![]() ![]() The FCC has designed and established transition periods to bring the nation's communications infrastructure into compliance. The FCC has taken a number of steps to increase public safety by encouraging and coordinating development of a nationwide, seamless communications system for emergency services. One provision of the 911 Act directs the FCC to make 911 the universal emergency number for all telephone services. In October 1999, the Wireless Communications and Public Safety Act of 1999 (911 Act) took effect with the purpose of improving public safety by encouraging and facilitating the prompt deployment of a nationwide, seamless communications infrastructure for emergency services. ![]() Send 600- to 700-word articles on all aspects of inner peace to Richard Carey ( ).911 service is a vital part of our nation's emergency response and disaster preparedness system. ![]() Richard Carey lives in Ashland and, when not facilitating the Inner Peace column, spends most of his time studying the Zen of idleness and scribbling out the occasional poem. I have other places too, some imaginary, but Grandma’s kitchen will always be at the center of my mandala.Īs these articles go forward, I’d love to hear about your special place, no matter where it is or how you get there. It is a place in my memory that was real enough, but now seems beyond reality, though still accessible. So, what is inner peace for me? It is a place where I am safe, where I am loved, where I am doing the things I love to do. She’s been gone many years now, and the only thing I can do to repay her is try in my own small way to pass on her gift. Whatever capacity I have for giving and receiving love, was a gift from her. Everything I know about love, I learned from her. I felt safe because I was loved unconditionally, not only because I was her grandchild but because I somehow knew we were kindred spirits. Without any necessary articulation of my world-sense in my flowering young spirit, I felt safe. Of greater importance was the wealth of love in that little kitchen. Did my grandmother plant the seed or simply nurture it? It doesn’t matter. My love of language, words, and puzzles will stay with me all my life. Such were the summer mornings of my childhood. The Times puzzle is still too hard for me, mostly, but she has given me a little book of my own crosswords that I work on at her side. I sit beside her at the little table, immersed in her grandmotherly warmth. I am irresistibly drawn to this activity. After all the breakfast things are washed and put away, she devotes about an hour each morning to the puzzle. My grandmother is not a fan of the Times, but she does treasure the Sunday crossword. My grandfather is a long-time reader of the Sunday New York Times, which he picks up after mass every Sunday morning. Sunlight spills in from the window and through the screen door leading to the back porch. However, these days, when I visit this place, it’s early in the morning, after my grandfather has gone off to his job at the steel mill, leaving just the two of us. In the evening, it’s usually Scrabble or cards. In the center is a small vinyl-topped table with a checkered tablecloth, white and yellow. I don’t remember much else about the decorative scheme - a lot of yellow, which in those times seemed to be a popular kitchen color. A small phone table sits under a back-corner window. It’s a spacious kitchen, a useful kitchen, its perimeter lined with all her appliances and gadgetry of the time, including the ogreous meat grinder perched next to the sink, the big hour-glass-shaped coffee pot with its mysterious components. ![]() We play in her kitchen, which comforts my retreating spirit in all of its parts. We don’t keep score the winner is the one who first uses all their tiles. She has modified the rules to make the game friendlier. All my attention is on a small wooden rack holding seven tiles, each with a letter and a numerical value. However, it is not my 7-year-old navel that I contemplate. In the place where I go, as in any proper meditation, my thoughts become calm and focused. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |