Cloistered monks know secrets of silence.
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Be Still (a 6-word story)
Buddhahood (a photo)
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What I’ve Been Doing for my Mental Health
January was a decent month for me, and I figured I’d give an update on things in an effort to advocate mental health. I’ve written about mental health a bit on this blog, but it usually falls by the wayside compared to the fiction and poetry stuff I share.
Over the past few years, I’ve developed some mental health routines. One of them is to track my mood every day on a phone app called Daylio. The app is free (I think) and it’s a great way to keep me present. It does feel weird to gather so much “data” on my mood – I can see charts, etc., broken down by day of the week, month, all sorts of things. But it’s still great.
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Namaste (a photo)
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Ode to Solitude (a poem)
in solitude I come to know myself –
chatter of others stripped away, me stripped
of creature comforts, a creature without
a haven, thoughts bang & jangle
in a brain that has gone insane –
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Meditating in the Mountains (a drawing)
Here’s a drawing from my sketchbook from about a year ago. I like how this one turned out! I have a small Buddha statue in my bedroom, which was the model for the drawing. I like how calm and serene the Buddha looks in this drawing, and I also like how the coloring turned out.
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Is peace possible during the pandemic?
My emotions have been very much affected by the 24-hour news cycle during the pandemic. The news has been grim – in America, there are constant updates about record unemployment, nasty protests, and the various insults hurled by politicians at each other. Yesterday, I asked myself, is peace possible during all this turmoil?
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The Silent Place
I didn’t realize how I much appreciated silence until my late twenties, after another mental health breakdown. A bad breakup had sent me running to another self-help group and, unknowingly, into a deeper search for God.
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