Happy Friday, All!
This is one of those Fridays when I can scream at the top of my “quiet spiritual lungs” T.G.I.F.! I know, you’re probably thinking, “This John guy is a new kind of crazy!” Yep, and you would be right! I enjoy a new experience nowadays as long as it doesn’t hurt me or drive me crazy! And I would REALLY enjoy it if I can grow, learn or heal from it! Y’all knew that was coming, right?! After all, I have been talking and writing about healing and doing the meditation thing … transcendental meditation, to be exact! The funny thing is that I have seen and heard most of this stuff before … I just wasn’t ready to pay attention! Right now, while composing this … I am listening to “Enya” … and I haven’t listened to her in YEARS. Some things are changing in me … for the better, good stuff, positive stuff! These are the reasons that I came to Costa Rica! NOT to fit in, but to be ME! Those who really know me know that I am not such a bad guy.
Lately, as I delve deeper into healing meditation and increasing my intake of healthier plant based foods, I remember my years at St. Paul’s and people who first mentioned “transcendental meditation” to me. I think back to some of the popular music during my years at Princeton, during and after St. Paul’s and I find some awesome music as “Santana”, Earl Klugh, “Mandrill” … shucks, even George Clinton and “Parliament/Funkadelic” and one of them wearing a diaper and another coming down in the “Mother Ship” and preaching “universal love”! They were ALL trying to raise our consciousnesses then. So many of “us”, me included, have been trained to literally “live inside this box” and get dictated to what “success” is and how to attain “happiness” … and so many of us BELIEVE it … even though to do these things requires us to sacrifice to the point where we hurt, damage and injure OURSELVES and our LOVED ONES … Something is wrong with that picture for sure! We don’t learn that we have the freedom to decide soon enough … at least we are taught to “live inside the box” from day one! You know, it’s okay, some of us would probably KILL ourselves if we didn’t have “society’s structure”, folkways and mores and a system of rewards and punishments built into our institutions. Yet, some of us … me included … may be curious enough to seek options … and stick with them! Enter transcendental meditation. For me, it sounds better than an “over abundance of medication” … killing us softly. But, I could’ve searched for options or even done “TM” with “JT” at SPS! At that time, I had other interests that I don’t regret but I am welcoming any options to healing and living a more spiritual life aligned with who “WE” really are … “divine spirits”.
On this note, I shall end the Friday message. Once, my good friend Coach Blake from my years at SPS who is also a recipient of these e-mails from EE mentioned that my last e-mail was indeed long! Thanks for reading y’all … ALL y’all. But let me know if you would like to be removed from receiving these and I will be much obliged to do so.
Enjoy your weekends!
Peace,
John I. Cook, Director
Educational Excellence 