Every Day Counts Like Crazy

My mom is standing with me in line before saying goodbye at the airport,            and most people are stone-faced, waiting to check-in to their flight.  Mom is singing "kingdom kids" definitely loud enough for the people around us to hear.                       They remain silent and stare forward. She recognizes friends in multiple other lines and walks over to                        talk with them,                        hear their plans,                        and take a group selfie.  For no immediate reason, she befriends the woman in front of us  and even remembers her name when she says "bye-bye Kristin have a great flight!"                  ...

🏡 I'm Quarantined with Mom and Dad 🏡 I'm quarantined with Mom and Dad in their little box. But it's really not that bad, they pick up all my socks. We cook, and clean, and barely fight,     we watch movies every night. We spray our groceries with bleach,     and keep our friends far out of reach. We do not want this nasty bug, we sanitize and pray. We elbow bump and do not hug we do this every day. I'm quarantined with Mom and Dad in their little cave. But it's really not that bad, i know that we will save: Lives, and time, economic slouch, if we just stay on the couch. Be the hero of the battle, dust it off, and play some scrabble. You can save the world today, just by watching "Cast Away".  🚶 A Good Hill is Hard to Climb 🚶 A good hill is hard to climb like one that makes you  spit one that makes you bow your head and say, "I will not quit!"   A gentle slope won...

→ 3 Travel Poems  ← 🚍 Greyhound Girl 🚍 To the girl sitting next to me on the Greyhound bus      our hour-long journey is over           and I never had the nerve to say,                what are you watching?                     on your phone? I'll love you forever      you were the one            crafted by God,                the missing puzzle piece.                 Go!       enjoy your show,           without me. 🌴 Vietnam Vacation 🌴 50 years ago, if I was in this country, I would not be wearing flip-flops,      but I would still be sweating. Shooting heavy artillery,      not selfies. I han...

Everydaycountslikecrazy 2020 will serve as a monthly blog for the Joseph Garlington  January 2020 I will be leaving Thailand at the end of February. I came to Thailand to "learn about Meditation and Buddhism" and i did. Lived with monks and nuns, asked questions, observed, and meditated alot, and now I know the role I want meditation to play in my life:       Seasoning. I thought it could be an entrée, and that I needed waaay more, but no.  Just seasoning. And I want that "meditation flavor" to season every moment of my life.  Because it is simply awareness, and I think it goes great with everything. My 2020 schedule will be: At least 5 minutes a day  1 hour on Sundays 1 10 day silent retreat a year 👏👏👏👏👏 👏👏👏👏👏 👏👏👏👏👏 👏👏👏👏👏 👏👏👏👏👏             -clapping hands emoji A note on Buddhism   (As I experienced it in the country o...

EveryDayCountsLikeCrazy 2019 is over! Look how I tried to not waste a single day! Jan - Exercise Feb - Jokes and Stories March - Kindness April - Intuition May - Meditate June - Piano July - Make Love August - No Youtube September - Look at the Sky October - Nuns November - Nothing December → 5 things for (at least) 5 minutes every day 1. Handstands 2. Math 3. Recording Music 4. Meditation 5. Playing Piano The photo demonstrates: 7 days where I did all 5 things 11 days where I did 4 things 6 days of 3 3 days of 2 2 days of 1 2 days of nothing This says alot about me. I try to be excellent, but not that hard. So I land in average and below.... But at the end of the day (year) I tried and did something versus nothing , and I'm content with that and give myself a big phat E for Effort. I'll officially be taking the year (2020) off from Everydaycountslikecrazy, and just relaxing and chilling this time around.......... but...

Live in a Buddhist Nunnery Every Day I lived in a Buddhist nunnery every day in October. There are thousands of Buddhist monks in Thailand walking around every day. But there are only about 200 nuns. Through Workaway I was able to volunteer at The Vijja Vipasannaram Foundation for one month. At 3pm on weekdays, all the volunteers ( Hungarian girl, old German man, 2 French girls, Chilean girl, young German boy, me) would assemble to ask the head nun any question at all about Buddhism. She is from Thailand, and lived for decades in Germany working as an architect. She has perfect English. After moving back to Bangkok and being in a leadership role at a big company, her growing dedication to the path of Buddhism led her to be ordained as a nun.  She told us the Buddhist creation story  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agga%C3%B1%C3%B1a_Sutta   Read ( The Beginning of Life on Earth) The 4 noble truths  https://en.wikipedia....

For the month of September I looked at the sky for 60 seconds a day. Every day. Sometimes I would count in my head to 60, sometimes I would set a timer.... There was no routine, I would just have a minute to spare sometime in the day and look up. I'm sure some people thought I was lost or strange, because I tried to not look away once the 60 seconds started. I saw some really lovely sunsets, and it always put me in a good mood to look up at the wash of constantly changing colors that's above our heads at all times. 60 seconds was long enough to feel like I did a thing, and short enough to be doable every day. One of my distinct memories of childhood is going out to the driveway, which was shaded by a carport with an old grapevine climbing all over it, and building a fort I made out of large leftover pieces of a tin roof, pillows from the living room, and blankets from me and my brothers' room. Once the fort was completed, I layed down on my back inside and...