I broke the rules and now I am paying for it. I was running errands yesterday and didn't get everything done, what I did get started didn't get finished, I stayed up late, and the kitchen was not quite clean when I retired for the night. So now I am paying for it. I did manage to get in my prayer and meditation time, the walk will have to wait for tomorrow. ___________________ I am rereading The Genesee Diary and I liked this this morning: (This is actually an excerpt he quotes from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.) "To the untrained eye ego-climbing and selfless climbing may appear identical. Both kinds of climbers place one foot in front of the other. Both breathe in and out at the same rate. Both stop when tired. Both go forward when rested. But what a difference! The ego-climber's like an instrument that's out of adjustment. He puts his foot down an instant too soon or too late. He's likely to miss a beautiful passage of sunlight through the trees. He goes on when the sloppiness of his step shows he's tired. He rests at odd times. He looks up the trail trying to see what's ahead even when he knows what's ahead because he looked just a second before. He goes too fast or too slow for the conditions and when he talks his talk is forever about somewhere else, something else. He's here, but he's not here. He rejects the here, is unhappy with it, wants to be farther up the trail but when he gets there will be just as unhappy because then the 'it' will be here. What he is looking for, what he wants, is all around him, but he doesn't want that because it is all around him. Every step's an effort both physically and spiritually because he imagines his goal to be external and distant." Too often in my life I have been looking forward or backward. I need to be more conscious of the here and enjoy the here being here.