I am part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough
Gleams that untraveled world whose margin fades
Forever and forever when I move.
Tennyson
I've talked before about being open to new things as I age. Or things I've previously rejected.
So right now there's the swimming, as I've mentioned.
Apples. A lot of fruits and vegetables give me a hungry feeling in my estomac, and apples were always the worst. But every night my step-mother eats an orange and an apple, and offers me some. I can't eat much orange cause I get cankers, but I started picking at her apples. And now I've bought two bags full! Quebec apples are yummy and for some reason they were all on sale.
Horror / ghost movies. I just never cared about them. At a high school sleepover my buds rented Nightmare in Elm Street, and then either fell asleep or were too scared to open their eyes. I had to hold Pelican's hand the whole time. ...Reminds me if the time Swiss Girl was excited about dissecting a crayfish in high school, and I love animals so we agreed we'd partner together and she could do all the cutting and I'd just draw. And then when it happened she felt sick to her stomach! And I had to do it. I can still remember it's wee digestive tract. ...It's annoying being unsqueamish.
Anyway, all of the sudden I'm in the mood for horror movies. I watched Resident Evil with my parents, and right now I'm watching What Lies Beneath.
Meditation. I've always believed it was good, but figured I just can't do it. My brain's too noisy. But it keeps popping up everywhere, so I decided to work on it this year. And then I read Mindsight and saw how much he uses it to help people integrate their minds, grow new neurons. My left brain likes to know how things work! So I've started doing it, a little bit. Just a minute or so of focusing on my breathing, before bed or when I'm nervous or upset. They say it's like exercise, you gotta try it regularly before seeing a difference. Transcendentalists believe you need to do 20 mins twice a day, for example.
So there's some of my New Things. Anyone else? Any thoughts? Instead of a song if the day, I leave you with a Tennyson poem. It takes place after Ulysses' return home, as he questions his retirement, and longs to get back on the sea and seek out new adventures.
12 comments:
Here's to opening ourselves to new things!
I, too, have become more open to new things as I've aged. So much for that whole idea that one becomes more conservative as they age!
I am open to trying meditation. I can't seem to keep my mind from interfering. But maybe I should start with just a couple of minutes at a time, start more slowly so it is less of a chore and maybe becomes something pleasurable.
I'm saying yes whenever possible, even when I think I shouldn't/wouldn't/couldn't/can't. Especially then.
I agree with Skye about becoming less conservative as we age. Yay, Skye!
Me too! I'll be 64 this year and I've only come to realise in recent years that I hold the key to everything that I want to do, want to be, in life.
I meditate, and it is one of the best things I've ever done for myself. I learned some simple meditations in Deepak Chopra's book Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul.
Loved the Tennyson. Going back to listen again. : )
It was a bull's eye not a crayfish and I got grossed out because of the eyelashes still attatched. BLEH
I snuck a part of it home to show my mom. HAHAHA
However, it does rememind me of the day we met where "I hope we get to disect frogs" Was sentence 4! LOL
It took me the longest time to get into the Resident Evil series ... mostly because I wasn't into the whole zombie thing - in my reading thing or my watching thing - but as is usual with me, once the hype died down, I decided it might be worth watching, if for nothing else than to watch Mila Jojovich strut her stuff ... it was.
Well you already know how LOTS of new things show up in my life constantly. (Many of them uninvited.) Also, Dan and I have begun buying apples by the the bags as well. Look at the bunch of us, all trend-setty!
@ Mary Stella hurrah!
@Skye I used to feel the same way, but now I'm thinking it can be learned. That meditating IS about learnjing how to quiet your mind, but has to be done regularly to get there.
@Magic Like that Yes movie!
@Robena Ah more proof we should be meditating. Thanks for the book rec, there's so much out there, didn't know which to try.
@Simone I was away when you guys did the eye, thankfully. Maybe you've blocked the crayfish from your extrinsic memory. I, however, have its digestive system burned nti my retina.
@widders Stepmommy has two more of them!
@Julie Soooon the world will be dominated by apple eaters!
me, too-- I am way more open to new things now than when I was 20. I never understood meditation at all until I read Pema Chodron (buddhist nun, love love love her books). I can't remember which one was the best re: meditation, and all of them are boxed up in the storage unit still. I wrote a post on it ages ago, let's see.... link is http://abnthree.blogspot.com/2008/02/thinking-about-buddhism-meditation.html
but I'm hardly an expert. I do it once or twice a week.
me, too-- I am way more open to new things now than when I was 20. I never understood meditation at all until I read Pema Chodron (buddhist nun, love love love her books). I can't remember which one was the best re: meditation, and all of them are boxed up in the storage unit still. I wrote a post on it ages ago, let's see.... link is http://abnthree.blogspot.com/2008/02/thinking-about-buddhism-meditation.html
but I'm hardly an expert. I do it once or twice a week. (this is Barb, I'm trying anonymous commenting because my comments keep getting eaten when I post as me.)
Oh cool I'll check out your post!
Really??? And I did the crayfish?? LOL, I have no memory of that, perhaps you are right! :)
Post a Comment