Future Attraction

I wonder if my reliance on my GPS has spoiled me. Sometimes the path plays tricks on our eyes when we try so hard to see. We seek clarity, a road map, points of interests and warnings of construction ahead, a voice saying our exit is 300 feet ahead. Though I admit, I have no idea what 300 feet looks like when driving.

Sometimes what you see just doesn't make sense, or perhaps it is only a peak of what is. The photo is untouched, it is what I saw. And like the path, I have to laugh and trust what I saw is a future attraction waiting to reveal.

Delighted Certainty

A morning gift as the coffee gifted a dance of steam and tiny droplets leaping in the air. My laughter joined the dance and swirled in awe. The certainty and clarity of life's path is neither possible nor necessary. What is certain, what is ever so clear....is the joy and awe when I pause and see.

Threat of Love

On Monday a most glorious walk in nature. So peaceful and quiet except for the bulldozers and dump trucks working on the upper trail. I was able to tune them out except for one moment when the bulldozer went barreling down the path with its beeping back up sound blaring so loudly. I confess, I was miffed.

Yesterday on my walk the driver of the dump truck stopped beside me. He asked if I had been walking Monday afternoon with my dog. When I said yes he began to tell me he and the bulldozer driver watched from above as two coyotes were stalking behind my dog and I. They got within a hundred yards and went down into a crouched stalk walk. What I had interpreted as an unthinking driver of a bulldozer speeding too fast on the trail was their attempt to scare the coyotes away. It worked.

The same coyotes that thrill my heart, that I have seen on the path and offered blessings, were also a threat. How can that be? Nature is my sanctuary, my home. It is the chanting of my heart. Each tree, shrub, and drought hardened piece of earth I walk upon are honored and treasured, as are the coyotes. With my eyes I would never see such a threat. And so I smile as I write. My diminishing sight has taught me to see with my heart. Oh yes, I will be vigilant and not foolish. But I will also not accept fear. To love is to open to loss. To climb a mountain is to accept you will also slip and fall.  The gift of diminished sight is the clarity that the path is not meant to be smooth. It is, truly and simply, perfect imperfection. It is the “threat” of love…an open heart.

Eyeing Fog's Embrace

And what is it you are struggling to see Little One? Your eyes see only the cloud of fog. Your eyes also don't see the mountain that holds, supports, and lifts the tree above the earth and into the clouds. See with your heart Little One. And giggle to watch the clouds descend to caress the earth. Feel their touch upon your face. Alive in this one moment and the touch of the heavens surrounding you...that is what your heart sees.

Hydration

“I don’t understand.” How many times uttered.

Every element, force, relationship and atom that exists in this world as we see it today, existed billions of years ago, unshaped and unformed. Did billions of years waiting pass slowly? Did the stardust and whirling unformed galaxies say “I don’t understand”? Or were the elements, the emerging stars, planets and life so immersed in the creating and creation they never thought to ask?

“I don’t understand” shall be my cue to lift the cup of creating and flow. A reminder I’m dehydrated and need to drink. To lift the cup and celebrate the galaxies waiting to emerge.

Dance

image from Diane Sinclair & Ken Spaulding

I call out for clarity. "Let me see!" I sit and ask that I might know, the door to open, the clouds to clear, the answer revealed.

And then the whisper comes "to move." Like the chaos of creativity from which the painting of music emerges in dance.... clarity comes with movement. To see one must move. Movement begets clarity.

Circle of Breath

A morning walk, the first with a hoody sweatshirt and sweatpants for warmth. Left before the sun fully stretched and watched her as she pulled back the night's quilt from the mountain. And with the Sun's rising, I saw my breath.  With each exhale outward I walked forward into its glistening dance.  Something inside whispered, "Remember this."  In my meditations I focus upon the breath, the Circle of Life.  This morning Life gifted the Gift of walking inside the circle and then dancing beyond. Love's Clarity

May you  know the stillness of your breath, see the Circle of Life and then walk into its Dance.