Week 3: HOPE — It’s a sneaky thing

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Lesley of Sustainable Utopia so perfectly expressed the way I feel about “Hope”, as well as my personal experience of it, that I won’t bother writing about it, ha! Instead, I’ll move on to some Concrete Goals & Positive Actions, for “Hope, Week 3” of the 8 Week Challenge.

**I want to lose some weight, the whole Temple Remodel project is still underway, though it has changed. The earliest strategy has morphed a bit to counting carbs. A low carb diet has always been the best for me, in terms of how I feel & how I end up looking. Because of the circumstances of my life right now, this is a bit difficult to pursue in the way I’d prefer, but still do-able. The ultimate strategy for Remodeling the Temple is to recreate my whole relationship with food & eating, moving toward mindful eating instead of turning to food to fulfill other, more basic hungers. This is a long term, lifestyle issue really, so I’ll just stick to the immediate goal of weight loss for this post. But I cannot say that it’s going all that well at this time, though I do feel quite a bit better.

**I want to create a business, raising compost worms & harvesting the vermicompost. Creating healthy soil amendments from discard & food waste is just such a turn on for me! Haha, it is odd maybe, be decomposing matter is really interesting to me — creating zero waste, improving plant growing conditions, making it more possible (especially for urban dwellers) to eat more healthfully, increasing sustainability in a disposable-besotted-world ………. A worm wrangler I am, yearning to be unleashed!! But, I have no land. I have not got the monetary resources to even buy a pound of compost worms, & no place to set up on even a very modest scale. I’m not able to borrow money, from either institutions or the fam. And — here’s where despair really lies in wait — I see no prospects for gainful employment in my near future. In short — in this area of my life, I really …………….. i really feel hope less ……………… Still, I know that there’s a place for this, at some point in my future. I keep up with blogs & web sites on vermicomposting (here’s one of my faves), I price equipment, I plan for the start up business & its subsequent expansion, I’m determined to avoid whining. I’m not giving up; I just don’t see how the-way-it-is-right-now is going to become what-I-want-it-to-be any time soon. SIDE NOTE: The plans, & hopes, for such a business are still in process, though mostly unseen. Which is largly the way in which compost worms themselves go about their business, haha

**This is less of a concrete goal, is perhaps more ……. silken. I want to make continuous progress toward my many-lifetime goal of transforming into a bodhisattva, reaching enlightenment for the sake of the enlightenment of other sentient beings. I’ve written about this many times on MindMindful, so I won’t go into it much right here. Suffice it to say, that I will continue to examine my mind by meditating, writing, & avoiding excessively & OBsessively distracting myself from This Present Moment. I will continue my efforts at seeing myself in the behaviors & failings of others, & vice versa. I will keep on making my heart more open, even when it hurts, & when it’s veryvery frightening.

**And, I will keep on laughing, & helping others to find that giggle that trumps their frown. This goal is also not so concrete. More ……. like …… bubbles! In reminding myself & everyone else to look for the funny story in whatever situation they may be in, I will be aiding all of us in staying present, no matter the situation. This will help us all turn our minds from the habit that nearly all of us have: grousing about the circumstances of any given moment, rather than celebrating what’s best about it. Maybe we will all have a little more gratitude this way, &, if nothing else, we’ll all get to have an entertaining moment as we laugh the troubles off later.

And with this one I realize I’ve strayed into the Infectious Hope section, so yea for me!! Isn’t that hopeful, right there?? Snuck right up on me.

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