I am going on a 3-day retreat. Yesterday Rob drove me to my dermatologist because my hair is getting thinner. I didn’t realize it until the woman that cuts my hair has told me twice. I took a mirror and put it over the top of my head. Eureka! I can see my scalp through my hair.

The dermatologist looked at it and said he saw it and all he could recommend was minoxidil. I am not going to try that because you have to use it daily and once you stop, it stops working.

This has put me in a deeply meditative mood. I opened a page of one of Vernon Howard’s books and pointed my finger with my eyes closed. The sentence I had pointed out said, “Never forget this; you are not the body!” I felt a sense of relief.

I am not my aging body with its thinning hair, slight loss of hearing, neuropathy and tremor. Then who am I if I am not this body?

The answer is found in silence. Earlier I had watched a video about a man who was deeply unhappy and forced this mood on everyone around him. One day people noticed that he had changed and he was asked how it happened. His reply was that he realized that the unhappiness was within him and not in the outer world.

So I am refocusing on my own inner happiness. It is there if I can relax long enough to notice it. What does it consist of?

Silence is the first answer and the most important one. It gives birth to inner peace and a deep acceptance of the body, which is just an instrument of the soul. The body dies; the soul lives forever.

Our world is crumbling to bits; climate change and autocracy are imperiling both the planet and its inhabitants. But the soul will always remain free.

Vicki is an invention of the mind; her soul is free now and forevermore.

Never believe in yourself or the world; both arise at the same time. Jesus said it best: “My kingdom is not of this world.” Amen.

Vicki WoodyardT