Month: June 2021

WORDS LIKE LIGHT

Wednesday, June 30, 2021

INVENTIVE

            Every moment today will be thoroughly inventive. Each one will be a brand-new creation by our endlessly skillful universe. I’m sure I’ll occasionally, as usual, get bored with things and fail to see the cleverness, the astonishing novelty, of each moment, but it will be there nonetheless, always. This day, you might say, will be daring, always willing to try a new trick and open a different kind of door. The hours will be masterly as they lead me through one unorthodox moment after another, and the individual moments will unfold in quirky, never-before-seen ways. This will be an offbeat type of day. I might often tilt my head and squint my eyes and stare in astonishment at what this virtuoso day presents. There will surely be what will seem like both successes and setbacks,  but I should probably whisper praise for all the moments as they put on their unparalleled performances.

And tomorrow will be more of the same … and tomorrow, and tomorrow.

CONNECTED

            This is one of my all-time favorite words. It shines its irresistible light into the smallest corners of life. Everything is connected – every smile with all smiles, every sorrow with all sorrows. None of us – no humans, no squirrels, no winds over rivers – can escape being softly lashed together in this indissoluble household called the Universe. The oxygen atoms I take in each moment have made their home in people in Peru and rabbits in the Sierra mountains and waves on lakes in valleys. The sunlight that shines on me is shining, at that very instant, on ants and roads and elderly ladies for thousands of miles around. We are all fastened together in shatterproof ways – old with young, mountains with deserts, sorrows with sorrows, smiles with smiles. Today, when I feel a fear coming on, I will know that it is not only my fear, but the fear felt by the almost 8 billion people with whom I share our planet. We all participate in the same fears and pleasures and worries and ecstasies, simply because we are inseparably connected. My loves are everyone’s love, and my resentments, too. When I wake each morning, I’m fortunate to find myself, again, gathered together in a closely connected brother-and-sisterhood with sparrows and grass blades and breezes and people, all bringing our best gifts to this new day of  inescapable, trustworthy relationship.   

CONNECTING THE DOTS
(about Patricia F., 46, Blessings, CT)

She loves 
connecting the dots all day. 
She sees how the dot 
of someone's sorrow 
is linked with all the dots of sorrow
from St Louis to Sudan, 
and she discovers connections 
between the dots of the happiness
of birds and bright-eyed boys
and even elderly elephants. 
She smiles to see all the dots link up,
and she knows her smiles 
are members of the Association of Smiles 
for thousands of miles around.

WORDS LIKE LIGHT

Sunday, June 27, 2021

ADVENTURE

            Each moment of each day is quite literally an adventure. The word derives from the Latin word meaning ‘arrive’, and there is no doubt that, in each and every moment, something brand new arrives – an innovative thought making an appearance, a fresh feeling presenting itself, a scene materializing that has never been seen before. My life often seems to be a tedious test, but in reality it is always, here and now, a stirring escapade, a caper among limitless mysterious miracles. Even if I don’t realize it, life continuously sends me off on a rousing romp, every single moment, part of its unceasing, adventurous quest, an expedition that I should welcome and love. I just have to open my eyes – and my heart and my arms. 

MAKING ENDS MEET
(about Bernice D., 61, Blessings, CT, USA)

She knows 
she doesn't have to make ends meet, 
because that's what life always does. 
The ends of moments meet
to form all the endless thousands of years, 
and every end of sorrow 
slides together with others 
to make some thoughts 
that shine forever. 
Life loves 
making ends of days meet 
to make miracles 
of everlasting starlight, 
and ends of joys 
jump together in friendship
with the ends of animosity 
to set loose the endless dance 
of all ends and beginnings, 
which is why 
Bernice believes 
there's really no end 
anywhere 
to anything
ever.

WORDS LIKE LIGHT

Saturday, June 26, 2021

INNOVATIVE 

            Today, like all days, each moment will be made fresh. There will be nothing old about today – no old thoughts, no old cares and concerns, no old joys and sorrows. Every moment will be unprecedented and trail-blazing. Feelings never felt before will roll through my life, and totally inventive thoughts will steadily spring to the surface. Trouble is, it probably won’t seem that way. For most of the days of my life, ‘same old’ has been a common phrase for me. I’ve seemed to think the same old thoughts, feel the same old feelings, follow the same old roads leading to the same old results. I seemed to seldom see newness as my 79 years passed – just the same old minutes making their monotonous way toward who-knows-where.  Now, though, I know better. Now – today – it’s clear to me that newness is everywhere and everything. Each present moment is completely unconventional, a new birth in a brand new world. Everything – every action, every thought, every feeling, every sight I see – is absolutely unprecedented, an off-center, avant-garde gift to brand new me. Yes, life sometimes seems loaded with elderliness, but this is simply an illusion. Beneath the ostensible oldness of all things lives an intrinsic inventiveness, a freshness that’s constantly disclosing itself. All I have to do is swing open the always mint condition, state-of-the-art door of life and see it.  

PEOPLE WITH UNUSUAL JOBS

A man 
who motivates clouds 
to keep moving.
(He shouts and sings to them from hills.)
A woman
who stands beside sad people 
and shines as brightly as possible. 
(She's good at this 
because she understands herself.) 
A boy 
who blesses birds 
before they start across town from trees. 
(He worships wings
and has two secret ones 
attached to his heart.)
A man 
who helps pencils make poems. 
(He lifts his left hand 
and lines of words 
never before seen
suddenly appear.)

WORDS LIKE LIGHT

Friday, June 25, 2021

SYMPHONY

            Over the years, Delycia and I have enjoyed attending symphony concerts, and I think what I have loved most about the music is that each of the many diverse instruments plays an essential role. The harpist may have relatively few notes to play, but they are just as crucial as the numerous notes played by the violins. The tuba, with its deep, occasional sounds, plays an important part in the overall performance, as does the big bass drum with its intermittent rumbles and roars. There’s the lightness and finesse of the flutes and oboes, but there’s also the necessary and helpful heaviness of the double bass. Actually, I often think of each day as another extraordinary performance by life’s symphony orchestra. There are the lighthearted moments, when the violins of good fortune are flowing along in a carefree way, but there are always, too, the moments made by the music of disappointment and sorrow.  For every hour of satisfaction, there are usually some minutes of confusion and concern, times when the bass drums of life are sending out their shadowy sounds, and sometimes grief and goodness are singing together, making their ancient communal music.  I have to remember to stay still and peaceful and simply appreciate the music life makes. As each moment makes its special appearance, I must listen and watch for the harmonies and rhythms, must stand back and appreciate the orchestral undercurrents of this skillful universe I am part of. If there’s disappointment, I need to listen for the accompanying wisdom. If there’s sorrow, I need to know that resurgence and renewal is always close by. I’m living inside a daily symphony. There’s beauty everywhere – in darkness and light, in booms and whispers, in loudness and the ever-presence of silence. 

WORDS LIKE LIGHT

Thursday, June 24, 2021

WINGS

            Quite often, life feels heavy to me, like it’s a load that I have to lift and carry, but the truth is that it’s as soft as birds’ wings, and is able to glide and give me remarkable rides. Today, Delycia and I will be floating again in kayaks on the Wood River, and I’ll bet we’ll feel as light – and lighthearted – as life itself is. Any sense of heaviness will be left on the riverbank, and we’ll drift along the river’s surface as freely as life itself flutters from hour to hour and day to day. I don’t mean to suggest that life doesn’t feel burdensome at times, especially when fears weigh me down, but that sense of burden actually derives from my own thoughts, and I can always simply set those weighty thoughts down and feel my inborn freedom again – the wings of my inner spirit – and soon I’ll be hovering above those fears and seeing them for the powerless nobodies they are.  I will love watching the birds soaring smoothly above the river today, and I’m sure it will help me better understand how life itself is a glorious glider. Each moment today will move smoothly and carry me along, and if I stay alert, I will feel the lightness and buoyancy of it all. Even if distress makes an appearance, as it often does, life can lift me lightly up so I can see the vastness of everything and the relative smallness – the tinyness – of my distressful  thoughts.  In that way, whatever problem that seems to be there will easily work its way free and fly away with a wave.   

            To all of us, life can seem horrendous and burdensome, but today, as I float on the friendly river, I hope I can feel the floating ability of life’s wings, and let my little sense of self be lifted up into the limitless spaces of here and now.  

QUESTIONS THE EARTH ASKS US 

Are you tired of me?
Do my miracles seems stale now?
Do you not hear 
my harps in the trees and fields?
Do you not see 
the wings of snow white doves?
Do you not know 
my pure, sweet love? 
Have you forgotten the flower 
that leaned toward you last summer,
and the sunlight that likes 
the way you walk and talk,
and the thousand sacred minutes 
of each day? 
Does nothing come into your heart 
from my hands? 
Have you waved your hands 
goodbye?

WORDS LIKE LIGHT

Wednesday, June 23, 2021

LEAVEN

            I often am not aware of it, but life – all of it – is infused with a kind of leaven – a pervasive influence that is constantly transforming things for the better.  In the very midst of my busy, sometimes scatterbrained days, the silent power of goodness is slowly reshuffling thoughts into wisdom, and peace, in its hushed and pervasive way, is steadily reworking seemingly disordered events and actions into a blessed kind of synchronization.  Trouble is, I usually don’t notice this powerful, secret influence that’s all around and inside me. I’m part of a sort of boundaryless bread dough that’s always becoming a lovely loaf, but I’m mostly unaware of it. I plod through the days like a heavily-laden old horse, while, at all times, I’m actually a beautifully evolving miracle. All around me, and inside me, life is infused with the irresistible force of friendliness, every disappointment is suffused with the strength of perceptiveness, and sorrow is always ready to stimulate new understanding.  A secret kind of endless galvanization is always going on. Life is continuously perking up, right where difficulty and distress seem to be. Today, I hope I can slow my mind down and see this beautiful enlivening process, this slow and steady easing-up that’s always making the everlasting loaf called life. 

HOW TO NEVER GET LOST

Wear a special ring. 
Set down a trail 
of tender thoughts behind you. 
Let your light shine
so you can see where you are. 
Listen to everything. 
Live the way a table stands, 
in silence, 
in peace. 
At the end of a day, 
lay down that day 
and let it speak.

Here’a a quick video of our kayak float on Monday ….

And here’s my favorite kayaker …

WORDS LIKE LIGHT

Tuesday, June 22, 2021

ENDLESSNESS

            In the last few years, I’ve started to understand the astonishing truth that endlessness is endless. Nothing ever ends – not ever. If something seems to end, it is simply because my mind has placed the convenient label called ‘the end’ on it. And of course, it is convenient and necessary to use that label in our daily lives. In order to organize my life, I do need to think in terms of activities starting and stopping, and events as beginning and then ending. However, what I’m seeing more clearly now, in my 79th year, is that these are simply helpful labels, and not anywhere near the truth. In reality, nothing ever starts and nothing ever ends. There is only the unceasing and boundless flow of the endless present moment. If I search for the start of the present moment, I can never find it, nor can I find where it stops. The present has always been here, and it will never end. It extends out beyond any boundaries into limitlessness.  And the important things in life – all of them – are also endless. Powers like love and peace and patience know no boundaries. Because they are not made of material stuff, they have no material form that can set limits and be measured. The power of kindness cannot be stopped by some borderline, and the power of acceptance slips past all boundaries into endlessness. And my life itself is not ‘mine’, as though there are specific borders where ‘Hamilton Salsich’ begins and ends. What is called ‘me’ is simply an inseparable, everchanging ripple in the endless ocean called ‘reality’. I am an ever-shifting wave, a current that’s been flowing and wavering and varying forever. Like love and calmness, there’s no end to the life I’m lucky to belong to – and no end anywhere, of anything. 

"WHERE ARE THE WORDS YOU WROTE TODAY?"
- asked by a friend

The wind carried some away. 
The sunlight slipped some 
into its pockets. 
Flowers fastened a few 
in their hearts., 
and others climbed a stairway to the sky.
Some are as silent as mountains, 
some are whispering on distant trails, 
and some are just crossing the street 
toward your house.

WORDS LIKE LIGHT

Monday, June 21, 2021, 4:35 a.m.

ALIGNED

            This morning, as I listen to the songs of birds outside, it seems clear that in the coming hours, everything will be perfectly aligned, not because I will be able to put things in order, but because the endless universe itself is comprehensively meticulous. All is always well-kept, from tiniest atoms to towering mountains, and this day will be no exception. Though I am sure I will not always be aware of it, each present moment will be carefully and flawlessly structured, and all the passing hours will move in a beautifully methodical way. If there seems to be disorder and confusion, it will be disorder that contains concealed evenness, and confusion that will somehow and at sometime shine a new light on the orderliness of all things. Delycia and I will be doing another kayak float today on the Wood River today, and if my back begins to feel sore, I can be assured that right where the soreness is is also the vast and peaceable tidiness of the universe. Although it surely won’t always seem that way, everything, as always, will be in apple-pie order today. There will be sleekness and neatness everywhere – even in the apparent mishmash of riverside trees, even in the seemingly messy swirlings of the river, even in the occasionally uncomfortable movement of my elderly arms as I paddle along. Behind any seeming disruption will be a vast and endless alignment, the shining association of all things. 

            I just hope I can see it today. 

ABOUT TRUTH
June 21, 2021

The effect of truth 
is quietness and assurance forever. 
You can see it 
spreading its goodness 
across the river, 
and down on the face of the sea. 
You can hear its quietness 
taking care of the world, 
its assurance speaking softly. 
Follow the truth 
across the undisturbed hills, 
or simply see it sitting next to you at work,
or shimmering in your soup at noon. 
Sometimes it whispers,
and sometimes 
it draws closer 
as your next thought.

WORDS THAT AWAKEN

June 20, 2021, 4:40 a.m.

ATTENTIVE

            My goal for today is to be totally attentive. The word derives from the Latin word for ‘stretch’, which reminds me that I will need to stretch – to reach out and expand beyond my self-centered likes and dislikes, so I can see – and pay close attention to – the majesty that will be all around me today. I want to pay a serious visit to each present moment. I want to take careful note of what’s happening – my fingers smoothly moving across the computer keyboard, the soapy water sliding with ease across plates in the sink, my shoes softly brushing the floors as I walk through the house. Today, I want to truly notice what’s happening – not just see it,  but actually become totally aware of it – scrutinize it, inspect it, study it. One branch bending in a breeze today is worthy of my total attention, as is each word someone speaks, each flutter of light and shadow, each smile or frown on a face. I want to be a watchful friend today – someone who loves life and stays alert to its marvels. I want to be on guard, ready to greet the goodness that will be breaking forth on all sides all day. 

GRASS
June 20, 2021

It's just like you. 
It stands where it's supposed to stand.
It sighs when things go wrong -
a wild wind that wasn't expected,
a thousand footprints of sparrows,
a shirt of blistering sunlight. 
Just like you, 
the little things are pleasing to grass -
a golden scarf of sunshine,
the adventures of a youthful breeze, 
the music of shoes walking. 
You learn lessons every day, 
and so does the grass - 
to grow when it can, 
to relax and lean away 
when a wind comes, 
to share its life 
with sticks and blossoms and castaway things. 
There's silence in your life, 
as in the grass's -
the peace of your pleasant thoughts, 
the serenity of standing 
with brother and sister grass blades 
in the starlight.

WORDS THAT AWAKEN 

Saturday , June 19, 2021

IMMEDIATE

         Today, like all days, will be for me a day of immediacy, because I will be constantly brought into direct and instant involvement with the fullness of life. There will be no hesitation, no waiting today. I will have the vast power of life available to me straight away, immediately, as soon as I need it. Today, and every day, in a flash, the vastness of powers like patience and kindness will be presented to me whenever I ask for them, and the fullness of peace will be instantly by my side when it’s required. Here and now, there and then, life will promptly be as perfect as it can possibly be. Whenever I want it, a brand new moment – a total startover – will present itself in the blink of an eye. In fact, the entire universe will renovate itself, this instant, over and over again. All day today, before I know it, I – and everything – will be born again. In a split second, again and again, a new beginning will begin. On this on-the-spot day, and on all future days, life will, like greased lightning, be constantly and suddenly bursting out.

         How does a 79-year-old guy get this lucky?