present – EVERYDAY MIRACLES: An Occasional Journal of a Life Lived in Wonder

COLD, WINDY, AND HIGHER

Thursday, March 21, 2024

A very cold and windy day. We braved the weather with a 2-mile walk after a hearty and fine breakfast at The Silver Spoon. I love their blueberry pancakes, especially spread with wonderful no-sugar syrup. I also relish their home fries, spread out on a small plate in great quantity, and crispy and almost sizzling.

The walk was, indeed, a frozen one, helped along by a very un-springlike icy wind. We walked along a rail-trail that passed some enormous brambles of vines and trees, which I loved seeing, since they showed us a special kind of natural beauty. We walked as fast as we could, and it was fun to feel my fingers getting frosty, but then warming up a little when I was able to fold them together Inside the mittens like warm and comfy friends.

Here’s a photo of two frosty old kids loving their walk and their friendship….

We enjoyed an inspiring group meditation this afternoon at The Inn, where five of us gathered to appreciate the wonders of the present moment. It made me glad, yet again, that we are members of this wonderful community.

After the meditation, we took another short frosty walk around the neighborhoods and down one of the trails. Here we see the shadows of two brave walkers.

And here are some words about a special word:

HIGHER

Today, if I’m willing to go for a ride, this generous universe will take me higher and higher, up and further up to get unbelievable views of everything. Each moment could give me a wonderfully enhanced outlook on the spaciousness of all of reality. Life could quietly advance me along a mountain-like path that opens into more and more elevation, more and more boundlessness. I could find myself always going forward, forward, forward and higher, higher, higher, as life opens up more and more expansive views. I might be just sitting in our living room with a book, or washing some dishes in the sink, and yet I might feel myself softly soaring up and up to ever higher lookouts. Who knows? I might be quietly saying ‘WOW!’ all day long.

INDESTRUCTIBLE

A Word Like Light

Thursday, March 7, 2024

It’s always reassuring to remember that all the important things in life are indestructible. The power of peacefulness, for instance, is endlessly durable; it can sit silently within and all around us with its easy, honest, modest smile – no matter what is happening. And kindness simply cannot be extinguished by any supposed outside force. Its long-lasting light just quietly keeps shining, no matter how forceful meanness and animosity might seem. Best of all, the present moment – always right here and now – is inextinguishable and everlasting. Look where I may, I can never find the borders of the present moment – where it starts or where it ends. It’s just always right here right now, forever and ever. If I ever need to find an aspect of life that is completely indestructible, there it is: the wondrous, indissoluble, everlasting present – right smack-dab where I am, and right now.

* * * * *

This morning, with a very light rain falling, we bundled up in our rain gear and took a speedy 2-mile walk around our Lathrop neighborhoods. It was reassuring for us to know, once again, that we can walk in almost any weather, as long as we’re dressed for the weather, and walk with care. I loved feeling the cool rain blowing softly against me, and the almost silent sound of our footsteps on the wet sidewalk and small puddles. Here’s a photo of the view of the rainy hills in the distance up on Huckleberry Lane …

This afternoon, we took part in a sangha – a group meditation – over at The Inn, and it is was a comfortable and inspiring 30 minutes for me. Of course, my thoughts wandered here and there and everywhere, as usual, but I just calmly smiled at them, again and again, and brought myself back to the present moment. I’m getting a little better at using this peaceful approach to my ‘scatter-brained’ mind, and, all in all, it was a successful meditation for me.

After meditation, we took another 2-mile walk in the cloudy, windy, and chilly weather, and we both enjoyed it a lot. We are two lucky best friends.

EASILY

A Word Like Light

Monday, March 4, 2024

Today, like all of them, will be easy to love, because each moment will present itself in an effortless, graceful way. Suddenly, softly, and beautifully, there it will always be – the shining, boundless present, and all I have to do is admire it and allow it to do its effortless work, which is simply being here right now. Whatever task I undertake today will fluently flow along, since it will be part of the always effortless flow of presence. I want to live and love the present moment today, and it will be easy to do so, since I myself am part of the present moment, and can never be separated from it. It won’t take any effort to be present today, no more than a breeze has to make an effort to be part of the universal wind of earth’s atmosphere. Freely and painlessly, I will definitely be totally present all day today, because I have no other choice. Presence is all there ever is, and today – lucky for me – I will easily be always at the center of it, along with every person, songbird, sea, bending tree branch, and the very easy-to-walk trails near our new, easily lovable home.

Below are some scenes from our 2 1/2 mile walk today along the Basset Brook Bluff Trail – a lovely hike on an almost spring-like morning.

EASILY

A Word Like Light

Monday, March 4, 2024

Today, like all of them, will be easy to love, because each moment will present itself in an effortless, graceful way. Suddenly and softly and beautifully, there it will always be – the shining, boundless present, and all I have to do is admire it and allow it to do its effortless work, which is simply being here right now. Whatever task I undertake today will fluently flow along, since it will be part of the always effortless flow of presence. I want to live and love the present moment today, and it will be very easy to do so, since I myself am part of the present moment, and can never be separated from it. It won’t take any effort to be present today, no more than a breeze has to make an effort to be part of the universal wind of the universe. Freely and painlessly, I will definitely be totally present all day today, because I have no other choice. Presence is all there ever is, and today – lucky for me – I will easily be always at the center of it, along with every person, songbird, sea, bending tree branch, and the very easy-to-walk trails near our new, easily lovable home.

STORY

A Word Like Light: STORY

Thursday, July 20, 2023

Every so often, I realize, once again, that I almost always dwell in a mindless land of stories, in which ‘I, me’ is always the main character. When I’m washing the dishes, I’m usually paying no attention to the soapsuds as they cleanse the plates or the swishing sounds of water as it washes across spoons. No, I’m usually lost in some story about me, Ham, a supposedly detached and delicate object made of material stuff that is easily injured and destroyed. While I’m walking on a perfectly beautiful trail in a forest, instead of noticing the colors of leaves and the way sunshine shows itself on the various trees, I’m usually wandering the silly trails of another story about poor me: ‘What am I going to do after lunch?’ ‘Why did that guy say what he did yesterday?’ ‘What if one of my family members becomes depressed?’ If I’m talking with my wife, listening to her express some sensitive feelings, I might also be listening to a story in my mind about something that happened many weeks ago. All of this makes no sense, because, while I’m inventing and following various tales in my thoughts, I am completely missing the only reality that exists – the present moment. While I’m lost in stories, this miracle of moment-to-moment life moves marvelously on without me. Well, perhaps today will be different. Perhaps, when another fairy-tale about Ham and the menacing world around him surfaces in my mind, I can smile and say to the storyteller, “No thanks. Not now, because you, my silly storyteller, are never now, and now – right here and now, whether it’s sipping herbal tea or standing on a stone on a trail or listening to someone’s words – is where I want to live, always. Goodbye, story.”

ANIMATE

A Word Like Light: ANIMATE

Wednesday, March 15, 2023

The word ‘animate’ comes from the Latin word ‘anima’, which means ‘soul’ or ‘life’, and this anima is constantly lighting a soft and lovely fire under me and everything. I sometimes see and feel this refreshing flame, but only when I stay still, and look and listen. Each moment is prepared to fully enliven me. It’s like a superpower breathes new life into me every single moment, over and over, with cheer and good-heartedness, all day and all night long. Right now, as I’m typing these words, everything I see around me is being energized just by being here, right now. The old pens and pencils in the jar on my desk are actually brand new in this new moment, standing in a way they’ve never stood before. Our couch with its blue cushions seems to be cheered-up simply by being present, and the windows in the dining room show scenes outside that are, in some ways, brand new, scenes I have never seen before in all my 81 years. My old, faithful lungs are constantly rousing me up by bringing me approximately 26 sextillion molecules of air each moment, and my heart gives my body a buzz by moving blood cells at the rate of 3 feet per second, rolling roughly 83 gallons of blood zestfully through me every hour! And then there are thoughts and feelings, which somehow blossom inside me by the thousands, unfolding fresh and boundless light hour after hour

For certain, the anima, the soul and life of what is called ‘me’, is firing-up itself, second after second, stirring up endless newness, and with absolutely no help from this separate so-called ‘me’!

COPIOUS

A Word Like Light: COPIOUS

Thursday, March 9, 2023

The life I am taking part in in my 81st year is, above all, a copious one. Every single moment is abundant with choices and chances and roads to travel and stunning personal mountains to ascend. Of course, moments can also be plentiful with fears and disappointments, but right in the midst, each of those moments is also overflowing with opportunities for grace and wisdom. And of course, how wonderfully profuse are the thoughts that come to me by the thousands, hour after hour, flying from who-knows-where to take part in my life for a few moments or hours. Like all of us, I’m alwaysoverflowing with thoughts, just as the sky is abounding with stars every night, and I have the pleasure and freedom to choose from this amazing mental abundance. I also have a copious amount of choices presented to me all day long. They flutter like butterflies in front of me moment by moment, each choice – even the bad ones, even the seemingly disastrous ones – offering numerous blessings of countless kinds. And think of nature and all her teeming miracles – the dust in the air making limitless fairylike circles and swirls, the inexhaustible oxygen atoms softly flowing into lungs around the world, the immeasurable rays of the sun spreading and shining in innumerable ways.

I and all of us are surely involved in an exceedingly copious universe. Just writing about it today stuns me with a vast sense of astonishment and thankfulness.

AISLE

A Word Like Light: AISLE

Friday, March 3, 2023

When I was a boy in a family that attended church regularly, I thought of aisles as being sacred passageways in a church leading to some sort of sanctified experience. At church, I walked up the aisle to my seat, and I always found myself feeling almost scared, as though I was entering a place of vast mystery. These days now, at the age of 81, I often feel, in the most ordinary circumstances, like I’m once again looking down the aisle of a sacred place, but this place is called the present moment. Each moment, I am living in – walking down and up – an aisle in the mystifying and revered cathedral called life. And, what is wonderful is that no matter in which direction I turn, the aisle always leads to the highest and most consecrated experiences possible. When I was a boy, I went to church, usually only on Sundays, but now, in these reverent days of elderhood, I truly know that I am walking down an aisle towards something sacred every moment – even though I am usually not aware of it. Like when I was a restless lad in church, I am still typically distracted by daydreams and musings, and thus I don’t notice the holiness of all the moments. Right now, at 5:23 in the morning, as I’m sitting at my desk in front of my computer, I can look down the aisle of life and see and feel the purity and sanctity of all existence. Yes, I am in a church, but it’s the majestic and cheering church of daily life, and the aisle that I’m always walking down or up is always leading, and arriving at, everlasting acceptance and satisfaction.

STAY and LOVE

A Word Like Light: STAY

Thursday, March 2, 2023

Today, I hope to just stay more often. Instead of constantly turning toward something else, something supposedly more interesting, I’d like to stay, always, spot-on in the present moment. Usually, I’m wandering off in my thoughts to something that seems more stimulating than what’s here and now, but today could be different. Today I could consider myself the privileged guest of each present moment, and, being received so warmly, why would I not want to spend some quality time here, in this good-hearted and generous here-and-now? Staying put, right where I am at any moment, could open the fairy-tale doors of a kingdom called The Present. I get free room-and-board here, in every moment, forever, so why not bow in thankfulness and enjoy my endless visit?

__________________

Below is a poem about a make-believe guy in the make-believe town of Blessings, CT, USA:

ELEGANCE

A Word Like Light: ELEGANCE

Today – like all days – will be a day of elegance. There will be style in the smallest actions – in our cat’s suave meowing, in the swanky sounds from the humidifier, in the fashionable sway of tree limbs in passing winds. Each brand-new moment will have a graceful neatness in it that is perfect for that singular moment – and all the moments will have an opulence that will flow over and through me with poise. Even if sadness arrives, I hope I’ll be aware of the kindness that will also be arriving, from within and outside me, to help me work with the sadness in a gentle but brave way. Even if tragedy somehow comes, the vast dignity of skies and sunsets and sunrises will be shining around and inside me to show me the way to healing and peace. Whatever happens, good or bad, all day long my breath will fashionably come and go, my old fingers will bend with elderly flair, and thoughts will grandly promenade through me. And all of this through no effort of my own. Our universe is a swanky and affectionate dancer. It lives each moment with sumptuousness and polish, and thus, so do I – though I sometimes have no awareness of it. I get lost, now and then, in a feeling of the messiness and confusion of life, but I’m hoping I will participate today with panache in the tender and sophisticated whirls and twirls of each elegant moment.