Focus on Health

Went to the doctor a couple weeks ago, got some blood tests. Doc called me in and said I need to take some meds to reduce my bad (LDL) cholesterol. I saw a program on NPR about cholesterol. It was presented very clearly, and I finally understood what it is and why you don't know you have a problem almost until it is too late. Anyway, either meds or exercise will fix me up. I am hoping for that anyway. I am in the process of changing my job, that is, within the same company moving to a different assignment. Instead of spending 75% of my time sitting in a chair I have started working at UNC, where I spend a lot of time walking, outside in the fresh air from building to building, on campus where there is less mental stress.

My wife has agreed to a vacation in Russia with me next Spring, finally! Yay! So I am now gearing up. Unfortunately, after listening to some internet Russian TV, I understand that my Russian needs some brushing up. Maybe I can get some help via Skype. Hmmm. So the physical exercise will definitely be a plus in this endeavor as well as helping my health.

I bought a guitar. Finally. After thinking about it for 4 months and vascillating (I already have one, says my rational brain) I forked over 800 large and have been spending a lot of time with it. I don't know where all the music comes from, but tunes just seem to work their way out of the sound hole. No words yet, though, although I have been trying to come up with some that could work into a DUP dance. Between drum and guitar, Russian, Sufi lessons and practices, jeez, no wonder I don't find myself with much free time. But I do spend too much time on my favorite discussion board, efl.ru. So now I have blogged a bit and it's time to get to the guitar.

I have been spending my afternoons at UNC, configuring workstations for a new domain. So I get home about half an hour earlier than usual. I have enjoyed working there, at Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, amidst the research and young crowd. The people there are less staid that what I am used to, and it is uplifting to see so many working to better humanity rather than just making money.

I came home today and went for a ten-minute walk before coming in. I started a fire in the fireplace, thinking that we might not be having many more days when a fire would be appropriate. It has been a warm winter so far, with just one snowfall of 1-2cm, which melted by the next day. It's nearly 9pm, and there are just glowing logs left in there. I like to watch the fire and listen to its crackling.

I am still having trouble with my morning practice. I don't get up early enough to work in all the different practices. Then, when I get home, I don't feel up to it anymore. Not sure what to do. I think I will eventually work out a solution, but so far I am a little down about it. This morning I played my tar for a while. I wish I had time to do it more, too. Nothing like a little prayer and drumming to start the day!

Oops, I did it again! Yes, a couple of years ago a Picasso/Matisse exhibition came to the Triangle and I procrastinated so long that I ended up having to go into the show somewhere around 5a.m. (they held the museum open 24 hours for the final week). Such crowds that they were issuing entrance tickets for hourly intervals. Well, you guessed it. This time it's only one guy, Monet. And the place is so crowded that they are doing it again. And I have two tickets to get into the show at 5:30a.m. Sunday morning. I heard on the radio that 200 thousand people visited the Picasso show. I remember going to a Rodin show at the Art Institute in Chicago under similar circumstances, I mean not the a.m. entrance but large crowds of people viewing the work. I saw the Rodin in the evening.

Made a big change in morning practice. Starting with the second Wali Ali class, the breath class. I am having a hard time adjusting. Getting up at 6:10 and then doing Qi Gung for a while and then the wazifa and breath practices crowds me up against 7:30 when I have to leave for work. I see progress, though. I think I will split the practice to include some in the evening, otherwise I can't get it done. I have always been a late-night person, and it is difficult to go to bed before 11. I like to wake up at 7, not 6, but there is no way to do this now.

Charleston!

I had never been to Charleston, although have driven past the I-95 turnoff a dozen times on my way to Florida. Well, during the week between Christmas and New Year's I went there. My wife and I joined up with some friends to explore.

Stayed at a normal motel, even after asking the desk manager for a nonsmoking room, guess what we got. It was so overpowered with other smelly odors (supposed to be good smells, but not for me) that we did not identify the smoke until the second day, by then it did not seem worth the hassle to move our stuff to another room - but it would have been worth it had I known that we would come in to the same smoke smell every time. It never got less noticeable.

All the same, walking around was great. Charleston is full of 18th and 19th century houses -- and mansions. I have never seen so many majestic homes in one location. And it seemed that nearly every one had a fence or wall around its own garden, and many of those had fountains. Walking at night you could hear the splashing of water everywhere.

There are several old plantations outside town that you can tour. Everything costs money, though. We went to the Magnolia Plantation, which was a very pretty and open place. The main house was not as grandiose as some of those we had already seen, but the land was wonderful. We walked out on dikes surrounding what used to be rice fields. Saw some alligators, and lots of birds. I got some photos of a red-shouldered hawk sitting on a branch about 15 feet away, and then we watched as he dove into the swamp and came up with some kind of lizard, which he took off to some other tree to eat.

We also went to the Audubon's Beidler Forest, or at least the swamp part of it. There is a 1.5 mile boardwalk loop through the swamp. Like the plantation, lots of cypress and tupelos. Lots of birds too. Saw a 1000-year-old tree, and the guide said there is one 1500 years old in that swamp, but we missed it.

Perfect weather, in the 60s, clear or partly cloudy. It did not rain until the evening before we were to leave. I have definitely had my fill of fish and shrimp though.

Came home on NY Eve day and went to the DUP NYE dance, where I drummed. Fun!

December

Time flies! The only way I can imagine keeping a blog is to manage to write a little bit or a lot in it every couple of days. Otherwise, as has happened to me in this one, events whiz past and vanish into the dust.

So for December. Probably the biggest positive thing is that my daughter has finally graduated college, Theater Department - Technical Production. Cum laude. She may be the first one in my and my wife's entire families to graduate with that distinction. I had barely gotten my GPA above B when I graduated from Northwestern. We went to the graduation exercises. I felt really warm there looking at all the new students (over a thousand, and that's a December ceremony!) and a little teary happiness thinking about the wide-open future that lies ahead for them. I wish each and every one of them health, happiness, and prosperity in life, wherever it takes them. Then we took her out to lunch to celebrate.

Last week my wife and I went to the neurosciences hospital to meet up with a group of folks who were going to sing Christmas carols to the patients in the psych wards, from little children on up. I really enjoyed being part of a group like that and seeing the pleasure on some of the patients' faces. Next time I'll bring my drum or guitar. There were two guitarists, and they handed out various bells, little tambourines etc. for others to play. I think a nice, deep-voiced frame drum would fit in well there. It was a moving experience for me.

Then there was the optometrist. I had to go because my glasses are getting way out of spec. Nothing that $400-500 won't fix. I paid extra for a new exam that photographed the inside of your eye. They found my "floaters", of which I have only a couple, but also some larger mass behind the retina. I have to go back in 3 months to find out what kind of a tumor it is. Very strange feeling to know this yet not know. I can't feel unhappy, or scared because the official diagnosis hasn't come down yet.

Betty Lou, Ellie, and I went to Greensboro to see a world premier Christmas play at the Triad Stage. The play is Beautiful Star, a play within a play about stories in the Bible, culminating in the Nativity. She did not work on this production. I wonder, I don't think it's about this time of year, but I seem to be more open to the spiritual aspects of things that happen. I guess that I was not ready for this opening earlier in my life, but boy! I sure wish I had been.

We are going away for a few days, down to Charleston SC. What will I find there?

Overtime

On Thursday I went to the twice-monthly meeting for mureeds. We listened to some reading on HIK's take on funerals (burying better than cremation because the body goes back to the earth, where it came from) and did some dances. Someone brought a 1000-bead tasbih and we all did 1000 wazifas. Then Friday was the zikr, which was attended by Tasnim, who has come from California. I felt her energy there, and caught some of my own. But so often I catch myself thinking that I am not like the others in that I don't feel the strong stuff that they do. Like ferinstance for over a month I have been trying to focus on that black spot to release the ego, but the internal monolog continues and the spot does not come.

I also drummed for Lhari as he sang the ilahis (Turkish call-and-response songs, I think). I like music and have been enjoying playing my tars very much, although lately have been thinking I should maybe find a guide. As if I have progressed so far and now find myself stuck at some invisible boundary. But that brings me back to the topic of time shortage.

Betty Lou and I are going to the beach this weekend, and we'll stay on Emerald Isle, at Trinity Center, which is where we went for the Sufi retreat with Saadi in August. I am looking forward to getting away from the everyday routine. Will definitely take a drum or two, and maybe my guitar as well.