Wednesday, March 8, 2023

 Wednesday, March 8, 2023

I heard the door flap as I slept. I jumped up and took a quick look for Elsa in the dark. Was she using the doggie door? It flapped repeatedly. No, it wasn't Elsa. The strong wind was causing the flapping- and it continued flapping. I fell back to sleep. As I was waking up, I heard the door flap again. This time, it was light already. I could see Elsa lying on the bed next to me. The wind was not gusting this time, and there weren't repeated flapping sounds. Oh, dear. Did something unwelcome slip in? I assumed Elsa would have responded if a rat got into the house. Or maybe not. Yvette and Josh have had unwelcome guests. Josh said the cat would sit there and do nothing while a rat ate his food. Do these animals consider the rats bros?

   I was wide awake early this morning and got up with my five-thirty alarm.  

   We were getting unusually strong winds coming up from the south. They had blown all night. I was concerned about rain, but it wasn't raining now. I headed out with Elsa. I only took a short walk with her, and I was concerned something would get blown into her eyes. As we walked, the wind was blowing at our backs. On the way back, I picked her up and carried her over my shoulder so she was still facing north.

  After I put her down, I headed out again on my own. I headed downhill toward the ocean on Kukuna. The view of the moon shining on the water was spectacular.

   When I came home, I meditated for an hour and then went for another short walk. Wearing a hat as I walked was out.  

Scott says the Hawaiian islands are surrounded by storms swirling around us. We're unaffected because the trade winds keep those storms at bay when they come from the north. Today, they came in from the south.

    While we had strong winds at ground level, the clouds over the ocean were unaffected. The trees were another matter. All the fronds on the palms were blown to the north side of the trees.

    I bathed Elsa today. She shivered the whole time. While the sun was out and it was warm, the strong wind chilled her. She has to sit in the sink coated in the medicinal shampoo for her skin condition for at least ten minutes. I wrapped her in a dish towel. It didn't help much.

   Besides working on the updates and the blog, I did some gardening, pruning, and weeding the plants on the edge of the driveway. My neighbors don't weed at the edge of the fence. Their weeds love my property as well as theirs. What a surprise! I tried spraying the wandering coral with the vinegar brew. That did nothing. Today, I tried pouring boiling water on the plants. We'll see if that works.

  I had an appointment with my PT, Katie. I think I'm coming to the end of my need for service. My hips are improving with everything I'm doing: my conscious walk, the chiropractic visits, and the acupuncture treatments. Katie asked me to do a partial bridge, pushing my hips up while keeping my shoulders in contact with the surface. I was comfortable doing it. Katie said I could hold it longer than her other clients, even those much younger than me. More evidence that I'm doing fine on my own. However, Katie gives me wonderful suggestions that help me move ahead.

  At two pm, I had adolescent D.  We worked with Phase II today. I continued what I started on Monday when the internet was down. I had him get paper and a pencil and write the words down. I dictate the letters. Then, we went through the procedure. 1) What are the vowel letters in the word? 2) Which vowel letters make sounds? 3) where should we divide the word into syllables if it's multi-syllabic? 4) What is the first syllable? 5) What is the syllable pattern for this syllable? 6) Is the vowel likely to be long or short? 7) Blend the vowel and following consonants 8) Blend the consonant before the vowel with what you have already blended. 10) follow the same procedure for all the other syllables in the word before blending the syllables. 11) say each syllable separately. 12) blend them. If you have difficulty, use backward build-up.

 Close to the end of the session, D asked what word we were on. He hadn't been writing the words down. He used the book to read the words. OMG! The whole point of the exercise was the multi-sensory input. After the session, I also realized that my dictating the letters to him might help his auditory processing. How many letters can he hold in his mind as he writes them?

  After I finished with Adolescent D., I had Mama K's crew. I prepared reading from Jerry Johns graded passages for the girls. I had a pre-primer, a primer, and a first-grade selection. Twin E made it through the pre-primer passage with support. This is her instructional level. Twin A made it through those two levels and a first-grade passage. I asked her comprehension questions. She aced those, too. Seeing the twins' reading skill levels diverge so sharply is upsetting.

  I worked on comprehension with fourth-grade K.  He totally messed up. From how he responded, I suspect much of his problem is emotional. He is terrified he'll give the wrong answer. He burrows inside, looking for an answer that can only be found on the page. He did well three sessions ago, and I bumped up his level. That was a mistake. Now, I will go below grade level and work on the skills.

  Wright wrote more on emptiness. He entitled a section, "The Man without a Story." He says things have essence because we have a story about them. This reminded me of top-down thinking.

   An example: I saw the Mauna Loa lava flow before dawn. My friends were impressed. I was not. My friend said this is molten rock coming up from the earth's center. That is top-down perception. If you just looked at it, it was a thin stream of something the color of fire in a line from the top of the mountain. The sky was cloudless. The stars overhead were much more impressive. But even my appreciation of them is enhanced by a story. I know I'm looking at a three-dimensional space that extends beyond my imagination. That knowledge, that story, impacts my response to the sight.

      We can't live without stories. A hammer and a nail are useless to me without their story. Otherwise, I would have to rediscover their relationship. All the knowledge I have about the world would be gone. Viewing the world without a story doesn't sound that good. The good part about it is we view the world afresh and rediscover it the way children do. We come to the world with a beginner's mind.

   I'm sure Buddha didn't do that, at least not 24/7. Knowing the difference between the world without a story and the world with one and when to use one mental state versus the other is worthwhile.