The year so far

I purchased an Audible book written by a doctor who sat for a year and listened to his busy thoughts and journalled about them. It gave me pause. I had initially intended to fill this blog with excerpts from other books but I thought, why not plot my own progress through the year? I mean, obviously, not all posts will relate to that and I will still be sharing cool stuff I read.

Note: It's the middle of the first month and I have already finished three books this year:

1. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
2. Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi
3. Miss Buncle's Book by D. E. Stevenson

The last, which was the December offering of my Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights subscription, was by far my favourite. Set in an English village in the 1930s, it's a tale about a spinster who writes a book about her village under an assumed name. Because she has no imagination, she writes what she knows. The book provokes outrage and recriminations - and becomes a bestseller. You can't get more fairytale-like than that.

Anyway, yesterday I walked into the office and ran up against someone I don't like and don't talk to, in fact, haven't spoken to since I joined this company. Usually, walking behind this person, my feelings of hostility would simmer and boil over.

But what's the use of meditating if I allow my knee jerk reactions to always take control?

So instead, I concentrated on feeling neutral.

That's it.

No hostility.

At the end of last year, I signed up with Calm, my favourite meditation app, again. I had let my subscription lapse and I did feel the lack of Calm in my life. In all senses of the word. Getting onto YouTube for a meditation video - well, I missed Tamara Levitt.

I haven't got to the place where I can wish my enemies or people I don't like loving kindness. But I'll take baby steps and maybe, just refrain from wishing them ill.

I also made a resolution to go to the little gym downstairs every day and work up a sweat. After starting out promisingly, I slipped into indolence and indifference. So I started it up again. It's one of those bandwagon things. I keep falling off...but the trick is in getting up again and to keep on keeping on. One of the books I read last year warned me against measuring results because a lack of these at the beginning tends to throw cold water over every scheme and have me wondering...why bother? It's not going to make any difference anyway.

So yeah, those are the things I've got lined up so far.

I'll check in here from time to time.