jeffbaker.com

Brookes The Dog

Goodbye old friend. You were a good dog, a best friend, a great roommate, a trusted confidante and we were the only family to each other for 13 truly wonderful and blessed years. Please remember, it’s OK to chase and play with the other dogs up there, but please leave the cats alone unless they come over first.
Love you buddy. Thank you for the unconditional love and understanding you gave to me every single day we were together.

Not much joy in the House of Jeff these days. My dog Brookes is having a rough time with his arthritis. He keeps stumbling around and finding it tough getting back up. He no longer can climb stairs and needs help with the other things dogs have to do. I have him on the suppliments and keep taking him to the vet regularly. The next thing to try is shots of glucosamine on top of the pills he’s already taking. Brookes is about 17 years old and is in good health otherwise. It’s breaking my heart to see him this way.

My diabetes control is tough work indeed. I continue to make lifestyle and nutritional changes. It’s been made tougher because I’m not always in the mood to care about my own well being (see previous paragraph).

I continue to work on new songs for hopefully a self published CD later this year. Also, I still would like to broadcast an acoustic concert on Stickam later this summer perhaps. My NY friend has agreed to help me with the production chores which I am not that good at but he certainly is.

Depending on how things go with Brookes this year, I plan to visit my friend’s studio sometime in October to finalize the mix and add any bits needed.

Thanks always for your support and kindness.
Peace, Jeff.

I love this song, the melody is so cool.

Here’s a page out of my personal user manual:

Solitude vs Loneliness
Loneliness is marked by a sense of isolation. Solitude, on the other hand, is a state of being alone without being lonely and can lead to self-awareness.

By: Hara Estroff Marano
As the world spins faster and faster—or maybe it just seems that way when an email can travel around the world in fractions of a second—we mortals need a variety of ways to cope with the resulting pressures. We need to maintain some semblance of balance and some sense that we are steering the ship of our life.

Otherwise we feel overloaded, overreact to minor annoyances and feel like we can never catch up. As far as I’m concerned, one of the best ways is by seeking, and enjoying, solitude.

That said, there is an important distinction to be established right off the bat. There is a world of difference between solitude and loneliness, though the two terms are often used interchangeably.

From the outside, solitude and loneliness look a lot alike. Both are characterized by solitariness. But all resemblance ends at the surface.

Loneliness is a negative state, marked by a sense of isolation. One feels that something is missing. It is possible to be with people and still feel lonely—perhaps the most bitter form of loneliness.

Solitude is the state of being alone without being lonely. It is a positive and constructive state of engagement with oneself. Solitude is desirable, a state of being alone where you provide yourself wonderful and sufficient company.

Solitude is a time that can be used for reflection, inner searching or growth or enjoyment of some kind. Deep reading requires solitude, so does experiencing the beauty of nature. Thinking and creativity usually do too.

Solitude suggests peacefulness stemming from a state of inner richness. It is a means of enjoying the quiet and whatever it brings that is satisfying and from which we draw sustenance. It is something we cultivate. Solitude is refreshing; an opportunity to renew ourselves. In other words, it replenishes us.

Loneliness is harsh, punishment, a deficiency state, a state of discontent marked by a sense of estrangement, an awareness of excess aloneness.

Solitude is something you choose. Loneliness is imposed on you by others.

We all need periods of solitude, although temperamentally we probably differ in the amount of solitude we need. Some solitude is essential; It gives us time to explore and know ourselves. It is the necessary counterpoint to intimacy, what allows us to have a self worthy of sharing. Solitude gives us a chance to regain perspective. It renews us for the challenges of life. It allows us to get (back) into the position of driving our own lives, rather than having them run by schedules and demands from without.

Solitude restores body and mind. Lonelinesss depletes them.

Psychology Today Magazine, Jul/Aug 2003
Last Reviewed 13 Feb 2008
Article ID: 2965

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I dream of enlightenment through solitude. Never knowing why keeps my mind from being quiet. I want the quiet. I need the quiet.

Be Well.
Jeff