Monday, September 4, 2023

A Dads Quandary

This soliloquy encapsulates a complex and emotional situation faced by a single dad. "A Dad's Quandary" implies a perplexing and challenging dilemma he's grappling with. The core issues he highlights — disrespect, indifference, and a lack of appreciation from his accomplished daughter — resonate with the deep emotional struggles many parents may face when their efforts seem to go unnoticed or unappreciated.

The father's journey is a poignant one. He has raised a highly successful daughter, demonstrating his commitment and dedication as a parent. However, the painful irony lies in the fact that despite her achievements, she appears to show a lack of respect and admiration for him. This emotional turmoil is expressed through his heartfelt desire for her to realize his worth before it's too late, perhaps hinting at the feeling of being taken for granted.

The father's proposed solution to continue being the best he can be is a resilient and admirable approach. It speaks to the idea that, ultimately, one's self-worth should not be solely dependent on external validation, even from loved ones.

By focusing on self-improvement and personal growth, he aims to find solace and fulfillment within himself, regardless of whether his daughter acknowledges his contributions. His final sentiment, expressing enduring love despite the hurt, highlights the everlasting bond between a parent and child, even in the face of profound challenges.

This soliloquy serves as a poignant reflection on the complexities of parent-child relationships, the importance of self-worth, and the resilience that can be found in love.

Tuesday, July 25, 2023

Separation is an Illusion

I've heard truly amazing stories over the years, about almost every human situation. Conflict, defeat, triumph, resilience. Recently, I heard something that left me in awe. I haven't stopped thinking about John Diaz's story. He was on my show telling of his escape six years ago from Singapore Airlines flight 006. Eighty-three people perished in the flames. John and 95 others survived. John—who describes himself as a very straightforward, competitive, and pragmatic kind of guy—now walks with the help of a walker and endures the physical pain of his injuries every day. But in other ways he is more alive than he was before he literally went through the fire. ~ Oprah Winfrey

"The inside of the plane, John said, "looked like Dante's Inferno, with people strapped to their seats, just burning. It seemed like an aura was leaving their bodies—some brighter than others … I thought the brightness and dimness of the auras were how one lives one's life."

"John says that experience—seeing what he could only describe as auras, an energy of light leaving the bodies and floating above the flames—changed him, made him a more empathetic person. And although he still won't call his close call with death a miracle, he does say, "I want to live my life so my aura, when it leaves, is very bright.

Source: 
oprah.com/omagazine

At our physical transition from this dimension to the next, we're stripped of the EGO; stripped of the human brain. This allows us to have a 360 degree perspective of the bigger picture and we realize, beyond a shadow of any doubt that, all is well.

Most of us have a rather morbid and intimidating take on our mortality (which is actually immortality). So 
much so that we avoid the subject of our pending physical demise until we're practically on our death bed. As someone whose mom transitioned suddenly, at the age of 54 (I was 19), we are doing a tremendous disservice to our loved ones (especially our children) when we ignore the inevitable. 

The human body is approximately 99% comprised of just six elements: Oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, calcium, and phosphorus. Plants and animals use oxygen to breathe and return it to the air and water as carbon dioxide (CO2). CO2 is then taken up by algae and terrestrial green plants and converted into carbohydrates during the process of photosynthesis with oxygen being a by-product (photosynthesis is the process by which green plants and some other organisms use sunlight to synthesize foods from carbon dioxide and water).

Nitrogen is the most abundant element in our atmosphere, and is crucial to life. It moves from the atmosphere to earth, through soils and back to the atmosphere in an endless cycle. Nitrogen is found in soils and plants, in the water we drink, and in the air we breathe. It is also essential to life because it is a key building block of DNA, which determines our genetics, is essential to plant growth, and therefore necessary for the food we grow.

Friday, May 12, 2023

Kiss The Wind

To kiss the wind is to relax, meditate, take two steps backward, and just breathe. There is certainly no cause for tomorrow. For what will she bring? None other than the same ol' rather destructive pace. This author almost found that out the hard way. One person trying to work as two or three. 

Fortunately, instead of having a massive coronary or a debilitating cerebrovascular accident, aka stroke, I lived through two months of insomnia. As my inability to sleep worsened, so too did my anxiety. Finally, one weekend, my sleepless days and nights were so excruciating, I made an appointment with the first clinic that had the earliest available opening. 

Of course, the first thing they do is take your blood pressure, which measured a whopping 240/136. "It's time to take a ride, Mr. Shaw, were the next words spoken to me." 15-20 minutes later, I am a patient in Emory Saint Joseph's Hospital Intensive Coronary Care Unit. 

As it turns out, the multiple weeks of insomnia, along with what I'd like to think of as, 'serendipitous living' (we'll touch on this later), saved my life. Saved my innocuous, nonconsequential, precious life. My earthly sojourn is not referred to as precious because of hubris, all our lives have tremendous value. Our significance is validated by the Universe/Source/God. No matter what you think, believe, or whom you choose to worship, we all are valuable commodities in the broader scheme of things. 

Everyone has a contribution to make. The dilemma is that many of us don't want, care, or realize our inherent spiritual attributes, predicated on love. The further you distance yourself from Source/Love, the more problems you have.

What we call ourselves are no more than labels. Labels are placed on us, usually at birth, based on the region we were born into. Haphazardly, we allow these demoralizing captions to dictate our lives from the crib to the grave. Only when most of us are released at physical death, do we realize the error or our thinking, the major miscalculations. Still, it's all about love. No one is punished for his, her, or their missteps.