Desiding once

This week will be busy in the shop as I will be replacing product that sold at the Moscow Farmers Market. Each sale causes mixed reactivity. First I'm happy for the money and the affirmation that someone values what I make. Then a feeling of almost dread creeps in. I have to make a replacement. Not that I don't like making the various products, it is just that I have other projects and all my shop time is consumed making products to sell at the Farmers Market. Several projects sadly languish during the market season. This is an area of life that deserves more attention.

One habit forming technique that is working for me is 'Decide Once". This is something I read in Better than Before by Gretchen Rubin but realize I've done this in the past. The key is not to decide every time but to decide once and then just go about life having already decided. For example in my life, at one point recently I decided not to drink alcohol.  I decided once, now I don't have to revisit that decision every time presented with alcohol because I already decided. This is how, 35 years ago, I quit smoking. The ease at which this deciding once operates makes changing habits easier. Both adding positive habits and stopping negative habits.  

21 Hugs!

Challenge yourself. Grow and learn. The idea of creating a challenge is both daunting and exciting. My challenge for this month is to re-engage with hiking/backpacking/camping. This fits with the ongoing, previous challenge of developing a fitness program.

Challenge or project. I've called them both. “Challenge" acknowledges that there are naturally ups and downs, easy parts and hard parts, and that there will be points at which I'll want to quit. Referring to a challenge as a “project” forces one to view them as a process with various parts. I want to remember to 'Be Will' and continually ask 'What is essential?' I have to remember that I have unique medical issues that I have to accommodate. 

We’ll see. 

Yesterday was a record hugging day. I shared in 21 hugs at the Farmers Market and picked up a couple more on the way home for a total of 23! The sign helped. I hope it didn't cause anyone to avoid us. No pressure. I let the 'other' initiate the hug and didn't get hugs from everyone. I want to be respectful of personal space. 

Searching for lost mojo

Motivation ebbs and flows.
 
For me, especially the woodshop is the opportunity to practice various techniques to stimulate motivation. Sometimes successful, sometimes not. I usually spend a few minutes each time I have some shop time, sweeping the floor. This simple meditative practice stills my mind and puts me in the wood mode. Sometimes this is enough motivation sometimes not. Lately I’ve tried scheduling time on a calendar for shop time and I just go into the shop with no specific intentions. Sitting and reading would be okay. Usually I get something done. Clean up and organization. I move a few projects forward a little bit. Eventually they will be done. I’ve also tried making a list of projects in process and became overwhelmed. So I trimmed it quite a bit and am committing to “DONE” in 3 weeks and tracking my progress daily. This what is called a Habit Sprint. At the end of 3 weeks (June 15th) I’ll review and adjust. Review and adjust are the important parts. 

Death is the only certainty

Today I was reminded of a meditation practice that takes as its object as three notions. The first is the awareness that death is the only certainty. The second sprouts out of the first. The timing of death is uncertain. The third sprouts out of the first two, 'What is essential right now?’. Sounds a bit morose but not so in experience. 

In the shop ...

 rough cutting figured Red Oak shelves for a book case started what seems like months ago and the cherry, maple, walnut pattern for a feature in a cutting board.

How do I know anything about you. I base my understanding on such little information, the things I see, the things I hear, the things you show me and these are not a completely true and inclusive picture. I make up and fill in gaps based on my own biases and create a picture that I think (or say I feel) is all inclusive, final, and authoritative. This is not a compassionate understanding and is not healthy. Be prepared to revise understanding when new data becomes available. What else can I do?

Time Being

Both as a point in time and as category of being. Dogen wrote about this in ‘Uji’, early in his Zen life. He says we should not think of time as only passing. Time is a point or moment, time is also a line (a coming and going) and time is reality itself according to Dogen. In our understanding of time we forget that it is always now and this now contains the whole universe. There is no other now in which something else exists. There is no separate flow in which anything is. My being is in time, therefore a time being.