Today is the end of my fourth week of radiation treatment. After today I will have three more weeks to go. The treatments have become a daily routine…The people at the treatment center are really nice and always courteous. The patients I see each day are all friendly. I have to be thankful that we seem to have caught this very early and the prognosis is very good.

Other than the “sunburn” in my throat and a general tiredness I feel fine. I am having a bit of fun with a cough caused by the “tickle” in the back of my throat. So far the one hoped for benefit hasn’t happened…I haven’t noticed any real weight lose.

Eknath Easwaran’s Thought for the Day
July 11

The more we have the less we own.
– Meister Eckhart

We have been ruthlessly conditioned to think we can find fulfillment in possessions, to love things rather than people – so much so, that when we feel an emptiness in our hearts, we go to shopping centers to fill it up.

I am all for living in reasonable comfort, but when I go to shopping centers, I cannot help getting alarmed. Not at the money that is being wasted – there is enough money in this country to waste. But there isn’t enough will to waste. There isn’t enough energy to waste. When we hear of the energy crisis, this is it. All our vitality, energy, and drive is sapped and undermined by the constant propaganda: go after this, go after that, and you’ll be happy. Things are not meant to be loved. They are meant only to be used. People are lovable and loving.

I forget how I discovered the writings of Eknath Easwaran but I am glad I did. I remember when I first read copies of the newsletter put out by The Blue Mountain Center of Meditation thinking that these writings were some of the best I had ever read in this subject mater. Eknath Easwaran had a way of turning a phrase that spoke to me. I subscribe to the daily email the Center put out at that time and read it each morning as I do my “Coffee Muse”. Today’s thought had a personal meaning. I see this kind of thinking each and every day in my own life in my own family.

I haven’t found my way to the meditation practice he teaches yet. I am still a work in progress.

I started out late this morning, didn’t want to get out of bed so I gave myself permission to  wait for the next alarm (snooze is set for 30 minutes). So the morning coffee has run faster today than usual…Time to hit the road. Catch ya later…