Discerning an Abrahamic Eremitic Blogging Vocation with a Psychiatric Disability

It's 8:50 AM on Saturday as I begin to write my way through this Week 36 Plan. My brother and his wife are visiting from Kentucky, and we are about to head out of Albany for a daytrip, so this will be an early and brief weekly planning session. Here are the seven steps of my weekly planning process as they currently stand: Step 1: Evaluate the Past Seven Days (Review My Weekly Plan, Give the Week a Binary Evaluation, Summarize at Least One Key Takeaway) Step 2: Review Mission (Blog Title) and Vision (Blog Description) Step 3: Review Areas of Responsibility (Blog Pages) Step 4: Review Project List and Add or Retire Active Projects (Blog Labels) Step 5: Confirm Assignment of Quadrant II Work on Each Project to Productivity Theme Days (Blog Pages) Step 6: Confirm Hard Appointments for the Week, Month and Quarter Underway (Microsoft Outlook Calendar) Step 7: Update Next Actions List as Time Allows (Microsoft Outlook To Do)     Week 35 was a positive mental health recover...

It's 8:03 AM on Tuesday. I am of course deeply troubled by the IPC report of famine in Gaza, and also by the Israeli double-tap strike on Nasser hospital in Khan Younis (cf.  Israel’s attack on hospital in Gaza may constitute a war crime on many fronts | Israel-Gaza war | The Guardian ). I am not ready to ditch my Christian Zionism altogether - that would be throwing the theological Zionist baby out with the alleged Israeli war crimes bathwater - but I do now seem to be moving from evangelical Christian Zionism toward consideration of minimalist Catholic Zionism. Video above:  Famine in Gaza City: Did the UN’s hunger monitor ‘forge’ the numbers? • FRANCE 24 English . Video below:  Minimalist Catholic Zionism . This realignment will take me into the work of Professor Gavin D'Costa  alongside that of Rabbi Mark Kinzer  (with which I am already appreciatively familiar). More to follow next Monday, God willing. May we get a ceasefire, outside journalistic access to ...

It's 6:57 PM on Sunday and I am back to consideration of the Hail Mary (English) in monastic reciting tone C by Paul Rose . The first thing I want to do in this evening's session is identify and define all the components of this simple Gregorian score. Then hopefully I will have some time at the end to work on my actual chanting. Hmmm. Well, after considering all that seems to be involved here, I just ordered my first rosary. It's a one-decade pocket rosary. Okay, now on to the main parts of a simple Gregorian score. There are two: Sacred Text : I don't feel entirely comfortable calling the sacred text of a Gregorian score the "lyrics," but if we think of a Gregorian chant as a form of song, then lyrics are what we are talking about here. "The primary purpose of Gregorian chant," according to Google Gemini, "is to serve this text, which carries a mystical and spiritual message. In Gregorian chant, the melody is created to serve and heighten the ...

It's 11:28 AM on Sunday as I begin to write. In order to start working my way into comfort with possibly attending Mass at one of my local Catholic parishes, on the way to participation in OCIA, I have been watching Daily TV Mass in the mornings for about five days straight. It's a great way to get into the Word, and it has other benefits, but it's still a little bit strange for me aesthetically, and I struggled with the centering of alcohol at first. I'll keep with the Mass virtually (maybe not every day, but at least on Sundays) until I learn the names of its parts and discern how it seems to be influencing my spiritual journey overall. It's great exposure therapy for my post-COVID, post-hospitalization church anxiety (cf.  How to Overcome Church Anxiety - Abundant Life ). On the other hand, I haven't ruled out a genuine calling to deep solitude. Here is a really powerful search response from Google Gemini that shows how AI can be incorporated into spiritual ...

It's 6:59 PM Saturday and I have made two key decisions in my first hour of tonight's session. Instead of Christian Astronomy, I am going to relabel this project thread Christian Earth Science (cf.  Christian Astronomy, Earth Science, or Cosmology? ) That's number one. Secondly, I am not going to try reading in Origins and In Pursuit of Wisdom at the same time, as I started to do last week. Mortimer Adler calls this syntopic reading and it's not the way I want to proceed with my study at this point. Instead, I am going to try settling in for a moderately deep analytical reading of In Pursuit of Wisdom . Adler encourages active reading of non-fiction, which involves asking four key questions as we make our way through a text: What is the book about? What is being said and how? Is it true? What is its significance? It's important, according to Adler, to treat the act of a reading a book as a conversation with the author. I was therefore delighted to find an accessi...

It's 1:31 PM on Saturday as I begin to write my way through this Week 35 Plan. I am finding that it is very helpful for me to separate my Office Management checklist review on Saturday mornings before lunch from my Weekly Planning session on Saturday afternoons following lunch and a nap if I feel I need to take one. Here are the seven steps of my weekly planning process as they currently stand: Step 1: Evaluate the Past Seven Days (Review My Weekly Plan, Give the Week a Binary Evaluation, Summarize at Least One Key Takeaway) Step 2: Review Mission (Blog Title) and Vision (Blog Description) Step 3: Review Areas of Responsibility (Blog Pages) Step 4: Review Project List and Add or Retire Active Projects (Blog Labels) Step 5: Confirm Assignment of Quadrant II Work on Each Project to Productivity Theme Days (Blog Pages) Step 6: Confirm Hard Appointments for the Week, Month and Quarter Underway (Microsoft Outlook Calendar) Step 7: Update Next Actions List as Time Allows (Microsoft ...

It's 11:06 AM on Saturday. I got an early start on a review and overhaul of my paper filing system this morning. I began with study of the GTD Workflow Map and a then listened to a couple of GTD refresher podcasts on my morning walk. Once I got back to the office, I settled in with the Minimal Mom to learn another perspective on how to solve my paper office problem . After giving all of that some thought, and getting some feedback from Google Gemini, I now have the following stations in my minimalist paper management system: Inbox (nice, single wooden tray on my desktop that looks great empty!) Recycling Bin Scanner Drawer (portable USB scanner that I keep in a drawer under my desk for occasional scanning jobs) Shredder Box (just a small cardboard box of papers that I need to bring to Staples for shredding; maybe I will upgrade with my own small office shredder) Time Will Tell (two portable plastic file boxes with handles, one with file folders, one without - my plan is to use thi...

8:39 PM Eastern Thursday. During this evening's session, I focused all of my energy learning how to chant Psalm 6 with Paul Rose. This was a stretch for me, but I think I was able to do a reasonably good job as a total beginner. I used the Roto Organ plugin for FL Keys in my FL Studio DAW to make sure I was hitting the right notes (G3, A3, B3, C4, and D4). Then I added some cathedral reverb into my audio track. My voice is weak and shaky, but I am making progress understanding the notation. I was able to get through the entire psalm. Video link:  Psalm 6 (English), Gregorian Tone 2 .  

11:52 AM Eastern on Thursday. I've decided to wrap up my weekly reading in Depths of the Torah at portion 47 so that I can visit with my brother and his wife next week and then move directly into study of Compendium: Catechism of the Catholic Church  on subsequent Thursday mornings. Having read Torah portions 48-54 and various commentaries related to them already in the past, now I can say that I have read the Torah all the way through and given considerable thought to Jewish and Gentile observance of the 613 mitzvot from a First Fruits of Zion perspective. This week's commentary by D. Thomas Lancaster includes three sections that I feel particularly comfortable ending on. The first section is titled "Mitzvah: Tearing Down Idolatry," from pages 1597-1598. The second section is titled "Mitzvah: The False Prophet," from pages 1608-1609. The third section is titled "The Enticer Today," from pages 1611-1612.  I have been powerfully impacted by my stud...

It's 10:04 PM Eastern on Wednesday and I am wrapping up another study session with Paul Rose's  Sung English Rosary FAST, Simple Gregorian Chant Melodies (Sing the Hours) . I focused on learning the names and meanings of the musical symbols included in the image above and tried to practice chanting each of the three referenced note values with help from my FL Keys Grand Piano simulator plugin and my keyboard controller. I am such a beginner it was a bit rough, but I did make some progress. More to follow with the Hail Mary on Friday evening. Tomorrow night I will be looking at Psalm 6.

It's 5:22 PM Eastern on Wednesday and I have spent the day processing my old medical records. I thought I would be able to get through the entire crate of file folders in one sitting, but it's going to take a lot longer than I had originally estimated. This tendency to misjudge the amount of time required to complete a project is called the planning fallacy . Taking today's lesson into account, I am now giving myself the next seven Wednesdays to complete this phase of my medical records project. Let's see where everything stands on 8 October 2025. I don't expect to tackle anything new on Wednesday mornings or afternoons until I get this crate of paper files fully reviewed, scanned if necessary, and then recycled or shredded.

It's 8:54 PM Eastern on Tuesday and I have decided after careful consideration to acquire  The Fated Sky: Astrology in History by Benson Bobrick. It has taken me all evening to make the decision. This may not be allowed Catholic reading.

It's 5:22 PM Eastern on Tuesday as I begin to write. I've been working all day on reorganization of the sleeping and prayer areas in my loft. I will divide the rest of my hermitage into additional zones as I proceed with my decluttering and inventory. I also helped me my mom out downstairs, did a couple loads of laundry, vacuumed, and started organizing in my closet. On a more forward-looking level, I took a walk around midday and listened to the first 30-minutes of an important talk titled  Creating a Practical Housing Plan for Your Loved One with a Disability :  There is a lot for me to think about here. I am sure I will be revisiting the rest of this webinar on subsequent Tuesdays, my new Hermit Economics productivity theme day. I didn't do any work on my "go bag" this week, but I did start a home inventory in Excel (using one of the included templates) as a way to support my decluttering process. Thanks to The Minimal Mom for the cognitive load insights. Nex...

It's 7:12 PM Eastern on Monday and I am eager to get back into the music production side of the psalmody with Paul Rose on Psalm 6 , but it looks like I need to deal with last Friday morning's Psalm 137:9 crisis of faith , instead, and it might take me the rest of this evening to do so. To be clear, I don't necessarily subscribe to the doctrine of the perspicuity of Scripture . Instead, I have articulated in my correspondence with Matthew King a belief in the controversiality of Scripture, which I define as follows: "The controversiality of the Bible means that the original authorship, date of composition, strict historical veracity, best contemporary translation, and most valid exegesis, if not absolute divinity, of each and every Old and New Testament passage, are subject to good argument by well-informed and well-meaning Church scholars, naturally leading to organic divisions within the body of Christ over the course of Church history, according to God's provi...

It's 4:29 PM, I am running off schedule because of a dental appointment that I didn't handle very well mentally or emotionally, though I did remember to pray a few times, and this is a quick note to keep the beat on my Monday morning Christian Zionism and my Monday afternoon UN Charter Navigation projects. My plan for this morning was to decide whether or not to start reading and commenting upon A Short History of Christian Zionism by Donald Lewis. I haven't been able to make a decision. On the one hand, it seems like the best and fairest place to really begin with Christian Zionism in earnest. On the other hand, it might be better for me to keep my focus on the interpretation of current events. I parted ways with Prime Minister Netanyahu on the strategic level back on 2 March 2025, but I've parted ways with him on other decisions since 7 October 2023, and for a while he was proving me wrong, which I frankly admired and took as a testament to the strength of Jewish nat...

It's 6:57 PM Eastern on Sunday as I begin to write. I've been thinking all day (well, between a couple of naps) about whether or not God is calling me to a Sunday morning Mass obligation. It's a very complicated question and Sister Laurel has given me much to chew on in Notes from Stillsong Hermitage: Questions on Sunday Obligation and the Hermit Life . I've also taken into account Bishop Barron's most recent Sunday sermon, the daily Bible reading in the Catholic lectionary, and  Code of Canon Law - Book II - The People of God - Part II. (Cann. 573-606) . While I must confess there is a part of my personality that is profoundly resistant to Catholic conversion, the lion's share of my conscience now seems to have tilted in the direction of serious Catholic inquiry - thanks, I trust, to the continued leading of the Holy Spirit.

It's 7:17 PM Eastern on Saturday evening and I may or may not make it into Chapter 1 of Origins  tonight. The Holy Spirit seems to be guiding my attention in two alternative directions. On one hand, I want to drill down into the field of Christian Astronomy by exploring a series of YouTube videos featuring the Vatican's astronomer. On the other hand, I also and maybe more pressingly want to take a step back from even the very broad field of Christian Earth Science to position myself in proper relationship to the history of both science and Catholicism. If I am to become a Catholic - whereas now I am only an intrigued but hesitant Inquirer - I will need to overcome some concerns about excessive supernaturalism, superstition and traditionalism at the periphery of the faith. Perhaps the best way to proceed is to blend or accompany a reading of  Origins with reading of  In Pursuit of Wisdom: Catholicism and Science Through the Ages . The Kindle version is priced at a bargain...

It's 3:06 PM Eastern on Saturday as I begin to write my way through this Week 34 Plan.  I have recently written about trying and failing to successfully implement a time management practice since the 1990s. Maybe this time around I can master some disability accommodations that make an effective system stick. I am not convinced that a high-fidelity Christian vegan eremitic time management system is beyond my capabilities. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, I was a student of Stephen Covey's First Things First (FTF) methodology. The FTF system is centered around a weekly organizing session. I have customized the session to include the following elements: Step 1: Evaluate the Past Seven Days (Scan Your Blog Posts) Step 2: Review Your Mission (Blog Title) and Vision (Blog Description) Step 3: Review Your Areas of Responsibility (Blog Pages) Step 4: Review and Add or Retire Active Projects (Blog Labels) for Each of Your Areas of Responsibility  Step 5: Schedule Your Soft Appointme...

It's 11:43 AM Eastern on Saturday. I've had a good office management session this morning. My office space is starting to feel a lot more Zen, but I still have some distance to travel. The checklist I came up with last week is a help. I am not a GTD master like David Allen, but I seem to be closing in on a minimally paper-based office system (cf.  Get Your Paper Based Filing System in Order | GTD® ). Unless something else on my Saturday morning checklist needs more attention next week, I will continue to prioritize refinement of the paper-based component of my office until it is right where I want it. Then I will take some photos and upload them to this blog. Also helpful for this week's session:  GTD® Beginner’s Guide to Organizing Your Paper-Based Inbox .

8:39 AM Eastern Saturday morning. Just back from an informative and encouraging walk with Sir James MacMillan. Excellent interview that I don't want to forget:  Sir James MacMillan on How Christianity Shaped Western Music | The Early Church & Gregorian Chant .

6:35 PM Eastern Friday. This link to  The Gregorio Project   is for future reference, if and when it is time for me to learn to compose and publish chant in Gregorian notation. In the meantime, I feel deeply blessed to open this session with the above video,  SALVE REGINA (Solemn Tone) | Chants of Deliverance . It's a healing Christian musical response to my recent difficult encounter with Psalm 137:9. Now I will jump right in to warming up my voice and finding my natural vocal range. 8:10 PM. Well, that didn't go quite as planned. Here's what I did. I started by watching a YouTube short by Janelle Scott of TrueSong Voice Studio called " How to Find Your Real Singing Voice, or True Vocal Tone ."  Then I turned off my noisy air conditioner, fired up FL Studio 2025, loaded a new project, armed and tested my USB microphone, and recorded a short warm-up speech track. Next, I recorded a second track in which I spoke and chanted "hey" several times, reaching ...

It's 8:02 PM Eastern on Thursday evening and my new psalter has arrived, but instead of digging into it I am noticing some exercise guilt because I didn't make it outside for a walk today and I am wondering if this guilt is a prompting from the Holy Spirit because I have sinned. What if I didn't sin because I attended to higher priorities, and this is an attack from the other side? Google Gemini AI says that my exercise guilt is NOT a prompting of the Holy Spirit. Here are several relevant articles for further study: Conviction vs Guilt: The Astonishing Truth You Need to Know Is Not Exercising A Sin? Joyful Health Co™ Satan Wants You to Feel Bad | Catholic Answers Magazine The Struggle with Scrupulosity | Catholic Answers Magazine It looks like my root issue here might not be a lack of exercise, but a failure to understand the difference between the Holy Spirit as the world's best cheerleader and Satan as the world's worst guilt-tripper.

It's 5:59 PM Eastern on Thursday as I begin to write. I am just finishing up my supper-time green drink (I am running a little late this evening) and thinking how nice it would be to take a shower, but I also have my first psalter arriving from Amazon tonight, it is time to begin my Psalter and Psalmody session, the shower can wait until tomorrow morning when it fits better in my schedule, and I am too chronically depressed and/or spiritually hygiene indifferent to obsess about a daily shower in any event. I'll floss and brush my teeth, no doubt about that. But shower? Let's nail this down by the end of 2025: is daily showering a modern mental health necessity for a sedentary fifty-something anchorite, or is it just a waste of water, and especially of hot water, on my community's journey to ecological resilience and net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050? I will either go with the consensus opinion among those I trust, or I will do what I think is right regardless. I...