HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ADAM.....January 14, 2012 (#26)

Adam Dzialo (age 26)

   

  When a father gives to his son, both laugh; when a son gives to his father, both cry.

William Shakespeare or a Jewish proverb (source is debatable)

My son, Adam, is my sun! The sun is an emblem of glory and brilliance. It is also a symbol of authority. It represents happiness, life and spirituality. The rising sun is a symbol of hope. The sun, when not rising, is always blazoned the “sun in splendour.” The rays are alternately straight and wavy, which symbolize the heat and light that we derive from them, and the heraldic sun usually has a human face though this is not strictly necessary. Rays of the sun, also called beams, are sometimes borne singly as in the ancient rolls, but more often they issue from other charges when described by one of the terms as radiant, rayonné or rayonnant. One ray of the sun signifies “by the light of heaven."  Swyrich Corporation, 2012

Long Life.......

       January 14, Adam will be 26 years old, having survived 13 and a half years post a 25 minute underwater near-drowning.  Adam is certainly severely disabled, non-ambulatory, non-verbal and needs 24 hour a day care.  He can do nothing for himself.  What he is, however,....is a TEACHER.  Teachers do not need words, they do not need written tomes filled with trivial drivel, they do not need a captive audience.  Teachers simply emanate life and its true value and purpose . . . pure, unadulterated being.

       Life pursues itself; life is its own mission; life does not need to be valued by others to be affirmed.  Life is ....  Adam has taught us that others can never learn unless a heart is fully open.  An open heart is a singular rarity in a world of narcissistic obsession.  Adam has taught us that what is valued is simple, is unadorned and often unappreciated.  It is life aware of itself and an awareness that there are  few significant others who unconditionally love and unconditionally care.  Unconditional love sustains life; it provides a cellular immunity against the forces of indifference which plague our society.

Adam...the only human who wakes every single morning
with a bright smile...there are no exceptions.   This
is a life lesson on how to greet life itself!

        Adam has taught us to allow into our lives only positive energy and to dismiss that which drains from us life force.  Stripped of its adornments and desires, its ambitions and pretensions, life simply is NOW....this moment and this moment is beautiful.  This moment has no past and it has no future....it is NOW.  We have learned easy and hard ways to let go of family and friends who embodied the energy which saps life from self.  We have learned to tell the truth, without regard to consequence.  We have learned that pure love is that love which neither expects nor requires anything in return.  We have learned that our soul group will be together in the energetic world forever.  Would any of this knowledge be available without Adam?  Not in one's wildest dreams.   We have learned, he has taught.

       Our only wish for Adam is a long life.  He has much more to teach and we have more to learn.  Others can learn also, but they need to be present and to have an open heart.  I would hope people stop running from learning because there will be a day when it will be too late.

        We journey together, a small unit.  The unit could not be more tight nor more secure.  There are no regrets; there is often a soul weariness and a soul enlightenment.  We have been together in past lives, in many differing roles, but this soul group endures.  That is all that counts!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ADAM!

Lupercalia

        Lupercalia was a very ancient, possibly pre-Roman pastoral festival, observed from February 13th through February 15th in order to avert evil spirits and purify the city, releasing health and fertility.  Lupercalia subsumed Februa, a possibly earlier spring cleaning ritual held on the same date which gives February its name. (Wikipedia)
        In the latter part of the fifth century, Lupercalia evolved into a possibly sordid trend which perhaps focused more on fertility than on health.  At the end of the post is a bit more graphic expose of the feast.  Anyway, Pope Gelinus  felt the need for a more chaste and platonic celebration of this feast, so he declared that a saint by the name of Valentine should be appointed as patron of "true lovers".  Of course, Valentine probably was just another imaginary playmate in the Roman Catholic dynasty. Olde Gelinus choose the 14th of February to celebrate (why three days of raucous activity when you could confine the feast to one).  We, of course, re-paganized the 14th of February to be declared, at least in a few places on earth as simply Valentine's Day...a day to profess love with simplistic cards and imported flowers.  I could not let the 14th lie still, without a celebration in this blog, so..

My trinity, Aimee, Adam, Sharon

         Since my childhood, I admit that I have  never developed a facility for emotional expressiveness, you know that touchy-feely stuff borne in the 70's.  However, given the solemnity of this day, here is my humble attempt.  Sharon, Aimee and Adam are the life I always wanted.  They embody all that I care for and all that I love.  There are a constant, they are here, they feel deeply and together we have learned so very much about life...we have learned from each other on this disability wagon train.  It's a privileged journey and a sacred bonding.  Adam confided to his clairvoyant buddy some very ancient wisdom:  "Love is being present...even when you don't have to be."  The simple act of presence, selflessly given, is the ultimate expression of love.  "Being present" seeks no reciprocation, is not pompous, is a pure act of giving...it is life affirming life.  And so I profess my love for my "trinity" publicly.  Today is their day...a celebration and expression of being present for each  other.  Happy Valentine's Day, Happy Luprecalia....There are a few others who have also "been there" and today I express my gratitude to those unnamed.  I won't name people because you always leave some out.   You do know who you are!

Painting of Lupercalia

       The real Luprecalia:  Each year on February 15, which occurred closer to Spring in the Roman calendar, there was a festival of purification and fertility.  The Luperci priests gathered on Palentine Hill at the cave of Lupercal.  Vestal virgins brought sacred cakes made from the first grains of the previous year's harvest to the fig tree.  Two naked young men, assisted by the vestal virgins, sacrificed a goat and a dog at the site.  The blood was smeared on the foreheads of the two men and wiped off with wool, drenched with milk.
        The men donned loin clothes made from the skin of the goats (who were probably dead by now).  These same men ran around the boundaries of Rome and struck women with the blood and milk soaked clothes of goat hide.  This February purification brought about good luck, purification and fertility. (Wendy Brinker, 2007)
         Well, the old version of Valentine's Day sure was more exciting...but I guess we'll just settle for protestations of love, cards and flowers.  Ah, for the good olde days!