Changes afoot

After a sporadic couple of months, I am back to meditating daily. It's wild how my life gets clearer when I sit daily, as opposed to once or twice a week. The change I am evolving in my life has come into sharper focus.

I have taken a measure of control of my health. Working with a chiropractor for the last few weeks has been great. Similarly, I am watching my refined sugar intake and have noticed a marked difference in my energy level. Overall, I feel better and don't have the swings I used to. Will I never eat sugar again? Nah, I love pies too much! But being conscious of when I do has been a good thing. I am also watching the amount of animal protein I consume. I love meat and cheese, but again, I want to be mindful of its impacts on my energy.

Recently, I have also been reenvisioning what my work life might be like. I don't want to sever any ties with my present employer yet (more on that in months to come), but I want to start earning a portion of my income creatively. I am starting to write at least 30 minutes a day, and taking more photos. I can't wait to see how this evolves!

I can think again

Living one and a half blocks away from Castro street has its benefits, but being around on Halloween is not one of them. Thankfully, the festivities stopped, and with them the rhythmic vibration of all our windows.

A & I managed to have a nice night together - making a small feast of our newly arrived produce box (tonight we snacked on a pomegranate while preparing fresh Blue Lake green beans, baking an acorn squash, and accompanying it with a great spanish rice...

Which brings me to a book I just starting reading, After the Ecstacy, the Laundry by Jack Kornfield. I'm barely past the introduction, and no, I don't claim to have achieved enlightenment (though I personally believe enlightenment to be a state we get peeks at, not achieve permanantly), so I may be off base here... It seems the gist of the book, fairly self-explanatory as it is, is how to deal with the really real stuff in your life regardless of where you spiritual path takes you.

I feel like that's what I've been doing for the last month or so. The accident, of course, brought things back to some fundamental basics - the life part. After a pretty spiritually heavy couple of months, I have let life flow a bit, without tripping myself out. Too much.

I came to two realizations on Yom Kippur (where, btw, Jack spoke). The things that were really weighing heavily on my mind were a need for community - real committed community - and the fact that our trip to India really changed my life. The first of those I have been putting a lot of energy into at Beyt Tikkun. It is a work in progress, but has brought me great joy so far. The second bit I am just sitting with for the time being. Just allowing myself to think that has changed the way I'm approaching people, work, and life at the moment.

Speaking of life, again, I had (am having) an amazing re-connection experience with a long-lost friend. I haven't seen Joe in over seven years, and have thought about him, off and on, all that time. We were really good friends in college, and I always felt a psychic bond with him, even when we were apart. So, I would occassionally try to feed his name into the latest search engine or people-finder, and always came up empty. My last attempt was a few months ago, when I found him on our school's alumni finder. My luck with that thing hasn't been great, so I didn't hold out much hope. After a few days without a response, I forgot about it. Imagine my surprise, then, when I get an email from him 10 days ago from GREECE of all places! We have been corresponding (I owe him a note - I should be writing that instead of this), and it has been amazing. Joe - I love you!!!

One last thing, for those of you thinking I might be a Halloween stick-in-the-mud (a not entirely untrue characterization). A & I dressed up for a party last weekend, as skeletons. After 3 weeks of thinking pretty intensely about my health & wellness, it was pretty liberating to be dead. (No, that's not a cry for help)

Slacking...so soon?

Much of my energy these days is going toward:

a) getting healthy

and
b) Dor Hadash

It's silly to think that I'll be getting to the things I said I'd be getting to, so I'm allowing myself clean slate status for the next time I post...

-dc

Bentsching Gomel

Baby smash.JPG
Originally uploaded by Amberly & David.

The prayer of Gomel is said when returning from a dangerous journey. I would certainly count Friday as such! I was rear-ended on the Golden Gate Bridge while stopped in traffic. My poor car took the brunt of the impact. We shall see what insurance and the body shop can do. This brings up a couple of things for me.

The first relates to Sukkot. I spent the better part of yesterday in rabbi Lerner's sukkah with the congregation, praying, drashing and studying about sukkot and ecclesiastes. The topic of impermanence, so prevalent in our discussions in the temporary dwelling, really hit home for me.

For the last eight years, my car (Bionic Baby, nee Baby) has been a pretty permanent fixture in my life. At 135k miles, I was figuring it would be for a few years more. With the very real possibility of the car being marked up as a total loss, the prospect of being carless is very freeing. We are looking into the possibility of using City Carshare for our driving needs, and not dealing with having a car for a while. What a concept! The smashing of my car has brought about a wonderful feeling of freedom.

Secondly, the prayer of Gomel. We said an ad hoc version of it yesterday in the sukkah. It was really amazing to surround myself with people in my time of needing healing (somewhat for my minor whiplash, and more for my bruised and traumatized psyche). Thanks to everybody there. I found the transliteration online, and also found that it is only meant to be said with a minyan. This makes sense, since the act is necessarily one that needs a community to complete it.

I want to share that communal prayer with you, and ask you to give me that spiritual feedback in whichever way you want. I include the traditional response below as well.

Baruch Atah adonay eloheynu melech ha’olam shegomel lechayavim tovot shegmalani kol tov.
Blessed are you, Lord, our Gd, Ruler of the Universe, who bestows good to the living and who has dealt great goodness upon me.

Baruch atah adonay eloheynu melech ha’olam shehechiyanu vikiyamanu vehigianu lazman hazeh.
Blessed are you, Lord, our Gd, Ruler of the Universe, for giving us life, for sustaining us, and for enabling us to reach this day.

Communal Response:
Mi shegmalcha kol tuv hu yigmalcha kol tov selah.
May the One who has been gracious (or shown kindness) to you continue to favor you with all that is good (show kindness to you) forever.

Ameyn