Monday, September 06, 2010

A Day In The Life

The song by the Beatles titled "A Day in the Life", from the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album, was recently voted the #1 Beatles song. Great choice! It's a masterpiece.

It is a beautiful fall like morning. The official beginning of fall is several weeks away and later today it will feel like the middle of summer but for now it is beautiful and I am enjoying it. I have my window open until the day's heat and humidity force me to close it. Yesterday was the first day since May that the day time temperature has been below 80 degrees.

Earlier, while I was drinking my second cup of coffee, I sat in my chair and looked out my window watching the leaves from a neighbor's tree fall to the ground. It was a prelude to what will be happening soon everywhere in this part of the world. Today I think it is more from the drought like conditions than anything else. We are in great need of rain.

Today is Monday and a national holiday called Labor Day. It reminds me that I am very happy to be employed and that for many today is a reminder of their unemployment, as though they needed a reminder. At my age I am weary of working in spite of having a good job in a pleasant environment. Ironically, I feel at my best physically when I get up and go to the office. Today, a day where I slept in and can relax all day, I feel 90 years old. Part of this is due to a weekend visit from my granddaughter. When she is around I am like a piece of playground equipment. I get quite a workout from her. I don't mind because I love her dearly. She is the true light of my life.

Everyone who knows me is aware I dearly love music. Do you know how to tell if music is truly great? At this moment, as I type this blog, I have David Gilmour's "Live in Gdansk" playing in the background. Most people know that David Gilmour was the main singer and lead guitar player for Pink Floyd, one of my favorite bands. I know this is a great CD because I occasionally have to stop typing these notes because I am carried away by the music. This CD is simply too good to be background music.

I have been thinking a lot lately about my spiritual life, what I believe and what I struggle with, and whether or not my life has meaning or purpose. I think about mindfulness and Zen. Am I really alive and present to the moment? In some ways I have really kind of dropped out of life lately. I am enjoying it to a point but I also have doubts about it's value. My life has become mostly simple, and peaceful to some extent, but I find myself feeling melancholy and sometimes sad. Perhaps I have become too isolated and too withdrawn. At the same time the thought of activity and commitments wears me out just thinking about it.

Being informed and aware about what's going on in life has always been important to me. However, I am on the verge of beginning a news blackout. All news seems bad. The nightly news depresses me. No one gives me good news. It would seem that everyone suffers, the future is bleak, everything is hopeless, and my generation is totally screwed. This is the viewpoint that one will get from the media. It is very difficult for an eternal optimist like me to be constantly bombarded with these messages. What does one do? Hide under a rock or bury one's head in the sand? How does one live in hope and joy with so much suffering in the world, no to mention one's own loneliness and daily challenges?

I want to end this on a positive note. I am reminded of a Zen quote that goes, "What, at this moment, is lacking"? Well, at this moment, nothing is lacking except, perhaps the smile and laughter of my granddaughter. She is someone truly in the moment. Although I am the grandfather, she is the teacher most of the time. She really brings me back to basics. Later this week I will visit her at school because it will be "Grandparent's Day". When I go I will show my pride in her and she will show her excitement for me because, in her words, I am her "favorite toy" and what child doesn't like to bring their favorite toy to school?

It's time to sit back in my chair and watch more leaves fall from my neighbor's tree.

1 comment:

Ron Schreiner said...

Hello,

I ran across this blog of yours today and I loved your post so much that I'm going to follow your blog. It shows your Zen nature, which I absolutely adore.

May you be blessed all ways and in always.

Ron
http://bylightofthemoon.blogspot.com