Tidal Mood

Been dazed and confused this week. Bitchy. Can't handle the stress. Can't sleep. What is wrong with me? I left work early and went down to the beach. There's not a lot that saltwater can't cure.

I had become so absorbed in details this week that I had lost sight of the day.

Finally I stopped, took a deep breath and look around.

Down at the beach I was amazed at the low tide. The reef was exposed way beyond Needles; I had never seen this much ocean floor laid bare! Tomorrow is a full moon; the tide was at its lowest point right when I arrived at the Cliffs.

From top to bottom: No Surf at extreme low tide. Visual haiku in the sand. A snowy egret with yellow feet. The sun reflected in a tidal pool.

The Dark Network

I work at UCSD in cognitive neuroscience. We are mapping the brain and its functions and our understanding of it is changing from a black box view to that of a highly specialized and plastic tool that we use everyday of our lives. Some of our brain function is conscious (attention, planning, motion) and some of it is automatic (breathing, hormone regulation, etc.)

Time Magazine is running a series of articles on modern neuroscience and cognitive science -- describing the plasticity of the brain. They discuss V.S. Ramachandran's investigation of phanton limbs -- apparently if you lose a limb, the part of the brain that used to control that is overtaken by neighboring functions -- so that losing a leg which was controlled by an area next to genitalia could result in your sensing the missing limb during an orgasm.

There is also an article on time travel wherein they postulate that the brain is often living in the past and future-- reliving and then predicting scenarios, and making decisions based on experience. We live in this dark network much more than we think. Then, a bell rings, a child cries, we hear a car crash and are brought back to the present. We live in the present until we can relax and go back to the dark network and process our experiences and imagine how it might have been different, and how it will be different if it occurs again.

In meditation, we learn to remain mindful and quiet this dark network in our mind that is so active. No wonder we call it Enlightenment. But if this article were the complete picture it would imply that we lose our capacity to learn from our experiences when enlightened, because we no longer avail ourselves of the dark network. There is more to this story

Cold Snap

Back to work. The temperature dipped after the holidays both in the air and in the sea. The ocean temperature is near 55 degrees now and the highs during the day in San Diego were close to that for about a week. Here are a couple of cool pix of people shaded in sunset.

The Dream Girls

Lori and I saw The Dream Girls tonight. It' s a very good movie with stunning acting and music. Beyoncé is upstaged by J. Hudson, the American Idol finalist, who is a newcomer in this movie. She had two very powerful songs she sang; her music moved right through me.

I caught the palm trees swaying in the early morning wind, a face in the cliffs, and the splash of high tide against the rocks.

Healing Meditation

Tonight we did a healing meditation with Sanskrit chant and a rose quartz crystal. I grew very quiet inside; the quietest I've been. At the end, my teacher looked my way and bowed to me.
That was different.

The Winter Vacation

My 12 days of Christmas break are ending. I go back to work tomorrow. On this my last free day I went surfing at Scripps Pier. On the way home, waiting at a long stoplight, I made friends with this dog. In the morning after a session of yoga and meditation at Sunset Cliffs, I took photos of a seagull and some pelicans surfing.