Learning Life's Lessons

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,

Despite my respiratory woes, I am awake this morning at 4:30 AM, made the coffee and tea, took some medicine, and am now enjoying some juice. Thank you to each of you for your thoughts and condolences regarding my mother's passing. She had been dying for sometime and only her will had kept her from letting go.

Sometimes such a will is a good thing; others, not so good. I believe when we are hanging on out of fear it is one thing, out of appreciation for the moment's breath, quite another.

Zen practice conditions us to examine such things. We experience the gamut of human emotion and thought as we sit facing the wall. We come to know in intimate detail our motives. Eventually digging out our true self and experiencing its True Nature. At this point we attain no fear.

We are released to appreciation of everything, even our illnesses and life disasters. I know as I am sick I have said to My Little Honey in no uncertain terms, "I hate this being sick!" Or speak to her with considerably less than a compassionate voice. Still, I know these things and move quickly to apologize or recover my balance. Without Zen, there would be none of that.

Last night between coughing spasms, I stayed with my breath, noting where along its path, the cough began. I adjusted my breath, then, and coughed less, becoming able to sleep.

I am told by my doctors that this will just have to run its course. There is an epidemic of this sort of thing in the Las Cruces area. Friends have told me not to allow visitors for awhile as my immune system in compromised. This means a serious cut in my weekly activities and lots of time to just sit still or lay down.

Perhaps this is a good thing, as my schedule was getting rather full.

So, life is like this. It has a way of bringing us home. Stopping us if we don't stop ourselves. May we each get there without the necessity of illness.

Be well.