Temperament

I’m eating mostly organic produce these days, although not entirely. In Los Angeles, there is fairly easy access to affordable organic produce if you know where to shop. I take advantage of the farmer’s markets here and get good deals on organic produce at those. There is a very small farmer’s market here in Silverlake on Saturdays and of course the huge farmer’s market in Hollywood on Sundays.

I feel that it is vital to eat organic. I think that is part of the reason that I’ve found myself here. It was much more difficult to access affordable organic produce in New Jersey even though, being the “Garden State”, produce there is usually abundant.

I’m also feeling the urge to water fast. I feel that will be the next step. I’ve actually water fasted since I was a teenager, but never anything really significant. Generally they were water fasts from one to three days. I watched an inspiring short film on fasting last night called Slow Down and Fast. Interesting indeed. Water fasting shall be something I will be experimenting with in the future.

I am also feeling the urge to stop driving the car. Many of the streets here have bike lanes, I have a $3000 bicycle and I know how to ride it. I’ve been cycling seriously for the past 25 years and was a runner 8 years before that. Lately, I’ve been riding 25 to 30 miles 6 to 7 days a week. In all the 25 years, however, I’ve not used a bicycle to commute.

There are challenges with cycling as a mode of transport here none of which have to do with the actual riding itself. These issues have to do with the nature of my job and location, which I won’t go into at the moment. Whether or not it will be feasible to entirely give up the car will remain to be seen. These challenges, are for the most part, safety issues because of city living and what that brings, but there are other challenges as well, but it is something that I have been giving much thought to and have been gearing myself for.

I’m not a particularly ambitious person per se. I don’t get an idea and then necessarily go head long into battle with it. I more or less get certain ideas and inspirations and visualize these allowing those concepts to imbue me until they manifest. At times, these manifestations have happened rather suddenly; at other times, it has been a more gradual process. For instance, I told my mother when I was 9 years old that I was going to be a fruitarian; however, a raw plant based regime didn’t become a reality until many years later.

It has always been rather strange to think of a thing and then at some point be engaged in the actual reality of that thing as it unfolds.

Often I think that I should be more ambitious. In my life, ambition has always been difficult to come by. I have always been far more enthusiastic about marked inner development. I can only attribute this temperament to the lives spent as a monk.