It’s Friday … and I am ready to enjoy still another day on this Earth! T.G.I.F., even!
Well, as usual, something came up with the new “Outlook”. Not only does it seem to take forever to upload stuff (probably due to my 10+ year old laptop, too!), I can not figure out how to copy and paste the names of the recipients of the EE Family e-mail from the old “sent” ones to a “new message”! So, I am back to doing it “one person at a time”! Can you say, “HELP ME!” Still, one of the things I have learned to do as a “protean man” is adjust and adapt … shucks, blend in for a minute if it will save my hide!!
One of the benefits of meditation for me is it teaches me to slow down with myself … be more patient … breathe slowly. This is what distinguishes a creature that is angry and loses control until something devastating happens from a more divine-like (God-like) creature able to slow down the instinctual actions like “fight or flight” and be more balanced in their approach to a situation. I always liked practising yoga because it forces me to look INSIDE of ME! Not many people want to see that “mess” inside, all confused and caught up with past emotions and unable to see the “forest for the trees”! When we react from our basic instinctual behaviors, we are more like an animal than we are like our Creator! I know, I know … who do I think “I” am talking about “other people” … cool! But I am not talking about anyone other than “yours truly” – ME! Now if you happen to be anything like me, perhaps, “if the shoe fits, wear it!” The main reason that we … er uh … I slow down more nowadays thanks to meditation, is it enhances my ability to think clearly! When I rush, I usually make a mistake. Yet, we all know that life in “our world” as we knew it requires one to move fast … or get run over! Imagine blending those two skills – slowing down and moving out of the way of oncoming “traffic” so to speak!
Initially, the trip I was planning to take to New York next month was to see my grandson on his 3rd birthday, October 19th. But after slowing down a bit, checking flights and “Booking.com” locations … even a rental car, I am planning to include a visit to the family’s burial plot at the Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, NY just outside of White Plains! Both Mom and Dad are buried there as well as my oldest sister, Barbara Ann. They purchased four plots “back in the day” when they first moved to White Plains and three of the four plots are occupied! There is a fourth plot to which my sister Edna holds the “deed”. I am thinking that I’d like to be cremated or … pushed on a row boat out to sea when I am too weak to care for myself … Peace be still. It seems like the appropriate thing to do, right?!? Visit your (my) parents’ gravesite while I am there maybe?! Absolutely! So, “Howie” and “Wid” (code names for two of my classmates from elementary school in White Plains!), see how your schedules look. I already identified a “Booking.com” location in Nyack, NY just 5 minutes from Tarrytown and Valhalla as well as checked on flights. Next week, I hope to book them all, including a rental car.
Can you say, “In … and out … in a New York Minute!?” Well, I am planning it to be a weekend. In the meantime, enjoy your weekends and be sure to “slow down” and think calmly, then make a decent decision in YOUR LIFE!
Peace,
John I. Cook, Director
Educational Excellence 