The 8th Nerve

Friends and lakes and mowing and gardening and kayaking. Three day weekends are one of my most favorite things in the world.

Steve signed up another Hollywood actor and is on the phone nearly constantly. Since parts of our house will be in the movie, yesterday we got to argue about putting holes in our hallway for the sake of art. (Wife was backed up by director, wife wins. There will be no holes in the wall.) Shooting of What Light Remains begins in less than a week!

On my trip to Maryland a couple weekends ago to visit friends, I was told that my slacking off on this blog was not acceptable. (By the way, flying really sucks these days. Delay after delay after delay… Visit with friends was great though!) I will try to do better!

Time to go running with Lucky.

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May 27th 2008Everyday life

We found four ticks on the dog already and it’s barely May!

I meditated the other day. It’s not a habit although I wish it was. I was at the upstairs window overlooking the backyard. I could see the woods and the river, and to the right, a stream. At that moment I looked at it and thought “stream” and that was all it was. Suddenly I wondered how a small child who didn’t have words yet would see the stream.

I tried looking at the stream again with this perspective. The stream caught the rays of the setting sun and sparkled and meandered in between the trees. It became a magical glittering shining thread in the landscape. I watched it without naming it and it became something fascinating and joyful. A child who does not think “Oh, the sun is just reflecting on the water” would believe in magic.

The act of naming separates us and makes the thing or person we’re naming an ordinary object. If we consciously give up automatically attaching a name or a ready explanation, the ordinary becomes extraordinary.

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May 4th 2008Everyday life & Introspection