Snow

I feel happy because it's snowing. Along with many other snow-lovers I have been waiting patiently (at times) for the snow to begin falling. If you have ever woken up, looked out your window, and realized that while you were sleeping a thick blanket of snow covered the landscape, then you know how great of a feeling it is. Snow is great. It's awesome. It's fluffy and cold and crunchy. You can dive in a thick bank of snow and if feels like you are jumping into a cloud. Kind of. Snow is great to eat too. It melts in your mouth and sometimes turns into an ice cube. Snow makes the air smell fresh and clean. It falls gently from the sky and with plenty of concentration you can catch the snowflakes on your tongue. Christmas just isn't Christmas without snow. Last year did not feel like Christmas. It was brown outside and it was supposed to be white. If the world does end on Friday, it better be snowing. On Friday, I will be in Sun Valley, cross-country skiing, in the snow. So it would be a pretty good place to go.

Anyway. This is a pretty lame post, especially considering it's my last one. In any case, it's been a great life.  

cute puppies!!!

Forward

If you keep hearing about all of the political drama going on on television, but are still unsure about which candidate to vote for, I am hear to tell you that you should vote for President Barack Obama, here’s why:

If you are a woman, or if you have young women you care about in your life, than President Obama is a better choice for you. He believes that women should have the right to make their own health care choices. Obama wants to keep Planned Parenthood and support the use of birth control in order to allow young women to control their lives. On the other hand, Mitt Romney is planning to get rid of Planned Parenthood and wants to limit the use of contraceptives in America, which severely restrict women’s rights. If you are a woman who has been raped or been a subject to incest, and Romney becomes president, you can’t get an abortion, and that simple choice could have the power to ruin the rest of your life. In short, Obama thinks that the government should stay out of important decisions like that. That sounds pretty fair to me.

If you are a college student or a teacher hoping to keep your job, Obama is the man for you. President Obama established a college tax credit and funded for Pell Grants which allowed the opportunity for many more students to go to college. He thinks  that anyone who works hard enough to go to college, should be able to, no matter what background they come from. On the other hand, Mitt Romney is planning to cut middle class investments which means that less money would be spent on Pell Grants for millions of students which ultimately leads to less students getting the chance to go to college. Voting for Obama is a good choice for teachers because Romney wants to "cut back" on teachers while Obama thinks that small class sizes are beneficial for everyone.

If you are a senior citizen, make your vote for Obama because he wants to strengthen Medicare. He believes that health insurance for the elderly should have free preventative services and lower costs on prescription drugs. Romney would turns Medicare into a voucher program which would make seniors pay loads more money each year. If you are a citizen in general, which I'm guessing you are if you are voting in this year's election, then voting for Obama will help you out too because Obama wants to put an end to health insurance abuses around the country. Have you ever heard of the health care horror stories where an insurance company drops you from their coverage right when you get sick, or a doctor can't perform a life-saving procedure because you don't have health insurance coverage? Well, President Obama is hoping to stop this inhumane behavior and get insurance companies to start doing what they are supposed to do; help people.

One of the main differences between Obama and Romney are their taxing plans. This topic seems to personify each candidate pretty well. Romney wants to tax all of the United States the same. Seems fair right? No. If you are taxing a millionaire the same amount as a family struggling with poverty, it will only make the poor poorer and will have little effete on the rich. Obama on the other hand wants to tax the rich a bit more and tax the poor a bit less, in order to help those who need money most. Now, if you are one of those millionaires who claims to need every penny, then go ahead, vote for Mitt Romney, but it's easy to see that the right thing to do is help those in need. 

Do your part, vote for Barack Obama in tomorrow's election.

Running with the Mind of Meditation

There's nothing like a good hill to shut everyone up. Inhales, exhales, and clapping of your feet against the ground. That's all you hear. Your lungs begin to burn, though not as bad as your legs, as you look up to see the horizon line of the hill.  I can do this, you think. Then, within a moment you feel that sickening fire running up your legs and  that heavy led ball forming in your stomach. This is pain, this is running. Yet many people from all around the world do it everyday, some even for pleasure. 

Sakyong Mipham is a well-known Buddhist meditation leader and he likes to run too. Now you may think, aren't sitting on a cushion completely still, and vigorously pounding your legs quite different? Well yes, and no. According to Mipham, in order to have a spiritual well being, you have to train the body by running and the mind by meditating. He even says that meditation can help your running. Mipham's book, Running with the Mind of Meditation, talks about running and meditation in stages. First the Tiger Stage, when you are a beginner and have to ease into the practice of both running and meditation; next the Lion Stage when you are in shape both mentally and physically and can use your new skills to enjoy yourself; third The Garuda (large birdish thing) Stage when you being to challenge yourself and push your limits; and finally the Dragon Stage when you can use your practice to help others. His book serves as a well thought out guide of how to begin meditating and running and how to progress and ultimately benefit as much as possible from your practice.

  

S (subjects): It's easy to tell by reading Running with the Mind of Meditation that Sakyong Mipham is a pretty spiritual guy. He grew up being exposed to many acclaimed meditation masters, one of them being his father. Because of this, he began meditating as a young kid. "When I was trained in my meditation as a child, I was asked to sit there and follow my breathe for an hour." (Mipham 30) Throughout the book, he talks about various experiences that have taught him lessons about life, primarily through running and meditation. The best way I can describe Mipham's voice is kind, gentle, and at times a bit humorous. Not to sound ridiculous or slightly creepy, but while reading his book, I really felt that Mipham was talking to me. He did a great job of hitting the idea of fusing meditation and running, and after finishing the book, I trusted him and felt pretty inspired to start meditating. 

  O (occasion): The book was copyrighted in 2012 and written after Sakyong Mipham's ninth marathon. After feeling like an accomplished runner and meditator, Mipham may have felt inspired to share his experience through writing the book. In today's day and age it seems that more and more people are becoming distracted and being pulled from what's really important, happiness. Mipham may have felt that his book needed to be written in order to help people suffering from this type of 20th century depression.

A (audience): Speaking of those suffering people, this book is written for those who first of all, have at least a slight interest in both running and meditation. After all you don't want to read a book that doesn't interest you. I'm guessing that more women would be interested in reading this book than men because it has a slight self-help aspect to it, which I'm not sure men would be as motivated to read as women. It's an easy read, with a lot of introspective and philosophical ideas. It would appeal to the more spiritual type because it doesn't include very many facts and statistics, but rather uses many metaphors and universal ideas about life and happiness. Because the book has a lot to do with meditation, I think it's aimed for a middle aged audience because not very many children and teenagers feel the need to meditate. Because the book has a lot to do with running, I don't think it's aimed for the elderly or anyone who physically can't run, because obviously you don't want to read an instructional book based on an activity you can't participate in. 

P (purpose): I imagine that Mipham wrote Running with the Mind of Meditation to primarily educate readers on his extensive ideas and knowledge on the topics of running and meditating. I definitely learned a lot about keeping your brain calm during a brutal run as well as flushing away the effects after having "one of those days" by meditating. He's getting the idea out there that you don't have to be some far-fetched person in order to change your life. If you are willing to give his ideas some effort, he believes the rewards will come. His purpose of writing this book was genuinely to help others.

S (style): Although Mipham's vocabulary choice wasn't all that advanced, he still sounded very formal. He doesn't use American slang, which makes sense because he is Tibetan and always sounds calm, cool, and collected. He rarely uses exclamation points and rather sounds peaceful, just as you would imagine a Buddhist meditation master. He uses a lot of metaphors and similes, such as in this excerpt about the breath during meditation, "This calm trains the mind, which is like training a horse. Every time the horse wants to leave the trail because it sees some nice morsel of grass-be it a random discursive thought or a large fantasy-we bring the horse back to the trail. In this case, the trail is the breath." (Mipham 38) Mipham generally refers to the audience and people in general as "we" for example he says, "When we are running- and when we are exercising in general- we engage in one of the most intimate and meaningful acts that might occur during the day." (Mipham 79) Another feature he used throughout the book was telling the reader the Tibetan translation of select words. This was helpful for him when explaining because he was using a word that he felt described the word perfectly rather than using American words that didn't describe it quite as well. Overall, the style of the book was formal and informative, but it was able to stay very kind and personal.



T (Tone): Not to sound cheesy, but the feeling overall feelings that Mipham portrayed through his book are love and peace. He promotes the idea of a happy life, which everyone wants. He let readers know that they have the ability to control their minds and bodies, therefore controlling their lives. When reading his book, he makes it all sound so simple. He tells you that meditation will give you a clear mind and lists all of the benefits. I'll admit, while I was reading the book I had an inspired moment where I decided to take a few minutes to meditate (or at least attempt to meditate). Any book that gets you off your butt and motivated to get something done is a good book in my mind.


Rating Scale:
1- Boring, would rather check Facebook than read, not at all interesting, decide after first chapter that reading this book will negatively effect your life.
2- Looking at the page number every time you turn the page, some sections hold your interest, but before you know it you are daydreaming about your plans for the weekend.
3- Somewhat interesting. You feel like the content of the book is interesting, but it doesn't really connect with you on an emotional level.
4- You are into the book. You might even bring it on vacation and read a little if you have nothing better to do. You are interested in what the book is saying and you feel some what emotionally connected to it.
5- You cry, laugh, go run a couple miles on the treadmill, and call a friend to have a heart-to-heart, all while your dog watches you and laughs on the inside about how ridiculous you are. You love this book and will most likely reread it.

I give Running with the Mind of Meditation a 4.5

The Art of Racing in the Rain

I'll admit, I probably haven't read as many books as some people. But I do like to read. Lounging in your bed on a rainy day with a page turner is something I do on the occasion and I do enjoy. When I think back to all of the books I have read, I can't remember very many that I didn't like. But I do remember a select few that I could call my favorites. As an elementary schooler who had a rabid obsession with dogs, I was glued to the book A Dog's Life by Ann M. Martin. The story was told from the point of view of a dog and I just couldn't get enough of it. So it makes sense that I also loved reading Call of the Wild by Jack London. Those two books connected with me on a deep emotional level, which may or may not be a good thing considering that I could relate more to the life of a canine than a human...

The summer before last, the required reading for the entire Park City High School was The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. Even though I no longer have hundreds of dog stuff animals guarding my room, my love for dogs is still going strong. I fell in love with this book for a second time reading it that summer. It comes from the point of view of Enzo, a good-hearted labrador who loves his owner Denny more than anything. Denny is a talented race car driver who's specialty is driving on wet pavement, hence the title "The Art of Racing in the Rain". Enzo the dog really seemed to capture the fun-loving, happy-go-lucky attitude that lies at the heart of every dog, and that's why I loved him. A less obvious aspect of the book also made it a winner in my mind. That was the little snippets of Enzo relating race-car driving to real life. As someone who has raced for most of my life, I could completely relate to the racing connections. The idea "your car goes where your eyes go" was used many times throughout the book and I can't agree more with that statement. 

Garth Stein wrote Enzo's character in such a way that he made you laugh, cry, and wonder if your best furry buddy sitting next to you is a lot more intelligent than you think. Although it was an easy read, the story was a winner and Stein's writing was colorful and created crisp images in your head as you read. If you love dogs I would definitely recommend this book. 
Heck even if you're a cat person I would still recommend it, maybe it will knock some sense into you...