A very big day is coming up. If Canada’s National Newspaper is to be believed, the 27th of January will be a huge day. We are all going to go the Streets of San Francisco and we won’t need flowers in our hair, Karl Malden, or Michael Douglas. Apple is set to launch the iKindle (I doubt they will call it that) and I am joining the majority of the world that does not give a flying f word about that.
Who knows what will be on my mind that day – today I have other thoughts.

I missed lunch today and we had salmon for dinner. I was hungry and the salmon was a bit on the fatty side. But since I was hungry I reverted to a bad old habit and I beagled (new word based on wolfed) the thing down. So I felt, after the meal, a bit bloated. Was it just a bit of light indigestion or my heart? The things that I now consider.

I took the beagle out for a walk. He is stubborn, self absorbed, has a narrow agenda, and likes to pull to the right. He is just like the woman who claims to be our Member of Parliament except he has charm and dislikes firearms. Walking him is becoming a bit of a chore. I love walking but I have to be careful and not run and get silly and neither he nor I like that. The things that I now consider.

I am reading now a lot, maybe a bit too much, which sounds like crazy talk except that reading involves a lot of sitting on the butt. I just finished a very long book by Elizabeth Kostova : The Historian. I read the book of my own free will, it was long and rambling, going through time, Eastern Europe, Turkey, Vampires and circular discrete convolutions of the written word (and of course there is no such thing). It was a potato chip book, a bit like da Vinci Code. Not to destroy the story for anyone reading this book but things would have been better if Dracula had crossed paths with Melvil Dewey back in the 1880s . The things that I now consider.

I now have a spiritual advisor, Father Jack, a Catholic priest who has spent time in India in Ashrams. What enlightenment has he given me? He has taught me to breathe, for one thing. Simple yoga exercises to open up my lungs and airways for the trauma they are about to suffer. Simple Mediation: he spent weeks and weeks, ten hours a day, concentrating on breathing – he says it brought tears to his eyes. For me it is a bit simpler: When I get back from surgery I can meditate on breathing – air in, and air out, air in, and air out. Think about nothing else. There is no pain. There is no outside world. There is no music. You are just doing the gift of life itself – air in and air out. I am learning that prayer is more about listening than talking (a real stretch for me) and I have become a fan of Fr Richard Rohr. I called Fr Jack a spiritual advisor – Fr Jack is more of a spiritual questioner. The things that I now consider.

At Christmas time I blogged that I had elected to give some money to the Salvation Army instead buying an iGizmo (could have been the iKindle !!) . Good thing I did that and also signed up for the monthly contributions, as they sure need the cash in Haiti. I just, moments ago, found out that a very good friend of mine is flying to Santo Domingo tomorrow and then on to Port au Prince. His job has him there for a week at least. He says that he will be fine. He will be careful. He will not be in the most dangerous areas. It is not a war zone. I see aftershocks. I see Warlord Blade leading 3000 escaped criminals. I see the one bug the inoculations did not guard against. The things that I now consider.

The main thing that I really think about is my good fortune and how things have lined up for me. There is the mechanical part, the getting fixed part of course, and that is core. But even better is the love of family and friends. I just got off the phone with a lady who told me to keep my chin up, get help if I need it , and think positive thoughts. She had a ‘bad go a few years ago', but she got over it. Apologetically she added that the "few years ago" was when she was younger. She has had to concede that age does play a role. She is now 94 and her last bad go was when she was just 88….. I get so many lessons each day I can barely keep track. The things that I now consider.