Archive for December, 2012

Against the Wind

December 27, 2012 by , under Moments of "ordinary" life.

I happened to hear this Bob Seger song on the radio just now while I was having lunch at a local restaurant:  Against the Wind.

And it reminded me of a moment many years ago when I was driving a taxi in San Francisco…

It was a bright sunny day, and I was driving three very young soldiers to their ship near Fisherman’s Wharf.

They were about to be deployed to Iraq.

And this Bob Seger song came over the radio as we were heading down to the Wharf from North Beach.

And we all knew the words to it, and we sang it together:

Against the wind
We were runnin’ against the wind
We were young and strong, we were runnin’
against the wind

There was a special poignancy to this moment for me.  I felt a sense of profound harmony with these young men who were, perhaps, heading to their deaths — but, certainly, to danger, excitement, severe trials and tests.

And I felt honored to share that moment of communion with them.

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December 2012 Skies

December 16, 2012 by , under Tools and Practices.

So hard to clearly read the signs of the times…  The fiscal cliff, the Connecticut shootings, the supposed end to the Mayan calendar (or the end to a particular phase of it, of history…).

Are we in the end times, or are we approaching them?

And, if so, what to do about it?   How to prepare?

By intensifying our spiritual practice with increased prayer, meditation, contemplation, and spiritual reading. By simplifying our lives, and our lifestyles.  By reducing mental, emotional, psychic, and physical clutter.  By purifying our hearts.  And by fasting as a way to hear more deeply within and to reduce our over-dependence on things, habits, vices.

By taking long walks in nature, stretching, and lifting weights — putting effort into getting physically and fiscally fit — and (as much as possible) ready for anything.

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