Author Archives: jillsalahub

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About jillsalahub

Writer & Contemplative Practice Guide holding space for people cultivating a foundation of a stable mind, embodied compassion and wisdom. CYT 500

#augustbreak2015: Notebook

augustbreaknotebookNotebook. As a writer, I’ve got a lot of these. I always have one in my purse, just in case I have an idea or need to make a note or have some extra time to write. I have three or four on my writing desk that I’m actively using — one is for my morning pages (my daily practice), one for my business (ideas for ecourses, workshops, and such), one for Feast (which is officially over, but some of us are going to do a virtual book club with Brene’ Brown’s new book so I’ll use the remaining space for that), and another for quotes and collages. In my closet, I have bookshelves full of notebooks, most of them already full of writing but a few that are blank. There’s at least three or four books already written on those shelves, in those pages.

journalshelvesI’m pretty fussy about the style of notebook I use. It has to be comfortable, the pages open flat without much of a ridge in the center of the book. I like lined pages, but no matter how the margins are set up, I’ll write edge to edge, filling the entire page. When I start anything new, I always date it. That helps when I am looking for something that happened on a particular date, something I want to check and see what I wrote about it as it was happening. It’s hard for me to go into a store that sells notebooks and not buy at least one, knowing I can never have too many because I’m always filling them up.

Three Truths and One Wish

morningpractice1. Truth: The First Noble Truth of Buddhism is “life is suffering.” A better translation might be that life is uncomfortable. Things don’t go as we planned, don’t turn out the way we want. And the causes and conditions that impact how things work are complicated and mostly out of our control, even as we experience the consequences.

2. Truth: I don’t know what I’m doing. Add that to the fact that life is suffering, is uncomfortable, and it can seem pretty discouraging, but I’m not going to give up. I’ll keep trying.

3. Truth: There is so much to do. The list is so crazy long it seems impossible, but then I remember I don’t have to do it all at once. I can focus simply on what’s next, take one simple step.

One wish: That however we might be uncomfortable, we don’t give up. May our surrender to our discomfort and not knowing, and the awareness that we are together in these conditions ease our suffering.