Author Archives: Patrick Cole

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About Patrick Cole

Husband, parent and writer. Sharing stories with a little humor and wisdom along the way.

CYE Countdown – Dec 27 – Magical Thinking for 2023

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It’s that time of year when many review their calendar-year-end success and decide what goals or priorities they will have for the new year. Logic might suggest simply continuing what worked in the past and extrapolating some improvement by doing a little more, a little more effectively.

For example, if you made $40k this year then shoot for $42k next year. This incremental success seems reasonable, and, with focus and effort, a 5% increase can be achieved, unplanned-for calamities notwithstanding.

But let’s face it, logic isn’t sexy. For real inspiration, magical thinking can light up our imagination with dreams of 10x performance. Wouldn’t you prefer to earn $400k instead of $42k?

So, with the upcoming Chinese New Year of the Rabbit and Saturn leaving Aquarius to enter Pisces, I plan to explore magical thinking over the balance of 2022.

Today’s senryu: Magical Thinking for 2023

another year ends

a new year tempts us to dream

stay frosty out there

Dec 25 – Merry Inclusive Christmas

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With all the different holidays being celebrated this time of year, I wanted to find something to share that might appeal to the beautiful and diverse group of people who read this blog. Below is something I read earlier this week written by Rabbi Rami Shapiro that appealed to me. I sincerely hope it offers something to you as well.

Spirituality & Christmas from the most recent issue of Spirituality & Health (https://www.spiritualityhealth.com/blogs/roadside-musings/2020/12/21/spirituality-and-christmas)

“I love Christmas. My neighbors love Christ. This is not the same thing.

To me Christmas heralds the Very Good News that if a first century rabbi could realize the Truth at the mystic heart of his and every religion—“I and the Divine are one” (John 10:30)—then so can we. This is the same Very Good News taught by sages before and after Jesus:

  • I am you and you are I; wherever you are, there I am … And in whatever place you wish, you may gather Me, but when you gather Me, you gather yourself. (Gospel of Eve)
  • My Me is God, nor do I recognize any other Me except God. (St. Catherine of Genoa)
  • Beyond the senses is the brain. Beyond the brain is the intellect. Beyond the intellect is the Great Atman. Beyond the Great Atman is the Unmanifest Brahman. Beyond the Unmanifest Brahman is the I, all–pervading Subject impossible to objectify. (Katha Upanishad 2.3 7–8)
  • The awakened one is no longer separated from God, and behold you are God, and God is you. So, know that I, even I, am God. God is I and I am God. (Rabbi Abraham Abulafia)
  • I am Truth. There is nothing wrapped in my turban but God. There is nothing in my cloak but God. (Mansur al–Hallaj)

To me Christmas is hopeful: a time to celebrate the potential for God-Realization in all of us. To my neighbors Christmas seems fearful: a time to circle the wagons and bemoan how besieged Christians are—not in countries where they are actually persecuted such as the People’s Republic of China, North Korea, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia but in the most Christian friendly country on earth: the United States of America.

As I walk through my neighborhood and exchange friendly shouts of “Merry Christmas” with my neighbors, I take pleasure in seeing houses draped with Christmas lights and lawns taken over by manger scenes. So, you might forgive my confusion when my neighbors tell me that their right to openly affirm their religion is being denied them, and that they are shunned for saying “Merry Christmas,” and that this War on Christmas gets stronger every year.

To me the War on Christmas is an odd but understandable response to the success of Christianity in the United States. Christians aren’t meant to be successful: Blessed are the poor, the meek, the hungry, the thirsty “who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:10). The problem for my neighbors is that they aren’t poor, meek, hungry, thirsty, or persecuted. Indeed, they are often seen as the persecutors. And because they aren’t persecuted, they fear their place in the Kingdom of Heaven is iffy at best.

The obvious solution—obvious to me at any rate—is for them to take up the causes for which Jesus died: the cessation of othering, injustice, and oppression, and doing right by “the least” among us (Matthew 25). As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. showed us, it doesn’t take long before this Christian message threatens the Powers That Be in America and one becomes “persecuted for righteousness’ sake.” Sadly, it is easier to imagine a War on Christmas instead.

I refuse to engage with the War on Christmas. I choose instead to celebrate the Very Good News that You are God (Tat Tvam Asi and Alles iz Gott as we say in Sanskrit and Yiddish). And when I wish you “Merry Christmas” know that what I am wishing you is this: May your celebration of the birth of Jesus birth your own awakening to the joyous fact that you and God are one.

Merry Christmas.”

Rabbi Rami Shapiro is an award-winning author, essayist, poet, and teacher. In the print version of our magazine, he has an advice column, “Roadside Assistance for the Spiritual Traveler,” addressing reader questions https://www.spiritualityhealth.com/authors/rabbi-rami-shapiro

May peace be with all of us this holiday season _/\_

High Coo – Dec 24 – Christmas Eve

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Christmas has been embraced by religious and secular groups in a very big way. Here’s two statistics for consideration:

“Christianity is the largest religion in the world. Approximately 2.38 billion people practice some form of Christianity globally. This means that about one-third of the world’s total population is Christian.” https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/most-christian-countries

“Holiday shopping can account for up to 30% of all retail sales.” https://financesonline.com/christmas-shopping-statistics/

Whatever your reason for celebrating Christmas Eve, I wish you peaceful, safe and warm conditions. May you be well.

Today’s senryu: Christmas Eve

only one more day

until Christmas – wishing you

a happy morrow

High Coo – Dec 23 – National Roots Day

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What are your national roots? What are your parents’ and grandparents’ national roots?

It doesn’t take long to discover how diverse your ancestry is AND how different it is from what you may have assumed.

For example, I was under the wrong assumption that my father was the first person born in the United States, his father was born in Canada and my paternal great-grandfather was born in Ireland. I remember hearing something about my mother’s family also being of Irish descent, so I just assumed that was it. I’m an Irish American with a brief stop in Canada.

Well, it’s not as simple as that. Even the Family Tree chart displayed above quickly shows that my parents had parents who had parents … with just 8 generations the number of ancestors quickly escalates to 256. See https://nationaltoday.com/national-roots-

I had been under a misunderstanding that my first paternal great grandfather had emigrated from Ireland.  What I learned was that my eighth paternal great grandfather was born in New York in 1639 and that every subsequent descendent was born in North America. My paternal ancestors have lived here for many generations.

While I do have a lot of Irish DNA, I discovered direct ancestors born in England, France, Germany, Scotland and The Netherlands as well. And the number of maternal (aka maiden) surnames quickly added up to 140. I’m surrounded by relatives!

Today’s senryu: National Roots Day

no pure bloodline here,

I’m a blend of many seeds

and stronger for it

If a zoo keeps a male lion and a female tiger in the same enclosure, a liger can result. It has a mix of its parents’ traits. https://www.snexplores.org/article/mixed-world-hybrid-animals

High Coo – Dec 22 – RIP Samuel Beckett

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Samuel Beckett b. 4/13/1906 – d. 12/22/1989

Thirty-three years ago today, Irish playwright, novelist and poet, Samuel Beckett died. He was 83.

“One of the most influential and widely-discussed avant-garde writers of the 20th century. His most famous plays, “Waiting for Godot”, “Endgame” and “Happy Days”, display his absurdist, anti-realist traditions. https://www.onthisday.com/people/samuel-beckett

Today’s senryu: RIP Samuel Beckett

no cure for failure

that’s what earthlings do – so let’s

“dance first – think later“

See Samuel Beckett quotes here: https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/1433597.Samuel_Beckett

Check out Beckett’s most popular books here https://www.amazon.com/s?k=samuel+beckett+books.

Dec 21 – Don’t Stop Believin’

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It’s the Winter Solstice – shortest daylight of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. Daylight grows longer starting tomorrow.

Today’s senryu: Don’t Stop Believin’

my world is tilted

now ev’rything is better –

far as I can see

Hanging on to positive expectations: HOPE. Check out this article to raise your view: https://www.calmsage.com/why-hope-is-important/

Is There More to You Than What I See?

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Today’s senryu: More to You Than What I See

Who are you, really:

the person you think you are,

or who others need?

Two separate encounters took place yesterday. First, a woman in my cardio class came up to me after the workout and said, “I just want to wish you happy holidays.” This woman lost her husband three months ago to Alzheimer’s and is facing her first holiday season without him. She stuck out her hand to shake mine and with sad eyes waited for my response. I took her hand and lightly drew her in for a platonic hug and said, “thank you, I wish you happy holidays, too.” She smiled and said, “You’re a good guy.”

Second, a woman in my Tai Chi class came up and started talking about responding to an invitation to join a non-profit board. She’s a lawyer and her resume’ would easily qualify her for membership. She said she had some reservations about accepting the invitation because of some “PTSD issues” which she shared vaguely with the board chairperson, and they agreed that this wouldn’t be a good board for her to serve on. She added that the chairperson stated, there would be many similar “issues” that would come up in board discussions that might trigger her past traumatic experiences. She didn’t tell me what those “issues” were, and I didn’t ask.

Perhaps the senryu above is unnecessarily dualistic. Perhaps we can be AND serve others’ roles simultaneously. Perhaps, the writer Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. was wise when he said, “we are what we pretend to be so we must be careful what we pretend to be.” Kurt Vonnegut (2009). “Mother Night: A Novel”, p.5, Dial Press

CYE Countdown – Dec 19 – Avoid Predictability

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Thirteen days remaining in 2022. Will this year end with a feeling of success or with a sigh of disappointment? Or can you choose to take the middle way and delight in whatever happens; not waste time fretting over “outcomes?”

Today’s senryu: Avoid Predictability

How will your year end?

Plot twist, Deus ex machina

or lame out again?

Remember the encouraging words of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: “It is too late! Ah, nothing is too late …”

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7599367-it-is-too-late-ah-nothing-is-too-late-till

One more thought; perhaps 2022 is one more chapter in your life story. What makes a good story? Check out this post by Jordan at https://www.nownovel.com/blog/what-makes-a-good-story/

Good News – Hidden in Childhood A Poetry Anthology

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Hidden in Childhood: A Poetry Anthology – Front Cover Reveal
https://literaryrevelations.com/2022/12/18/hidden-in-childhood-a-poetry-anthology-front-cover-reveal/#respond

Gabriela Marie Milton, an Amazon bestselling poet and an internationally published author, is publishing another anthology early next year. https://www.amazon.com/stores/Gabriela-Marie-Milton/author

I’m also happy to report that two of my poems will be included.