Mania and the Mystery Machine of Meditation

Today is January 29, 2009 but you couldn’t prove it by me. Two days ago, the worst ice storm in my own personal history hit Northeast Arkansas over two days. The first day it did nothing but rain continuously for 24 hours with the temperature hovering around 32 degrees (that’s 0 degrees Celsius for all of you foreigners who still haven’t converted). That laid the groundwork for when the temperature dropped that night to around 18 degrees and froze all of that water solid. Not to mention that it kept precipitating snow/sleet for another 15 hours or so. That led to massive power outages across 4 states with my own power giving up the ghost at 11pm on January 27^th. That was two days ago. I haven’t used anything that requires electricity since (except now I’m typing on a computer at work, they got back power today but still no internet.) So I don’t know when this blog will actually get posted.

Anyways, on the subject of mania, the loss of power in this town has turned people into lunatics. Backing up for blocks around gas stations and poring into Wal-Mart like the parking lot was on fire.

Anyways, the family took off for warmer ground down south leaving me in the house to learn how to move through a standard size door looking like a Bantha of blankets and clothes.

It also left a lot of time for reading by candlelight and self reflection. Including meditation.

Which allowed me to work on my list.

#436 Meditate daily.

I’ve always been one for prayer daily. Everyone needs some time to talk to someone about their day and their problems. But this particular list item refers more to clearing my head of the whirlwind of things that usually happen in a day. That and to practice slowing my heartbeat and generally working on making myself feel better.

Well, this lull in 24 hour a day news coverage and media blitz let me get back to my daily meditation. I typically just need about 5-10 minutes and use a breathing technique I learned from a book about Zazen meditation. I dropped my heart rate down in the 40 beats/minute range using it and could’ve gone further, but I don’t really know the long term effects of something like that so I’ll just aim for healthy.

I hope this power outage doesn’t lead to me inadvertently achieving items numbered 775 and 776 though it’s possible. They’re talking like it could be a week or more. Over 2000 power poles down they say.

Hmm. I could really become like a Zen monk or something. Jerid already calls me the Grandmaster of Flowers.

D&D reference. Look it up.

And as for the “mystery machine” reference in the title. I just like Scooby Doo. Who doesn’t?

I’ll update this blog post with pictures once I get my computer working again.