[Lent 3] joy sadhana

[hermionesviolin]

When I left morning prayer ~7:20, snow was falling -- though it didn't really amount to anything. (FCS-Ian said a facebook friend said they'd gotten 2 inches in Connecticut.)

***

"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
-mylittleredgirl [more info]
"Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don't give up." --Anne Lamott

Good things about today:

• [redacted, v.2]
  
• lunch with Cate
  
• Greg came by for a luncheon and I hugged him in greeting without really thinking.
  
• Singspiration ... I had anecdotes I was going to share, but I has a tired.
  Edit:
  • On the walk from the train, my mom talked about the various study stuff Pr. Kevin's been doing. She talked about "kataphatic" and "apophatic" ideas of God. UCN will never be my church home, but I'm a little bit jealous. I still can't define those terms and had never even hear of them until a friend's "20 Orthodoxies I actually hold" post.
    
  • Mike F. told me he's been watching the Republican debates so that he can cast an informed vote. I did not cry. I wanted to be like, "Why do you want to vote for a Republican in this race?" (apparently he's a registered Republican while his whole family [of origin, I assume] is Democrat) although I did say at one point that I feel bad for people who really want to vote for a Republican for President as their field of choices is so bad this year. He concurred and mentioned a couple he liked (one still in the running, one no longer) and I kinda regretted that I hadn't been keeping myself more informed (he said because I'm so intelligent he was surprised I hadn't -- I said I valued my mental health and my stomach, and that since I knew I wouldn't be voting for a Republican it was sort of less directly relevant to me) so I couldn't raise specific concerns about them (though I did say at the end of that conversation that my general sense was that none of the Republican candidates want me to have rights).
    (his family's all Democrat while he's a registered Repiblican)
    
  • Don T. and I chatted for a while afterward while he broke down the set-up -- which was nice albeit odd, as I'm not sure I've ever had real conversation with him; he's usually really goofy in a way I find obnoxious after a very short period of time.
    • He hugged me really enthusiastically and I teased him later that he was trying to cop a feel. Apparently he totally wasn't and hadn't realized his right hand was so close to my boob -- I assured him multiple times that I was in no way upset or offended.
      
    • I forget how we got on the topic, but Don was saying he thought the pancreas was one of the 2 useless parts of the body (the appendix being the other one, obv.) and I said I didn't think so but I could be wrong and eventually we looked it up on his phone (I was right), along with gallbladder (which he thought might be what he was thinking of) and appendix (which apparently is maybe less useless than people generally think -- and is also often utilized in reconstructive surgery).
      
    • After we got snacks he was like, "This is the best lemon sugar bread in the world!" and I said I wasn't a big fan of lemon and then I was like, "Okay, I'll have a bite of yours," so I just leaned over and nommed a bite of his -- as he was putting it into his mouth. He was like 0.0 all, "What just happened?" I was like, "I'm kinda underslept -- usually I have better boundaries than this." Partly my response time was slow, hence going for the bread when it was on its way to his mouth, but yeah, apparently I just sometimes don't have boundaries (like nomming on other people's food -- which usually I ask permission prior to doing).
  • I chatted with Scott E. and while I've already almost forgotten about my promotion as a "what's new with you?" item (I think largely because it's been so long in coming) I did remember to mention it, and he remembered that that had been in the works last time we'd chatted.
    
  • I was glad my mom got to talk with Joe F. ("You think you're hiding something and it turns out everyone already knows.")
    
  • Near the end of the evening, Mike F. asked me about my brother (said he'd realized he'd forgotten to ask me earlier in the evening). I was like [shrug] "He's fine." Mike asked, "How long has he been married?" I was like, "Oh, shit -- their anniversary is next month; perhaps I want to send them an anniversary card" -- though really I suspect that Jenny will post somethnig to facebook like, "1 year married to my best friend!" and I'll Like the status.
  /edit

Things I did well today:

• changed my signature to include my new title :)
  
• I think I caught up on workstuff.
  

Things I am looking forward to (doing [better]) tomorrow:
["anything that you're looking forward to, that means you're facing tomorrow with joy, not trepidation," as Ari says]

• sleep
• bff phonecall