Monday Morning Thoughts on “Being”

 

             There is a thickness to life, a depth and a knowing, an observer and an observed.  I feel the depth deepening.  I see the” I”  as ego and separate from the observer, when this separation is complete, bliss will remain and be all pervasive.  I feel it coming; a flood of knowing is approaching.  Glimpses of  becoming, I see the 3D effect, the truth in believing without the believing, or the truth.  To dis-identify with the body is to watch it change and grow, watch it become and not, watch it be and not and know there is no death to the being that is observing.  The bliss’s will follow, don’t grab at it, just let it be.

                It really no longer matters if he loved me or not, it really doesn’t – that is just ego. I say to him in my head,  “you have no power over me” and the glass breaks, the mirror shatters and that which is identified with is gone, leaving only the essence of being, of eternal being, not dependent on anything or anyone external.  A freeing of non-self but all self, without ego, a smiling face beyond thought, above resistance to what is, in spite of “myself” recognizing and seeing it in everything and everyone, even the many who don’t see, who don’t  know there is anything to see or know.

               My body changes, it needs food, water and rest.  It doesn’t ask for it, it demands it and takes it.  It is its due as a vessel of importance.  It holds my humanness but is not who I am.  The universal consciousness powers my physical being.  It makes me breathe in my sleep, it lights my inner darkness with a promise of the eternal.  It whispers “no fear, no death, no end to being” to my soul and shows me the way to peace.  Its peace, like a warm blanket, descends to wrap my soul and quiet its longings.  It holds and comforts until the longing stops, and then it holds some more.

                To be given this gift of life for however long the body lasts, is the ultimate blessing.  It provides a benchmark of sorts; a non-being to give being its meaning.  It provides  a sense of the temporary to illustrate the permanent, the enlessness of being.  It provides the physical to complete the picture and therein comes the depth and texture of existence, eternal existence.

                This little body, this perfect creation is lovely.  I feel its aliveness; I watch in awe how in spite of me, and my abuse of it, it continues on.  I see how I think of it, when I honor it with truth and love, it glows, it reacts as a whole with a flushing of the skin, it is telling me it knows, it hears me.  But it is ageing, only doing what it is meant to do and I have been privileged to be able to watch as the un-manifested became manifested, how it learned and experienced and how now it is fading back to the formless again but richer and aware of being aware, it is all what we choose it to be, but only if we know.

                Just be still and let it come, whatever “it” is, no concept, no thought, all freedom, stop labeling, feel and not,  see and not, know and don’t, be without being.  I can’t help but think in words, but try to stop thinking and be, be as the fresh night air that is flowing through my bedroom window.  Sharing itself with my being, the fragrance of the moist early spring earth just is and buy its just being it imbibes my being with a wonder and joy.  I experience it without thought as to the why or how of it, my being knowing its being. 

                When we can truly embrace this knowing, when we can truly embrace this mess that is our human condition, when we can finally stop pointing and touching with the broken finger only then can we experience the eternal hallelujah.  As L. Cohen wrote, “It is a cold and broke hallelujah”.  But thank goodness for the pain, for the depth, for the experience, for all of it.  But to hold that being, to maintain that presence,  to accept and believe in its fleeting nature is sometimes so far out of reach because of my ego, and when that unreachable feeling comes over me,  then it is time to sit, to be silent, to let the being take hold in silence.

                In my  sitting, there are bursts of joy, bliss and understanding of being, felt not thought, a spontaneous smile but then I try to grab it, to hold on to the majic and by doing so I chase it back into the silence from where it came.  By being silent and just sitting and being, I invite it back.  It acts like a timid bird, wanting to be close but afraid of me and my ego.  It shows itself and thereby makes the lack if it, or the absense of it when I have chased it away, so empty and flat, uncomfortable and shallow, dark and cold, I don’t’ like it.  It is not reality, or more accurately it is reality without the knowing and I don’t want to stay there.  But when I try to rise above it the effort seems too great.  It is only when I don’t try that it is effortless.  I need to stop getting in my own way, stop getting in my beings way.

The sights, smells, senses of life are wonderful.  We and all the beings on this earth share our presence here together.  We enrich each other’s physical experience; and by doing so we make that cold and broken hallelujah no so cold or broken after all.

A Glimpse of Joy

 

Wednesday morning musings,

A kaleidoscope of emotions and thoughts.

They flood in like sunlight

Through the clouds,

A glimpse of the crystal blue beyond the gray,

Fleeting but beautiful.

My desire to hold onto that spark, that glimpse of joy,

Is my downfall.

It is not meant to be held,

Not meant to be captured.

To hold it close would be to smother it and

Deplete its joy.

Instead I need to learn to move with it, become part of it

Not as an observer but as a participant,

Only then will I feel the joy inside

Where it was meant to reside.

Hallelujah

He Understood

 

When I stopped talking to God,

He stopped talking to me.

 

When I stopped listening to him,

He stopped listening to me.

 

He is not spiteful,

Just  honest.

 

When I blamed him for my circumstances,

He shed a single tear in eternity and was sad for my choices.

 

When I was angry with him for a death,

He understood.

 

When I questioned his reason for my being, He sent inaudible words of encouragement into the lonely darkness of my soul, words only I could hear.

 

When I pulled my hand from his grasp, He stood back and quietly waited for my return with infinite patience.

 

And when my errant ways finally did lead me back to him,

He treated me as if I had never left.

A Part of His Plan

 

It is warm here now.

Just yesterday I could still feel the cold.

 

It retreated upward,

The sun melting the frost.

 

Mother Earth sending her warmth

To meet the sun’s, with me in the middle!

 

I hear the rain striking

The earth above me now,

 

Its sound no longer muffled

By the snow.

 

The water puddles around me in the spaces between the rocks and

Softens my shell with its spring freshness.

 

My soul is awakened and has been waiting for this moment,

Waiting for the conditions to be just right.

 

My softened shall cracks and

A single, tiny root pokes its little head out into the soil.

 

It stretches its very being into the darkness and

Finds water and nutrients to power my growth.

 

Slowly my stem emerges from this shell and pushes me ever so gently up and up

Around the rocks and worms,

 

Bending to avoid the obstacle’s, always holding me in love

While searching for the sun.

 

I have never seen the sun, but I know it is there.

It has spoken to me in my dark winter of dreams.

 

Its promise is finely fulfilled when, only by  gargantuan efforts, my

Tiny stem has transported me to the surface of the soil.

 

My head breaks free and I feel the fresh spring breeze for the first time as

My stem lifts me up as an offering to the sun.

 

Through my soil bound journey, a miracle has taken place within me.

The work of God, done in darkness, is now revealed.

 

My seed splits open and my two magically made seed leaves open

Their fresh green faces to the sun.

 

Its brilliance is over whelming and

Its warmth and love unsurpassed.

 

I feel its strength soaking into even fiber of my being.

The sensation is incredible and I am full of life.

 

But the end of my journey is still a mystery to me.

What will I become?  Only God knows …

 

He has built the blueprint into my soul

But he hasn’t given me the instructions.

 

I will grow in the awareness that I am aware.

My being will take in the sun and wind, the soil and water, and I will become that which God intended.

 

Whether his intentions be a sunflower or a string bean,

I will be happy and joyful at being a part of His plan and

 

I will rejoice in His goodness.

Hari Om

Winter White

Winter mornings,

Cold, gray skies

 

Weep snowflakes in

Drifts of white.

 

Tree branches are outlined with

Each twig and bud coated in white.

 

The evergreen’s frosted tips are decorations done by

The Creator’s loving hands.

 

Isn’t it wonderful how rain drops turn white when they freeze, nice touch God!

The Creator has a flair for external decorating!

 

Cardinals come to my birdfeeders in January

And perch in the nearby evergreens to eat their breakfast.

 

A perfect Christmas card picture

Naturally created in red, white and green.

 

Chickadees wear their little black caps all winter, eat their fill at the birdfeeders,

And gather in groups at the bottom of winter’s abandoned bird houses to keep warm.

 

Squirrels sit in my window boxes eating stolen bird seeds

And watch me through the window watching them.

 

Their little ears and eyes ever alert and twitching.

Danger could be lurking behind every snow back and tree trunk.

 

And while I sit, warm and safe inside by the woodstove, I think of how hard it must be to

Live as the wild creatures do, where your survival depends on your alertness.

 

But really, is that so difference from our lives? We would do well to take a lesson from the

Winter creatures, our survival as a species ultimately depends on our alertness as well.

 

So while the snowy silence fills our days, pay attention to the winter wilds, be alert to the

now and the lurking dangers behind the snow banks and tree trunks will disappear on their own.

 

Watch the squirrels, appreciate the beauty of the Cardinals and evergreens, embrace the cold,

Treasure the winter sky and white rain drops and be grateful for what there is and

Be, just Be.

In Honor of Small Things

“The Great arises out of small things that are honored and cared for” Eckhart Tolle  A New Earth

 

Such wisdom in so few words.

But what is the Great if not a compilation of the small.

 

Nothing is too small to be part of the one,

The Great unmainfested, is manifested in everything, including the small, especially the small.

 

It is through the ordinary manifestation of the One that it’s true

Heart and meaning is able to shine through.

 

Honor all “things” as part of the creator

Made touchable, reachable, real.

 

Ceremonies and traditions, ways of honoring the small things, act

As symbols and representations of caring for the One, the One all pervasive energy, the Creator.

 

Everywhere I look I see evidence of that truth.

When I open my eyes each morning, I acknowledge and honor the new day.

 

A new beginning with each sunrise, with each chime of the cuckoo clock

As the fresh born light angles across my bed and bedroom walls.

 

My breakfast food of sweet potatoes and spinach

Lies in splendor on the golden yellow dish,

 

The lightly colored beautiful orange sweet potatoes shine

In stark contrast to the dark green warmth of the spinach.

 

They are contrasts in wholeness, beautiful small things to be honored and appreciated.

As is the tea steaming in my tea mug which shares the mug’s space and honors its useful emptiness, tea honoring mug honoring tea.

 

The shower water’s warmth and the soap’s scent of softness and peace

Honor my body and I honor their usefulness and dedication to service without selfishness.

 

And with each step and in each and every place I go throughout the day

I try to take the time, maybe only a second or two, to notice and honor the small things.

 

After all, I am a small thing too.

The Joy of Simple Solitude

The joy of simple solitude where

There is no risk to my heart, and no chance for destruction of my soul.

 

I can trust myself here,

I’d never do those things to me.

 

I love the solitude of evenings spent in front of the

Wood stove, reading and writing where there is

 

No one to answer to and

No one to betray me.

 

I am safe with just the beauty and silence of winter’s cold

And darkness for company.

 

I feel a silent peace from the holiday lights sparkling

In my windows and the feeling of

 

Love’s glow coming from

Within.

 

My peace is what I will make it to be,

Warm, safe, beautiful and right.

 

It is all I need for now,

This joy of simple solitude, however,

 

I am not fooled —

There is nothing simple about it.

The Courage of Autumn

Swift summer snuck in,

Greening up from the edges, shading the forest floor.

It came complete with lovely summer evenings

Where warm breezes filled the night,

And a blanket of starts twinkled in the

Dark humid haze.
The August thunder filled my soul

With its power and its wildness renewed me.

My garden produced produce from the earth

Feeding my soul as richly as it fed my body.

This summer was a season of energy and rapid growth.

There was no time to waste, “bloom now, don’t be afraid” was its message.

But now, without warning, the days begin to shorten,

The afternoon shadows grow longer.

Late night mists form as the heart of summer

Makes its escape back to the sky from where it came.

The golden sunglow fades from my skin as it

Has from the fields.

A summer season of riotous beginnings looses its energy and

Fades into the arms of autumn.

As the seasons change, so must I.

I need to return to the safety and warmth of my home and

Gather my growings to feed my body as I gather my loves

To sustain my soul through the cold, dark time to come.

Autumn is the time to return to what was, to what came before

Summer’s brief and beautiful interruption.

Fearlessly and with a final burst of thanks in colors of red and gold,

The earth has gently shed its past with its leaves.

If only I could shed mine with such courage and beauty.