The immense quiet in animals

Pure non dual- no talking or thinking

The old Zen master suggests the same for us.

dot dot dot……

( As I think on what the next thing is to say)

Really all there is

Is- I Love you

Stevie Wonder style-

I love you from the bottom of my heart.

The fox waddled across the road

The weight of dinner in it’s mouth- perhaps

It was our cat – I worried

I’ve been more worried of late

(Got to watch that).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

John and I walked up hill in the woods …

Great way to let the trees

Take over my weary consciousness,

Digesting all worry ( as they like to do)

Lighter and more sane…..

( watching that too).

Orbiting the outer reaches

Fishing for clues or just bigger awareness…

The scope of our exitance

Especially with some of my key people

Getting to the jumping off place…

I am hanging wider- joining them

Slowing down… almost to a stop.

Not motivated by ego or money

What is the motivation- then?

(Is that considered dementia.. as in

“Have you lost your mind?”)

Ego and money have us so boxed in

How can vision make her elegant entrance?

Willow saw this bumper sticker

I heart – Aging and Dying.

““““““““““““““““““““`

Big love on this August Night.

Happy Birthday Cathy Bell.

On the hotest day so far

I take my old form into the cold current

To splash across- like a 10 year old

All shock and glee- feeling whoopee “It’s me”

Suddenly- a million years younger.

“““““““““““““““““““““““

And then there is the body…

Bodies just in themselves are wild .

As I hobble up the stony path

Wet footed and happy

Rejuvenated.

Time to make a pie.

A rattlesnake swam the river

Landing cold from it’s swim

Too cold to coil

A few freet from where

Daniel and John were eating lunch.

( the same two characters present last year

When John got bitten….so

You can imagine my traumatized deja Vu)

I insisted we call the snake whisperer

Who picks up the phone -ready to be of help

(today he was called to remove a mating pair)

He really values them/ they as relatives.

And so it was with a salute from John

That our snake regained her freedom

With a flick of her tongue

He wondered if perhaps she was his same snake.

Job done.

A man I hardly know

Wanted to stop by with his brother.

He’s a freindly chap who helps his girlfriend

With Open Studios.

Something I participated in

About two years ago….

Turns out he’d like to find a two bedroom

To rent in Lyons….and

His brother who lives in LA

Had just been on a Buddhist retreat

So, I asked him what he had discovered and

He said

“The magic in everyday life”

And walking over the bridge- he mentions

The sound of the water.

Spirit beings will show up when needed-

BIrds and Birders and Beings

Swooping in here unexpectedly

Restoring the balance.

“““““““““““““““““““`

Ram Das – said-

We are “just” walking Each Other Home…

No small thing this kind of stroll

“““““““““““““““““““`

I scrape the pealing paint from the bridge

Wearing an old blue shirt

Like my dad used to wear

Working on the boat-always in need of repair.

It’s my heart today in need of repair

Someone I love is suffering

She says- the hardest – is the uncertainity.

It never feels like enough to be a witness

But it’s the best we’ve got.

“Swing low- sweet charoit

Coming for to carry me home

Swing low sweet chariot- coming

for to carry me home.” I hum—feeling

The sound of my voice in the empty air

“A band of angels lookin after me”

And so it is….

This journey we are on together

Into the unknown- an unknown

( most likely) we are totally familiar with

But on this side of things – it’s a gate

A mysterious other.

Present in this moment

Is all there is- ever..

As my friend Bobby says….

I love you always and forever.

I kiss you America

I kiss you awake

And oh it hurts to feel

How we have gone asleep at the wheel

Careening down the road

So much damage – we don’t even know…

But on the personal level…..

I know this amazing group of women( in their 70’s)

Elders in my town.. who quietly are doing the work.

The steward of the labyrinth

Maintaining it’s earthie chi with grace

Or the wise women behind the creation

Of our local botanical garden with it’s wells trimmed paths.

Or my friend, who weekly organizes us to protest- sign in hand

Wearing Red White and Blue glasses….

We kiss you Awake- America.

Heart in hand- hand on heart.

““““““““““““““““““““

Painting by Childe Hassam

The Auenue in the Rain- 1917

Joanna Macy put it this way…

“It is a good thing to realize that falling apart

is not such a bad thing.

Indeed, it is essential to transformation

As the cracking of outgrown shells.

Anxieties and doubts can be creative

not only for the person

but for the society because

Our fears permit new approaches to reality.”

“What disintegrates in periods of rapid thransformation

Is not the self- but it’s defenses.

Self protection restricts vision

Going to pieces however uncomfortable

Can open us up to new perceptions”

“In our culture , despair is feared and resisted

Because it represents a loss of control

We dodge it by demanding instant solutions to problems

We seek a quick fix.

Acknowledging our despair

Involves telling the truth about what we see and feel-

Truth telling is like oxygen-

It returns us to health and vigor.”

“Pain for the world

The outrage and the sorrow

breaks us open to a larger sense of who we are.

It is the doorway

To our mutal belonging in the web of life”

You are not alone

We are part of a vast- global movement

The epochal transition from empire to Earth Community

This is the great Turning.

And the excitement , the alarm

Even the overwelm we feel

Are all part of our waking up to this collective adventure.