Devin: The Adventure Continues

The general theme of my life lately has been starting over. I did my first day of work training today (not too bad. Nice people. Pretty easy job. And I get juice and smoothies). I’ll be moving soon. My body is making shifts. The way I do, approach, practice, and feel Taiji has been reset.
Yeah, that’s it. It’s like a reset button has been pushed. It feels kind of bewildering to do all this starting over, but I just have to trust that the old patterns needed to end, and that the new ones will bring greater integration, higher levels of goodness, new superpowers.
Oh yeah, speaking of super powers. My teacher’s book is coming out real soon. All must buy it. Or no powers for you. Seriously. Order it right now.

It’s time for an upswing.  I decree it.

The idea of hardship as a challenge has helped me lately.  When I can see whatever suffering I’m in as a puzzle that I have all the peices to, then it just becomes a matter of connecting the peices into a whole. 

And since I am now seeing suffering as something to overcome, of course it becomes less dramatic.  The emphasis is taken off learning mystical arts and sciences, developing awareness and martial skill; instead it is put on saving money, keeping wholeness under the pressure of having a day job, learning how to present myself to people, and relate.

Where are the monsters that need killing?

No, it makes sense, that would be too easy.  I would enjoy that too much.  hardships must be, well, hard.

  My north node (astrology: the point in the chart that governs direction of personal evolution) in gemini is really becoming apparent.   I have to learn how to communicate with people.  In a give and take way.  How to communicate my ideas in a way that is accessible.  To to hear people, and what’s harder for me: how to BE heard.  How to impeccable with words. 

All the friends I have ever met have been through schools.  Situations that encourage people getting to know eachother.  The city presents a whole new set of challenges.  New rules.   

On a more mundane level, I drowned 5 mice the othe day.  Good thing I’m not a buddhist!

To all of my friends, I love you.  Really.  I don’t really have that many friends living near me now, so I’m really starting to appreciate my friends that are strewn about the nation.  Thank you for being awesome, and being the kind of people that I can’t forget about. 

Just when I think, "those fuckers!  I haven’t got an email from anyone!"  Everyone emails me back, and reminds me that they miss me too. 

I hope that when my practice is established, I can have clients all around the country, as an excuse to come and visit everyone.  I also hope that the immense gravity of new york city pulls more and more of you in, if only for long enough for me to drink some tea and chat (perhaps play some push hands?) with yous (or if you prefer, y’all).

Devin

I have settled into my life here a little bit. 

Work is getting easier as I get more familiar with it.  Driving the delivery truck is kind of cool.  Thanks to the magic of cell phones, I can set up sessions and things during my runs.

All in all, things are working out the way I had thought they would after heartwood.   There is a bright future ahead, it will just take work and discipline to manifest.  Me and saturn is tight.

I’m eating well, doing more and more taiji, doing sessions every week, saving lots of money, and generally kicking ass at the game of life.  All of this, and in less than two weeks, the lovely Sarah Herkots (my lady for those who don’t know, does anyone read this anyway?) will be moving back east. 

Yes, yes.  Life is good.

I now spend my days putting up fences. Working outside in the insanity of a new york city heat wave. By far the most sunlight I’ve ever soaked up.
It’s pretty exhausting, but it’s a neccessary segway into the life that I want to have. I want to have a full polarity therapy practice, and be able to do martial arts whenever not in session. So basically, energy cultivation all day everyday. Right now is all about saving up money and waiting for the word to get out, and the clients to role in. I’ve been pretty exhausted this week, but I’m hoping to toughen up a little, and be able to start aikido and do sessions after work.
gotta keep movin.

Still in cali.  Back to new york on saturday.  Being the most lazy I’ve been in a while.  It’s ok though, I’m good at rationalizing.  I’m sleeping 11 hours a night, so that I can be well rested for my new life.  And to have the dreams necessary to integrate the last couple weeks.  Yeah, that’s it.

This place isn’t really fueling my fire right now.  My fire is out at the  moment.  It will be good to be back east again. 

Back in Cali.  Back on the mountaintop-wonderland.  Gotta fill up the hump, so that I can look new york city in the face without flinching.  It’s great being where everyone  and everything is nice, but it can’t last.  In ny  it will be much harder to stay happy, and make something for myself.  There is much more potential though.  There is a lot that can come from living in the same place for a couple years.  Having erased many old negative patterns, I look forward to creating new positve ones.