Kate Loving Shenk

Welcome to the promise of 2010, a new year, a new decade. The feelings of potential are wonderful to relax into and to cherish.

I know that life challenges will arise, and have solutions as to how to deal with these.

1) Arise early in the day to write my Daily Prayer For Healing

I write prayers in order to open myself at all times to the Divine. Maybe I am one who needs constant reminding. But writing prayers is an exercise in discipline and creativity. It is an excellent writing practice.

Already this year, 1/6/2010, I lost my beloved dog, Mukunda. Writing daily prayers has eased my sorrow, and helped me to face the grief head on.

2) Walk every day with my dog

I now have one dog whose name is Ulysses, who is pictured here. . We go on many walks, we play ball, and Ulysses loves to play “stick,” as well. Ulysses, by the way, took the passing of Mukunda very well, because Muki died in my arms with Ule observing. Say what you will, but animals take death in stride. They seem to innately know that death does not exist, and nothing ever dies.

3) Play my violin at least three times a week

I have been doing well so far with this on. We found a wonderful drummer who plays with us, and we are planning to do a gig for Saint Patrick’s day!

4) Communicate with like-minded people

This is an easy one. Onine and offline, I have friends who I may or may not see eye to eye on all things, nevertheless, we love each other.

5) Commit to loving thoughts continuously

This is my favorite Intention of all. Every moment of every day, we have a choice in what we think and how we think. We can choose love or we can choose fear. I believe a meditation practice is powerfully helpful in automatically choosing love over fear.

6) Allow all the good in the Universe to be my constant companion

This one is easy as long as I have a dog in my life. All the good in the Universe is contained in all the dogs I have ever had. Since dogs are the greatest companions known to hu-mans, then Love is the natural outcome of these wonderful friendships.

What happens if I don’t have a dog?

I’ll have to go out into the world  and find one!

7) See the good in all the people, all the time

I am getting better and better at this one. Yes humans can do some pretty stupid things that end up being amazingly unloving. These things are done out of ignorance.

Forgiveness is the only answer.

See the good in every situation

Let us say I have a particularly challenging situation arise. I have a choice, whether to emphasize the drama of the story, how “awful” it was or is; or I can choose to see all of the blessings  from everything that happened.

I choose the latter!

9) Seek balance in solitude and the company of people

It’s all too possible to be alone too much, or be with people far too much. Seeking balance in these and all things is my wish for the New Year.

10) Cherish the time that I have here on Planet Earth

Every moment is precious. Love it. Live it. Experience it. Do not run away from it.

Om, Peace Amen.

Animal Communication On MoonMooYou: The Collective Wisdom
Powered By Mukunda22

Ram Dass

Ram Dass was and still is a legendary figure of my generation of Baby Boomers.

For those of us who love him, his story is a testament  for one who has gone before
and brings us with him.

Ram Dass wrote most of this book before he had the massive stroke that almost took his life.
The idea of aging and ill health took on a new meaning for him, and whereas before, he had
trouble completing the book, the experience of near death allowed the book to effortlessly
find a meaningful ending.

First, his experience as Harvard Professor, experimenting with consciousness with Timothy
Leary; then his trip to India to find himself without the use of mind-altering drugs, and finding
his guru, Neem Karoli Baba; his many years lecturing on enlightenment and the search for
God; and now, his stroke and search for meaning in aging, death, dying and rebirth: this book
encapsulates all of this, and more.

The passages in “Still Here: Embracing Aging, Changing, and Dying” which describes our
relationship with aging as it relates to American Culture and how it defines aging, is profound
and sobering. Ram Dass describes American Culture as nontraditional, the Western Society of
people who are separate from each other and nuclear in the definition of family.

Traditional cultures revere the old, the young and all live together in a common thread of
sharing.

Ram Dass outlines six fears he identifies within himself when he thought about himself growing old:
Senility, loneliness, embarrassment, powerlessness, loss of role identity and depression.

The practice he recommends to work with these fears is mindfulness, the art of living in the present moment.

Here is a stanza from Tibetan Buddhism that describes mindfulness in a person who is aware of these
fears.

“Prolong not the past,
Invite not the future,
Alter not your innate wakefulness,
Don’t fear appearances–
There is nothing more than that.”

Or  in the words of Wordsworth:

“Age is opportunity no less
Than youth itself, though in another dress,
And as the evening twilight fades away,
The sky is filled with stars invisible by day.”

Or in the words of T.S. Elliot:

“Getting older, you refuse to fritter away your time with nonsense. You drop your masks, your little
vanities and fake ambitions.”

Ram Dass defines self-healing in this way: The more quickly we become aware of a mindset such as
senility, loneliness, embarrassment, powerlessness, loss of role identity or depression, the more effective
our mindfulness practice will be to alleviate it.

For instance, feeling lonely is an opportunity to give way to the great aloneness we feel at times of peace,
quiet and contemplation.

The one thing that is never diminished over time is our ability to see with wise perception. Wisdom grows
and grows up to the moment of our death. Ram Dass says our predicament is to envision a curriculum for
aging with wisdom as its highest calling and to use it as a means of enlightenment-our own and of the
people around us.

This is why the Collective Wisdom is at the heart of our radio show, Moon, Moo and You, with all three being
an integral part of the whole.

As we age, we refuse to be discarded or seen as irrelevant. We bravely speak our wisdom and share all
others to join with us, if they are called to do so.

Our radio show opened on my 58th birthday, and emphasized for me the need to claim my own aging as
a gift, as a celebration, as a dance I will keep on dancing and embracing and growing my wisdom as a means to help my generation in their quest to age consciously.

http://www.squidoo.com/agingwithramdass

Kate Loving Shenk