A Life Like the Sky

In these elder years, it has slowly become clear to me that my life, which I’ve usually thought of as being separate, isolated, and fragile, and which I’ve been carefully protecting for 7+ decades, is not separate or isolated, and does not need ‘my’ protection. Long ago, as a boy, I somehow became convinced that what I called ‘my’ life was a small, separate, and at-risk entity, but now I see how mistaken I was. I see that ‘my’ life is not mine at all, but is part of, and belongs to, the endless universe, the way a drop of water belongs to the ocean or a wisp of a breeze belongs to the everlasting wind. I now see that I no more need protection than does a drop of ocean water. The drop drifts with its vast ocean, a breeze works within the infinite winds, and I move as the universe moves, swirling along with the currents of life the way a star streams along in the immensity of the sky. I do still sometimes like to pretend that I, by myself, perform and produce, but I know, now, that it’s the endless universe (some people call it ‘God’) that always does the work. I see that I am part of something so large it makes ‘my’ small, artificial, isolated life, the one I invented in boyhood and have been caring for ever since, seem utterly fictitious and silly.  When I look up at the sky, I get a much better sense of the true vastness of life, or Life, of which Hamilton Salsich is one of innumerable freely flowing and inseparable elements.   

Here’s a quick video from my walk this morning …