I'd planned on a check-in yesterday after my morning meditation. However, I left my laptop at home when I went to my morning doctor's appointment. I was VERY ADHD yesterday, which was fine since that's part of why I was at the doctor, and I can FINALLY say we have my RX squared away for at least the next 30 days. Hopefully, I can return to my regular medication after that. Still, I'm just happy not to deal with the back and forth of calling the pharmacy, my insurance, and my doctor's office, as I have every day for the past month and a half.
Today's meditation on 'subtleties' is an excellent topic for me this morning, as the gentle differences that may not matter to some are bigger for others. Recognizing subtleties and what they could mean outside our experience and life is a great way to practice getting outside ourselves. I find this especially important in our lives because what we may dismiss as being not important or commonplace, can be a special, hurtful, or unknown to others. Understanding why someone may have a different reaction than we do is important in how we communicate and work with others.
It's also important in recognizing that just because something worked for someone else, it may not work for us, and vis versa. We are all unique individuals, which means we have many subtle differences and similarities between us.
This meditation reminded me of yesterday's meditation about 'city energy'. Tamara shared how she visits a meditation center outside the city, and when she and others arrive, they first practice meditating for an hour before fully immersing themselves into the center so as to calm their 'city energy'. I love this idea as I both love the city, but am at home in small towns. There truly can be an energy of excitement when traveling into and visiting acity. I lived briefly in Atlanta, but it has a different energy than the big cities I visited growing up, like Denver and Chicago. When I think of a city, they're what I think of along with New York City and Seattle. Having visited Seattle on several solo trips, the ability to walk around a city and soak in the sights, sounds, and smells is exhilirating.
Conversley, I hate traffic. I love being able to ride my bike or walk to my destination, which is another benefit of big cities that have good infrastructure and public transportation. Being able to access these options actually reminds me of the small towns I've stayed and visited as well. The slower pace chatting with neighbors as you go for your morning walk, getting the latest news from the barista at the local coffee shop, or wishing your neighbor luck as they head out on the lake for a morning fishing trip. There are enough similarities of visiting these two kinds of places that are so subtle, they're often overlooked, so taking the time to prepare ourselves for them is a beautiful way of 'being', and not just 'doing' like I reflected on earlier this week.
Both meditations remind me of spending summers in the midwest and out west growing up. Both my parents grew up outside of big cities, and during our summer visits, my sisters and I'd get the best of both worlds. Learning and adventuring with cousins in city museums and art galleries, or taking in a professional baseball game, feeling connected to thousands of other fans with similar interests and passions; and then heading to the subarbs or back to the small town/village outside the city, where it was so quite you could fall asleep to the loon singing on the nearby lake or spend a few days in and around your accomadations with out seeing another soul besides the squirrels, birds, and maybe a deer or muskrat.
While the fall term has officially started (yesterday, so another reason I didn't get the check-in finished), it is still summer, so while I'm organizing, prepping and planning my time over the next 6 weeks and 12 weeks with my classes, I'm making sure to enjoy these summer days. While I may not be in the places that remind me of summer, I can still do some of the activities and practice the mindset to remind me of the beauty of subtleties in similarities and differences to help keep me from 'being' to getting swept into 'doing' mode.
Finally back to my decaf this morning! I'm rather tired from my day yesterday, which included more practice on my bike with my new cycliing shoes and clip-in pedals, as I mentioned, I got a new RX which I started this morning. Adding caffeine onto that would NOT be a subtle transition as I am rather sensitive to caffeine and it would definitely alter my experience of this new medication. I also really spent a lot of time working my brain more than typically do as I was having a more difficult time with the clip-in pedals. I'd done such a good job on Monday, I was excited to get back to it, but I just wasn't connecting the dots in the same way and I feel a few times (which honestly I was surprised I DIDN'T on Monday 😅 and while I just scraped my knee and a tiny bit of my shin, falling off a bike, while still semi-attached to it is a full body experience, so yeah. I'm a bit sore all over! Despite the falls, I had another great practice and could feel even more of the difference between standard pedals and the clip-in pedals. There are more muscles used with the later, and it's like a whole new way of riding a bike - and I LOVE IT!!
