Me and the Pooch, Snowed in in Rochester

I may have to postpone telling you about all of the wonderful (and some not so wonderful) things that happened in the past week. But I did want to let my global fan-base know that Sandy has arrived safely from Amsterdam and, at the very least, acknowledge an enormous debt of gratitude to:

* my old and dear friend Susan who was kind enough to offer to watch over Sandy while her master gallivanted around the US, and who then went through untold hassles to get Sandy safely back into my arms via a Delta flight from Amsterdam, 14 January;

* my old buddy Matt who rode shot-gun with me out to JFK to pick up Sandy, and then guided all three of us back to the apartment of

* my old buddies Martin and Dana (and new buddies Molly and Lucy!), who allowed Dougie T. to lay his head on their sofa-bed 3 nights in a row, who offered the use of their mini-van (installed with an EZ-Pass automatic toll-payer, wow!), and who reminded me in a powerful way of what a joy it is to have such friends;

* my sister Eileen, who not only picked me up at Martin and Dana's in the Bronx, but who on the 15th gave us shelter at her convent in New Jersey on Saturday, before driving me and Sandy up to Rochester on Sunday the 16th, before driving back down to New Jersey on Monday, God bless her;

* the Salesian sisters in Haledon, NJ who made both me and my pooch feel welcome, esp. Sr. Helene who allowed my sister to drive me home, and Sr. Mildred who allowed Sandy to stay with me in the room they provided; and especially

* my old buddy from high school days Mike and his wife Kris in Rochester, who took in both me and Sandy in the middle of a blowing snowstorm when continued accommodation with a family member was no longer possible.

The snow has begun to fall like it used to do at this time of year before global burn-up became more obvious. I shoveled the driveway twice today, and another 1 to 3 inches (~ 3 to 8 cm) of snow is due to fall tonight, on top of the 6 inches or so already on the ground. Temp outside at this moment is 10 degrees F (-12 C).

I am focusing on finding my own place while looking for work, and so will not spend as much time on this week's blog posting as I usually do. I'll update you with the news as soon as it happens.

Best wishes to you in your endeavors .. keep me in your thoughts and prayers. I leave you with one of my favorite passages from The Power of Now, in which Tolle has explained why he prefers to use the word Being when talking about That to which many refer to as God.

[One of Tolle's questioners says] I am still not quite sure if I fully understand what you mean by Being.

"Water? What do you mean by that? I don't understand it." This is what a fish would say if it had a human mind.

Please stop trying to understand Being. You have already had significant glimpses of Being, but the mind will always try to squeeze it into a little box and then put a label on it. It cannot be done. It cannot become an object of knowledge. In Being, subject and object merge into one.

Being can be felt as the ever-present I am that is beyond name and form. To feel and thus to know that you are and to abide in that deeply rooted state is enlightenment, is the truth that Jesus says will make you free ... from the illusion that you are nothing more than your physical body and mind. This "illusion of the self," as the Buddha calls it, is the core error.

The Power of Now, by Eckhart Tolle, pp. 89-90

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