Remember

I had a very real-feeling dream about my dad a couple of nights ago. He was back from the dead, looking healthy, undergoing some new treatment to cure his Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. The dream covered a couple of days, and we could see his mind coming back little by little. He was so happy and full of joy. One particular scene I remember: he was lounging on the deck of a small white sailboat, smiling and waving as the boat was lifted off a lawn by a few large, round helium-filled balloons. They looked old-fashioned, silvery grey and covered with netting that attached to the sailboat. I remember thinking “this can’t be real” and of course it wasn’t, but the love and joy I felt in my heart sure was.

I think I had a successful day of mindfulness, being aware of where I was and what I was doing at most moments, breathing and smiling as often as possible. Inside me, it feels like it made a difference. I also made a promise to myself that I would only hit the snooze button once this morning, and kept that promise. I am doing it again tomorrow morning.

Today was also a good day for nurturing friendships. Had coffee with one faculty member, made plans to go out for beers with another, worked with my departmental director to fix a minor SL problem. Talked on the phone with MG and my mom.

Tonight, I went to Marshall’s band concert and heard him play his clarinet. He looked like he was having fun. I took lots of photos and tried to email the proper images to the respective families later, but for various reasons the first three mailings failed. So I’m going to just post them all online tomorrow and tell people where to find and download them. I think in the past this would frustrate me, but I’m just feeling tired and happy now. I also decided to have business cards made to hand out to people when I take photos.

Time to get in bed and read a little more Thich Nhat Hanh before sleeping.

Current song: “How We Operate” by Gomez. Previously, it was “Good Morning Spacegirl” by Anubian Lights.