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The air is crisp and nights are cold, but days are sunny and warm. Squash and apples are being harvested--I'm baking lots of cinnamon-flavored desserts. There's also a locally grown and milled whole wheat flour available, so I want to try making my own bread. I'm a bit lazy for the yeasted bread, so I'm trying quick breads--either sweet with fruit (like banana, or currents) and spiced, or savory with herbs.

My breath-watching meditation is going well. I was just thinking that it didn't seem to be doing anything, and that maybe it was a waste of time. Just my mind playing games, I realize when I step back. Before my meditation was too strong, and now that I don't see instant results I think I am wasting my time? So silly. Looking objectively, I have to say I am really happy with it. I just need to stop being lazy, meditating laying down. I am a lot more undisciplined mentally during meditation if I am laying down instead of sitting up.

There is an alternatives library here. It is really neat; it has magazines, CDs, DVDs, and lots of different kinds of books. I checked out a few Buddhist magazines. They are interesting but it just doesn't attract me the way yoga does. I really like Jack Kornfield though, a Buddhist clinical psychologist who has done a lot to bring mindfulness meditation into the mainstream in the past few decades. I really admire that-- in the beginning it was rather a rather radical act, and now it is something doctors will recommend in conjunction with other therapies (possibly medication and conventional therapy). Some feel that it loses something when it is brought into the secular realm, but I think making it accessible does far more in this case.

A quote from him: I don't think there is dharma practice on the one hand and psychology on the other. I believe that sets up a false dichotomy.

I agree.