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

(Not so) Random thoughts...

(Not so) Random thoughts...Sitting here listening to The Beatles, drinking a Lungo...trying to decide what to write about on this glorious, 2nd snow day of the week! What if I don't really have a topic this week? Is that ok? Can I just write in a stream of consciousness mode? Why not! I love the way the sun comes into our living room at this time of the morning! It is hitting the bottom portion of our Christmas tree while simultaneously warming the beard of a Santa figurine positioned to the left of the tree.Ok...I can't help myself...I want to talk about some self-care stuff I have been working on! Yesterday, during our first snow day, while my wife worked from her home office (the roads were really bad) I decided to tighten up some stuff going on on my iPhone XR. Not long ago I reconfigured my screens on the iPhone to be less distracting to me. The set up included a blank first home screen, followed by a screen with Shortcuts that I was (or thought I was) using daily. On the third screen I had apps that I use daily and on the last screen I had 4 folders which house the rest of my apps. By the way...if you are not using Siri to open apps or dropping down the Spotlight to find/start apps...I suggest you give it a go!The reconfiguring started with me looking at the Shortcuts screen...what was I truly using daily? I narrowed it down to 3 that I use the most and put them into my dock...removing the three apps that were there...2 of which went into folders. Then, following the footsteps of a podcaster I admire, CGP Grey, I decided to merge two screens...the folders screen and apps, and two additional Shortcuts I use daily. The folders are now on top of this screen with the apps below...which is now my second screen...the first still reserved for blank space (black by the way).

Yearly Themes...

Can you measure how calm you are?