Nothing in particular in These titles mean nothing.

  • March 31, 2018, 1:05 a.m.
  • |
  • Public

Six thirty pm on Good Friday. Sun is shining in my western windows. It’s cold. There is a fire going. I’m sucking on a starburst mint. Hans is on the floor. Gracie and Jim are getting ready to go out and do something.

Heard from the kids, they are going straight home from Colorado and will meet up with Hans sometime between here and home. So that means I get to continue pretty much doing nothing as I have been doing nothing. And that I’m sorry and happy to say is pretty much how it stands.

I came across a poster-y thing - a meme? of the Agreements - I assume the same as the Toltec Agreements that my writing teacher gave us a few years ago. There are four of them and they are common sense. Not necessarily easy but not complicated. I used to have them memorized.

The first is : Be impeccable with your word.

The second is : Do not take anything personally.

The third is : Don’t make assumptions.

The fourth is : Always do your best.

When you read about them there is text that goes with them explaining what they mean, how you apply them to your life, etc. Here is a web site for them.

http://www.toltecspirit.com/

I’m sure there are many more. I bet wiki has a good article about them that gives source info. I am in love with wiki. We have a good relationship. They live up to the Agreements pretty well themselves.

The meme I came across about them defined ‘impeccable with your word’ as being positive about your own self. Not putting your worst face forward. You know. That always touches me. I do not believe in bragging. I do believe in being as sensitive to others as is realistically possible. I do it and I don’t do it. I could use more impeccability. Yup. I’m sure.

My son has a friend who is a good guy, successful, busy, etc. Jim said he realized part of this guys advantage in life is that he doesn’t take things personally. He moves on. I suppose it relates to holding grudges and also holding guilts. Move on. Life has more to offer than misery.

I’m sure we like to think we are smart and that we can figure out what’s best for ourselves and others. We want to be quick on the trigger and first with new information. We want to know and not question. What’s the point in learning anyway? Listening is hard too, almost pointless, except of course it isn’t.

Doing our best. Oh my. I guess I have nothing to say about that. There are times when I do my best. Maybe. The same times I’m impeccable with my word and the times I don’t take things personally and when I don’t assume..... that such a thing is true when it might be, when it might not be.

The sun is lower now. I see my head in silhouette against the open cupboard door. There is silence so I hear the buzz in my head.

I bought a pre-cooked ham and we had slices for lunch, hot and in sandwiches. We have a lot of popcorn. Enough pop. And cookies. Yeah, cookies. I’m in a stage of eating everything.

Last night we went to T-Bocks the sports bar in college down. It was baseball’s opening day and there was a lot of baseball on their tvs. The Dodgers were on the one I saw best. Our waitress looked like Hope Hicks and I told her so. Told her if she could handle the White House she could handle T-Bocks. First she brought me a piece of cheesecake - T-Bocks might have the best home made cheese cake of any sports bar, and then a cup of chili with cheese and onions and sour cream.

I found a New Yorker (with the 4.5 day beard) article about the diarist Joe Gould. And I found a reference to Julian Barnes’ The Sense of an Ending, being used as text for a course on biography at Harvard. Small world? Indeed. That was the book I read right after Claire Messud’s A Girl on Fire, and of course loved them both.

So I guess this is all. Another quiet day in the world I live in. Hoping good things for you and yours. Come back and tell me how things went.


thesunnyabyss March 31, 2018

the four agreements are always interesting discussions, I myself have a hard time with not taking things personally, something I've been working very hard on and somewhat succeeding, somewhat, lol

enjoy your weekend!!!

Beret March 31, 2018

I love this entry! Many things one could contemplate. Could? Or should?

Just Annie March 31, 2018

I had a boss whose favorite saying was "When you assume you make an ass out of you and me." Funny-sad thing was that he made assumptions all the time. Department meetings were really just about proving his assumptions wrong. (I enjoyed those because I was the Circulation Department Accountant at the time and I had real numbers to make my point.)

I'm a world-class grudge holder, but I'm working on that. A little.

woman in the moon Just Annie ⋅ March 31, 2018

I had the same boss - without the meetings.

Say do your girls (and you) read Jon Muth's books about Zen? Newest one is Zen Socks. Another one is Zen Shorts and I forget the others. Nice stories with 'lessons' and great illustrations.

Just Annie woman in the moon ⋅ April 02, 2018

I've never heard of that series, but I'll investigate it. Bop Bop considers himself a student of Zen. These books might be perfect for him to read to them.

Serin April 04, 2018

I think it's a profound skill to be able to move on with live without holding on to past incidents anymore than is useful to you. It's something I try to get better at.

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