This page contains longer, titled posts that I have made to my blog, so as to more easily separate them from other posts that I make here. If you would like to subscribe to the feed for this page, point your RSS reader here.
Friday, August 13, 2021
Rain during the night, sun during the day. That’s a good combination, ensuring that the ground gets watered and we have a warm, bright day. And then there are times when I just enjoy it being overcast for a day. There is plenty of sun here in Hawai’i, for which I am grateful, but I also enjoy hunkering down on a wet day.
Tuesday, August 10, 2021
On both days of Micro Camp, before the presentations start, I will be leading a short meditation to help you quieten your mind and prepare for the day ahead. Just show up 15 minutes before the program for the days start. No experience is necessary to join the meditation. I have kept the instruction to a minimum in order to maximize the time that we have for meditation, so if you do come away with any questions, please contact me.
Wednesday, August 4, 2021
My five year old grandson was listening to family members instruct Siri to play this song or that song on our HomePod Mini. So in his five year old English he piped up with, “Hey Siri, play the Poop Song.” Siri understood him and while I expected her to say that she couldn’t find such a song, it turns out that there is a Poop Song on Apple Music, and so she obliged with playing it!
Tuesday, August 3, 2021
Sitting alone at night, silence, small light on in the corner, stillness, dark outside, alone with a book, my thoughts, writing. Walking across the crater floor of Haleakala. Bare, cinder cones, dried lava. The birth place of Maui. Sitting chanting Puja in the Shrine Room of Lam Rim Buddhist Centre. Pre-dawn, faint light in the sky, bird song slowly starting, a day awakening. Sitting around a fire, dinner finished, feeding wood to the glowing embers, wood smoke infusing our clothes.
Sunday, August 1, 2021
The trade winds having being blowing very strong over the last couple of days, and an evening stroll along Baldwin Beach was a real challenge yesterday evening. Sand blasted there and back. Winded on the way back. This guy seemed unperturbed by the weather, dozing soundly on the shoreline. 📍 Baldwin Beach Park, Paia
Wednesday, July 28, 2021
I watched Disney’s The Jungle Book with my grandsons last night. It is a real favourite of mine. I don’t know how many times I have seen the movie, going back to when I was a kid? I also used to own a 33⅓ record of the soundtrack that came packed in a colourful booklet. The record came out around the time of the film, 1967, and I remember its weight - heavy.
Tuesday, July 13, 2021
I spent a few hours this morning, under baking hot sun, putting this tent up for my grandson. Now it’s up, the tent’s construction looks quite simple. However, it was heavy and had very poor instructions. I ended up resorting to YouTube for a clearer understanding of the what and how it went together. I have now handed over to grandma to furnish the inside.
Wednesday, June 23, 2021
When I read this this essay by Nancy Kline of Time to Think I thought, ”YES!” I’ll go further - I felt, “YES!” Kline speaks, not mincing her words, of how interruption is an assault. In the first paragraph of the essay she says as much, Interruption is assault. She goes on to say, There is violence in it. Interruption is a slice made into the guts of an as yet unfinished idea.
Monday, June 21, 2021
I was recently interview by Jas Hothi, @jasraj on Micro.blog, for Episode 61 of the INFClub podcast. We had a great conversation, along with plenty of laughter, covering topics such as travel, buddhism, writing, men and high sensitivity. Thank you to Jas for inviting me to join him on the podcast. The show notes and links to the podcast, audio and video, can be found here.
Sunday, April 25, 2021
I like this short definition of ’pilgrimage’ taken from The British Pilgrimage Trust website, Pilgrimage (n.): A journey with purpose on foot to holy/wholesome/special places. Of pilgrimage, the site goes on to say, To turn a walk into a pilgrimage, at the beginning set your private ‘intention’ – dedicate your journey to something that you want help with, or for which you want to give thanks.
Tuesday, March 30, 2021
There’s pattern which repeats itself pretty much each time I find myself home alone for a few days - which with the presence of the COVID pandemic is not that often right now. It goes something like this, I drop my wife off at the airport - living on an island, that is usually the start of the home alone period. On the way home I run a few errands, pick up groceries, and perhaps go for a walk.
Monday, March 29, 2021
The different islands Hawai’ian islands all have their own vibe. Lana’i was relaxed, quiet, and restful. I was going to say pristine as well, except it used to be covered in pineapple fields. It is now 98% owned by Larry Ellison who has put a lot of money into Lana’i. This includes upgrading facilities for the 3,000 residents who live there, and working on establishing sustainable agricultural on island in the next five years.
Thursday, March 25, 2021
The Georgia law is eye-popping, but it is only one of more than 250 measures in 43 states designed to keep Republicans in power no matter what voters want. I keep reading this paragraph from today’s Letter from an American by Heather Cox Richardson, and just wonder how a people can consciously and with purpose choose to block their fellow citizens from voting?
Thursday, February 18, 2021
I find myself sitting in my car on our driveway. It is overcast and there is steady stream of rain falling. The weather looks set in for the day, and likely tomorrow as well. I feel at ease, comfortable, safe. This weather takes me back to weather in Britain that I grew up with. At times it might be weather that the British poke fun at, or complain about. Or it might be weather that visitors tease the country for.
Saturday, January 23, 2021
A short, inspiring video on the power of quiet leadership. The power of quiet leadership - BBC Ideas
Monday, January 18, 2021
Since HBO started their HBO Max service, I have slowly been filling in the Studio Ghibli movies that I have not seen. I recently watched Kiki's Delivery Service and noticed that the map that Kiki used was of Maui, or at least had the names of towns and places on Maui. So even though the movie is set in a European looking town, there is a South Pacific slant!
Friday, January 15, 2021
Posting from iA Writer. It has been a while since I posted directly from here, so I decided just to test how it works. I forgot how it automatically inserted a title.
Sunday, January 10, 2021
It was early April 2017. I was sitting in an Airbnb in Portland, OR. My wife and I had returned to the city that had been our home for eight years, to sort out a storage room of our belongings, to decide what was going with us back to Maui and what we were going to sell. I had decided to start a podcast to help people start and build a meditation practice.
Tuesday, January 5, 2021
On January 1st, with a new month here, never mind a new year, I worked through my December todos, seeing what was undone and bringing those items forward to January. This is not my Bullet Journal, rather it is a hybrid system that I have been cobbling together from a number of different systems. It has taken me a while to get here, but I am feeling more comfortable than I have done for a long while in managing my life and for that I am grateful.
Wednesday, December 9, 2020
I’m exploring moving my videos, which to date are all concerned with meditation, from YouTube to Vimeo. I am on a trial account with Vimeo for a month and have started uploading my videos to the platform. This will take a couple of weeks because the Vimeo plan that I am on has a weekly upload limit. So why move? YouTube is free, and I believe it has greater visibility than Vimeo.
Friday, December 4, 2020
I started writing this earlier in the year while spending a weekend in Hana, on the far east coast of Maui. My wife and I, and a couple of COVID free trusted friends rented a house. I arrived feeling nauseous after navigating the twists and turns of the Hana Highway, and so stayed behind to rest while everyone else went for a walk. I sit watching a bug crawling across the top of the wooden balcony railing.
Saturday, November 7, 2020
In this little corner of Hawai’i the wet weather has been slow in coming. While the seasonal changes are not as noticeable as in the far northern hemisphere, there is a subtle, perceptible change in the atmosphere - the light, the sensed feeling of the days. Autumn arrived a few weeks ago . . . in part. The part that was missing was the wet weather, the rain. Days have been hot, the sun piercing in its strength.
Wednesday, November 4, 2020
In my attempt to read more, I have put a book in the glove compartment of my car. I am not the fastest of readers, and find that I do not have a lot of time to read - perhaps a few pages before turning off the light at night. Other opportunities are grabbed here and there…and that was the motivation for the book in the glove compartment idea. No, I do not intend to read and drive.
Tuesday, October 6, 2020
Last night felt like a night of the stars, the celestial type. As my wife and I walked home from my step-daughter’s house, the Milky Way arched across the sky above us. Looking outside now at the sun and blue sky, it’s hard to believe what is around and above us all of the time - the lights just need to be dimmed. Last night the moon rose late. Light pollution where I live is very low and the sprinkles of the Milky Way were clear and obvious, as was the surrounding star scape.
Tuesday, September 29, 2020
Here is a promotional video of the 2nd High Sensitive Men’s seminar taking place over Zoom on December 5th. See my previous post for more details and where to purchase tickets.
Monday, September 21, 2020
Towards the end of the second week of December, the 2nd Highly Sensitive Men’s seminar will be held. I am not an organizer of this event, but plan to attend. The first such seminar, A Weekend for Highly Sensitive Men, was in person in California and held just before the pandemic. Due to COVID-19, this seminar will be online (see Details below). Why am I attending? First and foremost to be in the presence of men with the same or similar personality type to myself.
Tuesday, September 15, 2020
Last weekend was one of unplugging and heading to the beautiful community of Hana on the eastarn edge of Maui. So isolated is the community, that at the height of the recent pandemic lockdown there was a road block established to prevent all but local residents from traveling out there, thus protecting their vulnerability. Along with my wife and a few friends, we spent the day at Hamoa Beach, enjoying its crystal clear waters.
Friday, July 31, 2020
This is a strong image for me, an image from the past, A remembrance - sitting in my bedroom window at Tandderwen. Late at night, silence, quiet, looking out over the world. Tandderwen was the name of my house when I lived in South Wales. It is not unusual for houses in Britain to have names rather than numbers. Tandderwen is Welsh for Under the Oak. I don’t speak Welsh, but when the house was nearing completion and I was pondering what to name the new property, a friend lent me a book of Welsh words (along with their English meanings).
Wednesday, July 22, 2020
There are times when I find myself loosing focus on what I am doing and I start looking for distractions. Not unlikely it is because I am coming up against something that I don’t enjoy doing or find difficult. When I hit those situations, I am trying to train myself to get to paper & pen to gather my thoughts and find a way forward.
Monday, July 6, 2020
📚 I love coming across phrases in books that just jump out at me. One the books that I have on the go right now is Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto. I loved the imagery that Yoshimoto conjured up in this passage, Until only recently, the light that bathed the now - empty apartment had contained the smells of our life there. Oh, the treasure of books.