They laugh at my jokes, are interested in my stories, bring out the best in me and generally make me look good! Seriously, I love my friends, and for so many qualities, but generally I think it must be that they continually remind me of who I really am in the world, as my truest friends don’t seem to see my internal contradictions and can pierce my confusion and speak directly to my true self therefore bringing me there as well. I am a rower, and there is a magic in a double boat when two can become as one…finding that you can go forever. True friends feel like that.

I often find myself contemplating “what’s next?.” At this point I have a project, and I have to do some research about a geographical place, It will be a pretty massive amount of work, So I want to learn about that place and also to learn about learning. I would like to become a commensurate researcher. I used to answer this question with something more esoteric, like “I want to learn about the vow of stability and embrace it in my practice,” but now I am in a more practical frame of mind. As in what expertise could I chase that will further the mission of saving the world.” There is so much to be done!

After many years of meditation and practice I have seemed to develop a trick of time. There seems to have opened up a space between a demand or perturbation from the world and my reaction and response. This begins to show me facets of the challenge that become apparent by taking the time to investigate. My mind is a village and so like Miss Marple of Agatha Christie’s books, I cast about seeing what this particular situation reminds me of from the past, look for patterns and what I did before that worked (or more likely failed to achieve a good outcome…I excel at that).

Then I have the ability to form a response and hope for the best.

The storms and trials of life have honed me. I like this word as it implies a slightly different affect than ‘worn.’ For even in the darkest tragedies I have experienced, with distance of time and actual geography, I have undeniably been given the opportunity to be made the better for it.

How precisely? Some themes include knowing my structural weak points, finding where I need to get outside supports. Learning the tidal aspect of possessions, that they flow through, like inventory in retail. So I no longer mourn the loss of ‘stuff’ as much as I have in the past. The inevitable truth that things have endings, people have limits, sufferings cease and so the artful goodbye, and the little ways all these times of difficulty tend to be preparing me for the last letting go.

And like in real storms, in the midst of it, when the wind is screaming and chaos rules, the lights are out, and dangers seems everywhere, I get very real. And once one experiences that core depth of their essence it is hard to forget afterwards, And so while I am always grateful for surviving such times, I am also reminded of who I am.

I have always tended to be a part of a drumming circle rather than a solo act. In the sense that as a leader I have been in synch with other leaders. Leaders in the loosest sense of the word. More like instigators.

There are probably a couple hundred (I have no reason to accurately count them) followers who consume the creative output I produce, And while I rarely meet them or even connect with them except through my work, I have a sense of their loyalty. which is to say they are not very LOL.

But as I ‘drum’ away they drift up for a while and sway to the ‘music’ and then, satiated or distracted, move on.

As important as they are to my role as a creative, it is the act of creating that is my source of satisfaction, I leave the audience out of my equation.

When I lived in Haiti often at night one would hear drumming off in the mountains away south of where I lived in the countryside. At first it was haunting, but then it became a comfort. For after a time in the place, even I, a white dude (from Connecticut!), could feel its call and it found resonance in my core. The drumming became inextricably part of the place and vital. So it is enough that whatever drumming I do casts off across the water of life to hearers I never see or meet, reminding them of what or who I likely ever know.

When I was a kid, up until high school, life was something to be endured in many ways. I was so lost, clueless about the way life worked and how I fit in. I was in a sense waiting.

I was sent away to school, and immediately loved it there. And soon I realized that it was going to be over in four years and I was going to go to college so I had to get as much out of that four years as I could, so life became something I had to consume and be in each and every moment savoring the experiences as memories to hold on to.

Then life became something I had to survive. It seemed like I was surrounded by threats, real or imagined, and had to toughen up and learn how to fight.

Then I became a steward. Life was a conduit, a path. I was a pilgrim and had to carry as little as possible.

So some days I wake up and find myself in one of these interpretations, they are roles I know and have played for years with some skill. But, now I know they are roles I pick up and put down, Nothing I am a victim about. I choose them.

I am doing some research for a story that is autobiographical in part, and came across an old photo of a boy we had at our summer house in 1964 when we were 6. We were best friends that summer and I never stayed in touch. I am determined to track him down (not in a stalker kind of way) as I suddenly feel more than curious. Almost like there is a meaning to find. He came into focus in answer this question as I definitely feel it is an urging of the heart as opposed to the will or mind. And is somehow foreground..

As a creative I have put a great deal of stock on my imagination and its power to create illusion. Enabling me to transport myself into the future to visualize a project as it might unfold, as crafters of stories must. This is a great asset to that vocation. It hasn’t always translated into an ability to step back into life As It Actually Is with any precision, at times to my detriment.

So of late (the last two decades) I have hit upon a strategy that seems to work. My ‘real’ life is simple to being austere, with regimented predictable patterns and ways of going about the details.

Lest you worry I crowd out spontaneity, no I don’t. And yet the background field of energy supporting me, my life, is always there to receive me when I return home. Not sure that makes sense. I have a place, I have series of chores, that all reflect back, connect and support who I say I am in the world.

I was reflecting on our (US) lifestyle and attitudes in relation to the controversy(!) surrounding wearing a mask which is largely done to protect OTHERS. And the deep resentment some people are having to being forced to act in ways that directly saves lives in their community. It’s going to be that much harder for us to shift to making the hard decisions and correlations to our collective well-being in regards to climate impacts our daily choices make,

I don’t have a car. Haven’t had one for years, and walk almost everywhere. This pandemic might allow folks to realize the benefits of village life even in a suburb, where a cluster of homes and communities around a central market place that is walkable is a desirable thing.

I can be more of an advocate for change. Donate more time (as money is in short supply) and continually look at ways my life can be simplified.

In contemplating this question I was immediately reminded of Dusty Su’s response yesterday as I was struck but the dynamic of others starting to thank their caregivers at her quarantine after she hollered “thank you” through the door.We model this behavior and as we do it builds habitual practices in ourselves. At least that seems to be the case for me.

A friend once commented decades ago that in the span of life the most important thing we might hear from another human being might be overheard on a street corner from a stranger waiting alongside as we wait for the walk signal. I have to be open, and listening and available on a fundamental level. That encourages me to be openhearted.

A way I (used to LOL) practice this was while traveling. I would purposefully stop whatever I was doing and fold my hands and watch and listen to the safety demonstration from the Flight Attendants. They always noticed. It was a small, little, act and was so inexpensive in terms of my immensely important time(said in sarcasm). That is the kind of thing I do.

Kevin, as a newbie I am grateful for your comment the other day about this connection to the Word of the Day, which I never knew about! I, too, don’t read it first, and in fact am quite careful to read the question, hold it for my answer to emerge, share my voice, and THEN revel in what you others have shared. It is, for me, a fear of conceit that I might find my response so altered and colored by what you others have shared that my truth shyly steps backstage. And so to you, and to others that share here, know that I am listening to the beating of your drum….