It's all Connected to Myth

I was looking around the computer room this morning. It has become nothing more than a place to put things we don't want the baby to get and the toys we take from him because he's using them to hurt/threaten us or the dogs. There's no room for my books so I have been making the pile smaller and smaller whenever I can. Today I saw Transformations of Myth Through Time by Joseph Campbell. I bought this book years ago hoping to read it and get ideas for fantasy novels I would then write. "Hmm," I thought, "I probably won't be writing fiction anytime soon, I want to concentrate on studying yoga right now. I should get rid of it." So I picked the book up and started flipping through the pages in hopes of convincing myself to part with it. My eye lands on this line: "So the function of yoga is to release us from the time-space commitment, introduce us to the transcendent." Holy crap! So I continue to flip and see the word yoga mentioned several times. I finally read the Table of Contents and find:

• 7. From Id to Ego in the Orient: Kundalini Yoga, Part I
• 8. From Psychology to Sprituality: Kundalini Yoga, Part II

Wow. Talk about finding what you need when you need it. There are also chapters on Buddhism, Native Americans, and King Arthur. I started reading the book immediately. Here is a quote from the first chapter (In the Beginning: Origins of Man and Myth.)
      "When one can feel oneself in relation to the universe in the same complete and natural way as that of the child with the mother, one is in complete harmony and tune with the universe. Getting into harmony and tune with the universe and staying there is the principal function of mythology."

I am going to enjoy reading this book.

Wordless Wednesday

Time for Gratitude

I read the book The Happiness Project by Gretchin Rubin at the end of last winter. I made plans to start my own happiness project and then made it impossible to get to the monthly lists that I spent so much time composing. Part of the lists were in a notebook buried in the piles of the computer room and the other parts were on the computer which was having troubles so I didn't dare turn it on. I decided there were more important things to worry about so I just went back to trudging through my life, most of the time on autopilot.

So when I read the July 30th post, Follow a Threshold Ritual, I thought, I can do that. This will not only make me appreciate all the wonderful things in my life more, but it'll increase the mindfulness I've been cultivating the past couple of years. Now I just need to make a list of trigger events/times, and actually keep the list out where I can read it, until I have a habit formed.

When I write, I will remember how fortunate I am to have gone to a good school with excellent English teachers.