I’m sitting here on the Shabat thinking about my journey at this point in my life. The commandment that I’m thinking of is “honor your father and your mother…” I have literally honored my parents. I love them and I am grateful that they gave me the opportunity to have this experience here on earth. My mother often told me that she appreciated the way I promptly responded to her calls whenever she needed me as well as the way I assisted her when she didn’t need me at all. My mother has passed on, but there are elements of her that still lives in me, my brothers, my sisters, my father, and all who knew her and experienced her. I still do everything that I can with and for my father. He is my greatest advocate and I am glad that he is still here with us.

There is another view of honoring one’s parents that I’m thinking of this morning. We all live here on this earth and receive the abundance of nature. I have paid particular attention to the fact that the earth is the mother of us all and that heaven is our father. So how do we honor our father and mother in this instance?

We honor our mother and father by taking good care of our body and our mind. We cannot live very long without doing so. The mother energies that we need to continue living are air, water, sun, and earth.

Without oxygen there is no life for us. The best air is unpolluted air filled with negative ions. I love the way the air smells just before it rains and the way my body feels during a rain. Have you ever been to a place that has a water fall? It provides the same experience. I can’t always go to a waterfall or live in the forest and it doesn’t rain all the time. So, the way I honor this aspect of Mother Nature is to bring that experience into my home. I make every effort to refrain from polluting the air in my home. Then I clean the air in my home and provide the negative ions that nature gives us.

Without water there is no life. The expression, “running water purifies itself,” comes to mind. Living water is water that is running over rocks, that has sun’s energy, and that has the earth magnetic energy. I need this water because all of my body functions depend upon it. I need it for digestion, for transporting nutrients, for eliminating wastes, and for temperature control. Again, the best way that I can honor my mother is to bring this element of nature to my home.

Of course, we all know the importance of the sun to our existence. We deem this to be so important that we base our calendar around the sun cycle. Our four seasons are based on the circuit of the sun. And if we take a deeper look, we will find many religious stories and other folklore that honor the sun and its travels. Our bodies exist within a narrow range of temperature. When outside of this range we can die of hypothermia (extreme cold for our body) or hyperthermia (extreme heat for our body). The sun makes it possible for us to live on earth. It provides growth for the foods we eat and bestows life on the water that we drink. The sun provides us with vitamin D and the far infrared spectrum of light has healing qualities.

The earth is really the integration of the above three elements. To live a long and healthy life, we need whole foods and the earth’s magnetism. Whole foods contain all the nutrition that we need: vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and many phytonutrients.

So as I think about my journey, I do many things to honor my mother. I feel great. I have not ever been sick (except when I took that flu shot in the army). And, I recovered well after being involved in an accident last year that left me feeling “outside of my body” for about two months.

How have I honored my father during this journey? The father energies that we need to continue living are consciousness, activity, and panharmony.

Our ancestors looked to the sky to gain knowledge of the heavens. Many of the principles of life come from the stories of the stars and the constellations. My understanding of all of this is that we need to continue raising our consciousness if we want a better life.  Whenever we have a problem, it is because there is an unknown element involved. To me, living the good life result from knowing myself and getting to know others.

Activity is the second element of honoring the father. Motion is so important to life. The minute that we stop moving, death is on its way.  Everything that has life has motion. The right amount of exercise is so important. And we need to keep ourselves fit physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.

Panharmony is an old term. It means being in harmony with everything. The term that we use today is love. It has been said that the greatest love of all is to love yourself. For me, that is true. Love of self enables me to have the experience of loving. Once I’ve had that experience, I know how to love and care for others.

So, here I am. Traveling through life being particular and choosing to honor my mother and father literally, esoterically, and symbolically. Of course there are others here that are choosing to do the same.