passages

time goes by so quickly and stopping to consider a moment is often more difficult than it would seem. in 2001 i accompanied a bicycle rider, Katie Lindquist-Eriksen, in RAAM, the race across america. as part of the team, signed on to provide sportsmedicine coverage, i quickly found myself primarily a driver of the vehicles following her on a superhuman journey. she was riding almost 300 miles/day and about 21 hours/day. the winner of the race made it from coast to coast in less than nine days and barely slept 8 hours on the whole race. i drove behind her at about 14 miles/hour for nine hours/day and then moved to the leapfrog vehicle to scout out the road ahead and run errands, before driving the RV to the next stop.

she later married Kent Eriksen, who worked for Moots Bicycles, and who now has his own line of racing bicycles. i learned a lot about myself during those long hours, and not all of it was good. my communication and social skills needed more improvement than i could understand, and working under stress with little sleep and trying to multi-task required terrific concentration. i'm glad they didn't send me home in the middle of the race......... i would have missed a wonderful journey and the exposure to a pure champion and athlete with more dedication than i'll ever experience again.

at 14 mph you get to see the countryside at a pace that is almost surreal........ an almost Dali existence that few experience. how is it that we never slow down this race we call life to enjoy everything, and also everyone? my beautiful daughter Calliope recently posted on the passing of her great uncle Guenther and the love she had come to share with him and his wonderful wife Genie. he was from germany and moved to chicago after the war. his dapper dress and properly trimmed mustache bespoke his pride and love of his work as a buyer for Marshall Field. he had so many stories that i never got to hear...... where was the time?

my father, now almost 93, also has stories i've never heard and every time we get together i catch a bit of another experience that wasn't told before. why don't we chronicle the timelines of this thing we call history......... our history..... and realize that we are the sum total of our experiences to date....... the drama, the emotion, the influence that it has on our existence. maxwell maltz, in his book PsychoCybernetics, spoke about the almost computer like path we follow and the ability to alter our behavior by understanding the inner workings of our psyche. just rewriting the first chapter of a book can change the whole storyline...... and the ending. wouldn't it be possible to change our whole course with just one emotional change of an early event? i've worked with hundreds of patients and have found just that........ the ability to change our total health and wellness just by resolving a negative event from long ago........ if only there was enough time to work with everyone..... and have them understand how effective it can be.

"I live here and now", you may say and you are right. But how can you define now? Time is fleeting and so is now. Or as the saying goes: Today is yesterday's tomorrow. And if you only have a now, you would have no past and no future, no history and no hopes.

just think, finding your Way by understanding where you have been and how others influenced that journey. wouldn't it be exciting?

learn to slow down and find the things that are lost in the haste..... and those that have influenced you in your journey..... good and bad.

circles

a friend called me on my first blog topic and reminded me that endings didn't necessarily have to occur as a natural part of everything. life is ever renewing and, as in nature, there can be "perennials" (lasting, perpetual, enduring, everlasting). the reason i love to sea kayak is because i am not dependent on someone else to "pick me up". i can return to my van and simply make a circle. of course this thought set me off on another tangent musically and, as often does, a favorite song came to mind.

harry forster chapin grew up in new york and was famous for his hits: cat's in the cradle and W.O.L.D., but more importantly for me, All My Life's a Circle, sung in 1972. that was the year i matriculated from undergraduate school and went to work at the VA psych. hospital. it came to mind that everything turns over and comes back around again, in one way or another - karmic or otherwise. guess we should just get it right this time and find another Way. so here's to harry!

All My Life's a Circle

(Starts with 2 stanza chorus):

All my life's a circle;

Sunrise and sundown;

Moon rolls thru the nighttime;

Till the daybreak comes around.

All my life's a circle;

But I can't tell you why;

Season's spinning round again;

The years keep rollin' by.

It seems like I've been here before;

I can't remember when;

But I have this funny feeling;

That we'll all be together again.

No straight lines make up my life;

And all my roads have bends;

There's no clear-cut beginnings;

And so far no dead-ends.

Chorus:

I found you a thousand times;

I guess you done the same;

But then we lose each other;

It's like a children's game;

As I find you here again;

A thought runs through my mind;

Our love is like a circle;

Let's go 'round one more time.

Chorus:

harry forster chapin (12/7/42-7/16/81) was interred in the huntington rural cemetery, Huntington, New York. his epitaph is taken from his song "I Wonder What Would Happen to this World." it is:

Oh if a man tried
To take his time on Earth
And prove before he died
What one man's life could be worth
I wonder what would happen
to this world.

try to take your time on this Earth to prove what you are worth.....