Saturday, March 14, 2009

Making Healthy Connections

An ecological sense of self means that I am attempting to grasp more clearly and more fully what it means to define myself  and live my life as something bigger and healthier than I am.  Pursuing this concept and trying to ground myself in it has come from reading Jose Otega y Gasset, R. W. Emerson, Erik Fromm, Harry Stack Sullivan, Gregory Bateson, Mary Catherine Bateson, Antonio Damasio and others, as well as by testing the concept in the ways I live my life.  

Uncertainty is such a sure thing.  Or is it?  

I sometimes find it helpful to imagine myself at the center of a Universe.  Maybe its not far from THE Center of the Universe.  Knowing a little about cosmic scales and distances, as well as sizes, keeps me grounded, headed toward humility.  

I am hungry for ideas that work.  I am hungry to be present-centered as much as possible.  When I can do that it feels good to breathe.  The air is so sweet.  I let the blood go into my face.  Mindfulness Meditation is a way to be present-centered.  It is a reminder to stay present-centered, to experience the here and now more often.  

Joy just handed me my share of today's mail, an appointment card from my cardiologist, Steve Wolinsky. On the second of this month I met with him for a routine six months visit.  I told him about experiencing severe chest pain after running up a hill a month before.  He immediately scheduled cardiac catheterization, which revealed stenosis of an artery that helps supply the back and bottom of my heart.  A team of angels inserted a stent in that artery.  I can feel the difference.  We have the resources for everyone to have health care as good as that available for me!
 
Note I wasn't able to run the Snickers Marathon Energy Bar Half Marathon Saturday, three days later, but was content providing orange slices and music for the runners who passed in front of my house near the 6 and 19 mile markers of the Half and Full Marathons respectively.  I got a great picture of the three lead runners in the Marathon. Joy was with me handing out orange slices.  She was just out of the hospital herself, having had some prophylactic surgery.  

My sister Mariellen's daughter Jennifer Bonner was eight centimeters dilated when I arrived at the hospital for my cath, and had Sarah Kay before I had my stent put in.  We all did our part to keep the hospital from needing a bailout.

Now I am back to running, just a little bit.  Will gradually get back into it.  It is fun writing this.