A week after Starwood...still adusting to Mundania....so hot, sapping energy, haven't finished unpacking yet...
Trying to cultivate yin, get my house in order, catch up on paperwork and house
projects after two months of travel, Saiten, FSG, Chicago/Milwakee for the AOBTA convention, Starwood...and spend some quality time with the dogs, especially after Picollo getting sick while I was in Chicago. And back to Zelda's after a few weeks away.
Trying to ground after Starwood, the magick of it all...my workshops went well,
people coming up to me all week after my Zen Paganism workshop to ask questions
and have discussions, the more I dig into this (just finished reading The Dharma Bums a day or two before giving the workshop) the more I see some real substance here, Buddhism as forest religion, historical connections, philosophical resonnances...then there's the guy I saw the night before my workshop, at the bonfire, with a big rainbow "DESIRE" tattoo across his belly, at first I thought he must be a hallucination...had to tell him how I was about to give a workshop including the idea the desire is the origin of suffering - he replied that he found desire to be a source of strength...both are true.
And then meeting Amanda...won't say more on that until I see if it might go anywhere, except that right now I'm playing out the whole desire/suffering thing inside my head right now...
And the monkey clan, ook ook ook, I do so enjoy initiation into bizarre cults and groups...now I've got this great vocalizing stuffed monkey and little monkey charm on a necklace, great monkey-mind totems...go go monkey mind! (like monkey mind needs encouragement...might as well salute and enjoy it...)
At Leadbetters now, after Zelda's...Three Down Dave is wearing a t-shirt from the "Peaceful Warrior" movie, turns out he knows Dan Millman. We start chatting, and now I'm (tentatively) booked to play next Thursday night for the musician's showcase here.
Dude across the bar talking to his girlfriend/wife/SO, talking about self-defense, showing her some counters against a front choke (unlikely attack), finally I
have to join in and show my favorite (two-hand smash against one elbow, followed by elbow strike to the head)...various discussion ensues, he's very (and it sounds justly) proud of his eight-year-old son and the life lessons he's learning and applying from budo training.
Almost midnight now, ought to head home (though nice to be here in A/C), supposed to go to the Y tomorrow and fix the wall, put my foot through the drywall yesterday goofing around - d'oh! Not good relations for the karate program, so off to Home Depot for some supplies and then go try to patch it up (was going to do today, but so damn hot I didn't get much sleep, didn't get up and about until there wasn't time before Zelda's)...
"Refuse bad music, create your own" - graffiti in men's room, Leadbetter's tavern