Some magazine articles, movies, tv programs, books, experts, DVDs, tell us we need to multitask if we want to get ahead, become successful, have the right friends, be respected, and, of course, have a lot of money in the process. We’ll be happy, we’re told, living the way of constant doing and striving. However, if we don’t question that idea, we’ll also be burdened by our fragmented thoughts, and an inability to slow down. And when an opportunity comes to have an evening of aloneness - even when the aloneness doesn’t mean lonely, just a chance to catch up with other parts of ourselves - we feel pressured to make plans. We tell ourselves that we shouldn’t be alone for an evening, a day, a weekend, - we should be out doing.

If all that busyness was working, why are there so many depressed people, people on the verge of suicide stopped only by prescription drugs, or lifted up only by prescription drugs, so many people unable to sleep, so many sick people, so many people just plain unhappy because they’re not doing what they enjoy? It’s a fair question to ask, isn’t it?

Today is a rainy day; lately there have been complaints about the rain. The sun is teasing us - it’s sunny, then it’s not. Spirits are dampened; maybe weekend plans have to be changed. But rainy days are wonderful, too. Rain has a way of slowing things. It can change a day of rushing to a more mellow one, and that means we’re less stressed. We don’t need to change our plans, just our mind set, and then getting rained on at the beach becomes fun. Staying indoors on a beautiful sunny day is a little difficult; the sun seems to say come out and play. Rain, however, says, you can go out if you want, but you can also stay in. Don’t worry, you’ll be busy, but it’ll be a different kind of busyness; you’ll be busy being still - just for a little while.

I used to feel that practicing Qi Gong with Matthew Cohen’s Fire and Water DVD was an imposition. Then there came a time when I realized the benefits were outweighing any imposition felt, and that every time I practiced, I learned something new -maybe more insight about the way of a particular movement, or of a word not heard before that brought new meaning to not only Qi Gong, but life in general. Now practicing the once difficult empty stance is a pleasure, and Qi Gong is not an imposition. The empty stance is “full of emptiness” Matthew Cohen says. And slowly an understanding that the busyness of being still - of being empty - has its own rewards.

Yes, it’s true. Ditch Plains, a brilliant restaurant down in Greenwich Village, was given a name I can never remember so now I carry the business card around in my wallet.

29 bedford street follow the button down shirts and bohemian camisoles getting crafty drinks at the bar like the “Drunken Preppy.” Yum.
Then see the menu. It is basically a summer field of paradise. Lobster roll, clam strips, fish and chips…. and the mussels… fours sauces to choose your own adventure from. Served in a large metal pot… and a basket of fries you will eat and eat and it will seem to refill from the bottom in crispy bistro fry wonder. Now go stop wasting time. You will want to go to there.

www.ditch-plains.com/

Tags: Food, good bang for buck, New York City

I can be exasperating when it comes to technology, and for me that means anything beyond a paper and pen. I know that. The truth is, I don’t care - not that I don’t care about technology, no, no, I don’t care about being exasperating sometimes. For instance, do we always have to answer the cell phone? - Perhaps no, unless it’s an important call. I feel that answering a call when you’re out with someone is a slap in the face to the someone you’re with, and also it’s an exercise in patience for anybody in a public place forced to listen. Sometimes a call is urgent. Urgent, however, means different things to different people. Cell phone users are often amusing though, and can become entertainers of sorts - the motions, facial expressions, and tone of voice, could easily be part of a comedy show. So, I’ll just say this, thanks for the laughs. And, if I’ve made you laugh when taking an “urgent” call in a public place, you’re welcome - for the entertainment

I just went to a quaint storybook restaurant straight from a time when eating with a dead animal head above you spoke for fresh meat. Freemans is found at the end of a tiny alley (as they describe on their website, which I took as filled with lurking sinister figures waiting with cockney accents to pick my pockets, but is actually a sunshine filled wide walkway between two buildings, where those on the waiting list chat while adjusting flouncey hipster sunglasses).

Since I went for brunch I cannot give the full lay down of the menu, except to say that everything we had was good. The “Roast pork sandwich, pickled zucchini, and garlic mayonnaise with green salad” -amazing! Why has no one fed me pickled zucchini before? Shame on you. Thin, maintaining flush positioning next to other sandwich parts and not falling out. Brilliant. Their cocktails came in squeal worthy early century champagne glasses. Squat and cradling the bubbles that spurted up from just above the stem. Even the vegetarian could not speak poorly about the plentiful taxidermy that hangs above on the surrounding wood walls. It really just completes the log inn/restaurant by the side of the road feel frequented by adventurers and those who haven’t died of diphtheria yet on the Oregon Trail. (Though we gave thanks for not sitting at the table that had an ooh to realistic looking wasp hive dangling precariously over head). We left full and lighthearted with a fantasy mini getaway feeling as we adjusted our hipster sunglasses and ran from this constant drizzle.

www.freemansrestaurant.com

Tags: Food, hipsters, New York City

Thank you David Carradine for all the terrific entertainment you provided in the Kung Fu movies which I very much enjoyed watching,

Now, at this time of your passing, hopefully, people the world over will keep in mind that only your family and friends need know how you died. As for the rest of us, it’s none of our business. All indications suggest that you were well-loved and that you loved well.

Go in peace.

www.david-carradine.com

I have a DVD called Love And Hate Two Sides of the Same Coin, in which Osho talks about awareness, and of “Never judging anybody by his act.” and to, “Try to find out his awareness. Otherwise, don’t judge at all.” During the entire time of the DVD the camera rests on Osho’s calm face, his steady, clear eyes, and his hands which move slowly and gracefully when he speaks. The DVD was inside of a book I’d bought a few years ago, and read with mild interest. Now with the rereading of it, along with watching and listening to the DVD, I see flashes of The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle in Osho’s words. The power of now, awareness, consciousness - what would the world be like were we all to put them to use?

I didn’t know until this week that the Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi was written in his honor during World War I. Did you? The movie, Reluctant Saint - Francis of Assisi, is based on the biography by Donald Spoto, and makes all other movies about St. Francis look like fiction. In an interview, Donald Spoto said that “He’s one of the most misunderstood people in the history of organized religion.” I think he knows what he’s talking about since he says, “I’m a theologian by training. I did a Doctorate in theology with a concentration in New Testament studies, and the primary work as a teacher that I did for many years was as a professor of religious studies of scripture, of Biblical literature and languages, and Christian mysticism.” With this background, it would seem that if anyone can tell the true story of St. Francis it’s Donald Spoto. He’s also written seventeen other books on “the lives of enormously creative and important artists, such as, Alfred Hitchcock, and Tennessee Williams, and great actors like Laurence Olivier and Ingrid Bergman, and a great American woman, Jacqueline Kennedy Onasis.”

Maybe you’re looking for some great books for summer reading? Maybe you’ve found some?

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www.osho.com
www.hitchcock.tv
www.laurenceolivier.com
www.ingridbergman.com
www.tennesseewilliams.net

The New York Open Center has been in the Soho area of NYC for 25 years, and for anyone walking miles of blocks, and tending to all sorts of things in that area, the meditation room and small bookstore is a nice respite. It’ll be different now because they’re heading on up and moving to 22 East 30th Street. The Spring/Summer Programs 2009 of the New York Center’s easy-to-read, and not jammed- packed catalog, says they’re: “NEW YORK’S LEADING CENTER OF HOLISTIC LEARNING & WORLD CULTURE.” I used to consider the Center a gift to New York because when it was founded there wasn’t a whole lot of holistic anything going on in the form of classes in the NYC area.

I called the administrative office for a catalog two weeks ago, and the informative person answering the phone mentioned that she’d taken the Bollywood Dancing course. The “Bollywood Dancing course”, hmm! - I thought, that course would definitely go on the slightly stepping out of the comfort zone list.

Now with the catalog in hand and late evening descending, I got to thinking about the courses offered, and the reasons people register for them. A few could be: enjoyment, learning, wanting a challenge, accompanying someone, meeting people, meeting people having similar interests, and stepping out of a comfort zone. I peruse the catalog once more wondering: 1) which course would take me out of my comfort zone. 2) which course would be completely different from anything I’d taken before. 3) which course do I think I have no interest in pursuing, but, in pursuing it, find it wholly interesting.

There are different ways of stepping out of our comfort zone, and I wonder if registering for a class is one of them. In the past, I imagined that stepping out . . . would entail leaving who we think we are, and the things allowing us to believe in who we think we are, for an unknown experience. Now I ask, does that have to mean leaving our physical surroundings?

By now it’s impossible to think of sleeping as I’ve all these questions to answer, and I’m doing all the work since I’m the one asking and answering, and it’s getting tricky. That’s okay, along the way I’ll feign boredom and mind will leave me alone.

Have a beautiful day.

www.opencenter.org

I’ve been thinking and reading about meditation for awhile, and now and then, dabbling. I guess that’s the right word since I’ve not yet become an every day meditator. Then last month, I found a teacher in a thin book squeezed into a very narrow space on a shelf with many larger books overshadowing it. I don’t know why, but whenever I see a small book trying to hold its own with the big ones, I make every effort to release it. As it turned out the little book titled, Your Life Is Your Mesage by Eknath Easwaran is a gem. On the back cover Barbra Streisand wrote, “Your Life Is Your Message is about changing the world by changing ourselves.” And Marvin Hamlisch wrote, “I still can’t believe how much wisdom is packed into these slender pages. This isn’t just a book; it’s a friend.” I think that about sums it up.

Eknath Easwaran founded the Blue Mountain Center of Meditation in Tomales, California. I have the feeling from reading his words, that if anyone can lead another to the path of meditation, he can. I’d never heard of him before rescuing “Your Life Is Your Message” from its tight spot on a book shelf. Then recently, while walking on a clear, cool day, I noticed a used bookshop having a sale. A lot of people were on the sidewalk peering across long tables of books. I joined them, and found The Devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho, and The Vagabond by Colette for a song and a dance. Then I went inside the shop, and something caught my eye. Yes! -MEDITATION by Eknath Easwaran was calling me. I took it from the shelf; there was no doubt in my mind that it belonged with me. On the back cover Henri Nouwen wrote, “This book has helped me a great deal.” And Huston Smith wrote, “No extravagant claims, no pretentious jargon. Just a clear, insightful exposition of meditation, and an excellent guide to its practice.” I think so, too.

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www.easwaran.org
www.barbrastreisand.com
www.marvinhamlisch.com
www.henrinouwen.org
www.hustonsmith.org

I subscribe to Tama Kieves eletters, and this week under Tama’s Musings she wrote about “Mothering Ourselves: Nurturing Yourself, Your Dreams, and the World.” She writes at her soul level, and she shows no hesitation in sharing the person she was, the person she is, and the person she’s becoming.

Her website is: www.awakeningartistry.com I imagine that to be on a cruise with her, and the other spiritual teachers joining her, would be a gift one could call “Mothering Ourselves.” www.awakeningartistry.com/resources.discussion.html