The Art of Sway...2

It had to go somewhere. My Artist's Way life.
More productive? Creative? Change my job? Travel more? Live my dream?
The closest I can get to sharing the feeling of being an Art of Sway graduate (2x over) is to persuade you to do the following:

When you go to sleep tonight, hold your left arm vertically, balanced on your elbow, so as to need minimal effort to keep it there. Then reeeellllax...and go to sleep. What happens next is that as you fall asleep, your arm drops and wakes you up. Repeat the process till you are fibrillating between wake and sleep.....this should eventually pop you into the so-called hypnagogic state and, if you can remember how you saw the world when you come out of it, that is how I feel most the time these days!
So it was, that I popped out of my hypnopompic (gogic, but the other direction) state this morning and had the letter 'F' in my head. So, I played with it for a while and this is what followed:
FITNESS, FOOD & FUN
FAMILY, FRIENDS and FILMS
FINANCES and FELLOWS
FACT, FICTION and FANTASY
This thought just popped out from a deep recall of the time (almost a decade ago) when I working with a marvellous chap, Dave Agates, a man who seemed to encapsulate all the above. He had a unique ability to understand and act on the needs of other people in a way that always seemed to bring a smile to his and the faces of all those around him. Whilst he seldom displayed great financial wealth, he managed to weave into his life a supportive financial structure that enabled him to fulfill the other F's to his best and most enjoyable ability. I was inspired and dedicate this concept to him and my recollection of it to The Artist's Way.
So, my mission today is to plan and review my day in terms of the above F words and to start by remembering that the MAIN THING is to keep THE MAIN THING THE MAIN THING and the first MAIN THING is FITNESS.....so (it is 08h00) and it is on my bike, down to the Botanical Gardens and an hour's Yoga and then cycle back...that will take care of the first in the list: FITNESS, and of course enable the rest, especially FUN!
Here goes.......(08h15)
see you later!
dot...dot...dot...
10h50: Rode down to Bot gardens and did an hour's yoga next to the bird lake. Opened my eyes after my savasana to find 2 hadedas and a long beaked bird standing next to me (less than a metre!) and obviously wondering what on earth I was doing.
Then, after pondering at how obvious the underlying principles of Evolution are when one takes the time to look at the evidence around you, I headed back up the hill via the orchid house.
That dispelled with FITNESS, FUN and FACT (Evolution, my dear Watson, Evolution!).
Now for FOOD!
10h55: Oats porridge and 5 roses tea with a touch more FACT in the form of National Geographic's feature magazine entitled, "WAS DARWIN WRONG?"
11h45: The nutritional marvel of Oats! Slow release complex carbohydrates give a low glycemic index which means 2 crucial things - (1) If you have metabolic syndrome (predisposing you to diabetes and cardio-vascular disease) this source of slow release energy will not cause the insulin spikes that are the root of most of your problems...and (2) If you have a good set of carb processing genes then you will not feel hungry till lunch time, which means that you are less likely to snack on sweets and chips! OK, that was FOOD and FIVE ROSES TEA.
11h48: FAMILY. Time to head off to Musgrave Centre armed with my 88 year old Mum's shopping list and my girlfriend's perfume research project. Two shops - Woolworths (not the same as the now ex Woolies in the UK) and Red Square to see if I can find a 30ml bottle of Gucci Rush at less than the Nairobi price of KES440.
See you later...after more FUN!
Being in the run up to Charles Darwin's 200th birthday and the 150th anniversary of his 'Origin of the Species' I have been doing some reading around his remarkable (and surprizingly obvious) description of how things are and came to be. I was shocked to be reminded once again that 44% of Americans believe that the world and all in it was created (NOT BY EVOLUTION) but by a supreme being and less than 10000 years ago. After shaking my head (again!) in utter disbelief I decided that, if I do nothing else in this life I must be part of the movement to shift human conciousness out of the dark ages.
So it is that, on Thursday the 12th February 2009, I will celebrate Darwin's birthday and commit myself to being more vocal and engaging in matters where I can logically and ethically defend and support those who see light and freedom in a world of conditioning and illusion. It is only through the passionate pursuit of scientific and philosophical endeavour that we can develop and give to our children, the capacity for critical thinking. This is something quite different to a plain education, no matter how sophisticated it may sound. One gives the ability to perform complex tasks and achieve certain productive goals; the other is the ability to question and understand what it is that we are are doing. The space between these two discourses is the difference between finding meaning in life without the necessity for some extra-terrestrial or supernatural force and, on the other hand, being content with knowing the answer without much effort.
Naturally I expect and encourage some debate and indeed some acrimony. However, let me position myself first. I am a great believer in the transformative power of spiritual belief, but find the foundation belief in god a little dubious. I will, however, hope to behave myself in a respectful manner as 'many of my best friends are Christians, Hindus, Moslems, atheists, agnostics or confused and I am an equally ardent believer in our constitution which says that we can have freedom of a whole lot of things including believing that Don Bedford is a reverse engineered Cherokee from Naboomspruit.
GREAT...that was my FICTION for today!
13h45: Back from Musgrave having perfected my cycling grocery balancing act. It's grapes season and Woolies had a tray of demo grapes...cold and green! Bad mistake, more FOOD off my list!
I discovered that Gucci Rush 30mil is probably cheaper in Nairobi (KES4400 and R595 here). The Envy and Eden are discontinued but I may find them at Eccentric at the Pavilion. So, that's my next stop, but probably by motorcycle as it is a hell hot day and the time/distance equation is now talking!
WOW! Here's FUN with a BIG PH! I am googling 'The hypnagogic State and Creativity' and come up with this blog site: http://www.creativedc.org/blog/
Check it out! When people ask me what I miss the most when I am in Nairobi, I mutter something about it being challenging to find really interesting and divergent people....clearly I should spend more time in hyperspace...or Adams Morgan (which I know quite well, having cycled around looking for camping gas last September).
But, now, let me continue on my perfume mission! (15h30 and tempus fugit bigtime!)

17h00: Talking about habits and rituals, everytime I get on 2 wheels, motorized or not I experience a synthesis of Body, Mind and Soul, though occasionally, like this afternoon there is a hint of adrenalin added. Maybe I need to add (F)EAR to my list as a reminder of how precious life is.

The perfume shop came up with all the goods, and Ida is now one delighted Kenyan expat.

That just leaves FINANCES and FILMS for today. The latter is easy....I should DIVX my 'Steve The Stove' filmette and pop it onto my blog and, edit the Mombasa Girls movie till 9pm and then get 8 hrs sleep.....what a day!

As for FINANCES.....

Maybe I will just FORGET.