Get a Life!  (an excerpt)
Anna Quindlen

Karma--the Wheel of Life
Charlie Badenhop

Flowers Are Red
Harry Chapin

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I suppose the best piece of advice I could give anyone is pretty simple:  get a life.  A real life, not the manic pursuit of the next promotion, the bigger paycheck, the larger house.  Do you think you'd care so very much about those things if you developed an aneurysm one afternoon, or found a lump in your breast while in the shower?

Get a life in which you notice the smell of salt water pushing itself on a breeze over the dunes, a life in which you stop and watch how a red-tailed hawk circles over a pond and a stand of pines.  Get a life in which you pay attention to the baby as she scowls with concentration when she tries to pick up a Cheerio with her thumb and first finger.

Turn off your cell phone.  Turn off your regular phone, for that matter.  Keep still.  Be present.

Get a life in which you are not alone.  Find people you love, and who love you.  And remember that love is not leisure, it is work.  Each time I look at my diploma, I remember that I am still a student, still learning every day to be human.  Send an e-mail.  Write a letter.  Kiss your mom.  Hug your dad.

Get a life in which you are generous.  Look around at the azaleas making fuchsia star bursts in spring; look at a full moon hanging silver in a black sky on a cold night.  And realize that life is glorious, and that you have no business taking it for granted.

All of us want to do well.  But if we do not do good, too, then doing well will never be enough.

Life is short.  Remember that, too.

I've always known this.  Or almost always.  I've been living with mortality for decades, since my mother died of ovarian cancer when she was forty and I was nineteen.  And this is what I learned from that experience:  that knowledge of our own mortality is that greatest gift God ever gives us.

It is so easy to waste our lives:  our days, our hours, our minutes.  It is so easy to take for granted the pale new growth on an evergreen, the sheen of the limestone on Fifth Avenue, the color of our kids' eyes, the way the melody in a symphony rises and falls and disappears and rises again.  It is so easy to exist instead of live.
  

Many people are trying in their own ways to create works that will be valuable to people, and you can find a couple of those works at these sites:

David B. offers a two-page collection of short quotations that you can print off and share with others.  Click here to visit a printable PDF file.

Likewise, Leland Beaumont offers a very nice site on "Emotional Compentency," with a nice collection of passages, quotations, and ideas that can be very helpful to many.  Click here to visit.

Finally, Sandra Imperatore is working to create songs with positive, uplifting lyrics.  If you'd like to read a short article about her, read a few of her poems, and contact her, click here!

Today, I write to you from Kathmandu, Nepal. I am here to attend the wedding of the eldest daughter of one of my best friends. I return to Kathmandu after a twelve year hiatus, having run a business here in the past.

Yesterday I sat with two of my Nepali friends and asked them what concept of Nepali life and culture they thought I should write about. After a long conversation we decided on the topic of "karma."

I write about karma not as an academic, but rather as a person who worked and created a bond of friendship with numerous Nepali people while working with them for six years.

There is a strong belief in Nepali culture and other Asian cultures as well, that the effects of a person's actions determine their destiny. This sense of "destiny" can extend to a person's next life, and to their family and associates as well. In the West we have a similar idea when we say "As you sow, so shall you reap." In Nepali culture one might say, "The thoughts and actions you extend out into the world, will very definitely return to you in kind. Your karma is the accumulation of all you have thought and done in this and other lifetimes." An important part of the Nepali belief system being that we all live many lifetimes (we reincarnate,) and that our karma carries over from past lifetimes into the present and future. (I will write more about reincarnation in the next issue.)

Connected to the concept of karma is the belief that the experiences in your life that you do not deal with ethically and effectively, will reoccur until such time that you learn the lessons such experiences hold for you.

It is not that an all knowing God punishes you for wrongful or foolish acts, but rather that the energy you project out into the world has a natural boomerang effect, known as karma. Toss a boomerang of anger, and anger is what will come back to you from others. Toss a boomerang of love, and love will be returned. Another way we can grasp the concept of karma is to consider what happens when you call out in a loud voice when surrounded by large mountains. Within a second or two's time, the echo of your voice reverberates all around you. Shout out "hate" and hate will come back to you. Shout out "God" and God will echo back.

It would appear to be common sense if one said, "If you want to harvest rice in a few months time, you had better plant rice now, and not wheat or barley." In Nepali culture it is common sense to realize, "If you want to harvest the respect and good will of those you interact with, you had better plant the seeds of respect and good will now. Your thoughts and actions are the seeds that determine what grows in your life, and what doesn't."

In working and living with Nepali people I have experienced a kindness that I find to be rare in the world today. I have found a gentleness and caring that touches my soul, and inspires me to be more caring myself. In particular, I remember an event from about fifteen years ago when a Nepali friend said, "I will bear the burden of today's hardship that I might prepare myself for the blessings of the future."

Consider a troublesome relationship you are involved in now.

Think about the actions you have been considering taking; the manner in which you have been thinking about replying.

Really do take the time to consider this.

Now,

Contemplate the reply/response you are likely to get back from others, based upon your reply/response back to them.

In other words, imagine the boomerang effect your response will likely generate from others.

And how their response back to you will also tend to boomerang back on them.

How easy it can be to get caught up in cycle of negative responses, with no compassionate end in sight.

Action-Reaction, Boomerang, Echo.

The wheel of karma is turning,

And will continue to turn.

For as long as you supply the energy.

Over the course of the coming days, months, years, decades, eternity...

Imagine the echo of all your responses and actions in the world, reverberating out and back to you,

Just like they do in the relationship you are considering now.

Think of the likely consequences of all that you think and do.

Anger, retribution, fear, punishment.

Love, compassion, caring, kindness.

What is it that you truly want in the relationship you started out thinking about?

How have you been playing an active role in determining the future and destiny of this relationship?

What seeds will you need to plant now in order to harvest the relationship you desire?

What is the "right action" that you can take today, to help you begin to achieve the kind of future you desire?

Your future will be different if you act and think differently now.

How can you respond differently,

In order to truly best serve your needs,

And the needs of those you are in relationship with?

Both parties need to be served!

It is only natural.

How will you bear the burden of today's challenges, in order to best prepare yourself for the blessings of the future?

©Charlie Badenhop. All rights reserved.  http://www.seishindo.org

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Alone in his car heading west, it's easy for Jason to feel sorry for himself and mad at the world.  But then he gives a ride to Hector and learns life isn't as negative as we sometimes see it.  The friendship between this young man and his 70-year-old passenger is an inspiring story of love and of dealing with obstacles in life.  It's a story that you'll treasure long after you've finished reading.

Three Cavaliers, Tom Walsh's second published novel, is now available in book form!  Click on the image to the left to order!

     “Here you go, gentlemen,” Jenny said as she came back with the check and refilled their coffees.  “I hope that you have a very nice trip, wherever you’re heading.”
     “I am going to Pocatello ,” Hector told her.  “And Jason is going to Seattle .  Thank you for your kind wishes.”
     “You’re very welcome,” Jenny said with a smile.  “Drop by if you’re ever in the area again.”
     “Will do,” Jason said, pulling some cash out of his pocket.  Hector looked at the check and then gave nine dollars to Jason.
     “This is what I owe,” he said.  “With a tip.”
     “You’re a pretty big tipper,” Jason said.
     “Yes, I am,” Hector replied.
     “I am sometimes,” Jason said.  “I guess I have to be in the mood to leave a big tip.”
     “I am always in the mood to do something nice for other people.  Besides, I am old, and I cannot take my money with me when I leave.  I might as well pass it on to nice people.”
     “Yeah, you’re right.  It’s easier to say than to do for me, though.”  Jason added his money to Hector’s and pushed it all under his plate.  “Let’s get out of here and on the road.  It’s about that time.”
     “Let me use the bathroom first, and I will be right out.  I do not want to make you stop any more than you have to.”
     “Sounds good.  I’ll meet you outside.”
     As he stood, Jason’s legs once more reminded him of the abuse he was putting them through, and he stretched a bit as soon as he got outside.  The sun was now up much higher in the sky, and the night was long since gone.  He felt the sun’s warmth on his cheek and he breathed deeply of the morning air, wishing it were a bit fresher but willing to take what he could get.  He looked over towards the highway where the cars and trucks were speeding by, and he felt the road calling him, pulling him.  He always felt that way when he was traveling, as if the road had some sort of power over him.  He never liked stopping, even though he knew he had to.  He always had to force himself to stop for food and for gas and for coffee—if it were up to him, he never would stop on any trip he took, as long as he was doing the driving.  It was different when he was in the passenger’s seat; then, he felt like stopping all the time.  Hector came out of the restaurant.
     “It’s a beautiful morning,” Jason said, looking up at the clear sky above them.
     “Yes, it is,” Hector agreed.  “It is a beautiful morning to be on the road, especially with the sun behind us.”
     “You’ve got that right.  It would be a real bitch if we were driving into it.”  Jason looked at his watch.  It wasn’t even seven yet, even though after the long night of driving he felt like it should be noon.  If he had still been at home, he wouldn’t even have been awake yet.  “You know,” he said, “it’s a shame that so many people miss the mornings.  They never get up in time to see it and feel it.  Mornings are pretty beautiful.  Hell, I never see the mornings unless I’m on some sort of trip or something.”
     Hector looked at him closely.  “You are right—mornings are beautiful.  They are the symbols of new birth and new beginnings.  Every day we have the opportunity to start everything new, yet we almost never take the chance.”
     “You really believe that?  That every morning’s a new start?  Seems to me that we bring too much of yesterday’s crap into today for us to be able to start all over again.”
     “When you say ‘we,’ do you mean you?”
     Jason laughed.  “Probably.”
     “We bring to each day what we wish to bring to the day.  That is all.”
     “Yeah, but what if you have a whole bunch of work left over from the day before?  You’re not really starting all over again—you’re just finishing up whatever you didn’t finish the day before, aren’t you?”
     Hector smiled.  “Are you?”
     “Of course you are.”
     “Is it not possible that the first part of the work was yesterday’s work, and the rest is today’s?  Work is not like a football game that must be finished on the same day it is started.  Just because we start a task today does not mean that all of that task is today’s work.  Sometimes we must be patient and let the work tell us how long it needs to be done well.”
     “That makes sense, I guess.”  Jason got into the car, and Hector got in on the other side.  “I still think we bring too much of our yesterdays into today.”
     “I believe many people do, but not everyone.  Besides, is it not possible that that is not a bad thing?”