#14 Good run

Boy, am I glad I ran.
It was a great run. The weather was chilly and foggy. I could see my breath.It felt invigorating. I am getting used to a course along the roads in the neighborhood behind my house that takes about 20 minutes. This morning, as I turned onto Mill Road (which has a nice asphalt sidewalk) I could see another runner ahead of me. She was a woman with a pony tail swinging side to side. That is one of my favorite sights in the world. Sorry, but it's true. I might as well admit it. She was about a block ahead of me, so she was almost lost in the fog. I had dreams of catching her, but soon I learned she was running faster than me, so she slowly faded into the mist. Still the experience was pleasant, and I was feeling happy for the rest of the 20-minute run.

Yesterday was a good day of mindfulness. Church in the morning was wonderful, the Sangha went well, and I read at a poetry reading at Borders in the evening.

#13 Up early

I got up at 6 a.m. this morning. I want to keep up that routine. It is good for my health and emotions. It gives me time to run and mediate in the morning.
I also need to write more. I have four books to write: 1: The Elements of News Writing, 2nd edition; 2. Along the Path; 3. Whither the Revolution; 4. The Elements of English Composition. Instead of putting them all off, I think I am going to start Word documents for all four, and when I have even a brief time like 10 or 15 minutes to spare, I can open one of the four files and insert a few ideas, sentences or paragraphs. I know -- KNOW -- that if I write all four of those books, one of them is going to sell well and make a lot of money. I want to get them done!

#12 Mindful Sunday

Today I practiced mindfulness.
In the morning, Brandon and I went to church. Reverend Steve was home form his vacation, and he gave a great sermon. All in all, it was an upbeat and happy service. Then I had lunch and headed to Harwich for a hike with the Appalachian Mountain Club. Part of that time I was practicing mindful walking meditation. Right after the hike, I went back to the church for our regular sangha meditation session. It was a great day, full of mindfulness.

#11 St. Patrick's Day

Being happy and making others happy is the secret to life. Helping others give us greater joy than helping ourselves.

And yet, somehow, I manage to screw it up. Instead of doing things that make me happy, sometimes I just waste my life. I spent hours last night just watching stupid TV shows for no reason. the next thing I knew it was 2 a.m. I could have read a good book or done some writing, or gone to sleep early. So I slept until 11 a.m. today and felt bad about that.

Originally I had planned to attend a Buddhist ceremony this morning -- a recitation of the 14 Mindfulness Trainings at Harvard Divinity School, but the ceremony was canceled because of the big storm we had. Now that I think of it, I could have sat quietly in my room and recited them myself.

Could've, should've, would've... They aren't worth our time.

Tomorrow I will wake up early and have a wonderful day. And I will try to rescue as much of today as I can.

#10 Good for me

Yes, good for me! I went for another run today. That makes two runs this week. Soon I will be back up to running every day. It sure is hard to get started again. On Sunday I ran for just under 20 minutes, and I was sore for several days. Today I ran a little farther, and it took just a little over 20 minutes. I will try to go a little farther every time.

I also did some work at the office today -- grading papers and so forth. That was another accomplishment. My English students were supposed to have sent me the URLs of their blogs, but very few of them did so. Uh oh.

My New Year's resolutions were reading, running and writing. I have done a little of each, so I won't beat myself up.

#9 Shame on me

Shame, shame, I have not been posting to my blog. Actually shame is a negative emotion that rarely does any good, so I had better just let that go.
On the weekend before last, I had a very spiritual weekend. It began on a Thursday, when I participated in the Cape Cod Interfaith Coalition's Interfaith Service. We had a cantor from the synagogue, the choir from the Greek Orthodox Church, A Baha'i woman who sang a lovely song, several Catholics and Protestants, and even one Buddhist -- myself. Then on Saturday, I sat at a table for the Interfaith Coalition at the Multicultural Festival. That was nice too. And on Sunday, I was the guest speaker at a service of the Unity Church. All in all, I felt like I was getting in touch with my spiritual side.

Last weekend I did attend church and then took part on the Cape Sangha book club discussion of Buddhist Without Beliefs by Steven Batchelor. It was followed by our regular sangha sitting, which also went well.

This week is Spring Break, so I do not have any classes to teach. However, I do have a lot of work to catch up on.

Life is good. I am thankful.