ALERT

WORDS LIKE LIGHT

Sunday, August 21, 2022

         Today I want to work on being always alert for the unfolding marvels of each moment. I am so often inattentive during the course of a day, daydreaming and distracted by swirling thoughts and befuddling events, but today I’m hoping to stay steadily observant as the moments pass. Luckily, this doesn’t haven’t to be seen as hard work. Actually, it only requires that I keep the doors and windows of my life wide open, welcoming with interest and attentiveness whatever happens. It doesn’t mean I have to like everything that happens, but just that I carefully care-for and study each moment as it presents its matchless miracle. If I were on the summit of a spectacular mountain, I’m sure I would be wide awake with wonder and appreciation for the sights and sounds, and today – and every day – I’ll be constantly on the peaks of brand-new moments as their wonders are unveiled. Just coffee warming in the microwave is worthy of my total attention as I stand beside the stove, as is the look in Delycia’s eyes as she shares her thoughts with me now and then, as are the pecans in a small bowl beside me now as I sit at my desk. Life today will be a sight worth seeing and appreciating, so I’d best keep my old eyes – and heart – peeled.    

ALWAYS WAKING UP
(about Bernice D., 61, Blessings CT)

At 59,
on a sleepy, sultry day
she saw, for the first time,
that each moment is made new,
and that she, too, is always new -- 
a fresh, stirred up assembly of cells
every single second. 
She saw that, in a sense, 
she was always waking up,
and she realized 
that she can’t help it, 
that rousing and rising 
was just what the universe always does, 
constantly and endlessly 
spurring itself on. 
She realized that even 
the airless languor of the day
was continually awakening 
into new and unspoiled airless languor, 
and that even her fears and sorrows 
were unceasingly bestirring themselves
into unprecedented designs
so she could better see and understand them
 in every respect
in this always newly-alert world.