Faithful Doubter

Waking

by Kalidasa

English version by W. S. Merwin & J. Moussaieff Masson
Original Language Sanskrit

Even the man who is happy
     glimpses something
     or a hair of sound touches him

     and his heart overflows with a longing
          he does not recognize

then it must be that he is remembering
     in a place out of reach
     shapes he has loved

     in a life before this

     the print of them still there in him waiting


-- from East Window: Poems from Asia, Translated by W. S. Merwin
<Poetry Chaikhana | Kalidasa - Waking

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Love, peace, Joy, and pleasant memories to all.

My older daughter's older step daughter is about  to marry a man with two young sons.

Will that make me a step-step-great grandfather?

If so, what responsibiliities, if any, are associated with this role?  What, if any, rights?

Younger daughter says i'll just be another great grandpa; but would not the actual great grandparents have some say in this? 

Each person used to have 4 great grandfathers, not 5.  But that was before, artificial insemination,surrogate motherhood, etc.

The Gospel According to Saint Matthew attributes nine beatitudes (blessings) to Jesus, the first of which is "Blessed are the poor in spirit,* for their's is is the kingdom of heaven." ( Collapse )
*I think it is more  likely that Jesus actually said something more like "Blessed be  ye poor..." refering to economic poverty, as Luke puts it.  Nevertheless, spiritual poverty is a valuable idea, wherever it might have come from

Saturday night i went to Church and had occasion to speak to the friend who had called me about the message from Dianne.  I asked if he could see her? Yes.  I aked if she spoke aloud?  Yes.  I asked for exact words?  "Call Bob."  "I love him."  I aked if he had had other similar experiences?  Just once, about a month ago.  I said, so you haven't heard from Shirley?  No -- he looked sad.  (Shirley was/is his wife who died shortly before Dianne did.)

My skepticism is on hold.  I do believe there is consiousness after "life."  But my belief did not include the possibility of an exchange of love notes from one dimension to another.  I assumed that people on the "other side" could be conscious of our thoughts and feelings if they wanted to be.  But why should they want to be?  They are in the real world, we are still in the illusory one.  My friend is straightforward and down-to-earth person..He has had this sort of experience once before; yet he talked as if it was the most common and normal experience.

I do not know if my friend's experience was as it seemed to him.  Nevertheless, i talk more often to Dianne now.  I am more comfortable that she is in a "good" place.  I am more aware of he "presence."

Love, peace, and joy to everyone.

I called my neurosurgeon's nurse a few hours ago and got great news.  Evidently the doctor has reexamined my last neck x-ray and determined that i should "wean" myself off the brace!  No more tests. no consultation, no mention of surgery.  So i am sitting here with the brace off and feeling pretty normal for two hours; tomorrow, four hours, etc, in six or eight days i will wear it only at night, then, if all goes well, be rid of it all together, happy, joyous, and free.

My friend, who is neither a kook of any kind nor a medium, called me a few minutes ago to check on me  since he hasn't seen me in church in more than 3 months.  (Actually, i was there Saturday night, but he wasn't)  In the process he mentioned that he had heard from Dianne who asked him to call me.  She said she still loves me.

So what do i do with this?  Of course, i thanked him and said i appreciated that he had passed on her message.  Thankfully, i have overcome my autism enough to know i should not get into an intellectual  discussion about whether such messages from the cosmos (or the real world, as i call it) are possible or not.  After i hung up i sent a thought "upward" asking Dianne to contact me directly next time.  I am pretty sure i know what what the answer would be.

Contact with the Real (whatever that be) is a gift that relatively few of us get.  Dianne had that gift, i don't,   My friend might have it too.  Dianne, on a half dozen occasions of which  i am aware,  received information that she could not have obtained by ordinary (as i understand "ordinary") means

Well, i am both comforted and skeptical; and i will not close my mind to the possibiliy that Dianne spoke to me through my friend.

According to the legends of my people, my first ancestors were intended to be immortal.

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May all creatures experience love, peace, and happiness.

Aldous Huxley invented the word psychedelic in 1957, shortly after LSD became well known, but shamans had been using mind altering substances for thousands of years to induce healing  and spiritual and mystical experiences.  Psyche comes from a Greek word meaning "soul" and delic from a word meaning "to make visible"  Thousands of years earlier the root words meamt "breath" and "shine" or "light."( Collapse )

Q: What do you call the team that takes second place?
A: Losers.( Collapse )

Instructions for the Journey

by Pat Schneider

The self you leave behind
is only a skin you have outgrown.
Don't grieve for it.
Look to the wet, raw, unfinished
self, the one you are becoming.
The world, too, sheds its skin:
politicians, cataclysms, ordinary days.
It's easy to lose this tenderly
unfolding moment. Look for it
as if it were the first green blade
after a long winter. Listen for it
as if it were the first clear tone
in a place where dawn is heralded by bells.

And if all that fails,

wash your own dishes.
Rinse them.
Stand in your kitchen at your sink.
Let cold water run between your fingers.
Feel it.


-- from Olive Street Transfer, by Pat Schneider
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Poetry Chaikhana | Pat Schneider - Instructions for the Journey
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