I put a list of the tributaries of the Thames into a randomizer. Below Teddington Lock is the tidal reach of the Thames, where Mama Thames is in charge; above Teddington Lock is Father Thames and his sons, starting at the Hogsmill River. Then I give it a spin each day.   (Today I gave it several, cuz I was idly hoping to get a bigger name for the holiday, but when Seacourt came up twice, I figured it had better be Seacourt.)   Punting would be lovely. I am sadly not close enough to Oxford. 😞

I was planning on working at my parents today but decided to have fun (and be productive) instead. I visited Daisy and hosed her off. I met up with my friend and we went to that new cafe I wanted to try and then we went for a swim with my sister and mom. And somewhere in there I did my laundry and got groceries!     

Thanks! Such a relief   Yessss ❤️   Maybe mine is cow parsley lol   Thanks! 

This is the toughest goal for me, I hope you are successful at this! Following along  

#accurate   Now that it's officially August I am in a full panic about school starting in 13 days 😵

Not sure why one would repeat this given the outcome after the first night.     I love crossing things off a list!

FIFY

Chanting in this zen lineage is called okyu. There is a small book of different chants that are used in various situations. The words have been translated (or maybe just transmitted) from Sanskrit to Chinese to Japanese. They are written in syllables for pronunciation. The English translations are given in the back of the book - the chants are not just meaningless sounds. Some of them are simple Buddhist prayers. The Heart Sutra is a longer passage that is very well known. One of the chants that the monks do every day is a list of all the teachers in the lineage going back to the Buddha. It has marked when the location moved to China and later to Japan. In another generation it will have names of teachers from North America.   Actual practice of chanting is a form of meditation. The goal is to have the sound come from one's diaphragm and vibrate the whole body. The voice should be strong, not timid. The challenge is to keep up with everyone else while chanting unfamiliar words. I like the feeling of being caught up in a flow of sound when we all chant together. That was pre-covid. Now we are struggling to keep up. Just keeping track of where we are in the chanting is an exercise in focus.   My current craft project is to sew my own meditation cushion. I measured the one I use for meditation at work because I know that size is okay for me. I gave serious thought to buying one before committing to making my own. I am not going to save much money this way. I bought two yards of navy blue linen (it was on sale cheaper than cotton!) and 10 pounds of kapok. Commercial ones are about $60. I have enough materials to make two, possibly three. The deciding factor is that I can make it to the size and firmness I want. No guarantee of that from a commercial one.   I got the fabric a couple weeks ago and cut it out on Tuesday. Tonight I want to do the sewing. Wish me luck. 😅

I dunno, that's a decent mile time for us muggles. Doubtless you have faster times ahead of you but nice work.     This is so real. It's like spending alone time is a skill, and sometimes when I have alone time, I can feel so rusty, like I'm wasting the time.     Fingers crossed!

Thursday August 1 Finishing up work and then packing for vacation. Leaving at 7-ish tomorrow morning so I'm aiming to get sleeping pills and 420 in me by 7 tonight and then play skyrim until I pass out. I'm officially the world's worst sleeper when I'm deviating from my normal midnight - 8am sleep schedule.  A gym bro complimented my squat depth today, which was frankly homophobic (this is a joke). I was wearing baggy below the knee shorts, and that's when a stranger complimented my ass squat depth?? No goddamnit, you save that shit for when I'm wearing a 3" inseam or less!  I didn't build a vacation mode into this challenge, with me planning to keep up with everything from the Airbnb. I'm aiming for a combo of solo retreat and Dionysian fun times, and most of the challenge goals support the former. So, we'll see...  Magic Formula Alevica's Deliverables Challenge Change Log