Be Here Now

In a hurry with too much on my mind I wanted to quickly get an errand done by bike. "Where are my damn pantaloons, huregopferdamisiech?" One of a very few pair of pants that do not flow very wide down my legs and so do not threaten to get caught in the spokes and would not likely get me to fall and have an accident. Goddess forbid the horror that could unfold from a simple fall. I could lose my home, my life, everything. But my pantaloons, I had them in my hands a moment ago. Now they are neither here, there, nor anywhere. I searched high and low, meaning upstairs and downstairs and in the most unlikely places, until I happened to look down on myself:

Oops, here are my pantaloons on my legs in that unmistakable purple dotted on black synthetic fabric. The pair I got over a decade ago at a spa where I had worked and worked-out for a very short period in my life. I was wearing the pants I had searched for in a frenzy as I cursed to heaven and hell! (The Swiss curses are made of a particular potent fashion, I use them to great satisfaction on such occasions.)

Gosh, that is a first. I mean glasses one can wear (not me, not yet, ever, never) and not notice, but pants! I have done other kinds of odd things. I placed items where they have no business being, but never ever have I ever looked for a clothing item I actually wore. 

Sure, I got a lot on my mind. More bills coming in then money. But hey, Alzheimer's they say now has an onset decades earlier then thought. Too much stress with too little presence. Lack of attention, or the decline of a diseased brain, who is to say? To mind comes Be Here Now and dear Ram Dass who catches us at our games and brings us back to presence, again and again and again. I happened to hear an interview with Ram Dass last Sunday and was delighted with his improved speech. His voice sounded full and strong and the delay of response, a symptom from his stroke in 1997, was barely noticeable. Ram Dass closed the first section of his book Be Here Now with this passage, taken from Wikipedia:

"Now, though I am a beginner on the path, I have returned to the West for a time to work out karma or unfulfilled commitment. Part of this commitment is to share what I have learned with those of you who are on a similar journey. One can share a message through telling 'our-story' as I have just done, or through the teaching methods of yoga, or singing, or making love. Each of us finds his unique vehicle for sharing with others his bit of wisdom. For me, this story is but a vehicle for sharing with you the true message... the living faith in what is possible. --OM--"