Thank you, Sensei and Rose, for sharing yet another beautiful story with us...one that connects, inspires and encourages. It is most tender business being alive. Thank goodness we do it together!
Sending continuous Metta,
Meredith
Thank you Rafe for your well stated comments on how it is important to truly appreciate this great gift of life we have been given. Your story touches me in a unique way. Being a mother of four adult children I understand deeply how precious are the bonds of love we share within our families. Your pictures are wonderful to see knowing that you, Rose, your son and daughter are in heartfelt communion.
I just returned from Saint Petersburg beach where I spent sometime with my oldest son Nicholas Monroe and his family celebrating his 44th birthday ! Yes, we all have much to be thankful for and I am grateful to know you will enjoy another Thanksgiving with your family and friends! Many blessings!
Good news to see you so well and getting back to normal activities. Such a blessing to be surrounded with love from family, friends and Sangha.
With our very best wishes and Metta for continued health and strenght and the most happy of Thanksgivings!!
Marielle & Randall
These words and images are so full of love -- they radiate outward to all beings! It is wonderful to hear about these blessings that are overflowing. Wishing you all well in the months, years, eons ahead!
Love -
Lynne
Hippocrates apocryphally suggested: "Sometimes give your services for nothing, calling to mind a previous benefaction or present satisfaction. For some patients, though conscious that their condition is perilous, recover their health simply through their contentment with the goodness of the physician." {And as well, that of their spouse, their offspring, their friends and acquaintances?}
Here's a (portion of) a holiday greeting first published circa 40 years ago at the instigation of the back room graphic arts team at City/News:
"Deeds of giving are the very foundation of the world." (The Torah)
"I believe that the reason of life is for each of us simply to grow in love." (Tolstoy)
"Flowers talk to me, and so do hundreds of little things in the woods. I learn what I know by watching and loving everything. (George Washington Carver)
"I would rather make mistakes in kindness and compassion than work miracles in unkindness and hardness." (Mother Teresa of Calcutta)
"Let me say, at the risk of seeming ridiculous, that the true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love." (Che Guevara)
"With all beings and all things we shall be as relatives." (Sioux Indian)
"There is but one love, yet his shape is legion." (La Rochefoucauld)
"Time flies. Suns rise and shadows fall. Let time go by. Love is forever over all." (Found on an Old English sundial)
Dear Rafe and Rose,
So happy to hear you're doing so much better, and getting back to things and people you love. Love IS a beautiful thing. May new experiences and old ones continue to sustain you for many years to come.
With all affection,
Schoel
It has been an honor and privilege to watch the power of love, community and dedication during your illness. You have been the head of a sangha formed for the purpose of healing and accompaniment. Gratitude abounding.
Sending continuous Metta,
Meredith