Sharing Light

From the mailbox...

Virginia Woolf was born today in London (1882)...and it is the 263rd anniversary of Robert Burns' birth ( Alloway, Scotland in 1759).

Ram Dass (nee Richard Alpert) left us on the 22nd of December of 2019 at the age of 88. Thich Nhat Hanh (“Thay”) died three days ago on the 21st of January, 2022 at the age of 95 – four years and one month almost to the day. Thankfully, both of these gentle-men wrote prolifically, sharing the insights of their shared journey. These two events and the interim between have served to call my attention to my own aging as I approach my 80th birthday.

While I am at present in good, if not excellent health, I am increasingly aware that, to quote Ram Dass, “Getting old isn’t easy for a lot of us. Neither is living, neither is dying.” He said that in his late 60's after suffering a major stroke. A short time after that event, he reported being quite pleased with a friend's observation “You’re more human since the stroke than you were before.” He went on to write Still Here: Embracing Aging, Changing and Dying.

Reflecting, here's what I gleaned.

We don’t have to renounce our humanity in order to be spiritual — we can be both witness and participant, both eternal spirit and aging body. If we are willing, rather than seeking to become “wise elders,” to embody wisdom “which is unchangeable, beautiful, completely aware, and continues no matter what,” then the challenges we face in our life-span are gifts, insights from which we can share. These insights can ease the suffering all of us experience on this journey. “Thay” knew this too, though he and Ram Dass never met. There is a love-light that shines on every path even in the dark.