Sunday, March 21, 2021 CNY Inspirations: Making gratitude normal This feature is coordinated by The Post-Standard/Syracuse.com and InterFaith Works of CNY. Follow this theme and author posted Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. I have never been comfortable with the word “normal.” I hear it a lot lately. It’s the thing that the pandemic has taken from us, and now we want it back. We’ve had it. I don’t disagree. But my training requires me to be aware of what suffering reveals. Much of what has been revealed we knew. The inequity. The division. The climate crisis. The delusion of the busyness of our day, the fragility of what we hold dear. So, when I hear people say they can’t wait to go back to normal, I feel uneasy. Because denying those things were all considered normal. Remember 13 months ago when the idea of going one day without driving seemed completely impossible. Let’s not forget it. In the frenzy of restaurants and theaters reopening, let’s continue saying hello to people we pass on the street and check on neighbors. Let’s remember the taste of baked bread, the comforts of home and family, and what a hug feels like. And let’s appreciate what we’ve missed once it’s back. Let’s seek a balance that includes all of what we have learned this year. Mostly, let’s not forget what we learned about who we really are. This year has been a profound reminder that we are not our jobs, titles or our paychecks. We surrendered that facade when we appeared on Zoom in casual clothes with our pets ruling over us. Will anyone go back to wearing a suit? Some of us have had to redefine our work. Some have lined up for food for the first time. We have lost people we never thought we would outlive. What we have, we will not always have. So what are we then? What we were all along. Let’s call that normal. JoAnn Cooke is the Buddhist chaplain at and a member of the InterFaith Works Roundtable of Faith Leaders, representing the Zen Center of Syracuse. Cooke has been a Zen student of Shinge Roshi for 20 years.

Tuesday, March 23, 2021 CNY Inspirations: Time This feature is coordinated by The Post-Standard/Syracuse.com and InterFaith Works of CNY. Follow this theme and author posted Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. A year ago we had no idea how long we would be locked down, and though the vaccine brings hope, we still don’t know. That’s the thing about time. It makes everything so frustrating. In fact, probably all of human frustration could be traced back to time. Too fast? Too slow? It’s odd be- cause time is something we humans invented. Sometimes I wonder why. Eckhart Tolle asks us in “The Power of Now” to imagine asking an oak tree what time it is. At first, it would be bemused. “Well, of course, it’s now. The time is now. What else is there?” it would say. I find solace in this way of thinking as the pandemic rages on. We don’t know when it will end, but neither does the tree standing in the winter, nor does it worry about how long it will take. It stands, and then its buds come forth. JoAnn Cooke is the Buddhist chaplain at Syracuse University and a member of the InterFaith Works Roundtable of Faith Leaders, representing the Zen Center of Syracuse. Cooke has been a Zen student of Shinge Roshi Sherry Chayat for 20 years.

Thursday, March 25, 2021 CNY Inspirations: Breath awareness, life awareness This feature is coordinated by The Post-Standard/Syracuse.com and InterFaith Works of CNY. Follow this theme and author posted Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. There is a Zen story in which a is walking along the river with a monk. The monk says he is bored just following his breath and asks the teacher for some other practice. The mas- ter grabs him, drags him down to the river, and holds his head under the water for a period of time, then releases him. The monk stumbles to his feet sputtering and dumbfounded. “Now, do you find your breath more interesting?” the master asks. COVID-19 is that Zen master. This is the year of the breath awareness— with the Black Lives Matter movement awakening us to the cry, “I can’t breathe” and with so many in hospitals on respirators, we can’t help but feel gratitude for each breath, to hang on each breath with gratitude. We live because we breathe. To appreciate your breath is to appreciate your life. JoAnn Cooke is the Buddhist chaplain at Syracuse University and a member of the InterFaith Works Roundtable of Faith Leaders, representing the Zen Center of Syracuse. Cooke has been a Zen student of Shinge Roshi Sherry Chayat for 20 years.