His Holiness the Dalai Lama's message for Tibetan New Year
His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s message for Tibetan New Year (Losar) - Water Tiger, 2149.
Another migraine. I have been suffering with them for over forty years, though their frequency and severity have varied greatly in that time. I have never found out what has caused them or a cure to rid myself of them. I can sometimes lessen the pain by drinking copious amounts of black coffee as the initial eye aura starts. However the efficacy of that remedy has not been reliable for me, and it is not a method that I want to rely on anyway.
No, when they arrive unexpectedly (as they always are), I just have to ride with whatever that particular migraine presents to me. Some are a mild thump in the background of my head allowing me a degree of functionality. Others floor me for three days, and I just have to wave a white flag, giving in to the severity of the pain and nausea, lying in a quiet and darkened room allowing the migraine to do its thing.
For migraines from my experience are not just headaches, but a physiological experience played out upon my body. Most prominently they are characterized by a severe, traumatic pounding in my head (unlike more regular headaches), but that is accompanied by nausea, disorientation and sense that my insides are going through the wringer in some way.
I’ll see tomorrow, after some sleep, what this one has in store for me.
First Micro.blog hosted newsletter
My first letter to accompany my first Micro.blog newsletter. Welcome to my first newsletter hosted on Micro.blog. This newsletter contains the long form writings that I made through the month of February 2022. There were ’x’ such posts. Unsure at the moment how to fold the posts so that this email is not so long, I thought that this index of the posts might make it a little easier to navigate the newsletter.
I wish that I could fast forward to six months to a year from now, to a time when all that I am dealing with today is behind me and resolved in whatever way it is resolved - while realizing that I might not like the outcome. In fact it is one way I deal with difficulties in life, telling myself that this too shall end. That a time will come when this is behind me.
For now I am just trying to breathe and feel my feet on the ground.
There was a lot of trial and error in solving this one. I wasn’t even sure if the final answer was a recognized word or just slang?
Wordle 250 6/6
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This morning’s new arrival, an iPhone 13 Mini (PRODUCT)RED. This will be my first new phone for 5½ years. I’ll be saying goodbye to my trusted iPhone 7 Plus. The battery on the 7 is not holding its charge as well, and the charging cable is not connecting reliably to the phone. In getting a new phone, I decided that I wanted to go with a physically smaller device, and so the Mini.
Belfast
Minimal spoilers here. Less than you would get in a theatrical preview. We watched the movie Belfast a few weeks or so ago. My appreciation of the movie has increased since then. I thought that it was beautifully filmed in black and white with a wonderful performance from all the cast. A special shout out though goes to the young Jude Hill who carried most of the film on his young shoulders.
I spent a lot of time today going through files and paperwork, ripping up and throwing away what I no longer need. I don’t know if I feel lighter for having done so, but I do have a sense of staring down and getting a job done that I have been looking at for too long. For that I feel much better and clearer. It has also given me a resolve to make time to do more clearing out. Hopefully that will stick.
Well yesterday’s concern over spending an afternoon and evening with the grandchildren was completely unfounded. They couldn’t have been better behaved, even while having a long wait for a table and dinner at a local café that they like. Their mom couldn’t believe what we reported back on our time together. Well done kids!
Currently reading: Reconciliation by Thich Nhat Hanh 📚
Finished reading: The Bells of Old Tokyo by Anna Sherman 📚
We’ll be (my wife and I) looking after the grandchildren this afternoon and evening while their parents head off to a friend’s wedding. I believe common expectations says that I should be looking forward to this time with the youngsters. Instead my mind is gasping for air already. I’m just tired and was looking forward to a quieter day.
Earthy smells of mushroom dashi and Japanese curry roux fill the kitchen.
I wrote this on Monday evening but was then distracted and did not have time to finish my writing. I was cooking dinner for Valentines Day, a Japanese curry ramen. According to the cookery book Vegan Japaneasy this is not a traditional Japanese dish. I have enjoyed cooking recipes from this book, and while I don’t normally reach for cookery books, this one repeatedly calls me back and, even if I say so myself, I have had good amount of success in what I have created.
I enjoy making the bases that make up many of the dishes. In this case the mushroom dashi and the curry roux. Monday evening’s dish meant mixing the two bases and the result was richer than I expected. I was also not successful in getting all of the roux to dissolve into the dashi, (note to self, less roux next time). However, overall I found the resulting curry taste was just right. An exciting mixture of textures and tastes.
Here’s a photo of the finished dish.
Currently reading: The Bells of Old Tokyo by Anna Sherman 📚
I’ve noticed this before. I have had a headache building all afternoon. In the last half hour big dark rain clouds have been building in the east and the wind has significantly picked up. A big storm builds, headache increases. The storm breaks, the pressure in my head releases.
The Kindness of Strangers
Sitting on the beach this afternoon an incident popped into my mind from over three decades ago. Why I thought of this I don’t know, but here is what happened. I was in Australia. I spent a year traveling around the country, mainly hitchhiking. I was somewhere south of Sidney, heading south. It was a baking hot day and I had just had my hair cut. Why is that relevant you might ask?
Driving home from town, the highway (rather a grand identification for an ordinary road) curves round the coast. The afternoon is beautifully clear and the ocean has barely a ripple on it.
Out of the corner of my eye I catch a big splash out to sea, and quickly find a place to pull over. It’s whale season.
For the next ten minutes I sat and watched as a whale or two (it was hard to tell) played around, occasionally jumping, but appearing mostly to be hitting its fluke against the water.
A wonderful gift on a beautiful Friday evening.
That was some work. What I find interesting for myself is that words that look obvious once they are written in front of me, I cannot see initially.
Wordle 236 6/6
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I love the smell of freshly picked lemons, and am grateful that I have them growing in my back yard.
Well my usual starting word, DREAM was a good choice this morning.
Wordle 234 2/6.
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