Night Walks

My cough seems to be improving, although I am still hacking every now and then, and I think my coughs sound like barks.  They aren't occurring at the same frequency, which is nice.  Still...  I am worried about why they haven't gone...  Perhaps that is the nature of allergies?  Or perhaps it's something worse?

Meditation is still hard to do.  It seems the more I sit and focus on my breathing, the more I'll cough.  I'm able to do brief breathing exercises, such as a Tree of Life/Two Powers visualization.  It's short but sweet.  It can both calm and reconnect me to the cosmos.

I've been enjoying a form of semi-active meditation recently - going outside after midnight to stand, watch, and listen.  I say semi-active because it involves a little bit of walking and occasionally changing positions. There is definitely something meditative and Otherworldly about being outside, alone, at night.  Night is full of paradoxes, it seems.  Everything seems still and yet the Nature Spirits are very active.  There is a hush and yet the world is abuzz.  I find some sort of peace at night.

Yesterday evening (or rather...early this morning...) I observed several toads, listened to the chorus of crickets and frogs, and watched a bat dance loops in the air.  It felt somewhat meditative to be there, still and observing something other than myself.


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