Becoming an early riser by choice.

"When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love."-  Marcus Aurelius

   When I was a boy my father used to wake me up at 5:00 am and we used to take walks around the city for an hour and meet all kinds of people. While staying in the country with my grandfather he used to wake us up earlier than that, get the horses, saddle them and go to the farm proper until 7:30 am.
  I started a web challenge from the website 99U through an article by Sasha Van Hoven called "Become a morning person" because through the years I learned to stay up late and get up late.
  Even the phrase 'getting up late' suggests a bias against getting up past 8:am or so.
  Because of the #labrat challenge I've been getting up early, close to 6:00 am plus/minus 6 minutes.  Then I post my get up time under the hash tag labrat: #labrat on Twitter.com
  Is so joyful to appreciate a beautiful morning break. To me it is a challenge to be a morning person of course. For so long I have relished going to bed late, there has been a silly badge of honor to say " i stayed up until 3:30 am  reading, studying, coding Python/JS/CSS tutorials like Codecademy and Khan Academy, binge on Anime episodes of "Blade of the Immortal","Xholic", the great BBC dramas "Smiley's War" and "MI5",  or Korean Drama like "Iris" shows to tell the truth. It's a lot of crap mixed with good crap  =]
  Clearly to be a 'Morning Person' is a change in life style. It means a change in priorities. It means simplifying and distilling what is important.
 Staying past 1:00 am will not work as a healthy and balance lifestyle.  This change of priorities appears to conflict with learning to code. Coding feels best after 11:00 pm.
  Finding a harmonic flow of commitments, tasks and chores as joyful life ritual is key. To be completely present in every task without hesitations nor worries requires structure.
  I lived at the Rochester Zen Center for 15 months in our Residential Training  Program. Of all the 'spiritual' work I've done nothing has been more fundamental to living it than the Zen training at the RZC. It gave a level of maturity to my recovery work and gave structure to my personal walk of the Sun Dance Way.
  It is difficult to practice (whatever your spiritual practice may be) without a harmonious structure. At the RZC we have a season challenge called Term Intensive, TI for short, where our Sangha  (Community) participates. This #labrat challenge is also a community challenge, a globally open one. I already see slow but positive changes in my routines.
   I hope that challenges like this one grow in popularity and effectiveness, the potential benefits are enormous.
  How wonderful are those few minutes before the sun breaks it is truly magical time to pray or meditate.  But without complicating it it is good to enjoy such a unique and revitalizing moment, and its free.
  The challenge is well worth the effort and am curious as to how positively this will affect my day, every day.

Sssadness the anvil of joy

What is that sound and from where
where is that voice that answered,
Sadness that cuts steel
yet somehow my soul has forged,
At the expense of everyone stares
the now cold cauldron of ideas i feel

Sadness so dark so old that lingers,
Sadness from feeling to be the last one
who sees what feels,
Yet somehow this forges my joy and wants
at the expense of joining cold winters
The Deep Peace of Snow i see and feel

What is it? that sound of million singers
where is that sadness that forged joy,
Who is that blissful other me?
Yet somehow that long quest was a mere toy
at the expense of Me I joined the drums and singers,
at the expense of structure I joined the silent sitting
The wall and mat refined my heart and listening
The heat from Ancient Ones forged my joy
The piercing at the arbor found The Other Me.

no more where's ...being so far
no more who's ...to find or fend
no more quests
the biginning is the middle and the end
Clearly here and everywhere love is
has been and will be
hearing, seeing, feeling ...knowing "we are"

Time! Time!

"This thing all things devours;
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays kings, ruins town;
And beats high mountains down"- The Hobbit.

Dancing Below a Bright Sun

To dance Below a bright sun…Ahh.

For 5 months I’ve been living in New Jersey
for today the sun is bright and clear we say
the temperature has a chill with its doubts at play
the faint euphoria challenges the habitual fear
because mistakes I left on my rear;
because below the sun is only on earth
ships full of thinking “we can’t” do take berth.
Ships of white clouds travel away
from the blue mountain
into the ocean white sails above the waves
leaving a question, do I have enough brave change…
in me …so what is my life’s direction?  Again
do i need to mention again
doing life changes after 55, moves feel like a Hail Mary pass?
Tunkuxila am grateful for all the gifts received in my past
Tunkuxila I want to dance again,
All is good with the songs in my heart,
Always life settles in it’s chaos form
although things are lost, it makes room for new forms.
Empty is the set of isolated hearts,
emptiness is the rumor heard
while attempting to be smart
while life moves in the highway of chances,
under the bright sun
the dark side of the moon gets equal chance.
The love from a daughter and son
understand their life
Understanding helps but doesn’t live life.
Living what is found under the sun
giving without fear of loss
softly like the green moss
Tunkuxila I want to dance again under the sun.
                                                  ~DharmaSnow.

New Chapter: Life Changes

 Arrived to a new page in a new chapter of my life where geography, coffee, support groups,  people and friends are far away from my home in Rochester New York of nearly 30 years. To assist my daughter in caring daily for her 3 kids while she goes back to school to get a nursing degree. Focus in her studies is no joke.
 The new settings are in the metro area of Philadelphia and clearly my life as I knew has evaporated and reminds me of The Blue Mountain and The White Cloud, do not get me wrong all of this is my joyful conscious choice. Challenges ahead are real and here not just conceptualized issues in need of speculative solutions.
 Spent the last 14 months preparing for this as a resident trainee at the Rochester Zen Center in Rochester, New York. On a separate track Sundance and Inipi have been major factors in preparation fro the move to New Jersey. These two wonderful traditions would not have been possible without help from selfless and  tireless work of the Anonymous fellowship of AA and for that am eternally grateful.
 Now the hope is that some of the positive energy from the mentioned resources will transmit to the education of 3 grandchildren. My daughter Abby is a competent parent and incredible advocate to her children. Her plate is more than full for the next 3 years. One kid with a challenging  handicaps and discipline issues that seem like energy sucking problems, well problem for the grown ups not a problem to this 5 year old, in her eyes all is pretty much well in her life except mommy, she has a problem ...with life, so she appears to think.
 Now if your life radar is 5 miles=years across well it is a concern that can be dealt with some giving in to this wonderful child  however if you shift the range of your radar to 10 years now we are watching the winds of a 15 year old adolescent ....oh my God, not a pretty picture. Sooo we have work to do.
 Seriously my life has changed and my goals have been tweaked, clearly affecting this blog.
 These are exciting times my friends. Looking forward to jump off the cliff with my heart open wide.

 I thank you for reading and is my hope that whatever positive insight and practical trick in parenting and coping with life will be useful to you.

 With love and gratitude, yours truly, RedSerpent.

Full moon of the heart

Ubiquitous More: information, reliability, loyalty, luck ...
yet ...even as this poem feels like it sucks
yet it has ts own life and wants more, audience or quiet
i bet it wants to feel like Alice a need to solve and help
risks rejection to win rewards, a carrot of sorts
unafraid of sticks down the Rabbit-Hole ...SO

Why does that feeling lingers with the Beast of unrest?

why does my soul's script blames as a front to deny what I crave,

this relentless and prestigious need for just a little more

leaving me to quietly abandon my ideals and mores

leaving me discontent with what i have and adore

soon neglecting those fancy goals once raved

ubiquitous endless discovery for better and clearly not best

The word content does not resemble peace

at first

the sounds of all quiet do not assemble harmony

in the least

feelings of having nothing to do won't scream completion

so where is the feast?

addicted to festivities was the disease that shunned simplicity

more was the sword of that beast

In accepting the quietness of mind

clearly i now see the abundance I've been given

so many to tend with love and grace, they're my kind

clearly seeing through stories a place to live, not make... life

Clearly, what is there to linger all that flows is unscripted Life

the moonlight of peace
falls on a stream without being driven to guide it to sea
the awareness of Mind
falls on the streams of events without need fix what it sees

Wonderful Moonlight of the Peaceful Heart

New Year comes ...really?

Tired of promises from Fortunes tellers ploys
Remember the days when happy was
to enjoy the harvest of our toil
calmly watching the wind blowing the tall grass

So what changed for you and me my friend?
tired of speculations about the end?
We can simply hear the winds call
whether our harvest be wheat, hay or what it was?
a paycheck for 10 years toil

But our power is not based on a date to begin
nor our happiness wanes at the threat of the year's end
choice ah, yes choose to wear festive ribbons in your heart
choose to do your best gladly in whatever is your task

No secrets to align with the moon and the stars
no handshakes to uphold honor and prejudice
the wind blows our flag's bars
we're all here to chose freely ... is simply this.