Day of the Heart's Release, 16th of the Dog Days, 526 M.E. (Aldebaran): Today, the 16th of the Dog Days, is the 198th day of the year. It's the birthday of actress Billie Lourd, daughter of Carrie Fisher.  You may know her from the Star Wars movie, The Rise of Skywalker (she was Lieutenant Connix) or from television's American Horror Story.  On her 30th birthday (2022) her husband called her a "badass hot-Mom wife" and told her "I love you forever" on social media. according to People magazine. 

The 16th Dog Day is known as "Day of the Heart's Release" is the USC, and that's the most romantic thing I could find about today on the interwebs. Other than that, it's all airplane accidents, assassinations, and war crimes; you know, the usual stuff.  

The tropical wave near the Cape Verde islands has pretty much petered out - 0% chance of becoming a hurricane - but the system off the Florida panhandle in the Gulf of Mexico still warrants monitoring. 

With all of the afternoon thunderstorms here recently and the generally wet weather, I haven't walked more than a Washington in the last ten days. I've also stopped my alternating-day, 90-minute meditation. After missing less that ten days in the last two years, I've decided to give it a temporary rest. I found that my motivation for sitting was just to continue the streak, to not let the record break, and so I decided to stop until a genuine desire for sitting for the sake of the sitting, and not for maintaining some record, becomes the driving motivator once again.

The strategy seems to be working, as I already miss the zazen.

Zen master Dogen once wrote that "Driving ourselves to practice is surely delusion" or something like that. What he meant was driving ourselves during practice to some goal, usually enlightenment, is delusional, not forcing ourselves to initiate practice, but the words have been misinterpreted by many Zen practitioners over the centuries (okay, maybe just me). But there's a time for sitting and a time for not sitting, and until a sincere desire to resume practice re-emerges, I'm suspending my zazen. 

As I said, the strategy seems to be working. I find my days strangely off-center since I've stopped, and I'm frequently stumped while trying to decide what to do with myself over the next hour. Maybe when this wet cycle finally subsides and I resume my alternating-day walks, I can resume sitting on the days between the walks.

Have you seen that new Homer movie yet?