(I wrote the first 5 of these about a month ago and then ended up not posting it. Since we're going out of town this weekend, I'm pulling it out, dusting it off, and adding two more. So, for the record, the wind storms in #4 were awhile back, not recently, thank you, weather gods.)
(Since we're out of town for the next few days I probably won't post next week. You know what? I've lost my sense of humor. I'm counting on spring to bring it back. IF SPRING WOULD EVER FREAKING GET HERE.)
1. Among other things that I didn't tell you about that happened during my 14-month blogging break was our kitchen/living room renovation. Thank your stars I wasn't blogging while that was happening. I know what I like when it's done, but getting there involves a neurotic mess of insecurities about all the decisions. And you didn't have to read about any of it! *throws confetti*
2. The kitchen is done and I love it, but there were other bits and pieces, too, that we have just recently finished-- like replacing our ancient living room furniture, finding rugs to go over our new fake wood floor, etc etc etc. (yes. still.) At the moment, the only thing left on my list is a new coffee table and end tables. Sounds simple, right? But I've been looking off and on for months now and haven't found the right thing. It's starting to really irritate me.
3. Anyway. That was a side-track, what I was really going to tell you about is our 40-year old house. It wasn't very solidly built to begin with, so living here has been a fairly continuous round of fixing up and shoring up. We have not replaced the windows, because money, so we still have the same old ill-fitting drafty windows. Most of the time, this isn't a problem. New windows would be nice, but these are fine.
4. But when it's windy, the house is a bit, ummmm, chilly. Fortunately this doesn't happen very often, but we've had two major wind storms in the past three weeks, one with winds gusting over 50 mph. And when it's really windy we get a little extra special bonus, because the wind ends up blowing snow inside the sliding glass doors to the deck. (Not much, but still.) Solid as a rock, this house is. *rolls eyes*
5. Recommended: Dan Harris's book 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help that Actually Works. The title kind of says it all, doesn't it? It's a (mostly non-religious) story of how he learned to meditate. He's a great writer, with lots of entertaining stories to tell from his career in journalism. It's possibly the only book on meditation that I've read all the way through from beginning to end. Usually with non-fiction I read about the first third and then either quit or skim through the rest, but I made it all the way through this one.
6. But there are a couple of places where I disagree with him. He ends up doing specifically Buddhist meditation (not at first, but eventually he gets there). So he accepts the Buddhist theological explanation for what's going on when he meditates. I have ended up not accepting the Buddhist framework (although learning about it gave me some great insights). So I have a different theory about it.
He says at one point that meditation is not just a mental trick, but you know, I think it is. I mean, that's a shorthand way of describing it that ignores a lot of profound experience, but in the end, what meditation does for me is teaches me the mental trick of being able to separate myself (detach) from the maelstrom of thoughts and emotions that can threaten to bring me down. In fact, sometimes it does more than threaten, it does bring me down. Meditation has taught me that I have a self beyond that seething whirl of thoughts and emotions. It gives me the skill of stepping off the hamster wheel, even if briefly.
Hmmmm. This is a huge topic and maybe we can return to it sometime but for right now I think that's all I have to say.
7. The reading project-- to finally read some of the books that have been on my TBR list forever-- is going pretty well. So far I've read The Night Circus (good, but really needed about 50 pages cut from the middle), The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime (good), and Heartburn (quick read, surprisingly dated, but it did make me laugh out loud occasionally. Maybe you had to have been alive in the 70s). Am in the middle of Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (v. good). Also made it partway through Atonement and decided it wasn't for me. Although that one has been so highly recommended that I may go back to it at some point. I'm just not in the right place for something that intense at the moment.
that's all. I'm scheduling this one, hope you have a great weekend. And next week, too.
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