Tag Archives: nature heals

Summiting the Sacred Days of August

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The three sacred days of August for me are the 12th, 16th and 24th.

The 12th marks 17 years since my mother, Virginia, ended her life. The 24th marks 25 years since I was held-up and shot in the head. The 16th marks the 40th anniversary of the biggest hit I’ve ever taken in life, the death of my father at age 55. I was 15.

Now, if you think this essay is steeped in sadness and heartbreak, then you don’t know me. It’s not. The sacred days of August are days I plan honor. They are days etched in pristine unblemished memories. They are days I intend to celebrate in an uplifting way.

On the 12th I will celebrate and honor my mother’s  life; on the 24th I will celebrate  the blessing of keeping my life; on the 16th, I will celebrate the greatest gift life has ever given me: my father.  While my father left the world far too soon, his presence in my life has kept me going during some of the darkest times and allowed me to share some of the best of times with him.

And how, you may be wondering, will I celebrate these days? I plan to climb a Catskill Mountain on each of these days and, as my custom has it, leave a twig on the summit. A twig you ask? Yes, a twig.

Some years back I was visiting my father’s grave in New Jersey. It was more than 20 years after his death. It dawned on me that by this time his body had begun to decompose and so had become part of the soil.Realizing this it dawned on me that his body was now part of the soil that was feeding the oak tree the grew right next to his grave which meant that my father was present in this beautiful tree!  Trees shed small branches from time to time. And so I gathered some up to take with me. By having these twigs with me, my heart knows I have part of my father with me.

And so, when I reach the summit of the mountain on these three days, I will leave one of the twigs there.  My father deserves to reach the summit. After all, he is now, always and forever the summit of my life.

THERE IS SOMETHING MISSING

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I am at Barnes and Noble on Wolf Road in Albany, it is just a minute or two past noon. Took myself out for coffee and two oatmeal raisin cookies; I am splurging.


It dawns on me that everything I am looking at was created by human beings. Born from the thoughts and creativity of human beings; mind you, in some cases, born from lack of creativity.



With some exceptions most of the books are essentially sprung from one mind with the attending influences of editors, agents and publishers. But it’s more than the books. The rugs, shelves, tables, chairs, lighting, wall colors, and more are all designed by people and ,more often than not, all of these things are driven in some significant measure by the desire to get something from people. Their money.



A woman just passed me wearing a rather nondescript winter jacket with the name of designer, Kenneth Cole, printed in large letters on the back, up where her shoulder blades are. This would make sense to me if it was a jersey for a sports team but, call me crazy, I’m having a hard time believing her name is Kenneth Cole.


I don’t want somebody’s name written on my clothing. But in this case, the name Kenneth Cole is their to assist in the effort to relieve people of their money.


Yet, who am I to judge?


There are a lot of people in this world making a lot of things and they bring a range of motivations to their work. There are authors, fashion designers and more who give their heart and soul to their work and are wonderfully creative. I was involved with a woman for awhile who made jewelry. But, using the word made understates the quality and result of her efforts. She created jewelry.


I do have one observation here that troubles me. Everything I see in front of me is human-driven and there is something missing. Something so essential to the human experience none of us would be alive without it. Nature. The unfettered, unabbreviated by people, reality of nature.


Nature’s truth. There is something essential, something spiritually, emotionally and physically nutritious for all of us in nature. Something I believe we ought to know, touch, see, smell, breathe, taste. That something I believe is, in a word, life. The light inside the bulb, the thought inside the mind, and the spirit that lives and breathes in every heart.


I do not pretend to know what happens to us after this life, if anything. But I strongly believe that if there is something after this life, we will be less suited for it if we stay isolated from nature.


Last thought, for now. Nature heals. And from my heart to your heart, we deserve to heal, you deserve to heal.

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