Gratitude Journal

It's been years since I've updated this blog. Not that I haven't been so inspired as I used to be when I last wrote in here, maybe just less public about things.

I've recently decided to take on a 30-day gratitude challenge as laid out in my plan for health for OSU's health plan, and this will be my tool for writing it.  

30-day Gratitude Challenge - Nov 1st - Nov 30th

"Spending a few minutes every day focused on things you are grateful for can make you feel better, be more optimistic and improve physical health.

 As we approach the the season of "Thanksgiving" take a few moments each day to write down the things you are thankful for.

What To Do 

Write down at least 1 thing you are grateful for every day for 30 days.
 Nov 1st - I was grateful for the opportunity to lead tantric partner yoga at Trauma. I also made $80 selling my extra tickets.
Nov 2nd - I'm grateful that I was able to sleep in and eat at Whole World with Jilly.
Nov 3rd - I'm grateful for Gurmukh and the rousing, beautiful Kundalini yoga sequence through which she led me via DVD. I also enjoyed my sadhana.
Nov 4th - Today, I'm grateful to have Kundalini class with Jill.
Nov 5th - Today, I'm grateful that I was able to work with Naomi and the NATAL group for their event at the Hillel Jewish center.  Free dinner, getting paid to convert a video, burn a couple DVDs, and help with the videoconferencing (an interesting call with Israel about the psychological trauma that veterans experience and how their organization helps provide support).  When I was walking home, I was grateful to be living in a country not constantly under terrorist attacks and war.
Nov 6th - Today, I'm grateful to have a good job with good pay where I can take my lunch break in the studio, eat my salad, and read the Aquarian Teacher book in lotus position while gazing gratefully at the bright white sky while listening to Snatam Kaur.  I'm also grateful to the lovely and generous Jill Sahiba Nielsen-Farrell for having leant me said book and for being with me.  These are getting longer! This gratitude is getting out of hand!!
Nov 7th - Today, I'm eternally grateful that Yoga on High has decided to expand our Kundalini class from once a week to twice a week, and tonight we're in a bigger room so we can fit more people! Jai! Wahe Guru!
 Nov 8th - Today, I'm grateful for TRIOMMM, our kirtan group cuz we got to sing beautiful devotional bhajans and eat tasty vegan foods that everybody cooked.
Nov 9th - I'm very happy and grateful today that I got to spend a beautiful night in Delaware at Jills..
Nov 10th - Today, I'm grateful to have spent a peaceful and therapeutic morning at Jill's, and I'm grateful for the delicious breakfast burrito she made me.  I'm grateful that Joe Brown and I have almost finished the Miracles of Jeane.  Peace out.
Nov 11th - I had a splendid day.  I was grateful to have the day off for veterans day.  I'm grateful for our fallen heroes (John Lennon, Bob Marley, Mahatma Gandhi) who died defending our freedom.
Nov 12th - Today, I'm grateful that Mercury is out of retrograde.  I'm grateful for the peaceful sleep and beautiful, snow-covered morning I spent with Jill.
Nov 13th - Yesterday, I was grateful for the new a Perfect Circle song.
Nov 14th - Today, I'm grateful for all the tasty treats I ate with Jilly.  Especially curry cashews and pecan pie.
Nov 15th - Today, I'm grateful for the opportunity to help all the international students with their digital stories and the Indonesian visiting scholars with recording their choir and the ELT group with recording the Quality Matters presentation / discussion even though i'm trying to work on my video for the workshop on Tuesday and all this stuff is taking up all my time and I'm goin crazy and gettin stressed out... still grateful.
Nov 16th - Yesterday, I was very grateful that my parents came down to C-bus for the first time in like 6-7 years or more.  I was grateful for the Northstar burger of tastiness and that Jill got to meet my mum and papa... and for Jeni's ice cream.  I'm also grateful for the nice pillowtop bed they brought me back.
Nov 17th - Today, I was grateful for the beautiful riverside drive in my nice car.  I'm grateful to have my nicer bed now and to put my new organic sheets and new pillows on it.  Cozy time.
Nov 18th - Today, I'm feeling grateful that I'm able to work from home today to finish my video.
Nov 19th - At this point, I'm just grateful that today is over and everything went smoothly.  The workshop went well, and people liked my video and the video shoot went ok.  I'm tired.
Nov 20th - Yesterday, I was grateful to have sushi, sake, and pad thai with Joe Brown after we finished editing the movie.  I was grateful that Jon was home and he gave me some cupcakes he was making.  Grateful for food.  I'm hungry.
Nov 21st - Today, I'm grateful for the people who support me in my job, my boss, Kelvin, the students, the deans, everybody is great.
Nov 22nd - Today, I'm grateful to be leading the last Digital Storytelling workshop of the year.
Nov 23rd - I try to choose different things to be grateful for each day, since there is such an overwhelming amount of abundance in this Universe.  Wahe Guru! But, Friday, I was once again grateful with my whole heart to play ecstatic songs with Triommm, our kirtan LOVE circle.  I'm also grateful the recordings came out well.
Nov 24th - Saturday, I was grateful to see all my old hometown friends at Rayce and Jennifer's wedding.  It was beautiful.
Nov 25th - Today, I'm grateful that things have quieted down at work.  I had a beautiful morning with Jill, and I'm grateful that she made me toast and herbal coffee to enjoy on my drive.
Nov 26th - Today, I was grateful for the beautiful snow, the tasty Thai and Indian dishes that Ben and Narotam cooked, and Great Lakes Christmas Ale.  Oh. And, the Beatles' Across the Universe.
Nov 27th - This day, I was grateful to get out of work early.
Nov 28th - This Thurs'day was Thanksgiving, so of course I was grateful for the almighty Thor, god of thunder, and the Native Americans who taught the colonial forefathers how to plant corn with fish heads... and for food with the family.
Nov 29th - Friday I was overwhelmingly grateful for the lovely friends who joined us in TRIOMMM kirtan circle and for Seth for having us at ILLIO.
Nov 30th - Yesterday, I was grateful for Naomi for working with me to make the video, giving me lots of money, food, cider, and a comfy shirt.

Dec 1st - Today, I'm grateful that it's December! My Birthday is coming, Yule is coming, the Winter Solstice is coming, Anchorman 2 is coming, the Hobbit 2 is coming! OMGGG!! YAYY!!

Dec 2nd - Today, I'm grateful
Dec 3rd - Today, I'm grateful
Dec 4th - Today, I'm grateful
Dec 5th - Today, I'm grateful
Dec 6th - Today, I'm grateful
Dec 7th - Today, I'm grateful
Dec 8th - Today, I'm grateful
Dec 9th - Today, I'm grateful
Dec 10th - Today, I'm grateful
Dec 11th - Today, I'm grateful
Dec 12th - Today, I'm grateful
Dec 13th - Today, I'm grateful
Dec 14th - Today, I'm grateful
Dec 15th - Today, I'm grateful
Dec 16th - Today, I'm grateful
Dec 17th - Today, I'm grateful
Dec 18th - Today, I'm grateful
Dec 19th - Today, I'm grateful
Dec 20th - Today, I'm grateful
Dec 21st - Today, I'm grateful

Dreams come true

A handful of times in my life, I have had dreams that seem to foretell the events of the next day. Well, a few times that I remember. This has happened to me twice within the past couple days.

On Sunday (May 9) I was woken up from a dream where I was down on the streets of Columbus, around Hudson and High street. I could see a golden orange glow in the sky and it was very windy. I had the feeling a tornado was about to come down, and what occurred was a cyclone of flames that descended from the sky decimating the cityscape. I ran to get to my car, which I remembered parking around taco bell, but I couldn't find it. Some of my friends were running with me. Brown and I were running through a gas station, where I saw our cat Kira sitting on a pole. With the fire tornado closing in, I tried to save her.

Then, Brown actually came out of my dream and into my room and woke me up.

Turned out, that day, there was a tornado watch in effect for Columbus.

We played a show, opening up for Jimmy Riggs at Oldfield's on High, so I was in the area that the dream took place, and I saw the glow in the sky. It was very windy and stormy, but I didn't see a fire tornado, thankfully.

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Last night I had some bizarre dream where I think I was a kid again in some sort of resort, I don't remember. I do remember giving this girl a foot massage, which was very strange, because I don't really know her in waking life. I see her pretty frequently, but where this foot massage idea came from is beyond me. Also strange was that she had the bottoms of her feet tattooed. Chains and treasure and flowers, hearts, regular flash art tattoos, but completely covering the soles of her feet.

In my Alexander Technique class today, we were working on mapping our feet. The instructor cradled and poked at different parts of each of our feet. It reminded me of the dream. I saw this girl next to me had very fair skin and sort of blue veins showing on her feet, but nice feet. Just then, the instructor was like, "Oh, what nice feet you have."

Stephen Colbert and Spider Powers

I'm in the middle of one of the most hectic days at work ever. We had 6 reservations for computers, several people wanting me to help with video editing simultaneously, 5 workshops involving set up and tear down of laptops, AND the Chief Information Officer coming for a meeting. This woman is basically the commander in chief of all the technology based departments at OSU: TELR, OIT, and the OSU email and buckeyelink, carmen... She's a powerful woman who used to work for Victoria's secret. We cleaned everything up all nice for her, then she rushed through to the video conference room like a brisk winter wind without so much as a glance.

Last night, during my 2 hours of sleep on Anna's couch, I dreamt that there was a big spider that was the size of the palm of my hand with long spindly legs. It crawled around in my hand in a friendly manner. It made me a bit uncomfortable, but I knew that it liked me, so I let it do its thing. I think it layed eggs and had babies, because then I could shoot the baby spiders on webs out of my fingers at will.

I also met Stephen Colbert at the roller rink. We were rollerskating together. I had him sign my copy of "I am America, and so can You" I need to read more of that book.

I call myself to wake myself up

I had the idea to record a ringtone of myself saying, "Hey Alex, it's time to wake up." and programming it as my alarm on my phone so I could wake myself up, and as I was going into the menu of saved sound effects, I noticed a couple of other ones in there already that I didn't know were there.

I played a random file and started to hear a familiar girl's voice. I thought it was Michelle (my ex-girlfriend). She was talking as though she were having a conversation with me at the time, apparently unaware that she was recording it into the phone. A few lines into the dialogue, I realized that it is the voice of my Ex-Ex Girlfriend, Dawn:

"Yeah, yeah on the tanning bed."

"Remember you used to take me, or you used to go with me all the time."

"You would say that. Yes I am actually."

"So, party tonight, right?"

"Well does it matter, because I told Crystal that we were hanging out, and then, my friend Ashley and my friend Tony want to come."

"Is that a problem?"

"Sweet Deal."

"Who?"

"Collin moved to Chicago?"

"What to be with Sarah?"

"Oh, that's kind of cute, though."

"Ok, well call me to let me know what's going on then."

"No, I understand." (laughs)

"Well, are there any other places we can hang out at?"

"Got you."

"Hold on one second, ok?"

"Sorry, it's just really hard for me to do both things at once."

"No, I'm just putting on my tanning lotion while I'm talking to you." (laughs)

"Well, just let me know what's going on with tonight, and then, whatever."

"I just figured we were going to Cabbage's, you know, like yesterday."

"Eh, no."

"Ew, yeah."

"Yeah, just give me a call and let me know."

"Alright, I'll talk to you later."

It's kind of funny that I couldn't tell which of my 2 ex-girlfriend's voices it was in the recording for a few sentences. I don't know how it could be Dawn's voice recording considering that I have had this phone for less than a year, and I haven't even hung out with her in over a year. The name of the file is 1218071932 (December 18, 2007) as I have deduced from the one I just made being named 0208090900. I have been using the same memory chip for a couple years. Phones work in mysterious ways, but this was a seriously f@*%ing trippy time warp of sorts.

In other news... Dawn is seriously about to have a baby. Congratulations. :)

Bacchanalia (cont. 3): Ideas and the Path

Bringing Ideas into Fruition:

People come up with ideas, then they bring them to life.

Great filmmakers dream up compelling plots and screenplays, then through hard work, creativity, and cooperation with others, they bring them into fruition.

Everyday people dream of marrying, raising children, and watching them grow up. Then, through hard work, creativity, and cooperation with others, they bring this dream into fruition.

Lately I've been feeling like I'm finally on the path to becoming what I actually want to be. It's not that I have a defined image of what I need to eventually become, it's just that I've realized that every second of every day can be put toward improving myself and the world. I feel like I improve my daily routine a little bit every day, and that the rewards and opportunities that I encounter are increasingly abundant and various.

Bacchanalia (cont. 2): Sleeping with Trees

I still can't sleep, despite being up all night already. I'm having ideas and insights that are flying, crawling, and tearing their way out of my psyche, through my fingers, and onto the innernette.

The infant morning light looks beautiful on the tree outside my window. I sleep with my head up to the window on the 3rd floor. This great pine tree climbs still higher above the roof of "The Neighbors' House" (Our House). I sleep with this great pine wrapping it's branches around the house literally a foot or two from my head.

I should really name this tree.



To me, this tree is now named, "Zachalia". This is a combination of "Zach" which is derived from "Zig-Zag" because there is a face in the bark that looks like the man's face on the Zig-Zag paper packs, combined with "alia" from Bacchanalia, which refers to the rebel-rousing orgies and drunken bouts of celebration that Bacchus (Dionysis in Greek) inspired in Roman Mythology.





Remind me to do a real, decent photo session on my room sometime.

(Bacchanalia cont.)

Music sounds organic when it involves constant subtle changes in dynamics (loudness). Swells and slow diminishing of sounds emulate what we experience in nature with breathing, wind, organic movements, etc.

I let out a medium low, sustained fart, and Brown said, "That had some good tone". I'd say it was a C pitch.