Guitar Circle Journals

A fantastic day here in Central Texas, beautiful Spring weather.

May all good things come to you.

As of now, this site will close, having served its end. Who knows what the future may bring? Many thanks to those who contributed posts and comments. The End … ?

At first, we are afraid to let go. Then, we are afraid to not let go. Then, we just let go.

AT class in the morning (Austin traffic is back to its horrible self). Ate lunch with The Wife before heading back home.

Tired, so i took a nap after guitar practice. Then a variety of work tasks, followed by a short grocery shop.

Act, don’t react. That was the topic of the day, in many different guises. Only one truly notable reaction, when some lady did a rolling stop at a 4-way stop, and then managed to get in a turn lane only to go straight, totally oblivious.

Paying attention at all times is impossible; for short periods, possible.
into why it is so easy for materialists to get caught in the same trap that the religiously fervent get caught in.

A romantic evening with The Wife, for a while. Then taxes.

Tired today. Sitting.

Teaching all day, dealing with paper. Escaping into facebook from time to time.

18:35. Still at the office. Soon, I go to a lecture given on evolution, just a building away. After that, home.

Oh, a busy day!

AT in Austin in the morning, after the sitting and job for the day.

Came back, practiced guitar for an hour. Then to a massage: huge insight into the jaw and shoulder blade connection from this.

Then a meeting with a student.

Then home to give an AT lesson to my practice student.

More guitar. And The Wife took me out to eat and to run a few errands. Home, exhausted, right after 9:00p. Crashed and slept immediately.

A busy day.

Drove to Austin in the morning for AT teacher training. This went until 4:30p. Then i went over to a childhood friend’s house (she’s lived in Austin 12 years and this was our first meeting!) where I met other childhood friends. Hung out the the friends and the band True Margrit, with good food and good company. Got home late, and then completed my AAD commitments.

Well, just another busy day. Thunder and rain at day break. Then a cold front blew in: a pretty day but cold and very very blustery.

Breakfast out with our departing houseguest (highschool friend of The Wife’s).

Then to the county Democratic caucus, which worked out well (my anniversary gift to The Wife had been to volunteer her as a caucus delegate! good for a laugh later!).

Checked out tiny texas houses site in Luling.

Had a juice dinner (celery, apple, and kale and orange; yum!)

Continuing to acknowledge the course work in Italy with my own work commitment. Guitar practice still remains, now 21:49.

Another beautiful day in Central Texas.

Generally, a very good day. “It’s a sign.”

Thus begins my AAD commitment for the Italy course.

During my AT teacher training, I really got my neck free and felt the most ever wholly coordinated that I can remember. It was wonderful!

A gorgeous Spring day, with red buds flowering, and the trees leaving. Clear skies and warm in the day, cool at night. Bliss.

A keyboardist friend from ages ago has her band playing in Austin tonight, so I will go for a listen and maybe we even catch up, she says. True Margrit is the name of her group (keyboard, bass, and drums).

—
On another note, some self-thinking today, on moving forward (and up):

It’s important to make good contact with the reconciling factor between here (what i am) and there (what i aspire to), before attempting to move forward.

(1) Begin by doing nothing. (2) Holding firm is the problem; letting go is the answer.

Alexander talked of end-gaining, the rush to gain an end, as a major problem; part of the solution is to consider “the means-whereby”. But our faulty sensory experience means we must first inhibit everything that we know to do, since that clearly has not gotten us where we wish to be (hence the letting go). Then we wait, as long as need be, patiently, and consider what the next step must be. Even then, we must decide and commit fully to that decision. Then we send out the directions, the message, to those things whose job it is to carry out the will. If we have one clear wish in this way and continue to give the directions and we are willing to feel wrong, then the right thing can happen. But at no point do we lose patience and decide that “well, just a little bit of doing to get it going won’t hurt” (it does).

Reaching this point, then I can begin releasing in an intelligent, thought-out way which allows things to move forward, effortlessly.

Woke up at 3:00a again. Circulating attention and a couple of related exercises, lying down, for hours. Got up at 6:00a.

7:45. Driving to Austin.
8:30-10:30. AT teacher training. Very good work. Releases continue to come in the neck, right hip, back, and right arm. The right side is coming out of its slump. It is like there is an inner dialogue that goes like this:
Habits: No way, I’m doing it like I’ve always done it. If it ain’t broke, then don’t fix it.
Self: But it is broke.
Habits: Well, I won’t have it.
Self: But I wish it.
Habits: No way.
Self: I wish for it.
… (years pass)
Self: I wish for it.
Habits: OK. Allow me to help …
Self: That isn’t what I wish for. What I wish for is this.
Habits: What? No way!
Self: But I wish for it.
Habits: Here is something that feels comfortable, known.
Self: But it’s wrong. I wish for something right and unknown.
Habits: What? You crazy puss!
Self: But I wish for it.
… (more years pass)
Self: I’m still wishing for it.
Habits: (sigh). OK, you win. For now.

… (more years pass)
Self: I’m still wishing for it.
Habits: (sigh). OK, you win.

THE END

?

For this site, the big news was the site host having to migrate to a new physical server (old computers are slow, and die). So a temporary disruption of service existed for a while. Now, all is good.

A very busy day, mainly filled with teaching. Cleaning the house, hoping for a move in our near future, to accommodate the wife with her long commute, only fair.

I awoke this morning at 3:00 after 4 hours of sleep. Neck muscles spasming, the ones at the base of the skull, not accessible to massage: a major shift in alignment, ultimately for the good but it sure did feel unpleasant. It seemed to release a lot of bile into my system which got eliminated well in mid-morning, at which point I felt better physically and emotionally. It felt like a bit of the resentment about some work situations finally was let go.

A new MacBook Pro came this afternoon. The challenge: to keep what is necessary from the old, without glutting the new.