very tired after a hectic weekend down in London, so I'm not going to write much more. Catch up later.
I'm very tired after a hectic weekend down in London, so I'm not going to write much more. Catch up later.
Jo bought me the wonderful 'Metro Maps of the World' by Mark Ovenden for my birthday (the author has a website for the book but it is a dreadful piece of design - unlike the book itself). The book covers metros from 200 cities, only six of which I've experienced:
- London (of course!)
- Paris
- Madrid
- New York
- Barcelona
- St Petersburg
No posts for a while now. I'm so busy at work and often do not feel like turning on the PC when I get home. Hey, perhaps I need to get a Blackberry thing and and I could do posts on the train to and from work. Yeah!
So a short post to say 1) I'm switching my main meditation practice from the evening to the morning which means getting up at 5.40am, 2) Despite hating TV I'm enjoying Lost 3) My dad's website is now live at: www.regentsparklit.org.uk
Cheers and love to you all!
So a short post to say 1) I'm switching my main meditation practice from the evening to the morning which means getting up at 5.40am, 2) Despite hating TV I'm enjoying Lost 3) My dad's website is now live at: www.regentsparklit.org.uk
Cheers and love to you all!
Worked at home today. Before starting work I made myself a sign and hung it just above the PC monitor:
"Instead of becoming angry when technology does not do what I want it to do, I will close my eyes and be mindful of the breath. I will do this until I feel calm".And you know what? I didn't call my PC a miserable f****** c*** once, all day! An achievement indeed.
"Instead of becoming angry when technology does not do what I want it to do, I will close my eyes and be mindful of the breath. I will do this until I feel calm".And you know what? I didn't call my PC a miserable f****** c*** once, all day! An achievement indeed.
Harry's at his grandparent's, Jo's out-and-about in the car which left me a entire Saturday morning to myself. So I do two 25 minute sittings with an hour break to do some housework (ha!).
The difference between the two sittings is noticeable. The first saw my mind shooting about all over the shop and I found it very difficult to count more than two breaths in a row. The second sitting was different. Very quickly my mind seemed to settle down, I felt a comfortable heaviness creep over my body, though I didn't feel sleepy at all. Thoughts flickered here and there but quickly came back to the breath when asked kindly to do so...only a dead-leg caused some disturbance, but even that wasn't much.
25 minutes seems to be an entry point for me...
The difference between the two sittings is noticeable. The first saw my mind shooting about all over the shop and I found it very difficult to count more than two breaths in a row. The second sitting was different. Very quickly my mind seemed to settle down, I felt a comfortable heaviness creep over my body, though I didn't feel sleepy at all. Thoughts flickered here and there but quickly came back to the breath when asked kindly to do so...only a dead-leg caused some disturbance, but even that wasn't much.
25 minutes seems to be an entry point for me...
So I've been keeping a meditation log, kind of a motivation to get down there on the cushion and deal with the mind...here's the results so far:
Sept 606 minutes
August 515
July 451
June 597
May 370
Average sitting time for Sept was 20 mins, I'm going to up that to 25 mins for Oct; nirvana or bust!
As for the title of this posting, I got bored of thinking up witty titles so I'm going to use titles of my favourite songs from now on (too many uses of the word 'titles' there). The above is by...ah, work it out yourselves!
Sept 606 minutes
August 515
July 451
June 597
May 370
Average sitting time for Sept was 20 mins, I'm going to up that to 25 mins for Oct; nirvana or bust!
As for the title of this posting, I got bored of thinking up witty titles so I'm going to use titles of my favourite songs from now on (too many uses of the word 'titles' there). The above is by...ah, work it out yourselves!
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