By Travis Newbill

Floral Notes and Bardo: The Creative Chronicles of a Shambhala Mountain Resident is a daily feature on the SMC blog in which a member of our staff/community shares his experience of existing as part of Shambhala Mountain Center.

Bags n’ boxes on the floor and everywhere in my lil’ house.  Just enough room for my morning shimmy, and just barely enough time to make it to breakfast and then meditate for a bit.  Adjusting–to the spring/summer schedule and the new living situation…

Late for meditation this morning, but still the first one there.  I filled up the water bowls and rang the gong, Heather the only other one in the room.  My number-one witness.  I said:

The life of the lonely umdze.

I’m yearning for the new groove-routine.  Previously, living as a solitary fellow in my lil’ hermitage: I’d wake up between 4 and 5 and get moving–lujong, sing, shit, write, breakfast, practice…  Now, I have a mate, and there is uncertainty about how to arrange my life and time–because, to some extent, it’s our life and time.

I don’t want to suppress my wild-yogi-artist spirit, and also, I don’t want to neglect the beautiful relationship…or the beautiful community.  Searching for the middle way.  Searching for harmony, always.  Singer…

I wish for individual and group flourishing.  I know the two are not separate.  The heart has a secret.  My mind-mud is too stirred up to know the way.

Humanness:

I’d like for us go through all of this together: to caringly witness the mud, the sun, each other, ourselves.

~~~

Singing, singing, befriending the human…

–March 25, 2014

~~~

Travis Newbill is a curious dude on the path of artistry, meditation, and social engagement who is very glad to be residing at Shambhala Mountain Center. His roles within the organization include Marketing Associate and Head Dekyong–a position of leadership within the community.