"What's News Dickie?"

For many years in my adult life, my Aunt Zena, who passed away at age 98 in 1984, would come on the telephone and she would ask me, "What's news Dickie?"

I was 39 years of age when she passed away and for perhaps 10 years before her death I called her each week at a scheduled time and we would talk.

When she would ask, "What's news Dickie," and I had something meaningful to say, such as a major event in my life, or as a CEO of a growing company, a major transaction, she would discuss this with insight and depth.

If I spoke of the more common activities people have, or described something inconsequential as if it were important, she would listen quietly and then say, "What's news Dickie?"

After awhile, I made it a point to have something consequential to offer as news, and that simple act helped me to accomplish so much more because I learned to focus on the things that really mattered.

Today, at age 69 I have a dilemma.

In recent years I have focused on things many people would think of as having little meaning, but to me are vital.

I have focused on seeking a higher awareness, on awakening. This generates no money, no glamor, no material possessions, no exotic trips, nothing that most people find important.

Instead, I'm becoming more loving, more forgiving, more patient, more peaceful, more understanding and less judgemental. I meditate each day, often twice a day for about 10 minutes in the morning and about 20 minutes in the afternoon.

I give people hugs, sometimes hugging people I've just met, with their permission. I greet them warmly everywhere I go and wave and smile at them as they drive by. But in no case do I treat them as if they are invisible as most people treat each, walking by them without so much as an acknowledgment of their existence.

I sincerely wish people well and celebrate their successes with all the vigor I celebrate my own, and recognize my oneness with all, knowing we are on this journey of life together.

As a part of this journey together, I pray for the well-being of others and I am thankful for my own well-being and the well-being of those closest to me.

Bickering, whether over politics or anything else has no place in my life. I don't care which sports team beats another, but instead cheer for both teams.

Once I was rich in money, now I'm becoming rich in compassion. This journey of life is actually one of many lives each of us lives and I do not fear death, my only concern being that I make the most of each day I have.

Life is to be lived in the now, this moment, for that is all any of us has. Rushing here, there and everywhere as most people do and their related anxieties accomplishes nothing, for our journey will eventually take us all to the same end.

I have been a vegetarian for 13 1/2 years, because I don't want to cause pain to any other living being and I oppose war for the same reason, along with the horrific karma it creates.

This is a world that shuns the peacemaker and honors the warrior and so there are many warriors and endless wars. From the depths of my soul I am a peacemaker.

I also savor my food, notice flowers in bloom, trees as they sway in the breeze, the blue of the sky and observe the expressions on people's faces, while watching their mannerisms.

If Aunt Zena were to ask me today, "What's news Dickie," this is some of what I would share with her, as well as filling her in on the activities of Anne, our children, our grandchildren and others who are close to me.

Aunt Zena was progressive and a women's libber long before there was such a thing and a well educated, contemplative person. It is impossible to say what her reaction would be but I think she would understand this transition and explore it further with me, while offering her own experience in the process.

Dick