Tag: barking

Day 9

'A Poetic Potter & A Potting Poet'Leave a comment

Writing again

I’ve been reading more of the book, ‘How to Transform Your Life’ by the Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Rinpoche.

Just being able to concentrate on reading again feels like a bit of a transformation, although that is not the type of transformation that the book is about. Or maybe it is, in that meditation and doing my best to put the teachings into practice have helped to start bringing my concentration levels back.

Lydia has done a lot of barking today, after a quiet walk this morning.  She’s now had her tea and is snuggled up to her blanket/quilt.  She’s looking at me and blinking her eyes and making a few gurgly noises with her throat, so I think she’s fairly relaxed.

There’s meatloaf left over from yesterday that Trev made so it’s an easy tea for us, with some boiled potatoes, steamed broccoli and gravy.

A bit more telly tonight, keeping things steady this week as I’ll be doing some intensive deep cleaning next week.  Trev’s away for a few days so I’ll set to with my steam cleaner. We’re getting ready to put the house on the market in the New Year, and it’s just about doing what needs to be done for that, before Christmas.

Day 2

'A Poetic Potter & A Potting Poet'Leave a comment

Writing into Life, more

Photo by James Frid on Pexels.com

For my age – pushing 70 – I have very little in the way of bodily aches and pains or physical ailments.

I do exercises for my knees – which keep the Baker’s Cysts at the back of them at bay – and my daily walks with Lydia help me to maintain my overall fitness levels. 

The other day, though, I started getting a twinge to one side of my lower back. Nothing drastic, but noticeable.

I couldn’t have asked for more, then, when our Qigong teacher, Sue, in yesterday’s class, talked us through exercises that concentrated on the lower back area.

Qigong movements are very gentle, methodical.  It isn’t always easy to see how they can be of immediate benefit – because they aren’t designed necessarily to be of immediate benefit.  Effects over time can be difficult to recognise because of the very fact that they are gradual, often almost imperceptible.  All I do know, is that I started going to Sue’s classes regularly – weekly – around 15 years ago and I hold them in no small part responsible for some of the health and fitness benefits I now enjoy.

This morning, the twinge in my lower back is less. I didn’t take painkillers and it didn’t just go away on its own.  The combination of Qigong, preceded by yoga – which in turn was a gentle, meditative session – has, I believe, helped.

I meditated again this morning, sitting upright in a chair in the way we have been taught.  Thankfully, there is no expectation of sitting cross legged on the floor. I used to try that, but it ‘killed’ my knees!

Lydia and I have had a woodland walk today. We also have new neighbours, including another dog.  It’s going to be a challenge to train Lydia not to bark at it every time she hears it on the other side of the fence.  We’ll get there though, just as we’re ‘getting there’ with other things. Even if we don’t know where we’re going, were doing our best to make the most of our time together, day by day, step by step.

Day 24 – Solutions

'A Poetic Potter & A Potting Poet'Leave a comment

Writing into Life

Photo by Vinu00edcius Caricatte on Pexels.com

Waking this morning with a feeling of anxiety, my thoughts turn to the teaching and discussions at last night’s Buddhist meeting.

After I mentioned that the teachings and practices have been helping to lift me out of depression, another member of the group mentioned that she experiences anxiety rather than depression. The two often go together. In my case, I didn’t start to get any real sense of anxiety until after the depression started to lift. It hit me like a brick at the time: a traumatising blast of raw fear. Since then, I have been working on the fear and that too is usually in abeyance these days.  This morning the anxiety is more in my body than my mind and I turn my thoughts to other things, other people: friends and people I know; close and not so close.

After showering, I do a quick clean of the bathroom; just enough to tide it over while I’m still in rest and recharge mode. A bit at a time stops it from building up and then seeming like it’s too much to tackle.

I’m doing the same with my emotional and psychological journey: a bit at a time now, after feeling so overwhelmed in the now distant past that I didn’t know where to start. Except that I did start – somewhere – and I kept going, am keeping going.

It’s pottery for me this afternoon.  Trev is going to visit Lyme Regis, via a scenic route. Lydia is outside barking. She’ll be on her own for a few hours while I’m out so she may as well get a bit of fresh air and let off a bit of steam before I go.

I’ll probably have beans on toast for tea. I like beans on toast. I may well also go for a large gin and tonic. I like gin and tonic too. Alcohol, of course, isn’t the answer, but it is a solution and one that can be very enjoyable if not over-indulged.  I recognise that it is only a temporary source of ‘happiness’ but it is a pleasure I can partake in for now, and tonight I probably will.