PASSINGS

Solstice
from Pat Jones

~*~



Ram Das
Left the Planet
(photo from his return to St. John the Divine post stroke)

 This from Jack Kornfield
December 23. 2019
"I have known Ram Dass for 48 years, as master teacher and inspiration and role model, as a dear friend and benefactor who helped me begin to teach, as a companion on the path, as a truth teller and prankster, as a profound healer and whisperer of souls, as a kind of prophet for a generation. Out in public with him across the years, over and over people would come up to him and speak lovingly, tentatively, urgently, offering thanks, “Ram Dass, I just want to let you know you changed my life!” And he did…for so many of us. Yes, his book “Be Here Now” changed countless lives. Yes, his work with Seva Foundation cured 5 million people of blindness. Yes, he taught almost nonstop for 50 years, spreading wisdom and humor, wild devotion and love and a vast timeless mystical perspective across the world. His obituaries will be filled with his many other accomplishments. For me he is family and Sangha, even now still spreading his playful, tough, delicious love everywhere, connecting with our hearts. “Yum, yum,” as he would say.
He was so ready to leave the wheelchair and skinny and broken body, to go home. Home is not somewhere else.
It is here, in life and death, in the eternal dance of consciousness, weaving together form and the formless mystery from which it all comes. Ram Dass is the vastness reminding us that in the end, there is only love."
~*~ 


'Jamie'
My dear Little Brother left the Planet. I've been looking through family photos and processing feelings for weeks. Grief comes in waves. Memories are deep. Now William James Slater image sits on the main Altar at my Zendo with Ram Das and others we remember together.

~*~

Sunrise
12.24.2019

 Noted on a walk about

(In the lobby of a new hotel in the neighborhood)

Poems should be written

~*~

12.25.2019

Church bells nearby 

Back to my First Christmas

and

A Thoughtful gift

from long time Neighbors hanging on the apartment door

Just in time too. Woke with my head cold renewed in full blown attack. Fortunately, I'm at home with supper warming (home made beef stew from Sensei Chodo at our last zendo session-Steamed broccoli-lemon Loaf from my Massachusetts friend) plus plenty of doses of EmergenC and Umka homeopathic for colds on hand. There's enough heat in these rooms and most neighbors away elsewhere. Actually, after such a stressful month, I welcome the ability to laze around watching old sitcoms and sleeping.

All's well.

 

<<>>

LAST BITS OF CORAL COTTAGE DAYS

 Thrift Shopping

This silk shirt with embroidered animals was a $4.00 find.
I left it as a thank-you for my loving hostess,

and, this Heart full-of-Parrots Pillow

$2.00

now sits on her thrift-shopped chair there, as one more "Thank You" from me to all those hospitable others who made my sojourn so rewarding.

Like this lovely instrument in playable condition. my dear friend has furnished Coral Cottage with amazing, and beautiful items from the various thrift shops within driving distance.

I purchased a 'Florida' shirt for myself,

$2.50

and, this soft wool. well constructed one too.

$3.00

Four More treasures

1. love of a series of "The Cat Who..." stories on audio cassette by Lilian Jackson, only if read by George Guidall (In fact, almost any reading by George Guidall would be a treat).

2. One beautiful seagull feather.

3. A substantial, rock streaked in minerals,

and glittering with shiny flecks of something.

4. Heart-restoring gratitude.

What I'll Long Recall

This view from my bedroom at sundown,

 this  most glorious sunrise or sunset ever,

 this fiery sunset too, and

Clouds doing what clouds do.

I'll remember the contagious laughter we shared.
while watching that Steve Martin "Pink Panther"
on a big screen television, and friends making fine meals so many mornings-afternoons-evenings.

They will be recalled with all my senses at once,
since all were delightfully engaged each time.

Oh, and the smell of the beach, the sound of gulls, the call of grackle, crow and hawk will be the echoes in my brain that sometimes pop on spontaneously.

 Comfortable silences are memorable too.
There were many of those.

It's mighty fine to have such friends as these,
mighty fortunate, and Teddy thought so too!

Homeward Bound

The train pulled out of Orlando two hours late.

I'd been dealing with a nasty head cold for days, and just couldn't sleep, which translated to torture for one away from home, and ill.

 Sunset January 26th

became sunrise

January 27th

 until, at last, I knew I was close to New York when Graffiti, and abandoned factory buildings appeared.

Once back on twenty one, three walk-up flights from the street, I took to bed, and slept for two days and nights.  Then began this series.

The End

Stay Tuned
Next post will be in present tense.