Until I had a stroke on July 8, 2019, I
strongly believed the adage, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.”
For me an “apple” was analogous to a variety
of health-inducing activities:
--being a vegetarian; for over 25 years
Christine and I had been enjoying only strictly vegetarian meals.
--being in a loving relationship. Christine and I recently celebrated our 30th
Anniversary on May 20, 2019.
--relishing my conversations with my son,
Stephen, now 50, who calls once a day from his home in Colorado.
--walking for 30 minutes each day through the
seasons; for me this was an attempt to sustain an athletic body that had for 8
years in Three Rivers High School in Michigan and Kalamazoo College very
successfully run the high and low hurdles and the quarter mile; played football
as a fullback and linebacker, ending up as an All-Conference Defensive End as
Co-Captain of a undefeated team my senior year in college.
--running the
Chicago Marathon (26.2 miles) in the fall of 1978, at the age of 37, in
3 hours and 36 minutes, an 8 minute per mile pace. (I am so grateful that
Stephen at age 9 was there to watch me run the race.)
--living a spiritual life. Christine and I came across A Course in
Miracles in the fall of 1986, and we have been bringing the principles into
application ever since. Miraculously, we
crossed the threshold of Endeavor Academy in the Wisconsin Dells on August 7,
1997, (22 years ago today) experiencing the
privilege of learning from an enlightened being, The Master Teacher.
--being with like-minded friends. We still live in the Dells, enjoying our
friends, particularly watching Mooji videos together a couple of times a week.
--starting each day, reading a Lesson from
the Course, beginning with Lesson 1 on January 1, and then reading such texts
as “God Calling,” “Jesus Calling,” “From The Christ Mind,” scribed by Darrell
Price, “A Course of Love,” “The Jesus Trilogy,” scribed by Gina Lake, and so
forth.
Now, I know, (and notice how powerful the
word “know” is, containing the word “now,”) that an apple a day may not keep
the doctor away, knowing that I could be a heartbeat away from a physical
trauma, and yet I am going to passionately “love them there apples.”
Very often during the day,
I sit quietly and
consciously breathing in and breathing out,
remembering that the
Latin root of
spirit” is spirare,
meaning “to breathe,”
breathing in The Holy
Spirit,
the breath of God,
and in that moment I
AM present,
thoughts come and go
like clouds,
and I AM so grateful
for each passing moment,
savoring my meals,
enjoying being with
Christine,
talking with Stephen,
walking, carrying a
cane,
not using it,
loving the Course,
hanging out with our
friends,
and reading the
spiritual books on my Kindle.
For me, now, these
activities have nothing to do with prevention; they have everything to do with
living life with a grateful heart, and a smile on my face, and each time I
greet a friend, I say to myself, “Namaste.”
