Tuesday, February 4, 2025

I’m locked out of the Bluehost Portal right now, so I can’t access my blog site.  The agent just told me it would be 3-5 minutes, so I’m just going to start here in Word.  I love the chat box customer service.  No dealing with phone noise or foreign accents.  Another beautiful part of technology.

I had an absolutely beautiful day.  I went for the 6-mile Palo Alto Loop hike with Barbara, then worked on my calligraphy, made a couple of cards, FaceTimed with Mickey, chatted with a neighbor, and now I’m here, trying to write. 

The Bluehost Portal agent gave up and said I was going to have to clear cookies and cache, and start over.  I did all that, but it’s still not working, so I’ll just continue here, and do a cut-and-paste later.

I am feeling so much better in the past few days, now that I’ve stopped engaging in the news.  I’ve decided to listen to the advice of Heather Cox Richardson and Yuval Noah Harari.  Richardson said, “Just do what brings you joy and know that I’ve got this covered,” or something like that.  Harari said, “Stop watching the news and instead join a group.  I was working for the WisDems during the election, before I left home, and I will connect with them again. 

It’s really hard not to watch what’s going on.  I mean how many times have you heard the words “United States” and “coup” used in the same sentence? Not sure “coup” is accurate here.  I just saw one of my notes that defines it as:  A sudden, violent, illegal seizure of power from a government.  I don’t think there is a name for what’s going on right now. 

 In any event, I know that it’s not good for my mental health, and there’s nothing I can do.  I remember reading about a psych experiment when I was in college.  Dogs were in a cage and were shocked if they tried to leave.  They finally gave up trying and became ill in the cage.  I can see where I’m headed. 

I finished reading The Complete Conversations with God  (for the second time) last night.  The very end will stick with me…I hope:

“There are three basic wisdoms that run through the entire dialogue, these are:

1.    We Are All One.

2.    There Is Enough.

3.    There’s Nothing We Have To Do.”

We seem so far away from this insight.  Ego is playing a strong hand right now, but I have faith that this is all part of the process of the awakening of Consciousness.  The awakening happens the same on all levels, from individuals, to couples, to families, to towns, countries…. It seems to always occur with a traumatic event. For example, an individual going through a trauma – anything from an insult to a depression.  They eventually realize that most of the suffering is caused by their own minds/thoughts/conditioning/ego.  And, they “wake up” to a new level of awareness of the power of choosing peace and love over having to be right or in control.  They look back on the trauma with gratitude and know that it has brought them to a happier place, no longer needing to “be better than,” or “have more than.”   Those who have experienced this are now mocked by the ignorant and called “woke” because they see the truth of  #’s 1-3 above.  I certainly hope that this has a happy ending.  MLK saw it.  I remember a teacher once saying, “If we hadn’t had the Vietnam War, we never would have met Thich Nhat Hanh.”

I finally completed my calligraphy Exemplar.  I had 24 pages of paper available.  This was done on #24. 

I’m happy with it.  Before I started it, I submitted #23 just in the Community Forum, asking the mentors if they thought it would be acceptable.  Sneha said that the last four were acceptable, so I did #24 without any pressure…sort of.  Still a lot of room for improvement, which keeps it enjoyable. It’s a little bit better every day.

The only remaining requirement is the final Certification of Merit, done on a special paper, which David will be mailing to my home address.  That’s not due until May 31^st, so I’ll have two months to practice on better paper once I get home. 

This is my latest Zentangle. 

I forgot what it’s called.  I am invited to the home of a neighbor, Debe Emerson, to join a Zentangle group.   Debe learned from Natalie, who learned from me.  I think Debe has a nice-size group coming.  I’m in charge of salad. 

We are starting Thursday Game Night here this week. The first group will be Nancy (the one who was really sick and is now socializing); Cindy and Holly, neighbors on either side of me; and me.  We’re going to start with Mexican Train.  I’ve only played it once before, so I’ll have to read the instructions tomorrow. 

It was so nice seeing Mickey so happy today.  She said that she had a great day, played cards, had two cocktails, and is scheduled for a perm.  I love that woman.  She said that Ben Guido was the bartender one day. Ben is a good friend of ours. He heard her name and asked if she knew a Dan Dupies. She admitted it.