A response to Blaine as to "dealing with past and future."

  Dealing with past and future??? No possible quick or easy answer to that one—if any—no "quote" or "set of words" to tell one how to deal with past and future. It's something be lived with—to be “inside” your own experience.

  "Mindfulness" (which is rooted in teachings of the Buddha) "says" that the past and the future do not exist – they are only "stories" we store in our minds as we remember the past or imagine the future, and one could say we are not the person we were in the past or will become in the future. Who we are now is all that matters.

  What I’m learning from Cody doesn’t come from his words or explanations of how or what he believes – he seldom says anything about that. Learning is from how I see him when he’s with his family or talking about them (very proud of his two daughters), his actions at the health center, or when we're riding around town listening to audio books (many ideas we share from them but seldom make any “comments” only – a “yes” or “just like me” now and then) When we lunch together, there’s little conversation.

  Especially at the supermarket where we have a chance of interchanges with so many people. He is TOTALLY ATTENTIVE to the moment. HE SEES EVERYTHING, is totally focused, his mind is right where he's at in the moment, and this results in many delightful exchanges – "quick takes" you might say, and kidding me about my love of butter—“hadn’t you better check out the butter sales today?” and checking the blueberries to see if they have any mold.

  When he's working at the center, he’s totally focused on the people his adjusting, giving them his complete attention.

  All this is a marvel, and so in tune with my own desire to "travel lost, arriving now, here” and celebrate life every minute of the day – even when “participating” in the lives of characters I love so much on DVDs, or books read, and most certainly here at FB.

  Once, some time ago when Cody was driving me home from a Thanksgiving dinner at his home, he told me about a seminar he'd attended and how impressed he was with the man who was giving it – I don't remember the specifics, but I do remember he said something that prompted me to respond with a "quote" whose meaning I had pondered many time as to its meaning while meditating with the Lotus Sutra, and suddenly I didn’t have to “ponder” it any more, and said simply, "Aspiring to the mind of non-existence . . ." He replied, "Yes." It was a wonderful moment—a spark of “knowing” between us, with only these few words spoken. Nothing further was said, or needed to be said.