Ageless in Spirit: Discussions and interests for our times

 February 22, 2022 Living in a fog. Just imagine that you're perambulating around in thick fog where you can hear, have all your other senses so kinesthetic information is present, your inner ear senses for horizontal and vertical are intact, and you can feel the temperature gradient so it may be somewhat chilly. You need to make your way around without tripping, bumping into things, and of course losing your way. The fog creates the experience of navigating into the unknown. You are of course alone in this adventure. I come to describe this through my nightly wandering from my bed upstairs to my reading chair downstairs with all the lights out. For me the kinesthetic senses are dulled so feeling the walls and holding onto the banister helps. I know where the light switches are so once in the kitchen I can get light. I recall times when driving in a thick fog produced similar disorientation and anxiety since the consequences for error and an accident are high. Using the metaphor of...

  February 8, 2022 My life continues with bumps and hiccups but mostly interest, curiosity, ah-hah moments of joy, dark periods of irritability and shameful interactions, deep sadness etc. In other words, I'm alive and well though aging has put a damper on my outlook and stamina. Two cardiac events with bypass surgery age 55 and recent stents. Now diagnosed with atrial fibrillation on blood thinners. I have a brace for hiking since I tore my Achille's tendon. I have peripheral neuropathy so balance can be a problem so at times I use a cane when out and about and walking sticks when hiking. My vision is failing more (had two retinal detachments and macular hole treatment) and my visit last week with my retinologist shows some more macular damage so now when I sit at the piano to play sheet music I'm straining more to understand the notes. All these disabilities are wearing on me and contribute to my mood issues. Rebecca is on the mend after suffering a traumatic fall this De...

 January 28, 2022 I'm thinking about play and games. When young I played marbles and got good at it. With my thumb, eyes trained at the group of marbles in the middle and goal of getting that prized marble out of the circle. Or stick ball with the broomstick and harder rubber ball pitched at you with the goal of hitting the ball away! Then there were our adventure games including researching various chemical mixtures that could cause an explosion and different colored flashes. Those days we could go to the pharmacies and talk the pharmacist into getting us various metals and chemicals that we would mix and then fire up. Dangerous, exciting, and rebellious. Basketball was fun and competitive though my proficiency was mediocre. Sure I played card games with parents, grandparents, and friends. Cheating was learned behavior and increased with certain groups of friends. Magic tricks and illusions with slight of hand and skills designed to deceive others became fun. Dangerous risk taking...

 January 17, 2022 I am a risk taker, I am an adventurer. I like to explore and learn about the world by immersing myself in it. I began this journey in my childhood. I had a boat with outboard motor which I took out for adventures in the creeks and bays and ocean of Long Island, New York. My mother did worry but helped me learn to fry the snappers I caught with my bamboo pole. I then graduated to scuba diving including getting a thicker wetsuit to dive in the winter off of Far Rockaway beach. One time I recall my mother was there after I emerged by the the rocky jetty shivering and happy to be on dry land. College adventures were tamer. Medical school and residency training in psychiatry limited my adventures mostly in the mind and learning more about myself and my hang-ups. However, during my senior year for six months I traveled with my wife to Liberia and Nigeria where we lived in Abeokuta first at a mental hospital then renting a concrete bunker home while I learned about psych...

 January 6, 2022 Yesterday a group of six intrepid hikers including yours truly met at the end of Hau Street in Aina Haina to hike Wailupe Valley. As the group organizer I intended to hike up Niu Valley but gave the wrong directions so we hiked Wailupe. The second image is the details of the whole hike. Very satisfying, stunning beauty with post deluge rainfall over the past few days to soak the group into sometime chocolate  pudding mud. Fecund vegetation growth with hou tree thickets, giant Albizia  trees, Cook Pine trees, and bamboo and even a beautiful wild orchid peeking out of a rotten tree branch. As we progressed up the narrower  gorge carved by the stream I found the going challenging since I wear a brace on my left foot and calf  because of torn achilles tendon. So my friend and I stopped short of the waterfall but the stream was pumping full of water. Please come view the hike through my camera lens. https://www.flickr.com/photos/leonardsjacobs/albums...