Not a lot is happeing

I have made very little progress so far. Sad news.  Lee has to put Pepsi down due to his cancer, he is on palliative now and it is very upsetting for the whole family.  I don't know what to say that will help them.

The lovely Peter Reynolds passed away on Sunday 19th August @ 9:30am in S.V. Hospice.  He put up an amazing fight and lasted longer than most Huntington patients.  Ann had to tell him it was O.K to go, that she and the girls would be alright, that he didn't have to stay any longer, it was O.K to leave. After that he left.

I cried a lot that day, and today, I feel spent, low energy and just want to be quite. I bought more of Pema Chodron tapes they help me a lot, and I remember her words when I am low. I am going to follow her on twitter,  I've had an account, but didn't find anyone interesting enough up until now.

Pema  Chodron Buddhist Nun in the Sakyong Mipham tradition, located Nove Scotia , Canada

 Her monastery @ Gampo Abbey founded by Chogyam Trungpa  Rinpoche in 1984

Pema Chodron a gentle & wise communicator ' start where are'

Central theme of Pema Chodron's  teachings is the Tibetan word shenpa, or how we get hooked.  Somebody says a mean word to you & then something in you tightens - that is the 'shenpa'.  Then is starts to spiral into low self esteem, or blaming them or anger at them, denigrating yourself.   And maybe if you have strong addictions, you just go right for your addiction to cover over the bad feeling that arose when  that person  said that mean word to you.  This is a mean word  that gets you, hooks you, another mean word may not affect you , but we are talking about where it touches that sore place -  that's 'shenpa' Someone criticize your work they criticize your appearance, they criticize your child and 'shenpa'  arises.  

''we can let the circumstances of our lives harden us so that we become increasingly resentful and afraid, or we can let them soften us and make us kinder and more open to what scares us.  We always have this choice."  -Pema Chodro