How is it 9 pm? How is it even Wednesday? Don't get me started on 100° temperatures on October 1st. Tracking a day's passing is hard enough without the weather throwing your concept of seasons out the window. Tomorrow, I'll fly to Palm Springs for three nights with Jen at Christy & Marc's place in Indian Wells. So, I'm leaving idyllic weather to chase the heat I'm lamenting here. Right. But, you know, it's dry heat. I skipped meditation to linger awhile with thoughts left incomplete between my head and the pillow. It's infrequent, but once in a while, I'll treat myself. I am struggling to remember WTF I did with my day. It's always good to start or end the day journaling. It helps me reinforce the experiences. I recall finessing and getting close to my automated indoor/outdoor temperature-based alerts and actions in "Shortcuts." That's one of those tasks I poke at every few months and walk away from, yet I found a path and followed it to success today. Only its functional purpose is related to the heat waves, which may be over for this year. Maybe. But that'll buy me time to poke more and flesh out something I'd be proud of. I made an early morning run to Sketchtown, near the ice rink and the dispensaries. Between the campers, dilapidated cars being used for shelter, rows of tents lining the streets and unused railways, the homeless encampments are prominent and prevalent. I often struggle to find compassion in my heart when, time after time, I'm exposed to such scenarios as choices for many. Not all. Some percentage, though, appear to want this "freedom" to live "off the grid." It was just a surprise. I did find it funny that these are all around the dispensary district. I assume it's not because they all like being close to the ice rink. I snagged a few things from Hope Thrift for the trip that I hope will be useful. I helped my mom out with a few things by phone. It's a challenge and a gift to be more understanding and aware of my ability to influence things in a positive or negative light. My empathy and sense of connection have surfaced recently due to daily reflection and consideration of each day as a gift—blah blah, new-age blah. I took a moment today to reach out to Karen and Eric, to tell Tommy that I'm proud of the efforts he is putting into a career helping others and expressed gratitude to Jen for the family she's manifested for us over the past couple of years, and shared a very significant photo of an exchange with my daughter, with my daughter. Somebody dropped off flowers for Tommy tonight. Noice!
