Shared with W3 prompt #179: Write 5 separate Hay(na)ku poems, each about a different aspect of love, including but not limited to: Romantic love, familial love, self-love, unrequited love, enduring/timeless love. Each poem should stand alone but together create a layered meditation on love.
After reading through others’ entries for this prompt, I was inspired to give it another try, particularly after learning more about the Greek Gods of love. Above is the new entry, below the original (titled Curriculum).
Dizzy and tired still, though a little better mentally.
I think I’m understanding a little more about why I’m feeling the way I am mentally.
My routine involves teaching and writing and those both keep me in the now. Whenever I’m not doing those things, I have been updating my blog or watching things relevant to my past ie. nostalgic.
Due to the flooding and school being closed, my routine has been upended and I haven’t been doing things that have kept me rooted in the now and way too much thinking about the past.
This has got me contemplating too much about things outside my control. Perhaps it was sitting for hours (in the now) at the hospital yesterday that has brought all this into focus.
So, now aware of this, I can think about how to improve my thoughts and situation.
I slept ok until some point in the night I had indigestion and then remembered that I had drunk two bottles of soda water in the evening, something I know will get my guts rumbling when I’m lying down to sleep. I’m a slow learner.
Health:
Physical: 6 Mental: 6
Today I’m grateful for:
To the student in the shop who read the staff with my shopping list (see below).
The best thing about today was:
Sydney beating Port to make another grand final. I managed to listen on the radio, which is certainly not exciting at all and really difficult to follow but at least I was able to keep up with the game.
I’ll watch the mini-match tomorrow and enjoy that.
I’ll probably listen to the Geelong/Brisbane game too and hope that they belt the shit out of each other to make it tougher next week for whoever is the winner.
Something I learned today?
Amy asked me to pick some stuff up at the auntie’s store at Fah Tai market and sent me a list written in Thai. When I showed it to the boy working at the shop, he apologised and told me that he couldn’t read. I guess he just gets by ok on speaking.
We are the fantastic freaks Gathering at the capital of forever At the dawn of a new age A human be-in together
We’re on a great freak forward No longer just smart monkeys We’ll purify the planet Of the garbage people junkies
Pandora’s box now opened Enlightenment impending Mindful of the messages These altered states are sending
Inspired by the comic story Storming Heaven in 2000AD Prog 2002 – artwork by Frazer Irving.
Today I’m feeling:
Surprisingly awake even getting up before my alarm.
(Later) Today has just disappeared. It’s 6pm and I haven’t really done much. I miss my routine of work days.
Today I’m grateful for:
Amy’s parents wishing us well for the Thai New Year.
The best thing about today was:
Cutting down all that unread email and not feeling stressed about my lesson planning.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
We tried to drive down through SanKong after lunch but the last of the long weekend water revellers jammed up traffic and after being stuck for about 15 minutes I decided to drive back out the way that we came in.
Something I learned today?
A series of studies in cognitive neuroscience found that our brains are ‘programmed’ to learn more from people we like — and less from those we dislike.
This makes sense but we must also be open to the lessons of those that we don’t like – especially if they treat us badly.
Review your acts, and then for vile deeds chide yourself, for good be glad. — Discourses 3.10
I downloaded some CBT for kids books in the hope that I can find some useful strategies, in particular, for Baipad but for any students (and myself). Could maybe even turn them into lessons.
Tired because I had slept too much over the last two days and so struggled to sleep last night along with Cap wanting to be let out and back in again three times. I hope to get home in the early afternoon and catch up on some sleep then. The air is still making me feel dizzy and sick too.
Today I’m grateful for:
The four staff at the post office who I communicated with Google Translate telling them that I didn’t want to pay customs tax on a parcel from Yukari in Japan. The shirt and CDs were already expensive and I don’t want to have to pay even more just to receive them.
Anyway, in my mind I’m already resigned to having to pay the tax but I thought that I would try my best to not and the four guys were all a little stuck as it is just their job to collect the money and send it to the customs people.
I explained that the things in the parcel were just some stuff that I left in Japan when I was visiting there and it was just being sent back to me. The value on the customs declaration is just for insurance claims if it gets lost. They were sympathetic but said they just collected the money.
This would be different in Australia where you have a good chance of not paying import duty if you can argue a good case as I have done in the past on several occasions.
Well, as it was up to the customs people I asked them to call them and explain the situation. They tried but said there was no answer, maybe because it was lunchtime. OK, when you’ve talked to them you can call me and I gave them my phone number and left.
I doubt that they will call as none of them speak English so I will go back in a day or two and see what the situation is.
The best thing about today was:
Getting my grading files all done and dusted by 9.30am, allowing me time to enjoy coffee before a little bit of shopping, where, finally, Big C has the Strawberry Granola in stock again.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
I suppose the situation above that I describe about the customs tax is out of my control and I dealt with it calmly and softly. There was no point in getting upset with the staff at the post office – they were just doing their job.
How do I deal with uncertainty?
I remind myself that everything is uncertain. When you consider that everything is uncertain and that you have been dealing with this reality for 56 years already, you might not be exactly sure how you deal with it but like my mum always said you ‘just get on with it.’
I have become more flexible and accepting of change over time, something I know that Hayden often struggles with. I have also reduced my expectations around things being a certain way – Thailand has taught me this quite well.
I took this picture because Cap looked like he was curled up in a warm winter house with a fire roaring nearby which couldn’t be further from the truth. This old man is still so cute.
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