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A personal reflection on finding unexpected love and joy after embracing solitude, and the liberating effects of letting go of social media and embracing real connections.

2024 - Year of Discipline

2024 - Year of Discipline

Today is Bell Let's Talk Day, a day focused on mental health awareness. For the past few years, I have been using it to talk about a theme for the next year.

Turning 14 Years Old

Another challenging year, but coming out stronger than in the past.

Latest

iPad As New Literacy

> Anything that is truly new must feel unfamiliar; if it doesn’t feel unfamiliar it is not truly new. Merlin Mann, Back to Work Podcast 259 [http://5by5.tv/b2w/259] Merlin and Dan had an interesting conversation about a problem I have been struggling with: how much time do you allow children to use an iPad?1 My daughter, Kylie, makes good use of my iPad, almost more than I do. The main app she uses is Netflix, because it allows her greater freedom to pause a show or to select a show based on

Tags: back to work | ipad | merlin mann | reading

It’s All Coming Together Now - Mindfulness, Focus, and Deep Work

> Discipline means getting into what is happening. That is just saying that you have to involve yourself in the situations you encounter in life. We have to go through the process of being part of a situation; otherwise we will not be exposed to this richness. In order to see the delight in a situation, we have to become involved in it. We have to really feel it; we have to touch the whole texture of the complete situation. Then we will be able to relate properly with the actual work involve

Tags: deep work | focus | mindfulness
Turning 6 Years Old

Turning 6 Years Old

> She leaves a lasting impression on their lives in that short amount of time like she has done with me on a nearly daily basis the past five years. I could not be happier and prouder. Happy 5th birthday, Kylie [https://foursides.ca/Number-5/] The fifth year of a person’s life seems to be a big turning point. More independent, able to make better choices, and a young personality starts to really shine through. The base of a personality always seems to be there from a very young age when t

Tags: birthday | kylie | life
The Journey of 2015

The Journey of 2015

> Do not think “I’ll go as I please!” when taking a journey. Rather, think, “I may have some problems.” and you’ll be free as a bird. — Yasumi Roan I finished reading Walking the Kiso Road [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1611801257/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1611801257&linkCode=as2&tag=four0b-20&linkId=EVRYLKREUDNV5VXD] by William Scott Wilson this morning. It is his personal guide to walking along this ancient road in central Japan, telling stories

Tags: life | mindfulness
Frosty Weather

Frosty Weather

After how pleased I was with my Line of Trade canvas bag [https://medium.com/@four_sides/line-of-trade-briefcase-9a16af24032f#.pio27yqo8] that arrived last month, I decided to continue on with Bespoke Post [https://bespokepost.com/r/04a5a099]1 to see what the next offerings would be. I settled on ordering their Frost box and it arrived a few days ago. I was quite excited to open it up because the feature item was a pair of lambskin leather gloves from Gilded Age. Simply put: these gloves are a

Tags: bespoke post | reviews | winter

36 - What Took You So Long

> There have only been roughly 18,000 players in the history of Major League Baseball. How many out of that number have played in a playoff game? One third maybe? I’ve played over 1,400 games, and that was my first playoff series. Out of those 6,000 or so, how many players have been lucky enough to be in a position to change the outcome of a playoff series with one swing? Maybe 10 percent? And how many have succeeded? None of this math was going through my head when I was standing at the plate.

Tags: birthday | life

Fifty Thousand Words

> I’ve known about NaNoWriMo for years, but the thing is: 50,000. That’s a big number, like almost an insurmountable number. I’ve never felt like I wanted to participate, but I always was impressed with those who did manage to at least try. So this year I am going to do it. But I’m not writing a novel. Ben Brooks [https://brooksreview.net/2015/11/fifty-thousand/], My NaNoWriMo Challenge When I mentioned earlier [https://foursides.ca/i-made-a-thing] that I was considering taking up the NaNoW

Tags: nanowrimo | writing

Dispatch

Starting a bit of a social experiment: publishing smaller pieces to Medium and working on lengthier pieces here. First one was published, Dispatch [https://medium.com/@four_sides/dispatch-fc586deb2b62#.s7dxq2i04]: > I thought it fitting that the word dispatch has multiple meanings that can tie into Hume and my own exploratory writings. The definition of the word can mean a short message sent quickly, or the dismissal or rejection of something. Two things that I hope to accomplish with writing

Tags: buddhism | ego | medium | mindfulness | work

Ego And Work

> If there is that kind of communication going on between yourself and the object, then ego doesn’t get a chance to digest anything; it doesn’t get a report back from you and your work. When your work becomes natural and spontaneous communication, ego doesn’t get a chance to act as a middle man. Generally what happens, however, is that ego has messengers that bring information back to its switchboard. Then ego accepts or rejects. Everything depends on the pleasure of ego. On the other hand, if y

Tags: ego | life | work

I Made A Thing

I’ve been quiet in my space1 here for several weeks for good reason. I’ve been reading and thinking a lot about the practice of mindfulness and Buddhism, which I hope to tackle more of in the coming weeks, but I also did something a little unexpected: I made a thing. I decided to take on a challenge being promoted by Gumroad [http://www.Gumroad.com], the online digital goods store. The challenge was to conceive, create, and publish something within ten days. I didn’t go as deep into this challe

Tags: consulting | hotels | work

All We Have Is Breath

> Breathing expresses the fact that you are alive. If you’re alive, you breathe. The technique is basic and direct: you pay heed to breath. You don’t try to use the mindfulness of breathing to entertain yourself, but you use the mindfulness of breathing to simplify matters. — Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Cool Boredom [http://www.tricycle.com/blog/cool-boredom] – Tricycle [http://amzn.to/1JtCpy0]1 The most important lesson from my readings into mindfulness and Buddhism so far has been how importa

Tags: buddhism | life | mindfulness

A Step With Buddha

> Enlightenment is awakening from the dream of being a separate me to being the universal reality. It’s not an experience or a perception that occurs to a separate person as the result of spiritual practice or cultivated awareness. It doesn’t come and go, and you don’t need to do anything to maintain it. It’s not about being centered or blissful or peaceful or any other experience. In fact, enlightenment is a permanent non-experience that happens to nobody. The separate person is seen through, a

Tags: buddhism | life | mindfulness

The Call Of Silence

> I think of my reading as drawing water from some bottomless, timeless well. In goes the bucket. The rope slides through my hands. I’m sitting on the couch in the living room, the French press on the coffee table, a book open in my lap, a chipped mug balanced on my knee. The city is asleep all around me. The sun is asleep beyond the earth’s curve. And now up comes a cherry tree in blossom, the tolling of a distant bell, a burning stick of incense, a small man in a wooden boat on a perfectly

Tags: buddhism | introvert | life | silence

Summer Of DFW- Depression

Just over a week ago, I began my summer of David Foster Wallace [http://www.foursides.ca/summer-of-david-foster-wallace] with Infinite Jest. It is definitely a tough book to get into with chapters taking place in different periods of time, with characters that aren’t always named. There is a bit of mystery to reading it and discovering who is actually speaking. Thankfully, David Foster Wallace writes in such a way that you are able to tell who the action is focused around. Each character is sur

Tags: books | david foster wallace | reading

Getting Out Of Jail

> Often, the psychological turbulence of those first days or weeks is so debilitating that recently incarcerated people can’t even navigate public transportation; they’re too frightened of crowds, too intimidated or mystified by the transit cards that have replaced cash and tokens. In a recent study, the Harvard sociologist Bruce Western describes a woman who ‘‘frequently forgot to eat breakfast or lunch for several months because she was used to being called to meals in prison.’’ I met one man

Tags: jail | life

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