The Eighth Sermon to the Dead

Yesterday was the last day of my חדל meditation sequence. I think it was a relative success, as I've remained sane and taken time out to rest, relax, fish, and do numerous other things. It was also the day I signed the loan papers for our new house. I've been rather excited about all of this. We were told by our landlord back in March that he wanted to move back in to his house, on May of this year. We asked him to hold off until June 15th, as we'd been house hunting, and needed 60 days to close. Yesterday, we signed loan papers. The sellers sign papers today, and on Friday we will be the new owners of our home. It's been quite a journey. We started with about $1000 in the bank, and through the blessings of The Most High and various other spiritual entities, the generosity of our friends, the hard work of Paddy and myself, and a couple of wonderful pieces of good fortune and magical finagling, we're at the end of that portion of the journey. Now, the next leg b...

It's been 10 days since my last post. I've been keeping up with the meditation. We celebrated the Eucharist on Sunday in our new space, which was wonderful. Saw some new faces. This move is kicking my butt. We sign papers on 5/22, and close 5/29. It can't happen fast enough. Our landlord is moving back into his house, so he's chomping at the bit to get back up there. It's causing stress and complications as he tries to move animals in before we've moved our animals out. Animals are always unpredictable: they have their own behaviors, diseases, and issues, and they rarely stay right where you put them. I just want to kick the dust from my feet and get to our own place. When I'm already stressed, complications cause me more stress. So rest, relaxation, etc are difficult to come by. Work is gearing up for our next phase of the project, the phase that starts letting the whole company in. I'm gearing up to help support the whole system once the contractor...

Today I've been thinking a lot about the Permaculture. It combines a lot of ideas that I am interested in: renewable energy, greywater and rainwater storage, soil regeneration and restoration, food forests, trees and garden design. Careful use of resources, respectful approach to life, and thoughtful planning. It provides for the needs of human beings, and other forms of life. Waste becomes resources, productivity increases, work is minimized, environment is restored. Holy cow is that a paradigm shift. I've been raised in a culture, a business culture, of resource extraction and efficiency. That science, rationality, and engineering will produce the best life humans can have. While that may be true, it seems mainstream science has actually stopped with principles developed during the industrial age. Efficiency, redesigned as the least amount of work, became the goal. Waste was discounted. Now, though, I've come to a new business, with a new understanding of waste. In ...

On Day 23, I did manage to meditate, but writing was not in the cards. This making myself stop and take time to relax is hard. 9 hour work days, child care, dinner prep, etc. make things tough. I have no idea how single parents do it. We've been without internet for 3 days now, which is a mixed blessing. I've done a bit more around the house, got some packing done which is good. I've been out walking twice this week, and the second time was easier and of longer duration than the first. Today, I may take the goats and sheep out for a walk as well.  We'll have to see what happens. The service provider will be up tomorrow morning to check the internet. It doesn't seem to be an issue on our end. We'll see. I've given up on reading the Hugo nominees. I'm not that interested. I may come back to them later, but right now there's just too many other things on the plate. Perhaps I should buy a supporting WorldCon membership, and get the voters packet, which...

Apparently, May 6th is International No Diet Day . Given my health issues to date, I think it's a load of crock. From Wikipedia: International No Diet Day  (INDD) is an annual celebration of body acceptance, including  fat acceptance  and body shape diversity. This day is also dedicated to promoting a healthy life style with a focus on  health at any size  and in raising awareness of the potential dangers of  dieting  and the unlikelihood of success The unlikelihood of success. Just what I needed to hear right now. Success is vitally (get it?) important to my life right now. I'm 42 years old, I'm overweight (40-80 lbs depending on which chart I look at), I have high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and the weight all rests around my middle, which studies say is a result of high cortisol levels (Stress). Does the weight cause the stress, or is the weight a result of stress? I'm sure there's a relationship there, and it may be becoming a self-reinf...

Since we have figured out the house stuff, I've been able to start concentrating on other things. one of the other things I need to concentrate on is my health. Today, I took my blood sugar reading for the first time in a long time. The value was 200, which is about 80 higher than I want it to be. So, diet reform is on The Horizon, and I am starting to exercise more. For now, I'm just going to add a walk at lunch. as we finish the move, I'll put something else in. A conversation on Sunday got me thinking about the political process specifically, the idea of an esoteric political action committee. The rules surrounding PACs are surprisingly loose, and it's fairly easy to start one. My only question would be, what sort of issues would be of interest two people with an esoteric bent? Lots of ideas and things are whirling around in my head. We'll see what comes of it.

This weekend was quite the whirlwind. Friday we went and saw the Avengers: Age of Ultron. It was a treat for the family, and a lot of fun. I really recommend the movie if you're following the Marvel franchise. Saturday was a wonderful day. Newberg Rugby went undefeated, and we're the only undefeated team in the Divisions, although we're apparently behind on points, because Union is leading the division with 10 wins/1 loss, while we have 7 wins. The parents put on a great feed for the kids and others. I played a lot of frisbee during the down times with Seamus. Fun stuff. Then, we went to dinner with some friends, and they gave us $10,000 to help buy our house! We have the best friends ever. With this gift and all the previous amounts people have given us, we're within $4000 of our down payment amount. It's amazing and wonderful news, and we cannot express our gratitude enough to the folks who gave us that gift. Sunday was a magical day. I did a Friary init...

I know this series of meditations is about rest, but it's amazing how deep thoughts simply escape during these warm days. The meditations have been going well, with at least 10 minutes of morning meditation and the occasional evening one. The house is starting to slowly fill boxes around us, making our environment a little more chaotic than usual. I'm hoping that when we move, we'll be able to fix some of the issues we had with this house, like constant clutter. Hope springs eternal. I've been reading a lot, but it's been mostly fiction. The Dark Between the Stars , by Kevin J. Anderson is my next work, but I'm having some trouble getting into it. The Gilded Rune , by Lisa Smedman is another work I'm reading, and it's easier to get into. Less characters, more linear storytelling. I've been dismayed by the trend in modern novels to jump, jump, jump.  This character, then this one, then this one. It's OK when there's two sides, like in th...