Reflections on a 50th high school reunion

Recently I attended this event. I believe it was scheduled for last year and because of the severity of the pandemic then, it was postponed a year. I had mixed feelings about going mainly because I don’t believe we are ‘out of the woods’ quite yet with Covid. I was getting messages that it was important for me to be there for a few reasons; my own healing/wholeness/sharing and to listen to and be with others, since I did not have those inclinations until more recently in this life. I’d been to two previous reunions of this class. I found many warm and friendly, sincere and grateful for what’s going on in their lives. There were also quite a few others who seem to be hanging in there and struggling in these most unusual times - like most of us on one level or another.

It was 1970 when I graduated Medford High School in Medford Massachusetts (northeast coast USA. For those outside the USA, high school is just prior to college or university). There was little clarity around my life at that time (as Lee Richard Kelfer) and I had ‘buds’ who I hung out with then and we connected some at this reunion. Our paths after high school did not cross much if at all as there was little of substance that ‘bonded’ us as friends, and we went our separate ways. In this image from our recent reunion, one of them is on my left and one on my right and another colleague of ours who graduated the previous year, is on the far right. All may be very good men, fathers, husbands and friends to many and I really do not know any of them well. All ok.

As I reflect on what I have embraced and learned and who I have become since last spending any substantive time with these particular ‘brothers and sisters’, I have an immense amount of gratitude for what I have been guided to incorporate into my life. From the yoga and meditation that I choose to practice on a daily basis which buoys my spirit and puts me in touch with a reservoir of inner vitality, to adopting the Sikh religion and being an ordained minister with that, to the most meaningful work and service I’m ‘called’ to do, to the martial arts that have helped me leave much fear, insecurity and self doubt, to other healthy habits I have adopted over decades, I am further grateful for the guidance I receive through turning my attention inside of myself through several of these. This ‘magic’ of turning within and self-healing began when I first started doing Kundalini Yoga and meditation (Naam Simran) in 1972 in New Paltz, New York. Blessings to All.