Tuesday, March 29

Paris lovers can view the Champs Elysees from the terrace at Ladaree while enjoying tea and white, yellow or pink macaroons.

Wednesday, March 30

A further sign that warmer temperatures and summer are around the corner is the impending beginning of the baseball season with opening day scheduled for tomorrow.  Another signal has been this week’s Cherry Blossom festival in our nation’s capital.

Monday, March 28

Despite knowing there are no guarantees for tomorrow, I often forget to be thankful for the existence of the very day itself, getting caught up instead in perceived disappointments, frustrations and detail and neglecting the miracle of being, breathing and feeling. 

Saturday, March 26

We have observed the differences in people’s “body clocks”.  Some are early risers.  Some cannot go to sleep until after midnight.  Some are hyper.  Some are “flat liners”, never too excited or too down.

               I wonder what causes our “mental clocks”.  Why some live more in the past.  Others can focus on the present.  Others always are worried about the future.  What is it about our chemical make-ups or backgrounds that contribute to what frame of time are consciousness spends most of its time in?

                                             
Sunday, March 27

               It can always get worse.  Someone is probably having a worse time of it.  

               Have not surprises and rainbows been around the most unexpected

corners?

Friday, March 25

               Life will eventually lead us face to face with our core insecurities and hang-ups.  Those fears and apprehensions we have kept at bay and dodged for years. 

At this point others can help us finally confront them.  It is hard to do alone since, well, our insecurities, hang-ups, fears and apprehensions are us, at least a part of us, old familiar “friends”.

               Then with others’ input one must navigate the mine field of, “am I changing just to make them happy or to appease them?”  Or is the change or changes truly the right thing to do that aligns our beliefs with our actions.

               So following one’s heart is trickier than just making the decision to finally follow one’s heart.  Because then comes, well where does it want to go and how do I take it there?

               Ultimately, it is about getting out of one’s comfort zone and doing it for the right reason.  Just move confidently trusting in the ultimate results.  Mistakes will occur.  Train off those mistakes, getting better and better at being your true self.

Thursday, March 24

Spring in the Air

               Pink and white tulips,

               Girls and boys playing touch football,

               Spring in the air.

Alternative Journal, Continued

Wednesday, March 23

Hidden Information - I have had hidden information on my mind lately. 

Those that study information theory, at schools like the School of Information at the University of California, Berkley divide information into two categories.  There is the nature of information, the binary digits of it like 1s and 0s, sometimes called “bits”.  Then there is the content or quality of the information, the war simulation computer or video game, e-mail to a friend, blogs, Google search, pictures on Facebook, all the new Apps available, Twitter messages, etc. 

  Commentators have said there is too much information or we are inundated with information or we are becoming lost in information.

      But there is still a lot of information we do not have access to.  I do not mean secrets, which Wiki leaks have shown can be exposed more easily than ever.  I mean the information we have not discovered.   Information stored in our memories which we cannot yet retrieve or knowledge yet acquired, which science and research and technology may eventually uncover.  Then there is all that we do not know we do not know.  Then there is the information we simply have not heard or read about but does now exist.

               I suggest there is more information we do not have than do have.  I also doubt we understand the information we do have.  I worry we are not using the miracle of information to its greatest good.

Monday, March 14

A labyrinth is a circular pathway that is walked for the purpose of engaging in meditation, contemplation and spiritual transformation.  It is intended to allow one to find peace and then be able to return to the world.

Tuesday, March 15

Neil Armstrong attributed his ability to land on the moon to his training and skill in working  through checklists - in order.  That is what helped him prepare for the trip, practice for the trip and then finally execute it.  He separated emotion from what he knew and what he was doing.  Work the checklist.  Develop good checklists.  Remain calm.

Wednesday, March 16

Author Pete Blaber, a former Delta Force commander advises to develop the situation on the ground.  In other words, sometimes in working a problem the best information is from face to face interactions with the people involved.  Talking directly to those involved may seem simple but it is easy to forget in this electronically connected world.

Be patient in suffering.  Romans 12:12.

Thursday, March 17

On Saint Patrick’s day, I like pulling out my copy of James Joyce’s, Ulysses and reading passages, enjoying the rich language and Irish themes.  The copy I have was a gift from my nephew who bought it hile on a trip to Dublin during a tour of Joyce’s home, now the James Joyce Centre.  It is the Gabler edited version which is considered by many as the definitively accurate edition to Joyce’s original manuscripts.  It has a deep green hardcover binding.  I try to eat Irish Soda bread while reading.  I keep a copy of Homer’s, Odyssey nearby and McCarthy’s Ulysses, Portals of Discovery to help me understand what I am reading.  I take some Irish Soda bread over to my Irish neighbor and he shares that as a boy he used to launch his Kayak from the Tower in the opening scene where Buck Mulligan is shaving.  My neighbor said he and his wife would be in Dublin on June 16, Bloomsday, for a wedding.

Friday, March 18

The cardinals have returned to eat at our bird feeder.  They are a welcome sight two days before the official spring date of the calendar.  I had seen them in our neighborhood for a couple weeks now.

Saturday, March 19

Let friends’ love shower you and be buoyed by it.

Sunday, March 20

The first official day of Spring.  Each year nature renews herself.  Can we?  The clocks have sprung forward for daylight savings time.  Our lives do not neatly always spring forward.  Like the clocks they fall back, but always with the chance to spring forward again.

Monday, March 21

One can look up to the heavens to lift that saturnine feeling.

Tuesday, March 22

The challenge is to reach our physical, mental and emotional potential.  It is clearer what can aid physical and mental growth.  It is unclear what aids emotional growth.  Can we devise a regiment for emotional growth like the countless programs at gyms and universities in the world?

Alternative Journal

Sunday, March 6, 2011
Outside the rules and expectations where anomalies spawn change, lies an alternative universe from the rational one where I think I exist.

Monday, March 7, 2011

God thankfully controls what I cannot then strengthens me to do what I can.  This is the compass through the storm of why questions that beat at us like severe wind and rain each day.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

There is how I see things and how others see things and how healthy our minds are affects how we all see things.  The brain with its 100,000,000,000 neurons processes about 2000 thoughts per day.  Our eyes initially perceive things upside down then correct them for our vision to right side up.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

No one can make me lose my control but me.  I can get angry, but can choose how to handle the anger.  Anger is good, it means we care.  Emotions are good they mean we know what we like and this helps us make decisions, hopefully good ones.  I control how I react to my environment.  I can change my environment.  I can change who I associate with.  I control most of the information going into my brain.  I choose not to act on emotion alone but on belief.  Hopefully what I believe is good.  Benjamin Franklin is quoted as saying that, “well done is better than well said.”  Do.  Move.

A physician is not angry at the intemperance of a mad patient; nor does he take it ill to be railed at by a man in a fever. Just so should a wise man treat all mankind, as a physician does his patient; and looking upon them only as sick and extravagant. -Lucius Annaeus Seneca, philosopher (BCE 3-65 CE)  

Thursday, March 10, 2011

The new record for holding your breath and diving is four minutes ten seconds and 328 feet or 100 meters, set December 13, 2010 by New Zealander William Trubridge.  He did it at Dean’s Blue Hole in the Bahamas where he works as a diving instructor.  He did it unassisted by weights or fins or airbag for ascent, equipment others had used to approach 100 meters in previous record attempts.  He did it to raise awareness for Hector’s dolphins, a small dolphin native to New Zealand and which is being threatened with extinction.  It was a true mind over body feet as the depth was three times what is recommended for recreational divers.  Trubridge had to deal with potentially becoming disoriented at that depth or hurrying his ascent and risking developing embolisms in the blood stream.  I found it interesting his greatest concern came at ascent when he said, “it can be a little bit daunting because of how much water you have over your head.”

Friday, March 11, 2011

I think I was too concerned with outcomes rather than just sharing myself.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Tea has a mystic quality, maybe because it often comes from and is mostly used in the orient.  One can enjoy a sensual experience with a hot steamy cup of tea.  Opening the individually wrapped package makes a soothing crisp sound as the paper tears away.  You see a red color as the hot water hits the tea if you are drinking Passion which contains hibiscus, lemongrass, rose hips, mango and passion fruit flavors.  I think the rose hips provide the red coloring.  The smell as the tea approaches your mouth is sweet.  The warmth feels soothing going down your throat into the belly, as your pallet takes in the variety of flavors introduced in your mouth.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Rest.  The day of rest.  Clear the mind.  Sunday may be the best time for meditative prayer where you focus on something.  It is also a good day for contemplative prayer where you simply clear your mind and listen.