{"id":505,"date":"2009-03-22T19:08:59","date_gmt":"2009-03-22T19:08:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onecity\/2009\/03\/time-is-of-the-essence.html"},"modified":"2009-03-22T19:08:59","modified_gmt":"2009-03-22T19:08:59","slug":"time-is-of-the-essence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/03\/time-is-of-the-essence.html","title":{"rendered":"Time is of the Essence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like many others this week, I found myself strangely fascinated with the death of actress Natasha Richardson<\/a>. Not that I was a fan per se, but I think it was more the senselessness and randomness of it that was striking. That a bump on the head can, a few hours later, cause one to be brain dead is a rather\u00a0stark reminder of our own\u00a0fragility. I\u00a0also received word that someone I went to high school with, a father of two young children, died in a car accident and I know two more people who in the last couple of weeks had\u00a0serious health scares leading to major surgeries.
\n
\nCoincidentally, Ethan sent our Hardcore Dharma class a chant to memorize and it’s been propped up on my desk for the last week. It’s the chant of the jukido (time keeper) at the evening zazen:<\/p>\n

Let me respectfully remind you,
\nLife and Death are of Supreme Importance.
\nTime swiftly passes by and opportunity is lost.
\nEach of us should strive to awaken, Awaken!
\nTake heed; do not squander your life.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It served as a good reminder this week and, as my eyes would wander over to it as\u00a0I was trying to\u00a0work,\u00a0a motivating force to stay focused and stop wasting time. Thought some others might get some use out of it too…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like many others this week, I found myself strangely fascinated with the death of actress Natasha Richardson. Not that I was a fan per se, but I think it was more the senselessness and randomness of it that was striking. That a bump on the head can, a few hours later, cause one to be…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-and-media"],"yoast_head":"\nTime is of the Essence - One City<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/03\/time-is-of-the-essence.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Time is of the Essence - One City\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Like many others this week, I found myself strangely fascinated with the death of actress Natasha Richardson. 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