My Year in Review

I know this has been a miserable, horrible year for the majority of the world, and yet for me it has been an amazing spiritual journey, which I would like to share in summary (no extra charge for survivor’s guilt). Since I’m trying to devote the column now more to my mind than my life, I’m leaving out a wedding, my grandson, and quotidian life with the world’s  best woman.

The bottom line is that this year, through a combination of forgiveness, psychotherapy, meditation and spiritual growth and awakening, I have lost weight, improved my posture, stopped committing the sin of hatred, and improved my marriage, by learning to be more explicitly grateful for the amazing 41-year journey my wife has shared with me. Nine months spent in quarantine with the woman I love most in the world has been a gift from God. (The plague is making good relationships better, bad ones worse).

Details of my experiences  have been scattered throughout my revived column this year. Suffice it to say that the following events took place:

• I started writing poetry (90 poems so far). Mostly love poetry, some of which I paid to have turned into love songs (see note in right column).
• Through an exchange of forgiveness, I stopped committing the sin of hatred.
• I restarted this column, with more of a focus on my thoughts and feelings, rather than my quotidian activities. (and sharing the ideas/news/memes of my contributors).
• I experienced a) healing and a vision during a crystal bowl concert, b) a soul retrieval, c) brainspotting and emdr, d) hacking reality, e)  the opening of my heart chakra, f) samadhi while standing in line at Safeway.
• I have discovered my purpose in life: to give loving kindness to others, including friends, family and the world. I have already done this on numerous occasions I am aware of, and, I suspect, numerous occasions of which I am not aware. I have always been overflowing with life force; now I am trying to deliberately share it.
• I lived out this parable:
  “A child tells her grandfather, ‘There are two wolves fighting inside me. One is bitterness and hatred. The other is love and compassion. Which wolf will win?’”
  
  "The one you feed," is his reply.
  
  I stopped feeding the wrong wolf after 43 years and it was a blessing. I think it explains the weight loss. I am now feeding only the right wolf.
• I began meditating regularly. I am calmer. I move more slowly. I do everything more deliberately. I hunch my shoulders less.