Julia, the cat

the bitch was staring at me and she's on my lap so that puts her face like 2 inches away from mine.  and I KNOW she wants to rub her nose against my chin and proceed to rub the rest of her face against my face.  and i'm already breaking out from that mcdonalds two days ago.  and its like her nose is wet and gets my face wet and then she rubs her furry face where her wet nose just was and now I have cat snot and shedding fur around places on my face that i typically prefer to breath out of.

and so this feline looked at me and i had to cough and i didnt turn away and i ended up coughing in her face.

dont feel bad for her. she would have done the saaaammmme exact thing to me. i cant even count on all my digits (toes included) how many times my face has been the receptacle of dog/cat sneeze.

little known fact

i like peeling oranges.

i find it really relaxing to do while watching a movie. there's just something calming about it.

i wish i could peel oranges while reading a book. i think i'd read more if i could.

currently watching: Winter's Bone
which reminds me of mom's side of the family, a lot.
peeled: 2 oranges

I need some glasses.

Chip and I were talking about lasik and how we've heard good things but, on the other hand, we've heard bad things too.

Me: I'll get lasik when I'm 50 years old and have nothing to live for.

Chip: No, you'll get lasik when you're 50 years old and you realize you have nothing to live for.

Ha! I  love Chip.

picture tuesday

There's a few things wrong with this picture. The kitchen color scheme.  There is that guy wearing the sleeveless t-shirt in a not ironic way.  Not to mention the fire hazard of the paper towels sitting on the stove.

Do you see that one cat (kind of closer to the man) staring straight into the camera? 
I can't tell if it's a plea for help or if the cat actually likes being there and is giving us a I know I'm in a sea of fools take over the world look.

never trust a big butt and a smile.

If I met this guy in a foreign country and he was a murderer, I would probably be murdered bc I would trust him.

direction of energy

talking more about the senses....

i don't want to downplay the senses as these five narrow slits our physical body has as tools to observe the world with.  the senses are very important.

but i still think they can be distractions.  and not just distractions from our spiritual self but also distractions from one another.

in yoga one of the yamas is brahmacharya. its strictest form is complete celibacy. i'm not sure of the full scope of brahmacharya but something always stressed seemed to be that yogis didn't want men wasting their male energy through ejaculation.  

that is a little overboard to me but i do think there is a lesson to learn about direction of energy and maybe how you use your time [and perhaps another one on moderation as well, fellas]. [tyson lost a lot of fights when he was whorin it up].

i'm focusing more on direction of energy. if you want to really stress something, you minimize other things.  compare/contrast. creatures of comparison as a coworker puts it. 

if i want to taste something better, i might turn off the tv.

if i need to see better while i'm driving, i turn off the radio. (a lot of people do this when they're lost)

if i want to hear what someone is saying, i shut my mouth and stop thinking of the next thing to say.

if i need to tell someone something, i stop whatever else i'm doing.

if i want to feel, i close my eyes.

manage your body. you only have so much attention to divert.

still learning

I don't talk a lot about teaching yoga or yoga philosophy.  Mainly because I don't know wtf I'm talking about half the time because I have 75% of the beginning of the idea and I don't quite understand the end. Or I have a hard time transitioning from the base to the final result of the thought.

But I am starting to understand how our senses can be distractions.  And how they can mislead us at times even.  You think your eyes and your hands and your ears ARE reality.  And I'm saying they can obfuscate truth.

Take for instance your eyes.  Without getting too much into the science part of it (see also: "mainly because I don't know wtf I'm talking about half the time ...), your brain is presenting something different than what your eyes actually see.
I've read that we "learn" to see just like we learn to walk. Our brains form images based on pattern recognition.  Pattern recognition is why car drivers run over bicyclists or motorcyclists.  We just aren't used to seeing them on the road so when they are on the road . . . we just dont see them.
Also, your eyes can only see about 2 degrees of your view clearly.  The eyes are constantly scanning to send the brain a sharper idea of what's going on.  You get a clear picture of everything from the brain flipping, rotating and putting everything in a nice little package for you.
Just the definition of optical illusions should tell you the eyes can only do so much with reality.  [There's even a theory out there saying our brains are actually "perceiving the future" since there's a 1/10th lag in the eyes seeing and the brain making it into an actual image.]
Even if I'm wrong about the eyes, most people would agree that a large part of what we see is actually our brain's interpretation of eye data.

This is why I hardly write about these things.  I just get all wordy and complicated and it's not very eloquent.

My senses convey my reality but not the reality.  Images ... our visual reality ... is constructed within.

The life lesson for me is that I try not to assume I know everything.  And so I think it's nice to close the eyes sometimes.

Back to yoga ...
At the end of every yoga class, I ask everyone to close their eyes.  From doing this small action, their breath softens and their mind slows down.
I had an aha! moment (See also: Oprah) during yoga when I closed my eyes.  I have always been told I was a spiritual being in church and by mom.  But it was while my eyes were closed where I actually felt the strongest affirmation of a spiritual being stirring inside me.

The eyes remind us of a lot of truths.  But I think they distract us from a few as well.