I am a husband, writer, and teacher exploring what it means to cultivate mental silence.

That time I went down the rabbit hole...again!

That time I went down the rabbit hole...again!Two trips to Whole Foods, two online chats with Apple Support and a call to the bank to resolve an issue with Apple Pay on my Apple Watch...excessive? Not if you want things to work. Is my quest for getting technology to work for me counterintuitive to my quest for mental silence? I think not.My use of technology produces a lot of mental silence for me...whether I am writing on my iPad Pro or moving through the check out line at a store that accepts Apple Pay...the bottom line is...I am looking for what I would characterize as a certain kind of flow in my life...on that includes the least amount of friction given what I am doing, where I am doing "it," with the device I am doing "it" on...all in an effort to keep me present.It is when things break down that that flow, the mental silence; is disrupted. How I handle (in this case) these technological breakdowns is what I continually find interesting. My default reaction...why is this happening to me? Like I am the only person trying to use these devices...for these reasons. I know that is not the case yet I fall into that trap each time.The current issue with Apple Pay on the Apple Watch is illustrative of what I am saying here. The first time it did not work, I immediately wanted to find out what the problem was. It is supposed to work. I (we) paid a lot of money for it to work. When things breakdown I feel like I am not getting my money's worth. And...I get very focused on trying to find out what is going on. Sitting here right now...I wonder...as I compose this blogpost...how do others respond to these moments? Sometimes I feel that my attempts to get the situation resolved is the equivalent of going down a rabbit hole...as the question I pose in the first sentence implies.I am coming to realize through these blogposts that cultivating mental silence can mean different things at different times. Sometimes...it means just sitting and meditating. Other times...in my opinion (or else the implicit argument I am making here comes tumbling down) it means heading down what may seem a very noisy path (the rabbit hole) that leads to that which you wanted before you started down it...

Do templates enable or constrain writers anymore than a cycle of writing enables or constrains a teacher of writing? #unccwp #nwp #crwp

11 Hours at SEA-TAC...