Can't sleep (March 25, 2023)

 Can't sleep.  Sometimes I get trapped in an existential quagmire. This might be summarized by "I think too much". Because I get this sickening sensation of fear in my gut that life really has no meaning and when we die we are really gone, not just in body but in spirit or soul as well. Here's the thing: If we are the soul - that spark of life...

But why the impulse to analyze? It doesn't change what is or is not to know why or why not. To accept that you don't know and accept some principals that make living more meaningful or at least less stressful make it possible to sleep. To act on faith helps preserve sanity.

Another part of it, just trying to think outside of English. Outside of language at all.  Which gospel begins with "In the beginning there was the word and the word was with God, and the word was God"? How was/is that translated? We have concepts and we have words. The words join and separate us. Language defines us. The written word provides our history which puts our lives in context. In context our lives have meaning. We have a place and a story of how we came to be in that place. Oral history provides the essential bones of our larger, global history.

When I worry about consciousness and how it might end when I die - isn't it the death of "I" that frightens me? Yet the goal of Buddhism is cosmic consciousness - joining the universal energy web in mind. Having felt that universal energy stream (albeit high on sex and/or LSD) gives one faith that it exists.

Best compared to music - to the feeling of being "in the zone" when there is no thought - only the interweaving of the sound and you have no consciousness of the body making those sounds.

I'm going back to bed. I think I can sleep now.

 

Exercise with Sara and Smudge

 Smudge is our new kitten. The exercise program is one I've been doing for over fifteen years now, allowing me to claim to be in better shape in my late seventies than I was in my early sixties. For the past month Smudge has been "helping" me with my exercise, which makes it more fun, but also a bit more hazardous. 

This program was introduced to me by the Cass County Purdue Extension through the Cass County Extension Homemakers advisor when that position was held by Penny Troutman. The program was known as Strong Women Stay Young.

The first exercise is chair squats. For this and all subsequent exercises, do two sets of ten reps.

The second exercise is standing leg lifts. 

The third exercise is seated leg lifts.

The fourth exercise is lateral leg raises.

The fifth exercise is seated lateral leg extensions.

The sixth exercise is bicep curls.

The seventh exercise is overhead lifts,

The eigth exercise is a modified butterfly.

The ninth exercise is wrist curls

The tenth exercise is standing wrist curls.

The eleventh exercise is overhead bicep curls.

The twelfth exercise is heel and toe calf stretches.

The cool down is a back and calf stretch, calf stretch, and stretches with arms back and then front.

The whole program takes about 30 minutes.