One year later

The Superbowl is over. Like last year, the team I was cheering on did not win. Unlike last year, I did indeed watch the game (as opposed to listening to it on an unexpected bus ride from another country). and spent the entire day in comfort and happiness.

Congratulations to Coach Dungy, Peyton Manning, and the Colts. It’s your day.

But it’s ours too.

This warmth is made much easier since I am now 120 lbs slower. A week + of maintenance has not adversely affected my life, although I have pushed the edge of fullness on several occasions this weekend.

Of course, 160 situps today and counting, with my new (and possibly even more annoying) goal selected and set at 1000 a day by the end of March. Given the ease at which I can rip off 80 in just a couple minutes, I don’t see this as a problem at all.

But I digress.

My life is completely different than it was last year. Halfway through 2006, I realized that I had been granted a wish, and like the other things I’ve received through the same agency, I am truly thankful. I am cognizant of how these things happen, and I know enough to make it balance out in the long run.

Hapiness, Balance, Dedication.

And most probably the last I’ll bore y’all on the subject. But I sign off with this.

If you want it, ask yourself for it. There is nothing bad about desire. It shapes us, defines us. And coupled with Honesty, it lifts us up.

Deadly sins covered in this message include Pride, Envy, Lust, and Gluttony (in roughly that order). I kicked Sloth right in the nuts about a week ago, although as the condition of my front room will attest, it’s still skulking about. Wrath and I wrestle often during the week, but there is a truce of sorts on the weekends.

Avarice is an odd duck. Like Bashful, it is the most often overlooked. But I count it as one of the worst (Wrath always has top billing for me, given our very long and intimate relationship), since it combines so many of the others. My response is to use my other foot on it. For by embracing Kindness, Liberality, Diligence and Patience, it can be managed.

But not bypassed, since those that know me directly understand my forebearance from the other three. An odd condition for a holy man, and one of the reasons I’m such a lousy Buddhist. And Catholic, for that matter

I have been offered more than one thing that I desire lately, and I accept them as offered. Now, it’s time to earn them.