99to1

We were at the Saturn dealer last night picking up Loren's new car.
The sky was beautiful and strange, after a day of intense Katrina-inspired rain.
Golden, pink and blue.

You can consider me an expert.
I'd like to trade these abilities for a little more capacity to wake at the time I intend, and to do some postures.

These days my practice revolves around a pre-bed night practice, 1 surya nam B, the warrior sequence, headstand, sholderstand, and 10 min seated meditation. And a 10 minutes seated meditation upon waking.

It's been a very long time I haven't done a long session of vigorous postures, I really miss the clear and light
feeling which comes with that. (Read: I feel heavy...really heavy)

The sleeping in has been fuelling some very vivid dreams.
I saw my Grandmother in my dream this morning, she looked good, she seemed to be explaining how difficult it was for her to arrange to see me.

I told her it was wonderful to see her...and then I left...as if I was going off to do something else. Seeing her shining face seemed to be enough of an interaction. Though I have no idea if the exchange met her expectations.

We're off for a visit in the morning to see Alberrrrto!!! and Sonya. It'll be a walk in the woods (mushrooming) and then lunch...just got off the phone with Alberto and the "menu" sounds wonderful.
Hopefully will post photos and some stories shortly.

Alberto has some sort of lymph cancer and has survived a year of interferon treatment. His health is very challenged.

May all his hopes and aspirations manifest.

With Alberto and Sonya.
They are wonderful people for sure...we had a great day.
A great day.

The only thing I'm really missing is photos of the dogs and the meal Alberto and Sonya prepared.

Photos:

A great day indeed.

Well...it approaching midnight...I'm having a caffe latte that was supposed to fuel my packing, so that I'll be ready to leave for toronto tomorrow morining.

So far I've put new batteris in the Yahoo! camera...and looked through a drawer of old photos and tried to locate some web-based content on our old pair of Dynaco A25X speakers...

Need I say more?

I'm going for 2 weeks to deliver a condensed traing session.
Perhaps I'll try to nod off listening to the itunes on random...
now playing Van Morrison, She Gives Me My Religion, from Beautiful Vision...fade to Ry Cooder with Ali Farke Toure (sp??)

Have got to find the spare serial cable to bring so I can post from the field...new mission before I sleep [and pack].

Zen's Nose

Lorens Flowers

Woke (loose term) around 05:30.
It's almost 06:55...I'm about 90% packed.
I don't hink I'm going to get the opportunity to sleep much on a 1-hour flight.

Tonight I plan to sleep like a baby.

Destination that my job has sent me to.
3 times to Asia, [Singapore (2) and India], and Helsinki.

The funny thing is that it feels almost the most foreign, despite the really short travel time (an hour) and that I lived in TO for some time. The same money I'm used to, the same type of stuff I've packed, the same type of preparation...though it feels very different.

The network for the lab is set up and I'm ready to go.

I might get a chance to see Christine's friend Nitya, a yoga teacher here in TO. I'm looking forward to that. Leino Mielle is here right now...if I had made other arrangements I might have been able to be doing a workshop with him. Would have been the second time that my work-travel put me in touch with him...

I hope he'll be back in Helsinki if ever I get the chance to go back.

Oh yeah see photo...I'm not really in Toronto...see if you can spot the CN tower...

Last night saw Rosalie and I at Golden Thai. Very exotic when you compare it to Mississagua.

I was a scrumptious meal, and it was wonderful to see Rosalie. She offered to drive out here and pick me up and to drive me back. That's the sort of thing I often do for others...it was a treat to have someone offer me that kind of out-of-their-way taxiing. I picked up that habbit from my dad I'm sure...

Course is half over...it's rapid-fire training. Trying to achieve the same level of competancy in the participants, in half the time.

Next week's gonna fly by.

I miss Loren and our home...she sent his photo of Zen,

And these of the garden,

It’s Sunday night 23:45 the Big Lebowski is on the tube. I returned just an hour ago from a nice sushi dinner. I woke up several hours earlier at 19:30.

From the random quote generator, http://www.dymphna.net/randomquotage/lebowskiquotes.shtml
"All the Dude ever wanted was his rug back..."
Quite a sight, Juliana More suspended nude and flying through the air in her loft. And then as the bowling-opera-viking-vixen in the halucination scene.

I slept all through the day. And all through the alarms set on my watch. I’d set four, one for around 07:00, so that I could enjoy the complimentary breakfast at the hotel…and then all three others which signal our breaks during class.

I can do that…sleep in ridiculously late. Though typically I end up not being able to sleep past 14:00…this sleep-in takes the cake.

Going to see Joe Tuesday night. It’s funny to be hooking up with him here in Toronto, as it was Joe who made the opportunity for me to come out here five years ago. And now we’re both currently living in Montreal.

Loren says the weather in Montreal has been splendid. Sunny dry and cool. My favorite time of the year, and the best riding weather. I hope there’s still some of that when I get back.

Wow...very tired.
This course is supposed to be over today...my demos were awful today...it's past 01:30 in the morning (I'm teaching from 08:00 till 15:30...though today we finished at 18:30) ...I've given up on troublshooting a process which is failing...I wanted to show it the guys tomorrow (yes work on Saturday)...I postponed my Montreal departure until Monday...to cover some extra stuff with the Vancouver students and to hand them over to one of our production specialists...so tired...

Bill Frisell on itunes East/West
Can't wait to be home...

It’s part way during the morning session of my last day here in Toronto. Our production specialist is here, and he’s in the process of starting with the trainees...they’re establishing their own rhythm and discovering their method working.

I’ve introduced them all, and also to the work we’ve produced, and I’ve done a bit of facilitation to get things started. I am for now, just coasting...looking for opportunities to interject on any topic that maps to the material I’ve covered during the past 2 weeks (so far none).

Will be home in Montreal before 21:30 tonight.
I miss my girls and my home…

Here’s a photo Loren took during her walk with Zen last night.
The moon was full??
I'm not sure... Bad Man!

Well I've cashed in 8 hours of banked time and took a day off today. It was a rest day...sort of.

A long over due hair cut, followed by lawn mowing and 10 sunsals.
I really needed the sleep in this morning. So deep in sleep and tired I was that I couldn't even imagine waking. Could even be called an unyielding desire to rest.

As I threatened to do I'm posting the "Four enimies of a man of knowledge" from Carlos Castaneda...to kick me in the ass and help me get my morinigs together. It been over 15 years since I've read those books. Now from memory I thought that sleep was 1 of the 4...hence my motivation for the reminder. However they differ slightly from my memory...

"The four enemies of a man of knowledge: Fear, clarity, power, old age."

I guess I'm not batteling sleep per say, but old age.

"The man will be, by then, at the end of his journey of learning, and almost without warning he will come upon the last of his enemies: Old age! This enemy is the cruelest of all, the one he won't be able to defeat completely, but only fight away.
This is the time when a man has no more fears, no more impatient clarity of mind--a time when all his power is in check, but also the time when he has an unyielding desire to rest. If he gives in totally to his desire to lie down and forget, if he soothes himself in tiredness, he will have lost his last round, and his enemy will cut him down into a feeble old creature. His desire to retreat will overrule all his clarity, his power, and his knowledge.
But if the man sloughs off his tiredness, and lives his fate through, he can then be called a man of knowledge, if only for the brief moment when he succeeds in fighting off his last, invincible enemy. That moment of clarity, power, and knowledge is enough."

I'm going to do this once a month.

Your most marked characteristic?
a positive disposition

The quality you most like in a man?
the ability to see himself without his competitiveness

The quality you most like in a woman?
tenderness

What do you most value in your friends?
sinceritey

What is your principle defect?
establishing discipline

What is your favorite occupation?
Teaching

What is your dream of happiness?
becomming realised

What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes?
passing up the opportunity to help

What would you like to be?
present

In what country would you like to live?
Canada

What is your favorite color?
have never really established one

What is your favorite flower?
easter lily

What is your favorite bird?
solitary bird

Who are your favorite prose writers?
Tom Robbins???

Who are your favorite poets?
my wife

Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
Owen Meany

Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
Bat Girl

Who are your favorite composers?
Arvo Part, JS Bach

Who are your favorite painters?
Klee, Hockney

Who are your heroes in real life?
my parents

What is it you most dislike?
meanness

What natural gift would you most like to possess?
ease with people

How would you like to die?
in meditation

What is your present state of mind?
a little foggy

To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
sloth

What is your motto?
do not worry

Five albums to take to a desert island for the rest of your life

Also will be a monthly entry...

Keith Jarret, Koln concert
Neil Diamond, Hot August Night
Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon
P. Casals JS Bach, Solo Cello Suites
Stephen Micus, East of the night

"If he gives in totally to his desire to lie down and forget, if he soothes himself in tiredness, he will have lost his last round, and his enemy will cut him down into a feeble old creature."

Sun sals and finishing postures last night followed by 10 min sit.
I was experienceing a change of heart...I was lighter.
Thought for sure this morning would be easier than my recent mornings...however it was no easier to rouse the beast.

During my sit I experienced cramps in the arches of my feet. I have short achillies tendons and flat feet, and sitting in [supported] virasana seems to work both these conditions.

Anyhow, after the initial shock of the cramps I decided to sit through them. Simply to let the muscles go through the cramp without trying to counter stretch...not an easy task for sure.

The right was the first side to go, and the most intense. The left side followed by a couple of minutes. It was an odd sensation to get to the other side of an intense cramp by just waiting it out. Once past the cramps all the tissue in the region seemed to be real soft and open. Not at all like the result of having performed aggressive counter stretching durining a cramp.

I'm wondering if I should try this in my asana practice when I feel a cramp comming on...