Category: Everything Else

#AtoZChallenge | J is for Juggling thoughts and calming my monkey mind.

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Monkey mind is a real thing. “According to Buddhist principles, the “monkey mind” is a term that refers to being unsettled, restless, or confused.” (Raab, 2017)

I may know shockingly little about Buddhist principles but the monkey mind is something to which I can easily relate, at least the restless part. My mind flutters through to-do-list tasks, random snippets of memories and various unrelated passing thoughts with a disconnected, accelerated pace most of my waking hours.

I’m ready to make peace with it. I’ve handed my monkey mind an olive branch and asked it to pull up a chair and slow down to enjoy a quiet moment with me.

I started practicing meditation every day in an attempt to quiet my mind. Let me be clear: I’ve been practicing quite poorly, but I am practicing.

I am reading “Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World” and following their well laid out meditation plan. There are many other meditation practices available. It’s definitely a trending topic these days. I’m sure this is in part because of the unprecedented level of distraction we all live with each day.

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#AtoZChallenge | I is for Islands and a perfect summer day on Monhegan.

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There is something magical about a perfect summer day. It stays in our memory with such a force that we can easily return to it and relive the moments to brighten more dreary ones. Our trip to Monhegan Island was one of those days.

After a foggy boat ride out of New Harbor, we reached Monhegan Island where the sky was bright and clear. We immediately set off on the 4.4 mile Cliff Trail, which circles the outer edge of the island and opens onto one amazing ocean view after another. It is the embodiment of the rugged Maine coastline. Below is a slide show of images from our trip:

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#AtoZChallenge | H is for Hiking with goats another tail tale from the trail.

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There was a moment when I was focused on the trail ahead but sensed that there was someone close behind. Seconds later one of goats sprinted past, fully engaged on exploring the wooded countryside, far less interested in us than we were in them.

This past September, on a mild fall day, we found ourselves enjoying an educational and relaxing hike with a sweet, well-mannered tribe of Alpine dairy goats at Ten Apple Farm.

The day of our hike started off with a light rain, so our hosts flipped the schedule and we started off in the barn where we learned about the farm and the goats. It was hard to stay focused, even though the information was interesting.

As the farmer told us his stories, one of the smaller goats in the pen behind him kept repeatedly jumping straight up while bleating and crying as she desperately tried to see over the top of the pen. She’d get a fleeting glimpse of us and then disappear only to return seconds later to peek again. It was clear that our hiking companions would have some energy.

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#AtoZChallenge | G is for Greens and planning ahead for our summer CSA.

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I have an internal battle going on. It’s subtle but it’s there. I want to be something that I may have to acknowledge I am not. I want to be someone who passionately loves her CSA share and uses every single vegetable in creative and fun ways for my meals throughout the week.

Yuval Noah Harari wrote Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind and the sequel Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow. His books are fascinating and I definitely recommend you read them for a better understanding of his ideas but today I’m focusing on one of them in particular.

He talks about the concept of the narrative or remembered self versus the experiential self.  You can learn more from his podcast appearance on Armchair Expert. Dax and Yuval talk about the concept of these two selves starting at 44:48.

The way I understand it is the narrative or story telling self, is the part of ourselves writing the story of our lives. The experiential self is how we actually act and spend our time. They can often be in conflict. For example, my narrative self may have a vision of me as a blogger but if my experiential self doesn’t post or do any blogging related activities for a year they are in conflict.

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#AtoZChallenge | E is for Evening and the Creativity it Brings.

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While I don’t have a favorite Mr. Darcy as no matter who plays the role, in the end, Jane Austen’s story will bring me around to the same conclusion as Elizabeth Bennet. I too love Mr. Darcy. I’ve watched every version or homage made, from Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to the classic BBC version with Colin Firth. The latter I watch at least a few times every year, but I’ve learned never to start watching it after 9 pm.

The mini-series is 327 minutes, or just over five and a half hours. And even though it may be my twentieth viewing, once I start watching I don’t stop until it’s done. While I’m sure the allure of Mr. Darcy has a great deal to do with it, in reality the reason I’ll stay up way too late is that I’m a night owl and when fully engaged, whether with a classic like Pride and Prejudice or more typically on a craft project, I just don’t want to stop. All of my senses come awake.

For my One Little Word® project, each month we’re given a prompt and activities around our word. They are usually a combination of writing prompts along with artistic, or creative components.

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