It has been four months since my father died. Tomorrow afternoon a US Coast Guard boat will take my step-mother and I out to sea where my father’s ashes will be scattered. I really wanted to write more tonight. I’ve got a million thoughts running through my head. I have been through so many changes since my dad died, however, as I sit before my computer screen it’s clear that I am not yet ready to say what’s on my mind.
Browsing Posts in Compassion
What is the problem with the world? I am.
This was a profound answer to a question that has plagued society ever increasingly. My wife and I just went to see “I Am” by Tom Shadyac. For those unfamiliar of Tom, he was the director of the films “Ace Ventura”, “Bruce Almighty”, “The Nutty Professor”, “Patch Adams”, and “Liar Liar” just to name some of the most well known. Tom was living the life. He got his break directing with “Ace Ventura” and with the fame and following fortune, he acquired more and more possessions and grand homes that went with it. Then something happened that changed all that…
The video below is Amy and I taking our monastic vows and receiving our Dharma names in the Order of Compassion.
Amy’s Dharma name is Ani Jampal Yangchen and mine is Jampal Sangye. May we live as Bodhisatvas and bring honor to our teacher Dharmacharya Gurudas Sunyatananda.
My father-in-law, Robert E. Schneider, passed away Saturday, February 12th, 2011. Today was his memorial service and in honor of Bob, I am posting my eulogy.
My relationship with Bob was one where I felt not so much like a son-in-law, but more like a son. I always looked to Bob as a father figure. I know it always brought a smile to his face when I called him Pop. Pop was a man who took great pride in everything he did. I think that was one of the things that really brought us together. We both see there being two ways to doing something… the wrong way and our way. Pop was always willing to teach you the right way to do something.
For the past two weeks, I have been fighting a nasty creeping crud. It started out as a horrible cough, raging headache, and sinuses that drained so frequently I wanted to remove my nose. It mutated into bronchitis, sinus infection and ear infection. In short, I felt like shit. I don’t like being sick (who does right?) and until recently I had always been blessed with a very resilient immune system. When I got sick in the past, typically a couple of days and I was back on track. This time though, it just kept hanging on. I recently left my job of 14 years and as fate would have it, I was sick the last week of my old job and the first week of my new. I actually missed two days of work during my last week at the former employer. I’ve been to the doctor twice in the past two weeks with two scripts for antibiotics that increase in strength each visit. What I’m trying to say here is that I had one nasty bug and it held on for a long time.
