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I've been going through a funk recently, which means that I didn't want to flood my journal with my particular brand of insecurity right now. Now that I'm coming out of it, I want to pick myself back up and dust off my journaling habit. We'll take baby steps, first, no? This meme from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ladyperegrine seems like a good way to reconnect.
1* Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.”
2* I will respond by asking you 5 questions of a very personal nature.
3* You will update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
4* You will include this and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
5* When others comment asking to be interviewed you will ask them 5 questions.
The interview questions might be a long time in coming, especially if I don't know you too well. I have to do research after all, to write good questions. :) If you want to ask me a follow-up question based on the original five, feel free. I like answering them, it turns out.
1. If being mindful is part of your spiritual practice, when/where do you feel that you are best able to enter that state of awareness/mindfulness? If not, then which parts of Buddhist teachings do you incorporate into your spirituality?
*wry grin* Being mindful is definitely a part of my spiritual practice, though it's not as big a part as I'd like it to be. Isn't that always the way?
I'm a morning person, through and through, and I feel like I'm best able to keep focused and mindful then. I meditate in the mornings, enjoy the relative quiet before people are up, and try to prepare for the day ahead. After that, there's the drive into town with Ryan, and the walk to work, and breakfast. Every thing I do until the work day starts is a reminder for me to be present, and I often take the time to make sure I'm focused on what I'm doing there. I lose that during the day, after interacting with so many people, I'm afraid.
That's the true test for me; taking the mindset I've cultivated in the mornings through the rest of my day. I'm getting better at it, slowly, but it's a process.
2. What has been the most fun part about planning your wedding to toob?
Honestly, the tuxedo rental. I have to admit I'm kind of a clothing geek, so everything from trying to find the best look to getting measured to picking out accessories was a real treat for me. I've never worn a tuxedo before, so I'm really looking forward to it.
Getting the marriage license was a close second. It was like a small taste of the ceremony to come; bothtoob and I feel that the institution of marriage is bigger than ourselves, more sacred, a commitment, a bond, a declaration, a symbol of being spiritually linked, no matter what happens, from this point on. The civil side of it is just a way of expressing this that everyone can agree on.
3. What is one of your favorite songs right now, and how do you feel when you listen to it?
"Humble Me" by Norah Jones. She gets a lot of flack for being so mellow, but this song just grabs me and won't let go. I've been coming out of a depression recently, so my favorite songs right now are the ones that are melancholy and weary, but encourage you to keep going somehow. Yeah, they're depressing, but there's this core of optimism buried in the heart of it that affects you strongly.
The song is about a woman calling an ex who's moved on. It's sung simply, but the writing is wonderful. The shorthand lets you fill in the blanks with whatever you'd like, and your imagination is going to do a better job of making the whole thing as bleak as possible. After listening to the song I feel depressed, but grateful in a way. I feel compassion for all of the people I see with their own private stories and hidden pains. You never know who's going through a rough time.
In a way, it makes me feel connected with the people around me. It takes me out of my head and into the universality of suffering, and it makes me realize that everyone gets down, that we're all in this together. Most importantly, more than anything most people just want someone to reach out to them when they're in pain, and sometimes the best way to relieve your own suffering is to ease that of the people around you.
4. What is your favorite body of water of those you have visited and why?
I have to admit I'm a big fan of rivers in theory, but I haven't been to one that really grabbed me for one reason or another. I guess nothing compares to the river in Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows.
Maybe it's because I live so close to it, and there have been so many memories associated with it, but the Pacific Ocean has to be my favorite body of water. The sunsets here over the ocean are just hearbreakingly gorgeous, and it makes you feel incredibly small. It's hard to fathom that what you're looking at is just the beginning of an extraordinary distance, and there's a different world contained in it. It's frightening and fascinating at the same time.
5. Which piece of writing that you have done are you most proud of?
I've been published a time or two now, and there's a special place in my heart for the poetry that other people have seen. :) My favorite writing is almost always semi-autobiographical in nature, though. I feel most accomplished when I've purged some personal demon or a painful memory in a way I think other people can relate to.
I wrote this poem sometime in 1998 that I titled "Road Trip," which is this purging process thinly disguised as a road poem. If I were to look back on it now I'd realize how loose the illusions are and how the whole thing should be rewritten, but even still it was the first time I distinctly experienced the power of poetry as communication and prayer and therapy wrapped in one neat little package. It was a rush to write, a joy to edit, and I loved reading it back in college.
These days, though, I'm most proud of any piece of writing that I actually finish. ;)
ladyperegrine seems like a good way to reconnect.1* Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.”
2* I will respond by asking you 5 questions of a very personal nature.
3* You will update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
4* You will include this and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
5* When others comment asking to be interviewed you will ask them 5 questions.
The interview questions might be a long time in coming, especially if I don't know you too well. I have to do research after all, to write good questions. :) If you want to ask me a follow-up question based on the original five, feel free. I like answering them, it turns out.
1. If being mindful is part of your spiritual practice, when/where do you feel that you are best able to enter that state of awareness/mindfulness? If not, then which parts of Buddhist teachings do you incorporate into your spirituality?
*wry grin* Being mindful is definitely a part of my spiritual practice, though it's not as big a part as I'd like it to be. Isn't that always the way?
I'm a morning person, through and through, and I feel like I'm best able to keep focused and mindful then. I meditate in the mornings, enjoy the relative quiet before people are up, and try to prepare for the day ahead. After that, there's the drive into town with Ryan, and the walk to work, and breakfast. Every thing I do until the work day starts is a reminder for me to be present, and I often take the time to make sure I'm focused on what I'm doing there. I lose that during the day, after interacting with so many people, I'm afraid.
That's the true test for me; taking the mindset I've cultivated in the mornings through the rest of my day. I'm getting better at it, slowly, but it's a process.
2. What has been the most fun part about planning your wedding to toob?
Honestly, the tuxedo rental. I have to admit I'm kind of a clothing geek, so everything from trying to find the best look to getting measured to picking out accessories was a real treat for me. I've never worn a tuxedo before, so I'm really looking forward to it.
Getting the marriage license was a close second. It was like a small taste of the ceremony to come; both
toob and I feel that the institution of marriage is bigger than ourselves, more sacred, a commitment, a bond, a declaration, a symbol of being spiritually linked, no matter what happens, from this point on. The civil side of it is just a way of expressing this that everyone can agree on.3. What is one of your favorite songs right now, and how do you feel when you listen to it?
"Humble Me" by Norah Jones. She gets a lot of flack for being so mellow, but this song just grabs me and won't let go. I've been coming out of a depression recently, so my favorite songs right now are the ones that are melancholy and weary, but encourage you to keep going somehow. Yeah, they're depressing, but there's this core of optimism buried in the heart of it that affects you strongly.
The song is about a woman calling an ex who's moved on. It's sung simply, but the writing is wonderful. The shorthand lets you fill in the blanks with whatever you'd like, and your imagination is going to do a better job of making the whole thing as bleak as possible. After listening to the song I feel depressed, but grateful in a way. I feel compassion for all of the people I see with their own private stories and hidden pains. You never know who's going through a rough time.
In a way, it makes me feel connected with the people around me. It takes me out of my head and into the universality of suffering, and it makes me realize that everyone gets down, that we're all in this together. Most importantly, more than anything most people just want someone to reach out to them when they're in pain, and sometimes the best way to relieve your own suffering is to ease that of the people around you.
4. What is your favorite body of water of those you have visited and why?
I have to admit I'm a big fan of rivers in theory, but I haven't been to one that really grabbed me for one reason or another. I guess nothing compares to the river in Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows.
Maybe it's because I live so close to it, and there have been so many memories associated with it, but the Pacific Ocean has to be my favorite body of water. The sunsets here over the ocean are just hearbreakingly gorgeous, and it makes you feel incredibly small. It's hard to fathom that what you're looking at is just the beginning of an extraordinary distance, and there's a different world contained in it. It's frightening and fascinating at the same time.
5. Which piece of writing that you have done are you most proud of?
I've been published a time or two now, and there's a special place in my heart for the poetry that other people have seen. :) My favorite writing is almost always semi-autobiographical in nature, though. I feel most accomplished when I've purged some personal demon or a painful memory in a way I think other people can relate to.
I wrote this poem sometime in 1998 that I titled "Road Trip," which is this purging process thinly disguised as a road poem. If I were to look back on it now I'd realize how loose the illusions are and how the whole thing should be rewritten, but even still it was the first time I distinctly experienced the power of poetry as communication and prayer and therapy wrapped in one neat little package. It was a rush to write, a joy to edit, and I loved reading it back in college.
These days, though, I'm most proud of any piece of writing that I actually finish. ;)
