THE ZONE OF REFLECTION: notes from this morning's walk/talk with Tim.

For nine weeks, we have made a concentrated effort to understand and to put into practice what Barry Sears describes as "the zone" diet. Sears lays out the principles for a diet which, with surprisingly simple adjustments per individual differences, should put one, one meal or one snack at a time, in that optimum bio-chemical condition in which mind and body perform optimally. Or, if mending is in order, that mending proceeds optimally, whether it be by loss of weight, cholesterol reduction, lowering blood pressure, control of diabetes, escape from depression—the list goes on and on. Our experience to date is, and in fact from very early on in our trial has been, that one can reach the zone, knows when he is in it or near it, and that to be in the zone is to feel, to live, and to be or become better. Life in the zone is so much better, in fact, that it and the pursuit of it can only be described as exhilarating.

It occurs to me that out of our life with Tim and out of his death, that profound conjugation of bond and event, that powerful amalgam, working in organic relationship with other bonds and events, has sprung to the conscious fore—with great force and focus—the "Zone of Reflection." It seems, in this point of view, that what I am doing with the walks, the talks, the letters and pictures, the meditation/mantra, the poetry, the music, and the tears—all of them modes of prayer, as it were—is to welcome this opening force, to not just permit but to encourage and cooperate with its life, to attend, to watch and learn, as it with such vitality performs its function: to steadily strengthen and to expand this endlessly expandable and useful zone. The intention in all this, remembering and fully trusting Gerald's fundamental insight, remains the one that has guided and fueled all our dreams, enterprises and exercises from the start: to better align and to constantly re-align our lives with the Process, to expand our understanding of Life, to try ways to train ourselves and J. Hartzelbuck as channels for the gentle uses of its Force. We would grow, however few inches of the way, toward Homus Novus.

In truth, in some degree the Zone of Reflection is always with us, but not always so consciously or so vigorously as is the case at this generous, this blessed occasion in our lives. This we see as a more conscious phase, a time of particular focus. The Zone of Reflection has in it the wave lengths of intuition, inspiration, composition, and that deep "sense of knowing." In it are the grounds of Faith, that growing edge attitude, that teachable frame of mind, which permits one to reach farther out to touch what may be possible but is not yet provable. It feeds and is fed by all the other elements of our lives, and is in fact an inseparable part of them. One thinks of those other elements that also need our care if they are to contribute their essential parts: things like a diet and the exercise required for the athletic living of our lives; a duo of wise and focused hygienes, the mental and the personal/physical; labor infused with conviction, discipline and devotion; a fellowship, a brotherhood of unlimited liability, committed in love and through love to the Training for a Life of Growth; and, to give meaning and direction to that growth, a flexible and ever-growing frame of reference, a source and guide for an evolving praxis.

As with Barry Sears' dietary zone, one seeks to stay in the Zone of Reflection as much of one's life as one can, whether it be at conscious or unconscious levels, knowing that when "in the Zone" one's whole being is healing, moving, growing in harmony with the Process, living the Life that takes all transitions and all revelations in its unbroken, unhesitating stride.

— June 27, 1996