Another “Family” Journey

WED., JUNE 9, 1999, 10:55 CDT
35,000 FT., HEADING WEST

You had to ask, “Which is more important – the “right” pen (which could not be retrieved without disruption on this fully-packed plane) or having a Teaching as you move “with the sun” toward Hawaii? It was a compromise, but one I’ll accept. Let’s look ahead, together, toward this unique and yet familiar journey.

One aspect of “uniqueness” is your companion on this journey, your youngest son, Mathew. He is an enthusiastic young man, with some ways of living that are different from yours, but he still is “a child of Mine,” one who could (and who eventually may) lead a life that I can relate to more fully. You’ll share with him some of the life you lived here, and some of the “rituals” you’ve developed in years of revisiting.

The other unique quality in this visit is the “absence” of your Dad… now both parents having “moved on.” It was hard relating to them in their last years, and you must remember to praise and thank Howard and Joanne for their loving care of “Mother and Dad” during their deteriorating years. You left Lenore with the care of Mabel, her Mother, and that, too, is difficult, as she often acts and speaks as one who is quite self-oriented, rather than the helping person she was in “better years.” Perhaps you both have been learning from these experiences, but will you be “any better” at being an older, less active, less mindful parent? Maybe you won’t have to experience such a “stage.”

You shall share with Matthew some of your “past” and your experiences here, and in so doing will have the opportunity to share some spiritual insights with him. Help him to see how spirit has been a part of your life, in many different ways… and there is much spirit in and involved with this “place.” Take this as a challenge for this week here.

Punahou School was not just your first teaching job… where your coaching career began and ended. It has remained a memorable aspect of your life, even as the “living time” here was only 6 years, 1/8 of your total teaching career. To be welcomed by at least some of these members of the Class of ’54, remembering you as their teacher & coach and as a friend in these ensuing Alumni Luau experiences over the years. This is still an aspect of your “family.”

In re-reading some of the Teachings that I offered to you in previous trips you have noticed reference to “this being, probably ‘the last visit’” (or something like that). Will this be the final visit, or in 3 more years will you be wanting to be included in a “50th celebration”? I’ll just say that you’ll know when the time has come to “return no more.” But that time is “not yet.”

The Hamamoto abode is a familiar, enjoyable one, and you feel that you’re welcome there. Yet it is not a reciprocal relationship… they don’t come to share your life on your home place, and while that’s understandable, it does leave the relationship not quite complete. But you’ll just have to accept what is and is likely to be. Your love of Southern Illinois is not shared by many, if not most, of your family.

So, do share this place and these experiences with Matthew, but be not afraid to voice your love of your home place. Tell of the relationships among your three “work settings,” hoping that he’ll appreciate similarities and differences.

It is clear, isn’t it, that your sister’s life here has made it easy and logical for you to return and retain relationships. There is no such “pull” back to the Stanford area of California (though there was a desire to visit Michael and his family, “close by.”) That was an important part of your life, for 9 years, but hasn’t lasted to rival your home place and Hawaii.