Just a Thought

There’s a room in our house that serves as my meditation room, and when needed, converts to a bedroom for our grandchildren. From where I sit in meditation, I can look out on our yard, where a huge old sycamore tree dwells majestically. I believe it was planted when our house was built sixty some-odd years ago.

It occurred to me this morning as I looked out at the tree that each cell in our sycamore responds to the direction of the Creator. In the dead of winter its cells are active, doing whatever a tree does to keep itself healthy and alive. The bark looks dead, yet it too has cells that hold the Divine.

Musing on this, I thought how each cell in my own body responds to, and contains, the Divine, as does every person, plant and animal, in fact all things. We all share the Divine. This gave me a deeper sense of the relatedness of all that is.

As a child I pictured God as a kindly judge with a flowing white beard, residing somewhere in the sky where He looked down upon His creation. Substituting an image of the Creative Force, I pictured the Divine looking over all of creation and viewing it as One. I imagined this Mystery seeing the edges of the expanding Universe, and then focusing on the myriad galaxies. Moving closer, the Divine would see our own galaxy, our solar system, our sun, and finally our earth. From there the Creator would zero in on each individual human, plant, animal and object on our planet. From the macrocosm of the Universe, to the microcosm of each individual cell, atom and quark, the Divine breathes Life into it all. All of it is interrelated, all of it is One, all of it breathes in unison. Not just the ocean and I breathe as one (as I wrote and posted in a recent poem), but I breathe with the entire Universe!

What are YOUR thoughts on this? As much as I love putting my thoughts down, I very much enjoy hearing what YOU think.

May the peace of the Universe warm you and ground you this day!

Graced Moments

In my last post, I mentioned a friend who said that this decade, her sixties, is the happiest time of her life. We were sharing over tea, and I spoke to her of how I admired the strength she has shown in the five years or so that I've known her. She has faced the difficulties that she encountered during her life, which had left their mark on her in various ways. Since I’ve known her, I’ve seen her slowly emerge from a kind of cocoon, into the radiant being she is now. It’s been beautiful to watch!

My friend agreed that she’d gone through a lot of hard work to address the problems with professional help. But she also said that I had been a big part of her growth, that as her friend, I’d always listened deeply, without judgment or advice, simply being there, celebrating her just as she is, and supporting her throughout.

As she said these words, she was looking at me with such honesty, love and gratitude, that my insides simply melted. I felt the hand of the Divine upon my head, gently blessing me. For an instant, the veil that separates us from the Source Of All That Is Good was lifted, and we were wrapped in a moment of grace.

Each of you reading this has blessed me at some time, in that special heart-stopping way. You have made a difference in my life by sharing your unique self with me. As I think of you, I am remembering those special moments of grace, like pearls on a beloved necklace, and I know that I am a better person because you are in my life!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Seasons of My Life

No doubt lots of people prefer the Fall over any other time of the year, just as I do. Now that I'm in the autumn of my life--to quote Frank Sinatra-- I find that it has also become the favorite season of my life.

No one’s health will remain good forever, but while I do have good health, I’m free to enjoy the fruits of having lived a number of years on this planet.

Yesterday a friend told me this is the happiest she has ever been, and she is approaching 65! I reminded her that for years she has been working diligently on a number of “issues” in her life, and now she is able to enjoy the benefits of her hard work.

All of us are born into families and situations that affect who we are. “Issues” may be an overused word, but perhaps we can think of “issues” as comparable to the “Original Sin” of the Christian tradition. If we have the temperament to want to improve our character and grow (surprisingly, not all people are interested in that), we spend a fair amount of time and energy as adults working through our “issues”. It may take years of effort, but from personal experience I’ve seen that eventually you will emerge whole, and blossom into the person you are meant to be.

In 2001, a friend’s daughter jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge. She was 14 years old. I have often longed to have been able to talk with her in the days leading up to her death. I would have urged her to hold on just one more day--she might have felt differently the next day. If only she had talked to a wise older woman, who might have told her that Life has its seasons. Yes, there are really hard times. The growing up years hold their own fears and obstacles. The parenting year are challenging too, even while there is immense joy watching your children grow into responsible adults. But if you hang on, if you can just make it to the next day, you might feel a little more hopeful about life.

Many times I’ve expressed gratitude to be alive in my sixties, inasmuch as many of my contemporaries have passed on. I know only too well how fortunate I am that my health is still good. Now I am hyper-aware that time is a precious commodity. I see each breath as a blessing, each person in my family a gift, every friend a surprising joy. Life is incredibly beautiful at 67, and I never would have thought it would be so.