Horizons

The colours of the leaves are changing so quickly now I swear if you sat still and watching you could actually see them do it! I give thanks for the views I have from here...and for those on 'Autumn' on the Great British Year series I watched this afternoon. As usual I was mesmerised by what water looks like on a 'modern' TV screen (mine's 5 or 6 years old) - had to put the iron down and pick up the camera!

I gave thanks for the way the sea and sky have been almost indistinguishably the same shade of grey or blue all day - very atmospheric! And for the sight of the lights of the tankers manouvering in the bay as darkness fell. I'm aware some people might think this is a batty thing to like but it's a rare treat when high tide and sunset happen at just the right times...and there's shipping around to play its part. I always give thanks for the fact they do it in front of my window too...

Not having a lot of energy today mostly I've been getting stuck into the sedentary task of catching up on TV programmes recorded or downloaded over the last few months so I give thanks for the wherewithal to do this...and my excellent taste of course! Oh yes, and talking of taste I give thanks for the tasty tea bread I hastily assembled too.

One of the things I watched was a Horizon episode about personality, particularly changes that can be made to something we tend to think of as being just the way we are. There was some troubling stuff (especially if you're a rat who hasn't been licked a great deal!) but it was encouraging to see how much could be done to deliberately remould even the physical manifestations of miserable personality traits... especially encouraging if you're a human who does this stuff anyway!  And though there was the obligatory shot of a Buddhist monk in an MRI scanner it was even better to have someone new to meditation and interested in those pesky hard facts have their brain changes looked at after a few weeks. The programme's expired on blink-and-you've-missed-it-yet-again BBC iplayer but you can read all about it here http://www.rainybrainsunnybrain.com/bbc-horizon/  and even do the non non-attachment exercises the researcher did to try to alter his attachment to the negative. Go on try them...I promise you won't turn out like me! Well, only in a good way...