Haven't been here for awhile. Lots of stuff – and nothing going on. thought I'd say so, so you stop wondering...if you are.
Things are blue around here. My best friend of the
heart is moving to Florida in 4 days. I’ve been in her house here for 12 days,
taking care of her dog and packing stuff. Practicing not thinking about it. I
can do the denial part because Joel and I will be traveling to see her in
mid-October. So I’ve put off the tears, mostly, except now & then…now.
And with Skype, we can still have our weekly coffee klatches. It just will be
different. Oh, well…
On the 10th, my friend, Michael Schwass
died. He is/was an amazing person who took a major life-changing event and
turned it into inspiration, hope, incentive, courage, and even joy for hundreds
– maybe thousands – of others. You can read one of the obituaries here.
But there is no real reason to do so…they don’t really give you any sense of
the man.
(adding a link to the obit from the Chicago Sun-Times)
I met him through my friend Laura, who has been one
of his best friends for umpteen years, and was a my business, then life coach
and now a friend of the heart. My sense of Michael grew out of Laura’s writings
about her relationship with Michael, and with the prep work they were both
doing around his ultimate death.
You see, Michael was a quadraplegic. He lived longer than most with that
condition because of his drive, his huge heart, and his determination that
paraplegia would be something from which he learned and taught, not some curse
that just happened. Laura explored much of that, and wrote about it as part of
her own preparation for his leaving this physical plane, and also because she
is so totally committed to living consciously – which, of course, includes
dying consciously. This is one little thing she wrote recently about all of
this:
“[I
am] VERY aware of what a gift it is to only ONLY be sad.
Nothing was left unsaid or undone.
That is an extraordinary feeling and a gift I will cherish the rest of my days.”
(if you’re interested, here is a link to a post Laura wrote a few days ago; and this is a link to a whole bunch of posts about Michael and consciousness – including one called “Giggling at the Cemetery”)
So much of my present work around consciousness was nurtured by her writings and by reading about and, finally, meeting Michael.
And to all of this, I’ll say that Joel and I are looking at some possible changes of the ‘big’ sort. While we are in Florida, we will explore the possibilities of moving there or acquiring a ‘vacation’ home of some sort. Maybe just something we can rent frequently or … I have no idea what we will see, decide, think… much of this bumps up against some of my ‘issues’ if you will. J It’s funny, really, and more stressful than I imagined.
Joel is about to be 70. We’re going to the beach for her birthday.
And I am claiming our former guest room as my sanctuary. In the midst of rearranging, decluttering, and deciding how to turn this tiny space into a cloister.
Life’s a ride, isn’t it?!
…speaking of which, this last weekend has been a motorcycle festival – the noise
was phenomenal!
So, blog friends, I am both here and absent. And way behind on most of your writings, too. I’ll catch up one day.
Blessings to you all from a very full heart.
