There's been a lot of flies outside lately. It seems to happen on a regular occasion towards the beginning of fall... When the flies have their last chance to leave their seed for the next warm season? Well, at least one new fly gets in the house a day by opening the door, sometimes two or more.

To me, this has been a minor blessing, because it's been an opportunity to practice self control in a manner seen as somewhat of a talent, or at least admirable though possibly silly ability. I've been catching the flies with my hands and putting them back outside. It's like catching fish and putting them back, you may be catching the same fish over and over, but it's not about killing the fish to me. What it's about is the process of perfecting catching them. Luckily unlike most people, I don't have a strong disgust for flies, so I don't mind the thought of catching them and releasing them only to catch and release them again. It gives me more practice and the general truths I learn from catching flies can be applied to many challenges in life, making them become less challenging.

Still through life, I've found the hardest challenge to be overcoming the self. One trick I've learned is that controlling the self is often about tricking the self. A prime example of this would be to try not to think about something, like the colors ORANGE and BLUE for a while day. It's impossible to not think about ORANGE or BLUE when initially making the attempt if gone about wrong, because the most direct method is "I wont think about ORANGE or BLUE." Just then both Orange and Blue were both thought about. The most effective method often is to think about something else perhaps starting with "I'll practice Yoga all day today" (with no reason why inserted as a motivator and with the reason as "trust myself"). This method would keep the mind busy and advert attention away from that which is not to be thought about.

If I were to think that a fly mind could be connected with mine or that I were receiving an event to be interpreted from a collective consciousness, then I may consider the fact that the fly flew through my fingers as I was typing this to be a taunt, a test, or a reminder to get back to fly catching. If I were to base my thoughts solely on events that have so far been definitively reproducible (and thus considered logical by the masses), then I would say the fly definitively flew through my fingers for a reason completely unrelated to the fact that I've been catching fly's all week. It is like asking for the sky to rain and it does. It means nothing to those who it means nothing for and it means everything to those who it means everything for... Perhaps it is just a choice, but which method of perception of best? I choose both.

I've begun an attempt to catch flies with a pair of chopsticks and if memory serves, the first thing that I've learned is it is first not about catching the fly, but first about being able and having the confidence to reproducibly close the chopsticks accurately with speed. I believe retaining this ability deals at least greatly with steady confidence... Steady confidence is not necessarily, but often achieved through assurance (evidence). If one can believe what one see's, then one can believe that because one has seen oneself do something, then one can, but if they can not believe that, then they may have to rely on assured confidence that comes from a series or a string rather of reasons backing up their confidence... For this chopstick example: "I can be accurate in catching a fly because I am accurate elsewhere, such as picking up a grain of rice, I am speedy with catching a fly because I can pick up a grain of rice accurately, and I can reproducibly catch a fly because I can concentrate on the accuracy of picking up a grain of rice and do it each time with speed successfully." All I have to do now is show that I can add one more event, "a moving grain of rice" to this string of confidence assurances and replace the word "rice" in all situation with another appropriate word, such as "fly."

Concentration and confidence are great tools...