_______________________ A bit of a life update Forced Vacation January has been somewhat of a vacation for me. I get into this mode where I can't really work. I am not sure if it's a bit of a burn out, or just a time needed to relax. I get in front of the computer and wander around aimlessly. It's fine I have a bit of cash on the side, but it can't go on for too long. For the last couple days I've been back at it, and next week I feel I can change gear and make up for most of the month, and end up with somewhat of a decent month end. I don't have the luxury of a job that would pay me the same if I'm not productive or if I'm really productive. My end of month is determined by my overall productivity during the month. Some month I can barely pay rent and food, and some months I make it up for 3 or 4 months of work. Having a bit of a financial cushion (a couple months of what I need) makes this wave a lot more comfortable. All my bills are paid up now, (I don't have a mortgage or lease anything) so I am quite a way out of the red. Karate I've started to go in town for Sunday karate practice with a different school of karate. It's in a similar style (Shotokan) but some elements are quite different. It's nice though to be taught in a different way. I also have the chance to go mediate to the Shambala center right before. There is a 3 hours open meditation, and they have a beautiful space there. Autumn I've met a young woman, Autumn, who said she was interested in meditation. I tried to download the most important part of what I could tell her in a matter of few minutes before class. I find these early moments of discovering meditation so important for the evolution. I sometime wished someone would have taken me on earlier in my process to help me understand. I told her about the 3 jewel in Buddhism, talking about how the sanga is a important aspect earlier in the development. I told her about meditation on Sunday at the Shambala center. I wanted to connect more, but I didn't want to look creepy or over reaching. I like to think that if her path is to cross mine I'll see her again and again. At the same time I feel responsible to offer support to people who wants to step on the path... Fullness My week feels full, with Karate 3 or 4 times a week, my new role as a director of a play, work when I get to it, meditation circle, a couple yoga classes, my 2 radio show, and sometime the fiddling on the weekend. I still try to optimize my day to create a bit more. I'd love to write more and make more music. Forgiveness I've written 3000 words for a blog for the yoga school near here (The Ashram). My first article was fun to write but it was, in their perspective, too much about teaching and not so much about the experience. I've wrote another piece and that was too personal for their taste. I finally realized that the subject I was given for the article, forgiveness, is not an emotion that I cultivate or practice. Wether I forgive really too easily, or maybe I'm just delusional about my emotional health. I don't seems to hold grudges toward people or cultivate negative emotions during an extended period of time. Which I think is foundational to forgiveness, you got to have some latent anger / issue toward someone to finally forgive them. I don't have that. Mental pattern I am not sure if I'm somewhat a bit broken. It relate to my non-addictive state. I don't get addicted to substance or person or habits. It's not like I don't get addicted, but I end up being tired of my addiction and give them up after a certain moment. It's like anger, I can't keep up the anger, it just fade away from me. Sometime I wish I could stay angry at people but eventually it just goes away in a matter of a few days, a couple week max. So I don't forgive since I don't hold grudges... But that is dubious at the least, and I feel pretentious to state that I don't hold grudges. But after 45 years, I'm starting to think that this is part of my personality. I'll probably end up not writing for that blog, or I might need to write about another subject. I wonder how other people feels about forgiveness.