The good things

So, yeah, the billhook. And sharpening it.

So much so that while I was thinking about using the whetstone, while I was doing the meditation with the expanding circles, I had the best session ever. I am happiest when thinking about sharpening a tool... It's so strange. Maybe it's my bias toward action? The need to do things?

Anyway, I got thinking about the word whetstone. About how you need it to be wet. But how whetting your appetitie is about sharpening. Wetting your whistle is about wetting. So wet and whet must be etymologically distinct.

Whet comes from an Old Germanic root meaning sharpen. Wet is from Old English water.

Other things, of course, make me happy.

Bobbit. Crows. Trees. Crawling through hedges. Good food. Wine - that I am still not drinking. Well, I might by the time you read this.

Good ideas. I'm exploring one at the moment about peripheries.

Remembering to replace something before the something that's running out has run out.

Teeth that have been cleaned and flossed. Body that has been bathed. Floor that has been swept and mopped. Car that has been cleaned.

And this. The feeling standing in front of the rack waiting for the body to step forward and raise the weight. My conscious mind is conscious of ceding control to the wise part. It's very similar when I know that the answer to a cryptic crossword clue is right, it popped up as I was reading the clue, but I reject it initially because it doesn't seem to fir with the clue and then I realise that it does fit with the clue. My unconscious mind knew and had to wait for my conscious mind to work it out.

Of course, when we speak we have a general idea of what we want to say but the words themselves "happen". They are not pre-written or predetermined. They pop into existence as the speaking, or writing, is in process. We only notice when the activity stalls and we stumble, can't think of a word. But the truth is that we didn't think of any of the words. They arose, bubbled up.

I like this. this being conscious of all that I am not conscious of. this awareness of the limits of the power of the conscious mind and the unheralded strength of the unconscious.