When I look around at the people I am in contact with quite a number are dealing with cancer and all that comes with it. Somebody said to me today in an email that having the cancer diagnosis puts everyday announces in perspective resulting in a brighter outlook on life generally. I congratulate her. This is not merely looking on the bright side. It is transforming where life is viewed from.
In my recent post on the Field of Merit site titled Thought With Legs I look at what can be done when thoughts grow strong and active legs. Well, I actually suggested taking the thoughts for a walk. A merit walk you could call that.
Spare a thought for those known and unknown who are facing themselves as they face cancer.
He is a perfect example of sitting up with full attention. All his senses are alert. A truely wonderful companion to sit with as I type this.
It is just the purring that tells me there is something going on in that beautifully formed head. That and the gentle swish of his tail on the keyboard. Now I am wondering if he is trying to communicate something. Wanting to be let out perhaps.
Ah Smudge, you have grown mellow in your old age. And let’s face it, a tiny bit tubby too! And that’s about as personal as I am going to get. Yes, here sits a cat, the monastery cat, eyes lowered in repose.
In a way, my thoughts stem from the values I was brought up with and therefore my departed kin helped create those thoughts and they then live on in my thoughts. The confusion comes from my father, who is away with Alzheimer’s. I say away although he has left us some parts, the physical shell, the sense of humour and the stubbornness. I have thought, that if you take away a personality, what is really left. For myself, what is left is a reminder of my father, a balance of good and bad of course, to my values. Which were instilled by him.
So, my fathers animated shell is a living memorial to him, though no epitaph but good fun with a Spike Milligan type humour. Which brings a tiny bit of him back.
I have had the above text, left as a comment some time ago, waiting for the right moment to bring it into a post. The comment appears slightly edited. Thank you to the author. And to the father too.
Yes, smile with your parents and anybody else that comes to mind. The smile is in ones heart. And that smile is catching!
And while on the subject of Alzheimer’s, in this TED talk Alanna Shaikh thinks about her father who has Alzheimer’s and speaks to, How I’m preparing to get Alzheimer’s. An unusual proactive approach but perhaps more wide spread than one might think.
The following is the last sentence of the comment quoted above.
If you can
smile with your parents.
If they are not with you
think a thought
that will make you
and them
smile.
And many thanks to Keith, I think it was you, who left the original comment. I thought I’d post it on the anniversary of my fathers death but that date came and went in mid August. I’ll be down in the cemetery in a day or two and I’ll be breaking a smile as I pass my parents grave.
This post is for you George, sharp as a pin, who died this morning. The smile in my heart now meets yours. Job well done! Well done indeed.
Nearly forgot to thank Julius for the link to the TED talk. Thank you Julius.
I have just spent a great few days in Nottingham visiting with a couple who are part of this vast network called the Buddhist sangha. On many levels we know each other connecting through interests in common and shared history. Yes, and shared sense of humour too. But talking this evening we touched on that more subtle level of interconnection. The spiritually level, the spiritual merit level if you like. There is nothing substantial that can be measured or easily talked about without massive leaps of faith being required.
then yellow and purple together.
My thought right now is that when two or more people come together with shared intention, to sit and meditate, to act in harmony with the Buddhist Precepts, to work or play together good flows and all benefit without discrimination. A good that is greater than the sum of the parts. I’d also say it is a power to a good which is beyond ideas of good and bad in the ordinary way we conceive of those words.
So I will leave it there for you to ponder on. And with thanks to my two wonderful hosts – we had some good walks and many good talks and we all moved together. Onwards. And for me onwards to west Wales – off grid. Posts will resume next Wednesday.
Tyranny is a strong word to use here. However it speaks of the strength and pull that numbers can have in our minds, towards the positive or towards the negative. Numbers, numbers and more numbers are quoted on the news and elsewhere. Constantly. But what do they actually MEAN. Just the sum of something or other. I’ll leave it there though, I’d not want to get into a whole debate about numbers. We need them. They most likely are useful. And I’ll not be getting overly up or down about the numbers we are exposed to.
I was given a postcard the other day of this old sign which lists the words used by sheep farmers to count their sheep. The counting goes up to ten however, apparently, the counting went on indefinitely to account for fields full of them woolly beasts! I’ll maybe ask a farmer what he uses, what language he uses, to count his sheep now.
Counting Sheep
This post has given me the opportunity to link to this delightful animated video. Several readers will appreciate the banjo playing characters are dressed head to toe in “knits”! All together now, One! Two! Three!
And you might want to watch the English Version which speaks of our knitted friends mission…. With a hat tip to Mailchimp the free Newsletter distributing service we (fieldofmerit.org) are using who directing me over to these vids.
Thanks to all of you who have signed up for the Field of Merit Newsletter, who have left comments and sent emails via the contact form. Yes, I have been watching the number of subscribers rise and rise. Numbers do, of course, mean something. They mean a lot in terms of being supported in our, how do we put it, “inspirational” project!
So sorry for not posting so regularly. Perhaps you can appreciate why that has been the case.
