Realizations

I broke my fast when the sun went down, when my roommates came home. Felt silly miming through the evening. But I had a scant few realizations during the day.

1) I am addicted to fried potatoes. It's an issue. Today, it was papas fritas- red potatoes cut into cubes and boiled until soft, then fried on high heat to create crispy exteriors. I almost ate the whole 3 potatoes, when I realized I could fry bananas in the leftover oil. (I did eat the whole fried banana but put the rest of the papas in the fridge). Today was a choice between asceticism of a juice fast, and spoiling myself. I went for the second, and added a mocha on top of that. And a hot 40 minute bath reading my current fun book, "Botany of Desire" by Michael Pollan. No, it's not a trashy romance novel.

2) The internet waters down communication. It enables a lot more of it, for sure. But it always leaves me hungry for continual contact, and makes me lazy in returning the interaction. And I think it's making me more self-centered than I care to be. Just another step for seeing why I should to be more careful with it.

3) I need to honor and appreciate all the communication I have in my life. Take time to savor it. Thank the person (maybe just in my head) for spending their energy to connect with me. There are negative instances, sure, but even those can be useful in a way. And they are, by far, in the minority.

4) I still have an American sense of spirituality. I realized around 2pm that all I could really see were my neuroses (as they call them in Buddhism), but didn't have a grasp on any solutions. Still don't here, at the end of the day. I was quiet 8 hours! What do you mean I'm not enlightened?! That's 16 TV shows WITH commercials. Come on people, I got other things to do. Ha!

There was some productivity, despite the lack of enlightenment. Baked a loaf of rosemary, sundried tomato, garlic bread and it finally rose like normal bread. All that fried stuff. The bath. An hour of yoga. Alternate nostril breathing, turned in my Indonesian homework. Took a lovely, snowy walk with my roommate's dog. Okay, mildly productive. Maybe realization #5) Oftentimes the journey is more valuable than its results.