December 2011
60 posts
Day 65(C): A Cosmic Joke
Yesterday I wrote about how liberating acceptance is and how learning to accept poor choices I’ve made in the past allows me to move ahead and make better choices in the future. I also wrote about how I am now able to enjoy the present moment more fully by keeping myself from dwelling on the past:
“whatever my choices, when I allow myself to regret and become stressed about the consequences, I...
SPF 365 Experiment: Day 62(J): A Happy and Healthy... →
spf365experiment:
Within the last 24 hours, I have experienced what I often heard and read about in the past: i.e., how much our bodies and energy levels are affected by Chi, or life force. I think my body finally gave out yesterday, with the aid of a cold virus attacking my already weakened immune system. Both…
SPF 365 Experiment: Day 61(C): Not the Day We... →
spf365experiment:
As Jung and I were resting in bed this afternoon, I realized that this is the first time we have been sick simultaneously. With our daughters on vacation, it’s been a challenge trying to take care of ourselves, each other, and our children while we’re both sick.
It’s not what we had envisioned…
Day 61(J): Bad Cold Haiku
spf365experiment:
Charles and I are both Taken down with a bad cold. We hope to heal soon.
Day 60(C): Charles' Christmas Haiku
spf365experiment:
Slow Christmas today. Presents, cookies and kimbap: Our new memories.
Day 60(C): Charles' Christmas Haiku
spf365experiment:
Slow Christmas today. Presents, cookies and kimbap: Our new memories.
Day 60(J): Jung's Christmas Haiku
spf365experiment:
No matter how we Celebrate this day on Earth, We are all ONE LOVE.
Day 60(J): Jung's Christmas Haiku
spf365experiment:
No matter how we Celebrate this day on Earth, We are all ONE LOVE.
SPF 365 Experiment: Day 59(C): The Fear of What is... →
spf365experiment:
Day after day, during this run-up to Christmas, Jung and I kept talking about how we hadn’t watched any Christmas movie, so last night we finally sat down to watch The Muppet Christmas Carol together. Jung and I were taken aback when our daughters told us they weren’t familiar with Dickens’…
SPF 365 Experiment: Day 59(J): Holiday Blessings →
spf365experiment:
While meditating this morning, I heard my internal voice advising me in her customary warm and loving way:
Have no fear
Living from your heart will serve you well: be COURAGEOUS
Enjoy the season – be merry and joyous
Seeing, creating and experiencing BEAUTY, FRIENDSHIP, and JOY will bring you…
SPF 365 Experiment: Day 58(C): Celebration Energy →
spf365experiment:
On Day 50, Jung wrote a little about the power of celebration. She mentioned there that she learned the power of celebration “over time.” What she didn’t mention is that by the time she met me, she had figured it out and then she had to teach me about it.
When I was growing up,…
SPF 365 Experiment: Day 58(J): ‘Tis the Season to... →
spf365experiment:
Perhaps my daughter J’s cold has rubbed off on me. I’ve been feeling under the weather since yesterday afternoon. I am hoping to shake this bug off as soon as I can to fully enjoy the rest of this holiday season. Notwithstanding this “unwelcomed visitor,” we were able to celebrate the…
SPF 365 Experiment: Day 57(C): Happy Solstice to... →
spf365experiment:
I wish to confess something. I want to change the world. I want my daughters to raise their families in a world different from this one. I dream of a world where differences are celebrated and people co-create for the benefit of all. I dream of a world where Gross National Happiness has…
SPF 365 Experiment: Day 57(J): The Light for... →
spf365experiment:
I’ve been getting a one-of-a-kind holiday gift every day. I received a gift of wisdom from Nature yesterday, a gift of valuable role-playing game lessons from my daughters the day before, and a gift of awareness that Life is a constant dance between the opposite cyclical phases. Of…
SPF 365 Experiment: Day 56(J): Nature’s Patient... →
spf365experiment:
My fatigue and general lack of energy overwhelmed me today more severely than usual. I felt as if all my achy joints were unwinding and loosening at the same time, and my chi left my body like a wraith slowly rising from the depth of the unknown. I succumbed to crawling into bed in the…
“Here’s the thing: If you’re using the holiday season to go out of your way to be...”
– John Scalzi on The War on Christmas(tm)
SPF 365 Experiment: Day 56(C): I Am the Ambassador... →
spf365experiment:
Jung made an observation about me this morning. She had been thinking about my post yesterday, “[Music and Merriment],” and she noticed a pattern emerging in some of my posts about my past: whenever I lost touch with play and joy, I lost touch with myself. My quest to create more joy and play…
SPF 365 Experiment: Day 55(C): Music and Merriment →
spf365experiment:
Recently I received a holiday postcard from the Harvard University Band, with whom I spent much of my social time while I was an undergraduate. On the back, they proclaim:
When it comes to music and merriment, the Band continues to be “the best in the business.”
I’m not going to argue…
SPF 365 Experiment: Day 55(J): RPG Lessons From My... →
spf365experiment:
Thank goodness, J is feeling much better today! In fact, she has been singing and dancing since our visit to the doctor’s office yesterday as if she never had her headaches although she still hasn’t parted with her box of tissues, and she continues to leave a trail of used tissues behind her…
SPF 365 Experiment: Day 54(C): Parallel Fifths →
spf365experiment:
When I was in elementary school I tried writing songs and music from time to time, but I never really felt good about it. Because I hadn’t received any instruction, I was just going by trial and error and I was generally unhappy with the results. I became frustrated that I didn’t know how to write…
SPF 365 Experiment: Day 54(J): Shall We Dance? →
spf365experiment:
I’ve always marveled at my daughters’ general health and been grateful for it. Neither of them has suffered from any chronic health conditions or the food allergies that seem to be surprisingly prevalent these days. At most they’ve caught a cold now and then, and most times they were able to shake…
SPF 365 Experiment: Day 53(C): Get Off The Rails... →
spf365experiment:
Yesterday, our daughter S continued her Dark Sun Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game for Jung, J, and me. Yet again I was amazed at how effortlessly she spun her story. She created compelling characters with clear motivations and even deliberately presented us with a thorny moral dilemma….
SPF 365 Experiment: Day 53(J): Owner vs. Renter →
spf365experiment:
I was inspired today to clean the counter-top and sink area of the bathroom. That wasn’t exactly what Charles and I discussed at our breakfast table this morning when we were scanning our day and charting what needed to be done. We had two things that we absolutely wanted to make time for:…
SPF 365 Experiment: Day 52(C): The Secret Message... →
spf365experiment:
I refuse to call myself a “perfectionist.” Besides the fact that Jung and I shun labels for people in our own speech and guide our daughters to avoid using them as well, I also know that I am perfectly capable of declaring my work to be “good enough” when it’s appropriate. This is why, when I…
“Don’t think it’s going to be easy to get commercially published or even to write...”
– Advice to aspiring authors by Rebecca Swift, founder of The Literary Consultancy, part of a great full interview on the future of publishing. Related, 7 platforms disrupting that future. (via curiositycounts)
SPF 365 Experiment: Day 52(J): Just Right with a... →
spf365experiment:
While wrapping Christmas gifts to send off to our relatives in the East Coast, Charles said, “I don’t want anything for this holiday. I just want to enjoy what I have.” It was as if he read my mind. I immediately jumped in and said, “Exactly! Me, too.” Then and there we promised to each…
SPF 365 Experiment: Day 51(C): It Sounds Fun, But… →
spf365experiment:
In the summer of 2010 Jung heard about the Seattle Composer’s Alliance and the Pacific Northwest Film Scoring Program (PNWFS). At the time I had been getting back to music composition, but I was struggling because I was trying to do it on my own. It had been years since I studied…
SPF 365 Experiment: Day 51(J): Trees As My... →
spf365experiment:
In many ways, the last fifty days really have been about practicing what I read, thought, and wrote about during my off-work hours prior to MyCrownShift. During my corporate employment, a lot of my struggle had to do with how to live a congruent life: once I knew what I knew, felt what I…
Day 50(C): 50 Days Celebration Haiku
spf365experiment:
Soul Play Family 50 Days Celebration: Carrot Cake for all!
SPF 365 Experiment: Day 50(J): Fiftieth Day... →
spf365experiment:
It’s been fifty days since I left corporate employment and Charles and I launched this Soul Play Family 365 Experiment blog. Somehow fifty sounds significant, so I’m making a carrot cake smothered with the girls’ favorite cream cheese icing to celebrate this milestone.
I haven’t always been…
SPF 365 Experiment: Day 49(C): We Are Community →
spf365experiment:
When Jung and I were walking this morning we had a long discussion about family. One thing we have not implemented yet in our family is a system for chores for our daughters. It’s becoming clear, though, that they need to be participating in some of the regular maintenance of our home…
SPF 365 Experiment: Day 48(C): I Am My Own Mentor →
spf365experiment:
I woke up from an unsettling dream this morning. In the dream, it was the end of a workshop I was attending and all the workshop participants sat in boxes arranged in a cluster in the center of the room. I distinctly remember that I was curled up, almost in a fetal position in my box, watching…
SPF 365 Experiment: Day 49(J): A Piece of Magic... →
spf365experiment:
This year the month of December has gone through a metamorphosis for me. Rather, it might be my own metamorphosis, MyCrownShift, that is affecting the way I experience this holiday season. In either event, I haven’t experienced an out-of-employment holiday season since 1991. For most of…
SPF 365 Experiment: Day 48(J): Holiday Gifts to... →
spf365experiment:
As I wrote in yesterday’s post, I’ve jettisoned my masks which I used to put on to go to work. They are no longer necessary. No more wearing make-up either, but then I wasn’t a huge fan of make-up even during my corporate career. At some point even before MyCrownShift, I discovered that…
SPF 365 Experiment: Day 47(C): Cascading... →
spf365experiment:
Today was a math-y kind of day. I’m working on the final project for this semester’s film composition class which is to write music synchronized with an imaginary movie scene. We were each given a sheet which describes when particular events happen on-screen, and we were asked to write music…
SPF 365 Experiment: Day 47(J): Hello Flow! →
spf365experiment:
The fog settled in thick and heavy again this morning in our neighborhood. In addition to a thick opaque vapor covering the space between the ground and the sky, it was cold enough to freeze the moisture on the ground into a thin icy frost on the asphalt which was dangerously…
5 Sketching Secrets of Leonardo Da Vinci →
joshuakaufman:
Sketch Your Ideas Out 4-5 Times
Use Annotations in Your Sketches
Collaborate With Others When You Sketch
Engage Your Imagination
Look for New Combinations
SPF 365 Experiment: Day 46(C): Preparation and... →
spf365experiment:
Since moving to the Seattle area, we’ve had an annual tradition of going to see ’Twas the Night, a locally-written and produced Christmas musical. It’s a silly and entertaining show featuring an all-ages cast. This year, one of our daughters’ classmates and his mom were in the show so it was…
SPF 365 Experiment: Day 46(J): Goodbye Sunday... →
spf365experiment:
Sunday afternoons used to be dreadful. Just the thought of going back to work the next day brought me down. I would get into an irritable, heavy and brooding mood by sundown and then be crushed by the overwhelming inevitability of it all by the time I got to bed. I felt as if I needed to…
SPF 365 Experiment: Day 45(C): Roll with It! →
spf365experiment:
When Jung and I began talking with our daughters about their birthday party this year, S and J told us they wanted their party to be a sleepover, and to feature a Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) role-playing game session. At first J volunteered to run the game (to be the “Dungeon Master”) but I…
SPF 365 Experiment: Day 45(J): Two Apprentices... →
spf365experiment:
Even when Charles and I were living under our old paradigm, I was well aware that he had as much work to do at home, if not more, as I had to do outside our home to provide for the family. Running a household is a never-ending job: there is always more to be done, and there is never an end to…
SPF 365 Experiment: Day 44(C): Practicing Rhythms →
spf365experiment:
When I sat down with S for her piano lesson today, I checked her lesson book to see when the last lesson was: it was in June, 2010. I couldn’t believe it had been eighteen months! I’m not really sure how the time got away from us so quickly. I could say that “I didn’t have time” to teach,…
SPF 365 Experiment: Day 43(C): "I Don't Have Time" →
spf365experiment:
Honesty is a theme which runs throughout much of what Jung and I talk and write about these days. Whether we call honesty out explicitly or talk about it as part of being mature or as part of owning up to our responsibility to transform ourselves, we wouldn’t be able to begin what…
SPF 365 Experiment: Day 43(J): Work as a Way of... →
spf365experiment:
Work /werk/ n: an opportunity for discovering and shaping; the place where the self meets the world
I am becoming more and more tuned in with myself. I sense things before my mind can cognitively articulate what it is that I sense. I’m feeling more frequently that my mind is too slow or…
SPF 365 Experiment: Day 42(C): The Meaning of Life →
spf365experiment:
The meaning of life is found in the moments: the bits of now that pass before us like leaves in a stream.
Today was a high-pressure day, and yet I felt no pressure. Because of preparing for my daughters’ birthday, I was not able to work ahead on my composition assignment this week. On top…
SPF 365 Experiment: Day 42(J): Slow Living is In;... →
spf365experiment:
I am enjoying slow living these days. It really feels good and I think I can get used to it. I don’t know how long it will last, or when I’ll be “forced out” of it due to economic necessity, but living in the moment is also part of slow living, so I’m going to enjoy it as long as it lasts. I…
SPF 365 Experiment: Day 41(C): Connecting the Dots... →
spf365experiment:
Exactly four weeks ago, on Tuesday, November 8, I wrote:
For many years after leaving school in the middle of doing fieldwork for my Ph.D. dissertation in ethnomusicology, I mourned all the time and energy I had “wasted” on creating a career as an academic. I thought about all of the…
SPF 365 Experiment: Day 41(J): Practice Magic →
spf365experiment:
I love the sky; especially the blue sky that stretches endlessly into space. Today, I intently slowed down to look up at the sky.
Puffy, white clouds were swimming in the blue sky. There was playfulness, mystery, and a familiar pull in them. I stopped to watch, sense and listen to them.
…
SPF 365 Experiment: Day 40(C): Micro Meditation →
spf365experiment:
I made a surprise discovery today: even meditating for less than a minute can have beneficial results!
Today was the first day after our 10-day marathon and although it began with a 2-hour morning meeting, thankfully Jung and I were able to follow that up with our first walk since last…