It is Fathers Day weekend and fairly early Saturday morning…
I recently received a picture of my older brother Joe (not his real name) from his son Jeremiah. It has been about 6 months since last I saw Joe. He has been recovering from blood cancer. A survivor in remediation and for all intensive purposes according to the doctors’ actually cured.
In the picture Joe was at least as heavy as before the 4 years of pain, radiation treatments and bone marrow transplants. In my thoughts, he went from having been given a new lease on his 70 year old life right back into the fold of heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and other ailments that excessive weight as we get older brings to the forefront. Why am I talking about this today? Great question!
But first, please, let’s take a moment and step back. Now take a breath. Good. As you are reading this feel yourself relax, moving more fully into the present moment. Good. Now take another deep breath and feel it as it moves through your nostrils out into the air around you. Very good.
I am talking about my brother because it is clear. We often have a dis-connect between our mind and body in addition to the mostly ever present disconnect associated with living in everything but the present moment. We experience the mind/body disconnect in a number of ways. Self-medicating is way up on the list. Self-medicating takes a number of forms including excessive food intake, alcohol intake, and just about anything that through years of training (just kidding) you have made into a thing.
Why does this happen? It happens when the large and small vestiges of growing up clog the stillness/aware/awake channel just as cholesterol clogs arteries leading to the heart.
So, today’s blog is about providing the equivalent of eating oatmeal to reduce cholesterol.
This is what I want to tell my brother Joe… You are alive! You were given a second, third, fourth chance to enjoy more years on this planet and in this world as a corporeal human being. More time to cherish the seasons, your spouse, and seeing your children and grandchildren continue to mature and make their own way. Wow! I can hear Joe in my head saying… “You have no idea how I feel”. “You have no right to make that statement”. “I’m fine”. Yes, he is fine. But Joe is not here. If Joe was here, the vessel that is his body would look different.
So what can I do? I can only provide pointers. As Eckhart Tolle says, so Joe can begin to move back into the present.
Before I leave you in thought, because in actuality I can never leave you because we are ultimately connected at all times. I believe that the more one realizes the truth of the fact that we are all connected at every moment in time, all connected in the same way that you can think of someone and suddenly your phone rings and that person is on the phone, all connected to mean that our actions do count even when no one sees you. The world is different because of that action or though even if it is not obvious to you.
This does not mean that you need to force being loving, or compassionate, or kind. It is not like that.
It means that you are living in the present, with every breath, and by doing so can only act appropriately. And sometimes by acting appropriately, others may think that your actions are anything but appropriate. That’s okay. It’s only a story, and just like our own story, a temporary one.
I was recently asked “It is such a tragedy with Whitney Houston. She has such a beautiful voice. She has everything and she is destroying herself”. Besides the fact that I can’t believe that Whitney Houston’s name would somehow ever enter into my blog for Awakening Talk Radio, what happened to Whitney Houston makes perfect sense to me.
Whitney Houston, the person is disconnected from being here. The mind/ego loves drama and does not care if it destroys you in the process of growing as strong as possible. She was given the gift of a beautiful voice. When Whitney sings, she is clearly touching the stillness that surrounds us. And maybe it hurts her in some way. Maybe she believes that she does not deserve to have such a gift because of her actions, or something that happened to her. If Whitney could here me, I would tell her to please forgive herself otherwise the healing can never start. Otherwise she will never be whole. And the song I would like you to hear is…
Paul Rosenfeld 06/14/08 and almost Father’s Day no less.