The setting sun at McNee Ranch State Park, CA on Saturday 1/9/21 - a gentle transition into this week's tech sabbath.
The lead into this digital tech sabbath was a bit rough. I want to experiment with starting the weekly tech fast around sundown, this way there's a moving target on the clock time of the experience. I'd prefer to focus my attention more on the sun and how it moves through the day into the evening (vs a specific clock time like 6pm). On Sunday, however, Dave (@gorum) and I were on a hike that ended at sundown, and we still had an hour drive home. This isn't a problem per se, but there's something about putzing around at home before the sabbath that felt good last time. Then again - I've only done this tech-break thing a few times, so it's all an experiment anyways!
Same thing happened this sabbath as last - put down the digital devices (Dave joined me this go-round, so we were a two-person sabbath-having household this week), and I just can't stop talking. Like I've unplugged from tech and this turned my voice box on?! What am I even talking about? I don't know - ask Dave. All the things, nothing. It's like I'm purging some kind of longer-term working memory?! Will stay tuned on this curious behavior this coming week.
I started reading [[Henry Miller]]'s #Sexus book, it's not the first time I've read it. But it somehow called to me, asked to be picked up again. I find Henry Miller to be a brilliant writer, a joy to read, a real laugh-a-minute kind of guy. I went to bed reading Henry Miller, and continued the affair in the morning, waking to spend the morning in bed with his writing. I remembered that I used to hunt for #erotica books from used book stores, and thought about how I'd like to resume the hunt. I write down a few quotes from the novel:
"a world whose one solution for everything is death."
"whispering fuck on the floor"
"to entwine ourselves like corkscrews"
My day starts much slower than usual, even for a weekend. I luxuriate in a face mask while drinking my first cup of coffee. I deem this slow waking routine as relaxing into self, my own space-time. It seems I must travel a far distance from where I was in dreamland into waking life, so the slow transition is preferred.
I find myself making notes to buy very specific clothes online, for our upcoming #vagabond lifestyle. I'm trying to build a simple wardrobe that requires the least amount of clothing for living out of suitcase for the foreseeable future. Things like neutral colored trail running shoes - this is the kind of stuff that pops into my head at random - sigh. I muse about why it's hard to say goodbye to a place, to people. I recognize that I have a lot of insecurities wrapped up in leaving, in saying goodbye--generally speaking. There's an intensity of feeling with goodbyes that's hard to tap into for me. I will pay attention to this more as we continue to prep for moving.
My morning yoga is a meditation on the transition form (external) movement to (internal) quiet. #kundalini yoga does this to me - gets me real into the nooks and crannies of existence. Reasonable considering I'm moving around energy (through my body, my breathing), and studying the impacts of this movement. I'm feeling into the "boundary" existing between these two states/places - a demarcation of energetic exchange within the self. I get lost in the fractal of #autopoiesis - something I'm wont to do - the continuous process of transition, of change... this is life, this is what we all are. I feel strong and embodied, physically and energetically.
Throughout the day, I capture some fiction writing cues - snippets of story that come to me. I may or may not work these later into something more substantial.
I went full witch with this tech sabbath and laid out my most used digital devices, all powered down - and outlined each with a line of salt. Then, I made a small grid with a mix of crystals (selenite, quartz, tourmaline, +some stones with a bit more zing: lapis lazuli x fluorite), with the devices in the center. (No photo because not using tech!) I was inspired by this tech witch post:
Tech Witch: Practices For The Age Of The Internet
I drew tarot cards for myself and Dave - we each did a meditation on our relationships with tech.
