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.