A few more words on being and doing

Sometimes, I think I am the world's laziest blogger. Or maybe I'm the smartest; I'm trying to reserve most of my writing for occasions I'll get paid for it. But no one's going to pay me for this list of what I've done so far today, in no special order, so here goes:


I woke up, made coffee, and read another chunk of yesterday's extensive New York Times article on one woman's voyage with dementia. Later, I sent a few emails and did a bit of research for an article I'm writing on a similar topic.


While making and eating some oatmeal, I listened to sports talk radio to get some perspective on the Mariners' season so far. (I have a part-time job at the ballpark now, but with the team on the road this week, I have even less scheduled time than usual.)

I took a walk. My first stop was my neighborhood city park, where I like to play something that looks and sounds like this, installed in the newly renovated playground last year. My tax dollars at work! I love it.

After that, I continued on down the residential street and saw a half-dozen other folks out enjoying a mid-day walk in the sun, many with their doggies. I made my way to our neighborhood's small commercial district, where I stopped at the library to pick up a book on hold; at the thrift store, in search of something I want for my Wellspring art project; then passed through the leafy grounds of Lake City Court, a green public housing project I love to traverse whenever I get a chance.

I got home and brewed some ice tea, and noticed one of my favorite phrases (and one germane to this topic) on one of the tea bags, so I took a photo and 
made an Instagram post about it.

Then I wrote this post. 
Next, I am going to have a late lunch ... or perhaps it is an early dinner ... read some more ... and listen to the ballgame while I putter around the house a bit.


Last week, I met with my Wellspring spiritual companion. She mentioned my last real blog post of more than a month ago -- I told you I've been a lazy blogger! -- and how she especially liked the part about the shift from doing mode to being mode. I agreed and said that very idea has been ringing in my ears ever since, too. To recap author David Levy distilling the words of psychologists Zindel Segal, Mark Williams, and John Teasdale:


Being mode "is characterized by a sense of freedom, freshness, and unfolding of experience in new ways. It is responsive to the richness and complexity of the unique patterns that each moment presents." In doing mode, on the other hand, "the multidimensional nature of experience is reduced primarily to a unidimensional analysis of its standing in relation to a goal state."


It's been two months since I left the professional-grind track. Being mode is how I am these days. I'm getting stuff done, but my random acts of productivity seem much more incidental than central to my existence.


Some days, this way of life still feels weird. Other days, especially on a summer-vacationy-day like today, it feels like one glorious Calvin and Hobbes cartoon. It's sure as heck a more healthy way than I've lived much of my adult life. I'm eager to find ways to keep at it.