Spring 2024 en Barcelona

This has been close to "normal" spring, such a welcome relief from the last 3 years of unusual warmth and dry seasons....it has rained quite a bit though not as much as "needed" to recover completely from the drought. But its almost June and the weather is still cloudy, rainy with occasional heatwaves. Although most days is sunny still. 

Birth of niece in April! Happiest moment of the year.

Wedding to end spring - too much drinking! Checklist done, civil wedding though so the legal aspect was done in 15-20 mins with talk from one of the parents. Then off to a casa masia type restaurant for drinking/tapas/Cena/more drinking y bailar. 

Still waiting for residence permit renewal, dios, how long is this process here! 2 months y counting...

 Meditation Learnings

Today at Triratna Budhist center - just when you thought you know a little bit about Metta, in comes an experienced teacher and provides new insight!

Instead of phrases, first connect with the "intent" in yourself that wants to be happy and secure, rest with it (then it grows), then simply bring to mind a friend, neutral person, self etc Connect with the person, get a sense of their presence and then realize they have the same intent...and let metta naturally flow and expand.

when you are lost, come back to the bodily sensations/awareness, then connect with your intent again and the person.

Haiku

My first attempt at Haiku, after having heard about this on "waking up" Alan Watts series and being fascinated by a few i read.

" A Beautiful day at the beach...

Lovers loving, BLISS, GHOST!

ma, its dark again OR in my hiding place again"




which ending works best?

Most of you will get it, but just incase GHOST here refers to Ghosting.

 Winter 2024 en Cataluña

Warm weather lasted till almost Dec 2023, then the winter arrives suddenly. Some rain, but not enough to avert the drought which has been declared end of Jan. i remember using the heating ony for 1 or 2 whole nights, then a few days only for an hour or two.

sunrise and the colors, montjuic and the beach and the moon at night continue to mesmerize.

1Feb - today i followed the "waking up" app Life lessons on creating a sensory-scape of the neighborhood, today´s was mostly visual and its surprising how you notice things that you completely ignored in the past. Like the beautiful lamp post made of what seems to be iron, different plants and trees planted in an orderly fashion. Orange fruits still on the pavement opposite DIR diagonal park.

24 Feb - finally winter returns, it has been cold and bit of rain in the last couple of days, right in time, for my thermal bath day hike tomorrow! 

1April - So Spring started a bit weird, as it was warmer than usual and ofcourse the drought due to lack of proper rain in 2 years! But alas! all that changed in the last 2 weeks of March, we have had atleast 3 days of rain almost all day and night in Barcelona. Like i remember back in 2020 when i first came to Barcelona. Risk of drought has been averted as well.

My lactose intolerance is only getting worse, with every passing year. Just remember to NOT eat any icecream or lactose-free products, god this time it took so long for my digestive system to recover!

Saturday meditation in the Budhist centre routine im really liking, lets keep doing it.