[Oe List ...] Salmon: Respnse to Zahrt

Mon Aug 10 17:36:24 CDT 2009

David --
    Usually most Earthrise meditations are reports on the spiritual journey of individuals. However, Sandra Conant's meditation struck a chord at least in the two of us. I've lifted it out of the Earthrise and into the OE list service to see if others are likewise interested in sharing their musings. 
    Your comments also got my juices flowing, but I really need to be preparing for a weekly publishing deadline instead. However, now I can't start until I've shared my own spiritual journey concerning the disciplined task. 
    My experience is that all rituals need to be like fasting, they need to be OVER something and then ABOUT something. For Sandra, her ritual is OVER her injury, and it is ABOUT getting well or at least experiencing less pain. Perhaps the lesson is that without these goals then rituals become irrelevant and meaningless; at best they become tiresome. 
    In the last 34 years I've explored living the surrendered life. First, Daily Office was the glue that held us together until the Order lost its' glue and we broke apart; we lost an important element of living the surrendered corporate discipline. 
    Second, in the last 8 years I discovered the necessity of surrendering to The Mystery all of me: "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly." I usually talk about desiring to give up all of my gifts and graces to The Mystery, but it was not until I surrendered my "Ass-Hole-ness" that I experienced a real sense of inner cohesion. Did I give up being an Asshole? Not on your sweet bippy! However, my sense of surrender took away its power over me; now The Mystery gets all of me. 
    What is the significance of this? Most of the time it doesn't mean a thing until I do some Asshole thing like offer advice concerning my personal journey desiring that it can be meaningful to someone else; maybe, just maybe, another soul will awaken to remember the basic ritual is to relax and just, "Let it be! Certainly, this is my prayer for you. 
    Inner Peace, 
    Bill Salmon

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: David & Lin Zahrt 
  To: Dialogue Earthrise 
  Sent: Monday, August 10, 2009 1:16 PM
  Subject: [earthrise] WHEN I'M 64

    Is this kind of dialogue encouraged or discouraged on Earthrise? If its discouraged I apologize and won't do it again.

  ASTOUNDING WITNESS. I have yet to find a way to include such solitary discipline in my life. Lin may even say I have yet to include any kind of discipline within my life! 
  Do you have recommendations about how to adopt such a discipline?
  When we first returned to Iowa City (1985) we did visualization exercises around the meal time.
  When I returned to the Homestead (1990) I fashioned daily meditation sitting. I wasn't able to keep it up. Either I didn't see the value in it, or didn't find the need for it, or couldn't identify the need it fulfilled.

  I've read  THE ENGAGED SPIRITUAL LIFE by Donald Rothberg (2007). I haven't been able to sustain a meditative practice. If/when we get moved to Carson City, NV, I may have a bit of incentive to keep a practice going. My sister, Chris, has established a Sangha there. It may help to have a congregation of people that will provide external accountability for practice.

  Have I told you the story about my being 63? I was singing in a Barbershop Quartet and asked the quartet to learn WHEN I'M 64, so I could sing WHEN I'M 64 when I'm 64 (2001). They wouldn't agree to work on it. So I learned all four parts, went to a local fellow who has a recording studio, and recorded the parts one by one. I recorded the melody line (Lead) first. He played that back in my earphones and put the recorder on a second track. I then sang the remaining parts one at a time and when I finished he played all 4 parts on one tape. So now I have my own quartet. Trouble is there is not much market for a one-man quartet!

  David

  David & Lin Zahrt
  Country Homestead B&B
  22133 Larpenteur Rd.
  Turin, IA 51040
  -- Doorway to the Loess Hills -
  <http://country-homestead.com>
  Where a change of pace is as good as a vacation, and a sense of place is soothing to the soul.
  <chbnb at netins.net>
  Skype <loesshills>

  On Aug 10, 2009, at 8:27 AM, Sandra Conant wrote:

  On Aug 10, 2009, at 8:27 AM, Sandra Conant wrote:

    “Will you still need me, will you still feed me—when I’m sixty-four?” 

    I was twenty-one when that song hit the charts, and of course, I was never gonna be 64.  Yet today I am---and fortunately, I have someone who feeds me, though I’m not taking any bets on who needs me…

    In April, after months of increasing discomfort, I found out I had plantar fasciitis, water on the knee, a torn meniscus and “degenerative changes”---all in my right leg.  To top it off, I had a painful ingrown toenail (same leg) that made wearing shoes difficult and with the fasciitis, I needed arch supports.  It was a no-win. 

    I limped around, furious that I had a set of problems that don’t get much sympathy and won’t kill you.  You’re simply crippled and miserable. I was sliding into terminal grumpiness when I decided to give “the body’s amazing power to heal itself” a try.  My morning ritual was re-designed to include meditation, a foot-soak in warm Epsom salts, a knee/foot massage with creams that Harry says make our bedroom smell like a gym.  I spoke kindly to my leg:  “Thank you, little leg, for allowing me to walk through Petra and Israel and Kenya and Ayers Rock and the grocery store, for carrying me so many places that have filled my life with meaning, ordinary heroes and wondrous sights”.  This has helped a lot---both physically & mentally.

    And so, I have a new actor on the stage of my life---namely, my body. It’s begging for a role, so I have to choose: (a) I can ignore it as I have for the past 64 years, (b) I can give it “star billing” and bore everyone (including myself) to death or (c) I can integrate it as an important character in the daily drama and comedy of growing older.  

    The insight has been this:  Each morning, I bless this body. I anoint it with Tiger Balm and make it sacred. I give thanks for all the things I can still do---swim, walk, dance, climb steps (even with a little grunt here and there).  I pray for courage and imagination in managing the decline that is part of our human journey.  I ask for the wisdom to remember that aging is a reality, but “old” is a mindset.  I seek the most positive, creative relationship possible to unexpected limits and challenges.  Through the tiny tear in a meniscus, I have once again seen wholeness and possibility.

     I’m Sandy Conant Strachan, part of the O:E/ICA family from 1967-1991, now living an amazingly wonderful life in Costa Rica with my soulmate, Harry.     

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