Mutant Terrorists

Imagine feeling a little peckish, going to the doctor, and finding out that your body has been invaded by an army of mutants. They have set up encampments in your lungs, brain, and nestled into bone outcroppings. These terrorists strike with a vengeance, robbing the indigenous population of nourishment and life force.

The battle to drive out the alien forces must be fought on all fronts, with tactical savvy and superior technology. Like a once free country whose borders have been overrun by hostile forces, it will take a Herculean effort to vanquish the voracious and deranged beings now inhabiting your sacred land.

This, my friends, is called cancer. To wake up one day thinking you simply have a back pain fixable with physical therapy, to finding out that aliens have landed in your body proper, is shocking. Hard to grasp. We see but we don't believe. Not me. Not my loved one. No!

And the Buddha's words come to mind. The cause of all suffering is birth, old age, sickness and death. Ah so. This too I must accept.

The Long and Winding Road

                                     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xqu9qhBHWNs

Love Thy Neighbor Like Thy Dog

If one were to quote the phrase, "Love thy neighbor like thy dog" in certain quarters of the world, it would probably be considered an insult...or even grounds for murder. (Remember the Sochi Olympics where Russian authorities killed stray dogs who dared to linger around the burgeoning stadiums looking for food scraps.)
 
However, at least in the USA, people's dogs are likely to be the central topic of conversation, adored and doted upon like a single royal heir - especially among the young unwed or the elderly empty nesters.

Let's face it. The dog, if well socialized, can be infinitely more loyal, patient, obediant, and protective than most humans we know. And if the canine love of your life kicks the bucket, you can always go to a rescue shelter and find another noble being hankering to be your best friend.

The Kindness of Friends

A rather strange phenomenon happens when sudden catastrophic illness befalls one. Having been the recipient of one of these marvelous events (late stage cancer) and survived to tell the tale, my observations are thus:

Some of the people with whom you are closest seem the most distant - or the least comforting - while others in this category are the closest and most comforting. Acquaintances with whom you have had warm interactions but not intimate daily contact step forward with so much love and zeal to assist that it can take your labored breathe away and bring tears to your eyes. And the ones who get the booby prize seem like the type whose own lives are so fascinating that they can't take a moment to lean into yours and lend an energetic zap of love.

One of my dear friends who suffered through multiple life-threatening illnesses simultaneously - while being single and broke - noted that her only twenty something son did not show up very much to help with her care. I asked her if this was troublesome to her, and being the wise woman she is, said, "I simply noted it."

After all, who are we to judge what goes on in the minds and hearts of others as they watch us withering on the vine? Self-pity, a sense of being unloved, or alone, become the work of an inner demon because in reality, there is enough love and light in every heart to make it to the mountaintop, whether on a solo journey or accompanied by a whole team of climber friends. And it is up to each one of us to know that.

Leaning Into the Curve

One of my struggling friends recently remarked, "Why is life always throwing me a curve ball?" My first reaction, which lasted a few days, was some knee jerk philosophical jive about life's uncertainties and so on and so forth.

For some insane reason, this complaint about curveballs and my pat "life is full of ups and downs" answer didn't sit right. And then I figured out why. If you keep getting curve balls, then goddamit, learn to adapt and figure out how to lean into the curve and synchronize your movements to it. Then it won't be a curve ball anymore. More than likely it will resemble a tai chi movement or a Martha Graham choreography.

The trick: when that unexpected turn of events spins you around, flow with it and become an expert at spinning. (If Sufi mystics can do it, so can you.)  Otherwise you will flip out, spin out, and live wildly out of control. And that wouldn't be nearly as fun as holding tight to the center of the centrifugal force .

What Is "The What Is?"

Good advice for all people under all circumstances is accepting "the what is." A reality-based strategy, it implies a clear-eyed assessment of factors both physical, mental, and environmental that are currently in play. This acceptance does not imply apathy or acquiesence. In fact, without knowing where you are, how can you have a direction in which to take your next step?

But then there are "what is's" that effect us, but of which we are not aware. For example, dogs can hear sounds and smell smells that exceed the human capacity, yet do exist in a more subtle realm. In order for us to evolve into a state of atunement that gives us more information than the basic five senses, a certain level of training must take place for those doors of perception to fling open.

Perhaps if the human race were to activate some of that junk DNA, those extra strands just lying around, we could acquire marvelous abilities to turn on and tune into our vast potential.

In the meantime, the more we refine intuition, open our hearts to love, and try to stop believing the stories we tell ourselves, it is a good possibility that an evolutionary leap can occur into a more expanded, joyful "what is."

Health or Wealth

Woody Allen once quipped, "Rich or poor, it's good to have money." Another favorite is, "Reality is the only place you can get a good steak."

Both are germane to the question. Would you rather be here - wealthy or healthy? 

Anyone who has ever had a serious ailment or even a sprained ankle would most likely answer healthy. At least if one is sound in body and mind, functionality lends itself to self-help. And you don't have to be a brain surgeon to know that life sucks when pain or immobility dominate moment to moment reality.

However, like so many other things in life, there isn't a yes or  no pat answer. In this country with its highly unsocialized and unsociable medicine, wealth becomes quite intrinsic to maintaining health, or at least being able to hire a legion of specialists of all stripes to suite the pain of the moment.

In the long run we will all end up a bag of bones, but in the meantime, may all beings be privileged to get their needs met in a loving way. That is my prayer for today.