Honoring Justin: Memories and Milestones
Remembering Justin
It’s been about six months since we celebrated the 100-year anniversary of Justin’s birth and less than two months since we noted the five-year mark of his death. His stories and personal interactions with him are never far from the surface; in fact, they exist more like Chi pressed into our bones.
Many, many interactions with him pop to mind. When I traveled back-and-forth between Boston and Albuquerque for a decade, I would spend the return flight to Boston writing down the revelations and riddles that my time with Justin prompted. Here are a few stories.
We’d been in our Albuquerque house for two years, but Justin had never accepted an invitation to visit until he invited himself over – the morning my cat was to be ‘put to sleep.’ Justin made a beeline to my office, where the cat was curled up (although no one had told Justin anything), and he made one of the most compassionate comments that I’d ever heard him utter. Then he left. Later that afternoo,n when he opened the door for meditation at his house (which he never did, as we all just barged in), he said, “I’m glad you are here; you’re in the right place.”
Another time, I’d been doing T’ai Chi Chih with Justin and three others in his living room when he began really hammering home on some point about how I was moving. I became upset and refused to go out to dinner with them afterwards. When examining what had happened later that night, I said out loud, “I don’t trust that guy,” and in that instant, an enormous and related issue was completely resolved. It “only” required Justin’s expression of unconditionality.
Another time, I was having a difficult conversation in his living room with him and another person. Justin interrupted, got up, and asked me, “Dear, would you like a soft?” He was referring to a soft drink, but in that moment, he was telling me to let go of the matter. My response? “No… thank you.” He returned without a drink (for himself or me), to a softer situatio,n and we exchanged a small smile.
There are a thousand more stories, all different but the same.
Photos & Conference 2017
The images featured on pages 4, 5, 10, 11, and 17 were taken in and around Boulder and at the conference center, compliments of Lisa VV, as a way to entice you to attend the conference on June 15-18th.
