7.13.2009

New Routine

I am a person of habit. “Discipline” is a more defining word for how I live, but using the word discipline would just not be true. Content in my habits…content in my daily practice; that’s true, that’s me.

Up and out of bed at 6:10 am; shower, yoga, guitar or meditation, coffee and then out the door… that is my morning. Next I sit in front of a computer for a couple of hours (drinking way too much coffee) and then I go to lunch. Lunchtime is when I like to read. For at least the last ten plus years I have quietly read a book at lunch. I love my lunchtime reading habit. Two weeks ago I stopped reading and went for an afternoon walk in the woods. It was nice.

I like the woods, I like walking, but I really, really like my lunchtime reading. After two weeks of not reading and two of walking in the woods I feel great! I do not want to stop. I am content with this new habit.


I wear my 5 finger shoes and can feel muscles developing throughout my body. My posture is better, my breathing is lighter, my skin feels cleaner. I like the fresh air, I love the smell of the woods and I love the reprieve of not looking intently at a screen or a page.

I miss my books.

The quandary is that I want them equally, the woods and the books, the fresh air and the knowledge from the page. What to do?

My life is divided up into live-able hours. If I want to live I have to be able to work.

Listed are workable solutions for people that are disciplined, which I am not. I could get up at 5am and start my day, which would give me the extra hour in the morning to read. Again--need self discipline to do this. I could listen to audio books while I walk in the woods. I won’t…because, one, I hate any and all types of multitasking. Two, the sounds of nature are wonderful. Three, I am afraid of bears, and four, I can never pay attention to audio books. I get lost trying to imagine what the narrator looks like.

Can anyone get me in contact with Oprah? I bet she could solve my predicament.