Coronavirus – Darrell G Yardley

A Covid Urban Hermit

Post author:D6cK4vXlve
Post published:July 7, 2020
Post category:Coronavirus

For decades I had fantasies about becoming a desert hermit, which I describe below. At this point in my life, age 72 at this writing, I still haven’t made the desert part, and not so sure now I still want to, but thanks especially to the covid pandemic, I find myself a “covid urban hermit.”

I live in a small South Carolina town, Liberty, with my adult children and their families nearby. The small town means I can walk or bicycle in a mile radius around me and get to a major grocery store, my daughter’s pharmacy, a hardware store, an auto parts store, several restaurants, one of which is pretty good. All I’me really lacking is a craft beer store, for which I have to drive about 8-13 miles (or bicycle), depending on which one I want to go to. Most of the time I can take its backstreets to where ever I am going, but then it only has to “busier” streets, which by big city standards, is still low traffic. More on all of this on my Buddha on a Bike page. I want to start with some relevant aspects of my personality, then move on to my desert hermit fantasy.

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Coping with Anxiety in a Coronavirus World

Post author:Darrell Yardley
Post published:April 30, 2020
Post category:Coronavirus Positive Psychology

A Secular Version of the Serenity Prayer:

May I cultivate—

The serenity to accept what I cannot change,

The courage to change what I can,

And the wisdom to know the difference.

In these times of great financial, medical, and social change, stress and anxiety are running rampant. At least I know mine is–at least some time. As someone who has had to deal a lifetime with high anxiety, I have spent a lot of time learning ways to mitigate it and would like to share some, hopefully, helpful suggestions with you, starting with the secular version of the Serenity Prayer above.

Start a COVID-19 journal and record your daily thoughts, feelings, and doings. Focus on the things you can change, control, or at least influence. Make a list of these in your journal. You don’t need to go into a list of things you can’t change or do anything about. Focus on what you can change. By putting your energy and efforts into things you can change and control, your will find yourself less overwhelmed by those things you can’t.

Social distancing adds a whole new level of stress. That is a euphemism. I refer to it as social isolation. I am by nature in my old age pretty much a hermit anyway. My introversion works in my favor here. I prefer to spend large blocks of time in solitude. However, with the Coronavirus social isolation, it sometimes is over the top for even me. So I check in via phone, FaceTime, emails, texting, etc. with friends and family. Unfortunately, humans in particular, and mammals in general, need touch. Occasionally, I have to walk down the street and get a hug from my daughter, granddaughters, and great grandson. My ex drops by about once a week for a visit. These help keep me in equilibrium. So, maintaining social contact is important for your mental health.

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Chop water, carry wood is a blog by Darrell G. Yardley, PhD, LPC, focusing on wide variety of topics on spirituality and science, Zen Buddhism, secular religious naturalism, Native American spirituality, and science (psychology, evolution, genetics, neurobiology, chaos theory). Defining spirituality as a combination of the cultivation of inner-peace and personal growth.

Promoting simplicity, mindfulness, self-sufficiency, self-reliance, self-actualization, inner-peace, personal growth, and eco-responsibility. My credo is: reduce, repair, repurpose, recycle, and compost. I will take up a range of topics including gardening, bicycling, and whatever topics are on my mind.

Having just finished my second book, The Guru on the Mountain, which shortly will be available on Amazon.com, I am working toward another with a working title, Buddha on a Bike, about my increased interest and involvement in bicycling, the adventures thereon, and relevant to the above topics.

The blog’s title is a wordplay based on an old Zen proverb: “Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.”

What does it mean? There are several layers of meaning to this old, pithy saying. One one level it means that the world does not change when we become “enlightened”. We still must do the work we need to do from moment to moment. The world doesn’t change, but we do, or rather, our perspective and response to the world changes. After enlightenment, the world is still just, the world. It just is. At another level, it is telling us to be fully present in each moment, i.e. to be mindful, no matter what our task.

It is about living your regular life, but from a different perspective and understanding. A spiritual life does not require that we shave our heads, live in the desert, give up all possessions, etc. We can live our regular life, only different; with mindfulness, less attachment, letting go into each moment, then letting it go into the next, realizing that all is impermanent. Being more relaxed, less uptight, realizing that nothing is permanent, everything changes. Less judgmental.

My wordplay is that you can’t of course, chop water, not unless of course it is its solid form of ice. So, my wordplay is a paradox built upon the Zen paradox, known as koans. Koans are Zen word puzzles that are directed to helping students (that be all of us) to obtain enlightenment.

Hopefully my words will help you in this endeavor in your own journey. If not, at least maybe a little enjoyment. Gassho