Author: Sandy
Enemy or Ally…COVID-19 ?
WHAT IF… by Gutpreet Gill
There is so much fear, and perhaps rightfully so, about COVID-19.
And, What if…
If we subscribe to the philosophy that life is always working out for us, that there is an intelligence far greater than humans at work…
That all is interconnected.
What if…
the virus is here to help us?
To reset.
To remember.
What is truly important.
Reconnecting with family and community.
Reducing travel so that the environment, the skies, the air, our lungs all get a break.
Parts of China are seeing blue sky and clouds for the first time in forever with the factories being shut down.
Working from home rather than commuting to work (less pollution, more personal time).
Reconnecting with family as there is more time at home.
An invitation to turn inwards – a deep meditation – rather than the usual extroverted going out to self-soothe.
To reconnect with self – what is really important to me?
A reset economically.
The working poor. The lack of healthcare access for over 30 million in the US. The need for paid sick leave.
How hard does one need to work to be able to live, to have a life outside of work?
To face our mortality – check back into “living” life rather than simply working, working, working.
To reconnect with our elders, who are so susceptible to this virus.
And, washing our hands – how did that become a “new” thing that we needed to remember. But, yes, we did.
The presence of Grace for all.
There is a shift underway in our society
What if … it is one that is favorable for us?
What if … this virus is an ally in our evolution?
In our remembrance of what it means to be connected, humane, living a simpler life, to be less impactful and more kind to our environment.
This is an offering from my heart this morning. Offered as another perspective. Another way of relating to this virus, this unfolding, this evolution.
It was time for a change, we all knew that.
And, change has arrived.
~ The Author is Gutpreet Gill who writes intuitive and thought provoking essays whose blog is http://gurpreetkgill.com ~
Three Hairs, Two Hairs, One Hair, None
There once was a woman who woke up one morning,
looked in the mirror, and noticed
she had only three hairs on her head.
Well,” she said, “I think I’ll braid my hair today.”
So she did and she had a wonderful day.
The next day she woke up,
looked in the mirror and saw
that she had only two hairs on her head.
“Hmm,” she said, “I think I’ll part my hair down the middle today.”
So she did and she had a grand day.
The next day she woke up,
looked in the mirror and noticed
that she had only one hair on her head.
“Well,” she said, “today I’m going to wear my hair in a pony tail.”
So she did and she had a fun, fun day.
The next day she woke up,
looked in the mirror and noticed
that there wasn’t a single hair on her head.
“YES!” she exclaimed,
“I don’t have to fix my hair today!”
Attitude is everything.
Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass.
It’s about learning to dance in the rain.
~ Author Unknown ~
Unconditional Love
I was in a local grocery store the other day when suddenly I heard the sound of breaking glass behind me. I turned around to see what had happened. A young mother had turned away from her shopping cart for a second to look in one of the freezers.
That second was all it took for her growing, baby boy to test out his newfound ability to grab and lift things from his seat in the cart. Unfortunately, the big jar of spaghetti sauce was more than he could handle.
I smiled when I walked back to help and saw the look of utter surprise on his face. His arms were still outstretched where the jar had been a few seconds before. On the floor below the puddle of red was slowly oozing across the aisle.
After making sure that both Mom and baby were alright, I headed down the aisle to get help from a store employee. As I glanced back at them, though, I saw something that truly warmed my heart.
The baby had finally taken his eyes off the shattered jar and looked up at his Mom. Instead of scolding him or even giving him an angry look she smiled down at him with eyes full of gentle understanding and unconditional love.
Her tender gaze and kind smile never changed, not even when a friend gave her some good-natured teasing about the mess. I knew then that this Mom was going to give her son a lifetime full of laughter and love.
I think that God must smile down on us with that same look at times. We are His beloved Children and yet as hard as we try, we often make a mess of things, too.
We want to learn to love. Still, we stumble, we fall, we let important things slip through our fingers, and even break a few hearts along the way. God never gives up on us, however. He forgives us and fills our hearts, souls, and lives with His gentle understanding and unconditional love.
May we learn to love each other as He loves us. May we all learn to live our lives in joy, laughter, love, and understanding.
~ Written by Joseph J. Mazzella and used with permission. Joe is both a sensitive and loving person as well as an insightful writer. His website is well worth the visit at http://www.angelfire.com/wv2/joecoolwv/index.html ~
Riding in a F-14 Tomcat
This is an article written by Rick Reilly of Sports Illustrated. He details his experiences when given the chance to fly in the back-seat of an Air Force F-14 Tomcat. Often top ranked U.S. athletes such as John Elway, John Stockton, and Tiger Woods are given this photo opportunity which helps promote both them and the U. S. Navy Air Force.
The U.S. Navy invited me to try it. I was thrilled. I was pumped. My pilot would be Chip (Biff) King of Fighter Squadron 213 at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach. Whatever you’re thinking a Top Gun named Biff King looks like, triple it. He’s about six-foot, tan, ice-blue eyes, wavy surfer hair, finger-crippling handshake like the kind of man who wrestles alligators in his leisure time.
Biff King was born to fly. His father, Jack King, was for years the voice of NASA missions. “T-minus 15 seconds and counting.” Remember? Chip would charge neighborhood kids a quarter each to hear his dad.
Biff was to fly me in an F- 14D Tomcat, a ridiculously powerful $60 million weapon. I was worried about getting airsick, so the night before the flight I asked Biff if there were something I should eat the next morning.
“Bananas,” he said.
“For the potassium?” I asked.
“No,” Biff said, “because they taste about the same coming up as they do going down.”
The next morning, out on the tarmac, I had on my flight suit with my name sewn over the left breast. No call sign like Crash or Killer. But, still, very cool. I carried my helmet in the crook of my arm, as Biff had instructed. If ever in my life I had a chance to nail Nicole Kidman, this was it.
A fighter pilot named Psycho gave me a safety briefing and then fastened me into my ejection seat, which, when employed, would “egress” me out of the plane at such a velocity that I would be immediately knocked unconscious.
Just as I was thinking about aborting the flight, the canopy closed over me, and Biff gave the ground crew a thumbs-up. In minutes we were firing nose up at 600 mph.
Those first 20 minutes were the rush of my life. Unfortunately, the ride lasted 60 minutes. It was like being on the roller coaster at Six Flags Over Hell. We did barrel rolls, snap rolls, loops, yanks and banks. We dived, rose and dived again, sometimes with a vertical velocity of 10,000 feet per minute. We chased another F-14, and it chased us.
We broke the speed of sound. Flying at 200 feet above the sea we did 90-degree turns at 550 mph, creating a G force of 6.5, which is to say I felt as if 6.5 times my body weight was smashing against me.
And I egressed the bananas. And I egressed the pizza from the night before. And I egressed a box of Milk Duds from the sixth grade. I went through not one airsick bag, but two.
I thought I used to know “cool.” But now I really know “cool.” Cool are guys like Biff, men with cast-iron stomachs. I wouldn’t go up there again for Derek Jeter’s black book, but I’m glad Biff does every day, and for less a year than a rookie pitching reliever makes in a single game.
A week later Biff called. He said he and the other fighter pilots had the perfect call sign for me. Said he’d send it on a new patch for my flight suit.
What is it? I asked in excitement. Then he gave it to me…
“Two Bags.”