Life lag

The jet lag is over now. According to Jane Brody, it takes one day for every hour of time difference (east to west) and a day and a half for every hour (west to east). So on Monday, my jet lag was officially over. (Spain is six hours ahead.) But getting back into life, back into writing, looking for work, dealing with two dogs with health issues, and marriage, and the news (it was wonderful to avoid the news - all I heard was about Michelle Obama "hugging" Queen Elizabeth.)

Steve has a cold, Zoe is not too happy we're home and there have been some tense moments. I visited my friend O (along with seven other friends). O is dealing with lymphoma and chemo. Another friend is having a really tough time with major financial burdens. And I am a little annoyed at the unfairness of life.

I took out my introduction to Pema Chodron, "The Wisdom of No Escape" and read the following... "But loving-kindness - maitri - toward ourselves doesn't mean getting rid of anything. Maitri means that we can still be crazy after all these years. We can still be angry after all these years. We can still be timid or jealous or full of feelings of unworthiness. The point is not to try to change ourselves. Meditation practice isn't about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It's about befriending who we are already. The ground of practice is you or me or whoever we are right now, just as we are. That's the ground, that's what we study, that's what we come to know with tremendous curiosity and interest."

By the way, if you're on Facebook, I posted a lot of photos of the trip. I'll try to post some here too, but it may take me a little more time.