Highlights: Tommy shared an opportunity yesterday to leverage a local contact's ADU as a place to live. It sounds like the ideal opportunity to get some initial experience living alone without the cost, constraint or commitment of a complete move. Jen and I started a nightly routine to set aside time to connect, which included beginning to read Richard Bach's "One" together. I recall struggling with it decades prior, while "The Bridge Across Forever" and "Illusions" were key in my 20's and early 30's. Today is my mom's 86th birthday. I told her I'd bought her a 10-year savings bond, and she laughed heartily. I don't know at this point that she has another year, which continues to inform my responses to her needs for tech support with more compassion and patience.
Insights: Reality. Where aspirations meet hesitations. A common lament for me is what I want to do vs. what I act on and complete. What's at the top of my mind often appears in numerous ways throughout my days. It's that "thinking about buying a Tesla" experience when driving. At the moment that is optimizing my routines and commitments while aligning on the one thing that is my mission, as it were. What I'd regret most not having completed were a pair of headlgihts to appear suddntly and unavoidably on an evening drive, a massive falling tree limb clearing my skull by a matter of feet (that happened) or my walk to or ride in the car be inteerrpted by the sudden pain of a ceasing heart (Tom, Nicole). that one thing would be writing something of substance. Daily musings and stream of consiousness are great ways for me to exercise and exorcise my thoughts and feelngs, sure, with the added benefit of leaving beyind confessional recognigion of my wide ranging dysfunctions. But there's so much more I want to present. There has been for decades. A common consideration in my efforts to balance this 'break' from the demands of employment, likely temporary, being afforded this window of ample time to focus on this, is me revisiting and refinding the tiny habits. The daily routines. Walking and getting my heart rate up is now "a thing" and having done so for a full week with drive and commitment, can be considered a "habit". As is getting that first exposure to mornng light. As is listening to something, anything, each morning, to align my compass and point me in the right direction. The daily calm, the daily stoic, stoic coffee break, they're all options and forerunners in whatever I'll listen to once the dogs are fed and I'm out the door.