be in the now

The greatest support we can have is mindfulness, which means being totally present in each moment. If the mind remains centered, it cannot make up stories about the injustice of the world or one's friends, or about one's desires or sorrows. All these stories could fill many volumes, but when we are mindful such verbalizations stop. Being mindful means being fully absorbed in the moment, leaving no room for anything else. We are filled with the momentary happening, whatever it is--standing or sitting or lying down, feeling pleasure or pain--and we maintain a nonjudgmental awareness, a "just knowing."

-Ayya Khema, "Be an Island"

to do

Every day, I make a list of things that I'm going to get done that day, and every day, I only get about half of them done. I wonder if today will be any different.

Today it is rainy and humid, so I don't think I'm going to do any painting. I'd work in the basement, but my back has been bothering me. I should clean up my garage windows, and fix a lock. I could try to cut down that jungle next to my driveway (again). I still have a lot of papers to sort and a checkbook to balance.

It sounds like I can get most of that done, but we'll see. Based on past performance, I'd guess I'll only get half of that done.

weekend update

Okay, so I had quite a few things to get done this weekend... and I didn't get many of them done. I got a few little items checked off, but many of them will be back on in a few days. I intended to get a bunch of painting done this weekend, but I only got a little bit of scraping done. One of my big tasks was to scrape the paint off of the windows of my garage doors. I got about a third of it done. It was pretty rough, because the previous owner painted it once (he sprayed it, but did not mask anything) and the paint was very old and hard, and did not come off easily. It was not good on my carpal tunnel. It seemed like it was nearly half an hour per pane. Then I got a few papers sorted.

I would have gotten more done, but I didn't get up until after 10:00. and I spent nearly three hours reading LJ and the newspaper, eating breakfast and making plans. Then we went to my mom's for a while to deliver her birthday present (my sister and I got her a little grill). And Bill stopped by to drop off my generator and report on his performance in the demolition derby (he didn't make a second heat). And there was supper.

So all in all, it was a mildly productive weekend.

And Cyn deserves a big smooch for helping with it all. :-)