The Books in My Life

I recently finished reading The Yamas and Niyamas by Deborah Adele. I can't remember another book I wrote in as much as I wrote in this book. I felt like the ideas were reaching out and grabbing me by the collar, telling me, "Hey, we're talking to you." I now carry the book with me wherever I go. I specifically bought a bag big enough to put the book and a notebook in, so I can pull the book out and read it again, or pull the notebook out and write something that strikes me. This book came along in my yoga journey at the just-right time. It will go with me on my long cycling rides. I will use it to guide me as I move through my days.

A part of my yoga journey has included meditation. I took a meditation class at the studio I attend, and I loved each week we met, learned more about meditation. I'm now reading Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Gunaratana, and this evening, as I mused over something about myself that I am unhappy about, my thoughts turned to what Gunaratana addresses in this book about ego. I stopped my musing about being unhappy and instead looked at the issue from a more detached perspective. When I did that, I found being unhappy about this particular aspect of myself is silly. In the big scheme of things, this aspect doesn't matter one bit. It doesn't affect my ability to do anything whatsoever. It doesn't interfere with any part of my life in any way. It simply is what it is. 

No one else cares.

Why should I?

I shouldn't. 

I sat in meditation this morning and constantly found myself having to pull my thoughts back, put them in little balloons and let them go, float up to the sky and disappear. I struggle with what Natalie Goldberg refers to as monkey mind in her book Writing Down the Bones, that voice inside that tries to disrupt, that tries to steer a person away from finding her true self. Sometimes I can corral the voice, but most often the voice finds a way out and begins its little tirade. Gunaratana advises persistence is the only way to move beyond monkey mind. Though I had to constantly pull the monkey mind back today, my time spent meditating carried over to other parts of my day and the rewards made me smile, made me feel quite content. This book, too, will go on my cycling trip with me. 

The last book I have decided to take with me on the trip is the first in the Harry Bosch series by Michael Connelly. I've watched all three seasons of Bosch; I usually give up on TV series after the first or second season, but Bosch is a character I truly enjoy. I decided to give the books the series is based on a try, so I found a list of the order of Harry Bosch books and bought the first one. It's all I can do to not start the book now. 

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