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Monday, May 10, 2021

Two weird things happened Sunday.

I hobbled into a  restaurant when I realized my knees didn't hurt for the first time since about October. So I stopped limping.

Then I realized I was hungry in the morning -- something that's not happened since about last July, at a time when choking down a couple of McNuggets was the best I could for nutrition for an entire day.

What the hell was happening?

I continue to return to some sense of normalcy. Someone said I was coming out of hibernation.

It's not just me, though.

This last year has been a terrible year for so many, lives lost, businesses closed, virtually every facet of life upended. My terrible year was relatively quiet as it gave me time to write, contemplate and work at finding a new job. I had plenty of laughs with friends and no shortage of tap beer.

My readings in Buddhism helped me, noting that life is suffering but I can choose my reaction. If I can respond with an open mind and open heart, letting go of want, I can ride the waves coming at me rather than be drowned by them.

Just recently, a local business owner in his radio ad quoted Victor Frankl and his most-famous book "Man's Search for Meaning." I read the book in high school, on bus trips to away football games where I didn't play. Frankl survived stays in numerous concentration camps where, as a trained psychologist, he noted that those who survived were people who had found meaning in life -- even if it was to survive and revenge their Nazi captors. 

I thought about this Sunday while I inhaled a Denver omelette, some home fries and fresh fruit and I as read the Sunday New York Times Review of Books. In a negative review of a memoir where the writer lists her grievances and takes potshots at the dead, the reviewer notes a memoirist should draw and share lessons from difficulties.

I've shared lessons before but the review crystalized two ideas: Keep moving forward, even if the progress is an inch with each step; keep breathing, with eyes wide open at what's happening around you.

Heavy stuff for a Monday, huh?

Yep. I think my clarity is improving as well as I climb from my hole and see the larger world around me.

Or maybe that second Jack Daniels Manhattan is kicking in right now.

Peace and Manhattans unto all of you my brothers and sisters.


3 comments:

  1. Terrific post, Rich.
    Thank you!
    Time’s Arrow points every now toward only one direction, forward, and each now is our to be fully.
    Take care.

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  3. Stallone did an excellent soliloquy in a Rocky movie as he explained to his son that you have to get up when life beats you down.

    My favorite life quote today comes from Bill Shatner, who at age 90 - says to take it easy. Nothing matters in the end.

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