The path of non-attachment

Nothing stays the same and clinging to the past causes suffering.  Buddhism and other philosophies all teach this lesson in one way or another.  So simple, so hard.  Just let go.  Trust.  Pray.  Practice mindfulness.

We packed up the decorations yesterday and hoisted the big tubs back into the attic.  Putting Christmas away for another year is a day-long job.  The sad Noble fir is laying out in the yard-- it was messy like all cut trees, but didn't explode like a Douglas fir needle bomb. John went back to work and without the Christmas clutter the house seems bigger.  It is suddenly very quiet. I have a cold and my head is foggy.  Now the new year stretches ahead with all its challenges.

I'm slowly getting used to this new laptop, which is just a computer after all. If I click on the "Finder" button, there's all my photographs and documents listed in a comforting "Windows File Manager" sort of way.  Thank you John for the well-done data transfer.  You even brought over my impressive collection of Firefox bookmarks.  Only my iTunes playlists are gone, but it will be sort of fun to make new ones. For now, iTunes Genius can decide what I listen to.  I'm turning my life over to a higher power in Cupertino.  I'm as flexible as a willow tree.  Keep repeating that.

I've resisted the compulsion to use a mouse and sticking with the touch pad, a new challenge for writing and self-editing.  The screen is slightly smaller and the keyboard ergonomics are completely different on a Mac book. This throws off my thought process and I've been sitting here much too long to write a simple post.  I just put a sofa pillow on my chair because my arm was getting numb from resting my wrist on the edge of my desk.  Bad ergonomics!

On a more positive note,  I had a flattering surprise at the Apple store this week when young Genius Katie looked at my meticulously organized 11,000 photographs.  For a librarian, it's just a no-brainer chronological arrangement with files for years and sub-folders for the months, going back 10 years.  Wow, she said.  We never see that kind of photo organization and this is much too good to dump in iPhoto. You need to get Aperture (Apple's version of PhotoShop.)  Add that to the list of new things to buy and learn in 2014.