focus

Yesterday's trip to County Hall was interesting ... senior officers explaining the social care landscape and their role generally as well as Newtown House in particular ... potential providers await, leaving the community enterprise looking premature ... though other models of social care, as proposed by Stanhope resident and blog reader the other day are essential ... an area to be explored outside of the current paradigm ... of which more later ...

The Retreat House picked up energy with lunch at Ciao Ciao and encouragement from Andreas, who speaks of it as already done ... possibly informed by revelations in deep meditation many years ago ... anyway, the social responsibility of Newtown House lifts for a while to enable more focus, though the blog still diverts (the Directory idea less so ...) ... Age UK's Life magazine Spring edition appears with a story about Wear and Dao and a contact from a new reader, who is also a writer ...

More books arrive via the Oxfam Bookshop and Hive .... requiring reading focus, with so much choice ... fortunately television and radio are not available to further distract ... though an occasional film evening intervenes, with startling results to report ... the years of abstinence have changed the brain structure to make what was once normal Hollywood style dramas, with noise, violence, foul language and plots designed to evoke strong emotions, intolerable ...

It will be interesting to monitor the mind as this peaceful blogger re-enters more active versions of his self ... integrating new lessons perhaps ... anyway, retreating is always available and the idea that creating a Retreat Centre is likely to be a cause of stress itself an amusing idea ...

This afternoon's useful activity means taking the bus up the Dale and walking back delivering programmes for next month ... a warm sunny day and good to test the legs on a longer trek ...

Focus for the weekend? A business plan for the Retreat House ... and "Sapiens, A Brief History of Humankind" a likely distraction ...