Early Start

05:21 AM

Up early this morning because I have to get some press releases written and emailed before the fine people from Powergen cut our electricity supply. Essential work, they tell me. I think they just like playing Tarzan on the telegraph poles.

Strange that we still call them telegraph poles. I've never sent anyone a telegraph - not once in my entire life. And I don't intend to start now.

We'll have to rename them Internet Poles.

12:10 PM

We have power again, and the postman brought me a very welcome cheque. Reasons to be cheerful, one and two.

12:31 PM

Reason to be cheerful number three.

Birth Under The Microscope

01:54 PM

Two years ago I got hold of a decent stereoscopic microscope. Ex lab stock that cost a couple of hundred pounds. No good for looking at blood cells or wriggling sperm, but fantastic for examining mini beasts, insect eyes, the details of tiny flowers etc.

Rose and I walked Kate the Dog together this morning, and Rose found a thin stem of plant that had some purple stuff on it. Looked like a kind of mould. Brought it home for a (much) closer look.

Glad we did, because under the microscope the fabulous reality was revealed. What looked like purple mould was in fact hundreds of tiny eggs, and the microscopic caterpillars coiled inside them were busy hatching.

Fantastic.

I've just witnessed an explosion of caterpillar birth, including the pauses as they rested for a while from the effort of chewing through the egg.

Life, eh? Good, innit?

God, I love YouTube!

Living in the Present with Dennis Potter

12:01 AM

About six months ago, I began to meditate on a (fairly) regular basis. Nothing too heavy. Just a couple of 20 minute sessions per day. After a while, I noticed some changes in myself. A marked reduction in my pulse-rate, a quietness, a welcome sense of calm.

I like calm.

I briefly considered the idea of going on a Zen retreat. Lots to learn, I thought. Might be good to spend some time with people on the same path, see how they approached the learning. So in preparation I joined a Buddhist website.

I found a bunch of people busy ripping lumps out of each other because some believed in reincarnation, some did not; some ate meat, some did not; some wore their underpants backwards, some did not...

I thought I'd do my own thing for a while.

So that's what I did. I read a book or two, did a bit of thinking, meditated. In particular, I tried to stop regretting the past and worrying about the future.

I tried to live in the present moment.

It's not easy, but I seem to be getting better at it.

Here's Dennis Potter's final interview, recorded in 1994 just a few weeks before he died. Through the wonders of the Internet I found the bit that, even then, made a huge impression on me.

Dennis Potter's Final Interview

The only thing you know for sure is the present tense...

The nowness of everything is absolutely wondrous...

If you see the present tense - boy do you see it...

It's sad that even someone as exceptional as Dennis Potter had to wait until weeks before his death before he had that insight. As far as I can tell, most people never see it.

I'm an atheist. I don't believe in any kind of traditional God, or in the reality of supernatural events.

But I do believe that living in the present moment is a key. A key that unlocks doors that most people never even know are there. Doors that lead to places where there is less suffering, less discontent and bottles of Guinness hanging from the trees.

Monkey Mind

01:55 PM

Mind monkey or Monkey mind, from Chinese xinyuan and Sino-Japanese shin'en 心猿 [lit. "heart-/mind-monkey"], is a Buddhist term meaning "unsettled; restless; capricious; whimsical; fanciful; inconstant; confused; indecisive; uncontrollable".

(Thanks, Wikipedia.)

Been looking for an image to illustrate the monkey mind I wrote about earlier. Or rather an image I can call up when I want to calm my own monkey mind. Think I've found it!

05:18 PM

Done lots of garden stuff this afternoon, and used the time to think about thoughts. About thought itself.

The fact that we can think is utterly amazing. Our thoughts allow us to solve problems, create art, build computers, manipulate the world around us. Thinking is generally thought to be a Good Thing.

And yes, generally speaking thinking is a Good Thing.

But there's another side to the coin of thought. A darker side.

Thinking has run out of control. Most people are unable to turn off that constant stream of thought - unable to Not Think. And there are dangers in that situation. Here there be dragons.

Lawns & Lurchers

02:28 PM

Just mowed the lawn. Well, one of the bloody lawns!

I know it's good for me. I know I should just settle into it, get into the rhythm, enjoy the process of making a small corner of the universe slightly more tidy. One finger raised in the face of entropy. But something deep inside me wants to jump up and down and scream its little head off:'You're wasting your time, Ravenscroft! Grass grows! Next week, you'll have to do it all over again - so just smash the Flymo and go to the pub instead!'

06:12 PM

How to hide behind a dog. Pic of me and Kate, taken during yesterday's walk around Snipe Dales.

Zen and the Art of Drinking Coffee

09:00 AM

Just spent five minutes drinking coffee. Did my very best during that five minutes to do nothing but drink coffee, and experience all the coffee-related input delivered by my senses: the complex aroma of the stuff, the warmth and the taste in my mouth, what it feels like as the coffee goes down the tubes, the heat of the cup, the sound of one lip slurping... all that Zen business.

It's not easy. In fact, it's really hard to shut down what the Buddhists call 'the monkey mind' - to stop that constant internal chatter.

Time for another cup so I can get some more practice.

11:03 AM

All that coffee got me thinking about Zen (which I guess is almost a contradiction in terms). A friend of mine sent me a link recently to a talk by Eckhart Tolle that I found interesting. If you have an hour and a half to spare (yes. it is that long) and you fancy watching and listening, the talk is here.

Try to ignore the slightly cheesy opening scene and Tolle's annoying (at first) ultra-slow delivery. If you stick with it, you might find it both informative and relaxing - which is a pretty rare combination.

Thanks for the link, Robyn.

07:20 PM

Pleasant day today. Rose and I went to Snipe Dales for a walk in the woods. Took Kate the Dog. At one point, the Red Arrows flew overhead, no doubt on their way to a display somewhere. Sun shone. Birds sang. The few people we met looked happy in the sunshine. Rose took pics.

Life can be pretty good sometimes.

Sheds, Sheds, Glorious Sheds...

Early morning rambling...

A writer friend of mine - the lovely Merc - just directed me towards Shedworking.

It's a website entirely devoted to strange people like me who work in garden sheds. I have a feeling I'm going to feel very much at home there. So thanks, Merc.

8.15 a.m.

Exercise

As I said in my first post on this blog, I'm currently doing a bit of life re-structure work. (If you'd read that sentence to me a few years ago, I'd have laughed at you. 'Life re-structure work? What the hell is that supposed to mean?)

In my case it means lots of things, and I'll be rattling on about some of them in future posts. But right now I want to say a few words about just one aspect. Exercise.

I've never, ever enjoyed exercise. I did as little as possible as a kid, and it was only poverty that kept me skinny. You can't get fat when all you have to eat is cardboard and a bit of dust. But the years have rolled on, and much to my surprise I've started putting on weight. When I bend to tie my shoelaces, I have to fight against a cushion of belly-fat that never used to be there. I don't like that. Nor do I like the fact that walking the dog is more of an effort these days. I'm fortunate to be living in Lincolnshire, 'cos it's flat as the proverbial pancake. Not a hill in sight. If we still lived in hilly Derbyshire, my dog-walking would have killed me years ago.

So, on the 8th of August - just one week ago - I told myself I was going to start early-morning exercises. Nothing too major. Get out of bed and do as many sit-ups as possible. Then do as many push-ups as possible. Then chin the bar as many times as possible.

And keep records.

The results, though pretty pathetic compared to someone who really is fit, are amazing.

Date	SU	PU	BAR
08-Aug-2009	13	20	1
09-Aug-2009	16	26	1
10-Aug-2009	18	31	1
11-Aug-2009	18	35	1.5
12-Aug-2009	18	36	2
13-Aug-2009	20	37	2
14-Aug-2009	21	39	2
15-Aug-2009	22	42	2

In just a few days I've nearly doubled the number of sit-ups I can do. I've more than doubled the number of push-ups! The bar-work is still crappy, but at least I'm heading in the right direction.

What's more, my energy levels are improving. All good stuff.

So, tell me to carry on. Prod me now and then. Keep me going.

And if you don't exercise yourself, give it a try. It's a drag, but the effort really does pay off.