Since my sister was diagnosed with cancer, I did not spend much time updating my blogs. It, of course, was just way out of my focus. All throughout her sickness, I questioned my role in life, and had to reorient myself to the universe at large. I've always been a big believer in meditative practices. Before she got sick, and my boyfriend was out of town, I used to come home every day and read my bible and meditate for about an hour just to relieve the stress of the day and bring my mind back to a true center for focus. Lately, I've been trying a slightly more organized form of meditation, while reading about techniques to improve mindfulness. Thus, my spare-time reading has been mostly philosophical. I've also just begun my first semester as a grad student!
As a way of connecting more fully to the "ordinary" things that surround my life each day, I've started a new blogging project called "My Journal in Pictures". It is a daily blog journal, mainly consisting of a few pictures of things that stood out to me during my day, and a few sentences to recap the highlights of my day. It's all about seeing magic in the ordinary. Right now, the text I'm reading on meditation is called "Beginning Mindfulness" by Andrew Weiss. So far it is a really great, no-nonsense introduction to zen-style meditation and daily mindfulness practice.
