a couple neat things...

My manager recently changed the store hours from 5:30 am - 10pm to 5am -10 pm.  a hald=f hour doesn't *seem* like much, but when it  means getting up at 3:30 am it does!  I generally walk to work, and 4:30 am is even quieter than I anticipated, compared to 5 am that is. 

The birds sing me to work though!  and the bats are still out!  I've seen several raccoon families too.  the solitude is nice, and I always wonder at the 2-3 people I see.  Are they on their way to work to?  or are they on their way home?  Maybe the man smoking at the cafe patio on the corner just couldn't sleep.  The gnats or whatever wee flying bugs are, fly in really neat loops around the lamp posts.

I like 4:30 am.

walking

I decided I didn't want to listen to music walking home last night.  It's about a half hour walk.  I decided that I was going to 'be in the moment'.  I was, and it was a good walk.  I practiced tonglen, and smiled at strangers.  (aren't I amazing?)  I did some passive thinking, had conversations with people.  I got to thinking about how a lot of people see Buddhism and kind of martyrdom.  Taking on suffering and suffering in it.  It's not like that at all.  Tonglen practice is simply breathing in the feeling of suffering, taking it, changing it, and breath out, essentially, the opposite.  I like to think in analogies, so I came up with this:  it's like baking a cake.  you put in all these raw, potentially harmful ingredients into an oven, and it processes and is something 'good'.  Don't ask me how.  It just is.