10th Special Forces Lesson

My interview with the 10^th Special Forces group went well, and after a few days I received confirmation they were holding a position.  My colonel said, “Baun, we’ve spent over $100K to train you to protect special weapons, I’m not giving you up”.  Within a year I left the Army as my frustration and feelings of being stuck were too much.  M.J. Ryan in her book This Year I Will… talks about the “elevator being broken, use the stairs”.  For me it was a broken back after the Army that taught me to use the stairs and take one step at a time to a new career, and now my cancer has taught me one day at a time creates a life journey. 

Tachikawa Airbase and Pete

As the holiday season approaches and the layers of holiday memories begin to unfold, I’ve had glimpses of Pete.  The first years of my life we lived on the Tachikawa Airbase in Japan where I had a nanny, but I also had an imaginary friend named Pete.  Pete played with me in the foxholes that ran through the housing area, and then one Christmas Pete became a doll baby I received as a present from Santa.  I carried Pete with me everywhere, but our relationship changed, and at some point I let Pete go.  Learning to let go is one of the hardest lessons we must learn in life, not because we want to, but because we have to, in our journey to be whole. 

Great American Smokeout

Today we celebrate the 39^th Great American Smokeout, because tobacco use is still the number one cause of preventable death and disease.  You’re thinking I don’t smoke and secondhand smoke is harmless, but it’s not harmless!  In this month’s AJHP Editor’s Note O’Donnell describes secondhand smoke as small particles containing high concentrations of chemical carcinogens that have real killing power.  Be around secondhand smoke for just 5 min. and your aorta stiffens, in 20-30 min. blood clotting & fat deposits increase in your blood vessels, and by 2 hours your heartbeat becomes irregular.  Your body can’t put up with an assault from secondhand smoke, why do you? 

Life Messages

Years ago he suffered a stroke that left him without speech, and at 86 his legs are so weak he barely walks.  So as I walked up the driveway last night I was surprised to find him standing in his front door.  He quickly started pointing at something by the side of the house, and after 30 minutes and a call to the city, I finally worked out that his water was turned off.  I went to bed thinking about how my frustration with our inability to communicate had only been resolved by his determination and persistence; a message life had been giving me all week in my readings in Prayers to the Moon.   What messages has life given you this week or have you been too busy to really listen?

Methodist DeBakey Heart Center

I was running, trying to fit in a mid-morning visit to a friend.  His hospital bed was empty, but the patient care assistant told me I could catch up with him on the 9^th floor at echocardiogram services.  When I arrived on nine, he wasn’t finished, so I somewhat impatiently waited, and explored the nearby hallways.  Funny, how at times life gives us just what we need. I walked by the meditation poster, being pulled by the pulse of the DeBakey Heart poster.  Then I turned; ready to be drawn in by the calmness of the meditation poster, and my heart was realigned, I was no longer running, but had the caring heart I needed to visit my friend.  Be present when life steps in today. 

Cathedral Spaces for Mindfulness

When I was a single dad with my kids in college, and trying my best to keep their school and the three household bills paid, I became a secondhand shopper.  The workers at Salvation Army and Value Village stores became first name friends as I looked for furniture for my kid’s apartments, and clothing for me.  Secondhand shopping is now one of my relaxation practices, self-time looking for odd pieces of art or craft, like the wood cathedral sitting among my small books.  In Peace Is Every Step, Thich Nhat Hanh suggests we set aside space in our lives that remind us to breath/smile, be mindful.  Do you have such cathedral spaces in your life?

Wandering Your Backstreet

Absolutely a beautiful morning!  When the temperature dips down in the 30’s my scooter is tough to start, so I ride my cargo bike to work.  My bicycle route takes me through neighborhoods and back streets of the medical center, places I only see when on my bike.  Funny, how there are pieces of me I rarely touch, until a moment or memory takes me there, and then I find myself wandering around my backstreets and better connecting to me.  When I am in this space I’m reminded of how richer life is when I’m not playing who I am, but really being me.  Wander your backstreets today and experience the richness of life.