Who would have thought that Dylan would grace the cover of the consummate senior citizen magazine. “Don’t trust anyone over thirty.”, what happened to that? This is about as incongruous as the U.S. Janis Joplin postage stamp that came out recently. What? “burning the candle at both ends” Janis, that we know and love, on a “Forever Stamp”. What the heck is a forever stamp anyway?
Just the same I am trying to make sense of being on the cover of a magazine myself. Pretty heady really but what to make of it after that. And I wonder what my dear departed Catholic mother is thinking. Incongruous is the word again.
Ah, I look out the window and see the sun breaking through the morning fog. Just when you think that the world is all fog or that fog will be here forever the sun decides to pay a visit. Hmmm, maybe that fits right in with what we are talking about this morning.
Good, just got another cup of coffee to get me through these thoughts. Yes, what to make of Phil aka Felipe aka Red Hat aka Red Hot, on the cover of Northwest Catholic Magazine? I’m the guy that is sixty seven years old and still doesn’t know what I want to be when I grow up. Well Felipe, maybe this is it hey? Maybe being the guy that gets the stage four cancer and manages to scratch out a few more years to have the time and finds the energy somehow gets to inspire others to keep going.
Maybe, this is the battle that the Marine Corps trained me for as a youth and I never fought. Maybe I’m that crazy guy that advances when things look impossible and laughing while I’m at it. Am I that guy? Are the bullets cracking all around us? Are my comrades moving forward on my left and right to cover my flanks? Can we take that high ground ahead? Why not! Godspeed!
I put it in guy terms there, hope you can translate. Self discovery apparently is a long term project. OK then, time to get the day moving, thanks for being with me, love, Felipe.
Yes, you are that guy. Sort of. That guy is part of you. That guy keeps the train moving along. There’s another part of you, too, that you’ve let many of us see of late. The guy that stops. The guy that wonders. The guy that says out loud what we all might be saying– and it needs to be said in order to be heard. That the humanness of mindful living is a process and –clichéd though it is– a journey. You’re sharing yours as your wonder and curiosity leads you. ‘Wish I’d said that’ often comes to mind as you tour-guide us into mindfulness, in-the-momentness, up-and-downness, clarity and confusion and best of all, all-around gratitude.
That we live with and negotiate through paradox as part of the recipe for living is important stuff to get our hands into. This blog is a stepping-off-into-hands-on-work place for me.
Steve ~ yes we are getting our hands in there. Thanks for staying close, Felipe.