The Pleasures Of Life

SAT., FEB. 19, 2000, 1:53 PM
FARM, STUDY

I need to remind you, once again, o son, that the major challenge for you, in the rest of this earth life, is to focus on the obvious pleasures… and then perceive more than are obvious. (Does this “substitute pen” write only long sentences?) As you have commented, several times in the last few days, living here on this place is one of the pleasures of this last portion of your life. Oh, the cows are sometimes a bother… and you surely will reduce your herd in the Spring… but it would not seem right to sell all of them.

The basic premise is that you will be tempted to maintain activities that have given you pleasure in the past… but your aging must be considered – which activities must you give up, or cut back, in order to maintain the true feelings of pleasure? Ongoing assessment is needed, for aging is a continuing “process.”

You still enjoy wood cutting and splitting, but you notice that you don’t often have this wood stove in this room going, as you have in the past. You also have not stoked up the wood burning furnace, as you once did. So, without purposing, you are not using your “natural fuel” as you have in younger years.

Your life together with Lenore is mostly pleasure. You sometimes irritate each other, for, despite years of living together, there continue to be ways in which you are individuals, with some diverging values and perceptions. Yet you feel, mostly, that it is a true pleasure to live with her… and her feelings about you are comparable.

It was not an obvious pleasure to stomp through the mud in your pasture. But you did have good boots, given to you by a loving son… and the rain was good for the soil in its upcoming season. It is a pleasure, for you, to experience each of the four seasons, each just about 3 months in length. Oh, Hawaii had a less seasonal climate, and that was nice, as you lived there. But you have had real pleasure, in the years you’ve lived here, in each of the seasons, with their differences. Every day is not equally pleasureful, but there are various ways to enjoy the ones that are not obviously “da best.”

Your career, as a teacher – coach originally, and then as a university professor, was one of real pleasure, as you lived it and as you reflect on it. It was the best career for you, and it was a rather “joint venture,” by you and Me. It was an “indescribable” amalgam of your will and Mine, of your choices and Mine. And I know you feel that My “interference” with your absolute free will was best for you, and for those close to you.

And now that fine career is over, and this Emeritus status is quite a pleasure. You retired at a good time, with enough of this earth life remaining to experience other pleasures, appropriate to your increasing age… and diminishing capacities. As you look out you can see where classes gathered around the picnic table, and you can still envision volleyball games in that grassy area amongst the trees. That was a true pleasure… to share this place with quite a number of students… and it was a pleasureful part of the student life of many who made those “visits.”

I know it isn’t a pleasure to be reminded of the losses you are realizing, physically and mentally. The challenge, of course, is to focus on what you still have… what “still works.” Try to always see the cup as “half full” rather than as “half empty.”

But I do see a conflict coming up, as this year “unfolds.” It is a conflict between the quiet life here, which you certainly find pleasurable, and the traveling and visiting with friends and family that could occupy a good portion of this year. There are motivations to make these treks, but also ones for staying here. My “opinion”: as long as you take time for Me and these Teachings, I don’t care where you are. So, whatever you decide, rather “free” from Me, I want your continued time and attention. Why?