…now and he doesn’t like it. Of course we don’t call it by that name anymore. It’s Pierce Care which includes us in our independent care cottage. It certainly looks like a nursing home and feels like a nursing home. He’s getting physical therapy (that’s the care part) but they don’t have sessions every day so he has to wait to Monday to start. He had an evaluation and he’s getting help for his walking, etc by a program for Parkensonism which is a kind of bastard child of Parkinson’s. The idea is that he was taking smaller and small steps whereas he needs to take bigger steps to give him a wider base.

So the exercises will work his legs with leg lifts, etc but encourage him to think Big! instead of crouching down further and further to the floor. I notice he’s sitting up straight now. He hasn’t been creeping around long enough to round his back.

Anyway his telephone number is 860-779-4484. He has one good hearing aid and I hope this week will bring another one. it’s the thought that counts. Isn’t it?

Got Problems? Consult the Buddha. What Buddha? The famous one whose statues are all over Asia.

I met the Buddha through a Great Courses DVD about Mindfulness meditation. In the past, I’d tried transcendental meditation. And it didn’t work: I’m too  impatient. Mindfulness meditation was what the Great Courses professor taught–no om-ing.

In mindfulness meditation, yous simply let your mind notice your thoughts and LET THEM GO! As you might surmise, I have a little trouble letting them go. I grip them and start gnawing  on them, even if they are the barest old dried bones of an idea. Usually I start mentally writing a scenario with me in the lead, carefully and victoriously solving the problem inherent in the scene. Even if it was a long-dead puzzle

So every morning I sit in and East window and meditate for 15 to 20 minutes. (I need an East window to regulate my sleep.) As I’ve been doing it since January, I’ve started to have some success in discovering answers to problems, all simple but satisfying. They just appear. And make sense.

Besides this, meditation is so very relaxing. Despite my rambunctious mind, my body completely relaxes.

And that, my friend are results to savor.