My 2022 review

 It is customary to reflect on the year that just passed to see what we accomplished, what was left undone, what we want to carry into the new year and what we want to let go.

My 2022 was a good year, all things considered. Here are some highlights:

• Professionally, 2022 was likely my best year yet. I accomplished much and helped others accomplish a lot. I think it was a resounding success.
• Personally, 2022 was another year of loneliness. There were two sides to this. On the one hand, I spent my 10th year by myself. wishing to have a life partner, or even an adventure partner. But it was not meant to be. On the other hand, I have become more comfortable with loneliness and solitude, perhaps as a way to prepare myself for the next adventure after I retire.
• It was a year of unexpected losses: first Tara, our 12 year old dog, and then Bhakti, our six year old kitty that had been with us less than a year.
• It was a year of new companions: we gained Duke around Thanksgiving. Everyday is an adventure with this guy.
• It was a year of good-byes: after over a decade, I stepped down from the ContraCola Board, unwilling to succumb to the chaos that has become part of that operation.
• It was a year of hellos: I became an officer in the Harvest Moon Folk Society, having been elected its President for the 2002-2003 year (and also taking over as Booker and continuing to do work as webmaster), and I also joined the Charlotte Contra Dancers Board as their Secretary and sound tech.
• This was a year of new realizations. One of them was that my relationship to Contra dancing changed drastically over the last few years. I still love the dance form and the communities around Contra, and I am also not as driven to actually dance. When I go to a dance, I am content with just watching others dance, rejoicing in their smiles, loving that I made a small contribution to their joy. My lower stamina gets in the way of enjoying the actual dancing. That also comes across at my lack of interest in driving several hours to attend a dance or my lack of interest in going to weekend dances. All this is neither good nor bad; it is just interesting to observe.
• It has also been interesting to observe how much some Contra communities have changed since the pandemic. Many members of the Contra world have stepped away from it, either partially or completely. Without them many of these communities are struggling, being forced to re-start their groups almost from scratch. Not only are we missing the dance energy from these members, we are also deprived of their knowledge and wisdom. As with many similar situations, there are also positive aspects: we are being forced to re-invent these groups, forced to re-think what we do and how we do it, and this may be what Contra needs in order to survive and grow again.

What are your reflections about 2022? Was it a good year? What lessons did you learn?

[GIF image source: https://www.asiamediajournal.com via Google Images]

mindful actions

this post is written in all lowercase letters. this is done on purpose and not as an act of laziness. it is an act in mindfulness.

how many times have you performed an action without paying attention to it? did you do it well? did you finish what you started? were you present throughout?

buddhists have a saying: "when you wash dishes, wash dishes." it means, be present in what you are doing. work on not getting lost in thoughts such as "i don't like doing dishes," "i wish i was doing something else," etc. just do the dishes!

btw, i cannot tell you how many times i have had to go back and change capitalized words to just lowercase words; my fingers naturally gravitate to pressing the shift key whenever a capital letter is supposed to be typed. doing this post in lowercase text is forcing me to be mindful of the exercise i am involved in, mindful of the activity, mindful of the muscle memory i have developed over the years, mindful of bad habits i may have acquired.

some bloggers refuse to use capitalization. it is their way to push back against norms, against what is expected. more power to them. i think we need more disruptors in life.

and we can apply this mindfulness exercise to other areas of life. my yoga teacher, juliett, once challenged the class to try brushing their teeth with their non-dominant hand. this, she said, would help us become more mindful of the things we do, of how we do them, and what would happen if we had to change.

can you brush your teeth with your weaker hand? can you write legibly with your non-dominant hand?

are you mindful in other aspects of life, such as eating and breathing? do you chew each bite carefully and enjoy each flavor from your food, or do you rush through the meal just to get to the next task on your list?

do you pay attention to your breath? is it shallow or deep? slow or fast? into the belly or into the chest? do you inhale as much as you exhale?

do you ever pay attention to your heart as it beats in your chest?

are you fully mindful and aware when you walk? when you talk with someone? when you read a book, magazine, or web page? when you listen to a song, a podcast, a news report?

do you go out in nature? do you listen to the birds? do you hear the sound of your steps? do you feel the wind blow?

one of the benefits of contra dancing is that it helps each dancer become more aware of each movement. and when you get to the end of the line, sequences are repeated almost in a mirrored way as you come back. contra dancing is one of the most mindful forms of action i know of. not only do you need to be in the here and now so that you can be on time to the moves, you also gain a pleasurable sense of your body movement and space, and you get to sense the energy of all those you dance with. it is a miracle in mindfulness.

my page is now screaming with little red squiggly lines indicating my words are not properly capitalized. i am smiling at all the "red ink" knowing that the writing and typing was done mindfully that way.

may you always be aware.

2018 BooneDoggle Special Post

Here are three videos of the dance I attended on September 29-30.

The BooneDoggle is a 12-hour Contra dance session that runs from 11 AM - 11 PM on the last Saturday of September. It is put together by the Boone, NC, dance community and hosted by the Appalachian Folk School in Mountain City, TN.

Enjoy!

The (On the Road) Daily - Friday, September 28, 2018

Writing Challenge- Day #30

The firt day of the On-the-Road experiment was a resounding success and an absolute blast. It actually started Thursday evening as I drove from home toward my ultimate destination (Mountain City, TN) for the 12-hour BooneDoggle Contra Dance held yearly there. My plan was to stop for the night in Lincolnton, NC. I chose Lincolnton because it was exactly halfway between home and my destination, and because there was a Walmart and Lowe's right off the highway.

The drive started with a scary thunderstorm that produced dangerous amounts of rain. Fortunately, that stopped after just 20 minutes or so, and the rest of the drive was uneventful. It was unusually quiet on the road, with very few vehicles anywhere. Maybe Thursday nights are quiet nights for travelling.

I arrived in Lincolnton and chose to park at the Walmart location. I went in, bought some groceries and came across some awesome deals I could not pass. The deals turned out to be more amazing when they worked out better than planned for a vehicle project I am working on. And then I settled for the night, the first night sleeping in the car using sleeping mats (similar to Yoga mats, but thicker). I was able to stretch fully and fell fairly comfortable. The parking lot was quiet until around 4 AM when someone driving on a near-by road starting yelling obscenities and acting up. That was disconcerting because I did not know if they were heading my way or away. Fortunately, it was the latter. That was a good lesson about parking in these lots: be aware of how close to a road you are.

I was up and about by 4:30 and headed to a park I had spotted on the map that had what appeared as a nice trail I could use for jogging. I got there around 5 AM and the park gate was open although the posted hours were 8 AM - 10 PM. I proceeded to jog for 2 miles around the various parking lots inside the park. And then I headed out, back on the road, ready for a great day of volunteering to bring the BooneDoggle dance together. The day was a nice mixture of helping with dance tasks and working on re-packing the car to incorporate that morning's Lincolnton purchases. The window sun shades I bought for $4 and $5 fit perfectly to provide privacy at night and sun shielding in the day. The only fitting problem was with the front windows, and I will need to work on that at some point. By 8 PM I was ready for some sleep; the combination of hard work and little sleep the night before took its toll.

HEALTH & FITNESS

I was delighted with fitness and nutrition for the first day of the on-the-road adventure. I did some body strength training before jogging in the morning, then logged 2 miles, and then the rest of the day was super busy and I walked and lifted and pounded enough to make it a very good activity day. I logged 9367 steps and walked/jogged 3.8 miles.

Nutrition was good, with a nice mix of fruits and veggies along with a protein shake and chili for dinner.

GOALS, DREAMS, HABITS, RITUALS

This was a perfect example of having a dream or goal, and breaking it up into smaller portions to move forward with its attainment. The dream, of which I will write about later, requires being able to live out of a car for extended periods of time. Today was a perfect opportunity to learn lessons that will allow that to happen.

STREAKS - For the record (updated)

Current list of streaks:

• Writing: day 30
• Blood Pressure Readings: day 16 (exempted from reading because of road trip)
• Logging to SparkPeople: day 0 (missed logging in during the trip)
• Daily Exercise Routine: not counting for now
• Cardio: Yes (jogging in the morning, lots of walking all day)
• Yoga: Not really
• Strength Training: lots of lifting and pounding, so yes
• Stretching: Yes
• Meditation: Yes
  
• Meditation: day 17
• Number of tabs open: day 13