Before everyone wakes

Contemplative practice (& real time narration)

I begin to type this before everyone wakes at about 6:30. Well, not everyone. I’ve just let the cats in.

POST SCRIPT: I decided to document my alone time after it started not going the way I wanted it to. No brilliant ideas here folks. Just a little peek into my life while I openly reflect.

Around 4:45 I stirred, aching from some kind of injury in my leg that is painful when I hike or run. I did both yesterday anyway, and am paying for it. My mind starts to contemplate calendaring a physio visit…

I leave my husband and five year old to cuddle (dance? The little one is not a still sleeper, and usually migrates to our bed in the middle of the night).

I down too much water. Is that a throat tickle? And then a zinc lozenge.

I scan my phone to see if it needs to be plugged in for the day (it does) and notice a flurry of new content about people worried about AI. I ditch that ping and notice a chat thread I’ve avoided given real life engagements. I think about the real lives in that thread. I respond.

What now? Administration? Creativity? Books… lots of those to continue with.

I go back to the video about AI experts “sounding the alarm.” Oh the alarms. Those are plenty these days, no? Anyway, I have some thoughts on those and I start a new medium blog with some links and prompts. But it’s too early to dig in there.

Cats. They want out. Both through a different door. I wonder if they are nervous about something specific… I sense unusual behaviour. Owls? A cougar? Those are definitely around these days.

I settle on some health admin. I need to find a health record for a specialist that is not in my digital gateway. Shit. I forgot about that other gateway… hold on. Lemme see if I can find it.

Oh look! Seems I can expect more emails and texts I have to think carefully about in case they are malicious. Also, no update on improving access to my records for my specialist. Anyway… it also seems I still need to update my browser.

Nope. No record there. I’ve got a call into the other specialist that might be harbouring these results in email. I might hear back this week.

When I initially thought to do health administration, I went to my email. I wanted to be sure I had not received the record prior. I hadn’t. But I had received congrats for the automated message LinkedIn sent me about my 23 year work anniversary.

Ha. I’ve not been working for the last six months while on a scheduled Sabbatical. That feels like cheating.

Away I click… “thanks for the congrats.” It’s just polite, you know?

But what’s this?

I’ll bookmark that keynote link now because I forgot to the first time. I was distracted by the comment she made at the bottom of her post about courses:

In January 2027, I will teach “Facing Human Wrongs: Redirecting Education and AI Towards Earth-Alignment.” Designed for educators, the course examines how modern education and generative AI reproduce patterns of extraction, optimization and standardization. It also explores how these patterns arise from a worldview that treats both humans and AI as separate from the rest of nature. We will explore how these patterns deepen existing harms and contradictions, while developing the discernment needed to engage, disengage or redirect our relationship with AI.

Information and registration for all three courses can be found here:
https://lnkd.in/d9WyHi2e

(I’ve just checked the time. It is 7:12am and I’m aware that the boys are still asleep, and we need to be at the first soccer practice at 9am. Anyway… let’s see if I can get to completion.)

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I read through the upcoming course on Meta-relational something or other, which signals a lot of beautiful merging between my recent pausing and disconnection and recalibration and overall sensing of the state of things and some pertinent critical questions that require re-engagement and focus and action.

It showed up as the perfect nexus between that text chat I tended and the alarm bells that sounded.

So I download the first required reading. Science and art. Tasty.

Burnout From Humans

6:30 I check the clock, warm the kettle, and start the coffee process.

I’ve just let the cats in

First, Remington. He’s angry sounding. Not sure he is actually angry. But he knows how to put on a show at least.

Of course, I hop up and he enters. I return down the hall to (almost) complete the coffee.

Abby now. Fluffy, sweet, and anxious. Down the hall. Good morning darling… oh, not interested in pets? Right… treats.

At this point… it’s about 6:35 or so… I’m not sure I’ll get to read that article. I’m not sure I can settle into it, even if the boys continue to sleep.

But this notion of meta-relating has me wondering about my own meta. This kind of frustrating up-and-down, side-to-side, shallow-and-deep experience I’ve had over the last hour that probably needs more thoughtful inspection.

And that is when I decided to start writing this article.

When I first woke, the light was barely threatening. I could imagine the birdsong. Calm and focus was promising.

(7:52 now. Footsteps are now coming down the hall. “Good morning love” *scratch *scratch. Seems we’ll probably make it to soccer on time.)

The promise was broken. By me, the cats, the tizzy of the world that is antagonizing both me and the cats.

As I wait for the smaller feet, and contemplate what picture to add to this article for your potential enjoyment, I think I’m left wondering what could have propped up that promise.

I’ve got no shortage of advice to give myself it seems. I’ve been staring out the window thinking about all the ways.

(“I bet you’ve already had treats” I hear Danton say, as the treat package crinkles open.)

So I’m going to call it done. I’ve sparked some reflection. Some new direction, perhaps. And I’ve practiced keeping my WPM up, because it feels good to type at the pace of my brain thinking, revising, and executing soundly… regardless of the time of day.

And now I’ve found picture, and had a pee, and kissed Danton good morning (he avoided physically interrupting me before, because he’s seen this show and the look on my posture).

💐 Heather-Lynn

Remington the tabby, resting, near the blue chair in my living room that I’m currently sitting on as I type.

P.S. right… that was what I was going to look up at the start of all this: how to ensure I have properly secure my “smart home.” That was another ping in my news topic notifications. I’ll probably opt to go out to the garden instead of following up on that. After soccer, of course.

P.P.S I got the dates for soccer wrong. It starts next week. Phew! And the kiddo is still sleeping, so I probably could have gotten into that book 🤷🏼‍♀️