When we were at Buddhism camp in India and even at our little retreat in New Mexico, we felt pretty proud of ourselves. Man, we were really internalizing all those life-altering Buddhist concepts about compassion, root causes of suffering, the downfalls of attachment and self-cherishing, etc, etc. We felt strong in body and mind and were ready to go back to "real" life and kick some butt. Get stuff done! Live life to the fullest! It was going to be awesome.
Well.....it was so easy to internalize all those Buddhist concepts in the middle of nowhere, without much responsibility. But now, oh now, we've been flung back into the real world and we are quickly falling back into old habits and are constantly losing our Zen. I'm already getting the itch to ditch it all and start traveling again, but that would just prove to be completely unaffordable and an escape from dealing with the inevitable things in life. Now it's back to managing the to-do list: cooking, cleaning, laundry, errands, paying bills, exercising, working, studying, organizing, fixing broken stuff...all while making time to have fun, enjoy hobbies, feed our spirituality, volunteer, be social, make friends, and keep in touch with old friends. It's quite exhausting! How do we all do this?
For about two weeks, Rob has been living in "The Cave" (aka - our basement turned into a study area). He's already looking a bit overwhelmed and frazzled. Every time he emerges from the depths, his eyes are wide with panic, his hair looks like he's been electrocuted, and he starts pacing like a caged lion. Oh goodness. The madness is setting in.
I'm making good progress in the professional arena, but on the home front, I'm not quite adjusting back yet. We don't have a washer or dryer and can't afford one until our next loan payment comes in (the joys of student poverty!), so I've been hand washing all our clothes or going to the laundromat when too much has piled up. I have a handy-dandy little "manual clothes washer" tool that I got from Emergency Essentials. At least we'll be set when the zombies come or the power grids fail. And I get an upper body workout during the whole washing and wringing process. I'm trying to think positive. I think the main problem is that I'm incredibly distracted by TV shows (there's so many to catch up on!!), so there's not as much getting done as there could be...where did my self control go? Did I really just watch four episodes of Arrested Development? But I HAVE to because the new season is coming out and I need to remind myself about the previous seasons...
Somebody should have warned us.
Well.....it was so easy to internalize all those Buddhist concepts in the middle of nowhere, without much responsibility. But now, oh now, we've been flung back into the real world and we are quickly falling back into old habits and are constantly losing our Zen. I'm already getting the itch to ditch it all and start traveling again, but that would just prove to be completely unaffordable and an escape from dealing with the inevitable things in life. Now it's back to managing the to-do list: cooking, cleaning, laundry, errands, paying bills, exercising, working, studying, organizing, fixing broken stuff...all while making time to have fun, enjoy hobbies, feed our spirituality, volunteer, be social, make friends, and keep in touch with old friends. It's quite exhausting! How do we all do this?
For about two weeks, Rob has been living in "The Cave" (aka - our basement turned into a study area). He's already looking a bit overwhelmed and frazzled. Every time he emerges from the depths, his eyes are wide with panic, his hair looks like he's been electrocuted, and he starts pacing like a caged lion. Oh goodness. The madness is setting in.
I'm making good progress in the professional arena, but on the home front, I'm not quite adjusting back yet. We don't have a washer or dryer and can't afford one until our next loan payment comes in (the joys of student poverty!), so I've been hand washing all our clothes or going to the laundromat when too much has piled up. I have a handy-dandy little "manual clothes washer" tool that I got from Emergency Essentials. At least we'll be set when the zombies come or the power grids fail. And I get an upper body workout during the whole washing and wringing process. I'm trying to think positive. I think the main problem is that I'm incredibly distracted by TV shows (there's so many to catch up on!!), so there's not as much getting done as there could be...where did my self control go? Did I really just watch four episodes of Arrested Development? But I HAVE to because the new season is coming out and I need to remind myself about the previous seasons...
Somebody should have warned us.
Washin' clothes!
