#8 Mid-Week Blues

For some reason Wednesday was hard this week. I guess it may be because I didn't sleep well last night. I did lead a good meditation session in the library this morning, and then I enjoyed Lora's wonderful yoga class in the late afternoon. At the end of yoga we did a five-minute meditation, and I found myself going really deep.
I have been making some mistakes lately, and I feel bad about that. I need to be more careful. I have decisions to make about my future, and that may be distracting me.
I need to get back to running. The weather had been very cold, but I need to drop that excuse and just get out there and run. My New Year's goals were running, writing and reading. I have done some of the writing and reading, and now I need to add running.

#7 Busy Sunday

This was a very busy Sunday, but it was mindful too.
I picked up Brandon, my 25-year-old son, and we went to church together. It was a wonderful service with a theme of Black History Month. We sang spirituals and heard a moving presentation of a historic African-American poem. It was a moving service in many ways. Later Brandon also joined me for a workshop I led on "How to Meditate" followed by our regular Sangha (Buddhist meditation group) I dropped him off and did some shopping on the way home. I feel like I have had a long day, but it was all good stuff. I am always happy when I can devote Sunday to spiritual things.

Tomorrow is a holiday, but I have to work on committee work at the college. I was happy to get a comment form jkrunning. That reminds me that I need to get back to running myself. I haven't run since I got so sick last November. I love running, and I need it. Unfortunately the wind-chill factor is supposed to be near zero tomorrow. Soon, soon.

#6 Great Class

I think I taught a great class tonight. It was a class in Communications Ethics for Suffolk University, and I did something different. I set up two stools in the front of the classroom, and I warned the student that they would each have to come up and sit with me like a guest on a talk show. Each would have to talk about one of four topics: An article about a controversial cartoon that was published, something from Chapter 5 on confidentiality and the mass media, something form Chapter 6 on conflicts of interest, or the clipping they brought in that day. So they came up one by one and each talked for two or three minutes in response to my questions. Sometimes the other students asked them questions. The cartoon stimulated a very heated and emotional debate about the war in Iraq. I think the conversations taught them a lot about communications ethics. I was very pleased with the class.

I am way behind schedule in some of my committee work, but when it comes to teaching, I feel like I am really on top of things, and that feels good.

#5 Valentine's Day

Today was Valentine's Day.
Our thoughtful department head gave chocolates to everyone in the department -- everyone except me. Because I have diabetes and shouldn't eat chocolate, she gave me cheese instead. It was a wonderful slice of Jarlsburg cheese, which I love.
In yoga class we worked on positions that, the teacher said, opened the heart. The fish pose, in particular, was very powerful. I am glad I meditated in the morning and did yoga in the afternoon. In the evening, I finished grading everything form my journalism class. It will feel good to return everything to the students tomorrow.

#4 Long Wednesday

I got to the office around 8:30 this morning, and didn't leave until 9:30 -- 13 hours later. That was a long day. Of course I did get off campus a couple times, but I am mighty tired now. But I thought I had better submit another blog entry or I will never get 50 done this semester.

On Tuesday afternoon we presented a short NCBI workshop to the board of trustees. It went pretty well, but not as well as I had hoped. I don't think they were as wiling to let down their guards as some other groups.

This morning we had a good meditation meeting at 9 a.m., with Jim Calvin leading instead of me. And in the afternoon I went to Lora Ziemba's yoga class on campus. That was very relaxing, although there was a little hard work involved as well.

Tomorrow is another long day, so I had better get to bed now.

#3 Saturday night

It was not a very exciting Saturday,but a productive one. I started at 8 a.m. with a very mindful call to my Buddhist mentor, Joanne. We had a good talk. She reminded me of a wonderful meditation at the end of The Miracle of Mindfulness, a book I read many years ago. I will pick it up at the Sangha tomorrow and refresh my memory.
Then I basically worked in my office all day, grading papers. I finished all the work for my two largest classes, but I still have papers to grade form my three smaller classes. There is always tomorrow.
On the way home I was listening to "A Prairie Home Companion" on the radio, and it was their annual joke show. Some of them were quite funny, so I listened to the rest of the show after I got home. All the jokes are on the Web: http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/programs/2007/02/03/scripts/jokes.shtml
Enjoy!

#2 Busy days

It is February already.
I feel good because I managed to keep my expenses on budget during the month of January. Also yesterday I received a wonderful phone call from my friend Steve. He was on a meditation retreat and had a significant spiritual breakthrough. We are on similar spiritual paths, and we have so much to share. Mindfulness is at the heart of it all. He is interested in attending the retreat next August with Thich Nhat Hanh. It will be wonderful if we can both go and share that experience.

Yesterday I also helped present another workshop on prejudice reduction with the NCBI team (National Coalition Building Institute http://www.ncbi.org/home/index.cfm) . It went very well. with all the problems in the world today, it helps me to know that I am doing my small part to try to make things better.