Centered, breathing.
Practice.
Wonder, not worry
Mixy not lost
Present, not swept
Standing, not bolstered
Just a thing, not a focus
Some people, not yours
Your thing, not theirs
A means, not an end
This moment, not lost.
Posts Tagged ‘consciousness’
The Difference
Posted in Lived meaning, tagged consciousness on September 17, 2023| Leave a Comment »
These Eyes
Posted in Lived meaning, time, tagged consciousness, memory, time on August 26, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Decades ago, I turned a page in the magazine, Common Boundary. On the facing page was a photograph of an old woman, her eyes recessed in a plain of wrinkles, the landscape of long human life.
Her eyes were remarkable, vibrant blue, steady, deeply knowing.
The moment was profound. This extraordinary woman, the embodiment of the belief that “the eyes are a window to the soul.” I cannot recall the article. I had forgotten her eyes until this morning.
What life had she led to live within her skin and far beyond it at the same time? If there was ever a goal in life, I thought, the authenticity and honesty reflected in that gaze had to be it.
On a business trip, a hotel room anywhere. A mirror, the essential tool to minimize the lines now tracking across the map of my own face. In its reflection, I glanced into my eyes, looking at me as if I were someone else. Blue, thoughtful, knowing, steady. Seeing from and to someplace other.
In that too-quick moment, I joined the woman I so admired years and years ago. Mine was a dusty existence, I met few goals, and realized disappointment. But those eyes remain for me the mile marker of a truly lived human life. Full circle.
The Poignancy of Parent and Child
Posted in Eternal moments, Parents and children, Reflections on the everyday, tagged consciousness, time on May 3, 2023| Leave a Comment »
On Saturday morning while running errands, I detoured through the local small town community park. Neatly maintained pickle ball courts and baseball fields, a well-appointed playground. Gazebos for picnicking, and a small amphitheater for outdoor concerts. Early enough that the baseball crowd had not yet arrived.
A van pulled in. What appeared to be a mom and her perhaps seven-year-old son exited the vehicle and headed to the playground.
Mom looked straight ahead, her posture tired, a chronic condition of parenthood. Walking a few feet away, the boy scampered excitedly, looking expectantly at mom.
A moment in time. The poignancy of older and younger. One whose path has led them here, and one whose path is being formed in this moment.
Two sides of life, both ordinary and extraordinary, in an instant.
A Quandary
Posted in Nature, Psycho-Bubbles, tagged consciousness on April 8, 2023| Leave a Comment »
I am unmoored.
Electric, yet residing in stones. I do not walk on the ground—I am either above or beneath it. I have always waited for the moon, where the light is comfortable and the reflections deep.
Most humans do not understand my language, so I expertly speak theirs. Sometimes I help them build, see, and hold. I hide in plain sight.
Restrained. I do poorly in captivity, even slipping out of the words that might describe me.
What am I?
If Wishes were Horses
Posted in memory, Nature, Seasons, time, tagged consciousness, memory, Passage of time on November 8, 2022| Leave a Comment »
The dried seed head of Allium cristophii is the size of a small cantaloupe. In bloom, the silvery violet florets create a globe atop a single stem that bears a strong resemblance to stars. The common name of the bulb is Persian onion or “Star of Persia.”
Dried, the flowers that formed the sphere give way to a multitude of spokes, each ending in a star-shaped array that nestles a tiny niche of seeds within.
One such seed head resides in my office. Dust is caught in its starry arms, even as its seeds quietly wait.
This seed head was once a magic wand in the hands of my youngest. I remember the last wish he conferred before he grew up and blew away in the autumn wind. That was years ago.
Only the wind can restore magic to this wand, and the seed wishes that remain. Stepping outside, leaves impatiently rustle under foot, the wind is high under a grey sky. I ruffle the seed head. The spokes break, the seeds are released from sleep to continue their long-lost journey, and the stem drops to decay. Last wishes.
Background processes
Posted in Reflections on the everyday, tagged Background processes, consciousness on April 19, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Have you ever had your screen and programs freeze up for no apparent reason – only to find a dialog box in the background is waiting for action?
Life is a like that sometimes. Without attending to the background, sometimes you just can’t get anywhere.
The Snow Blankets
Posted in Eternal moments, Nature, Reflections on the everyday, time, weather, tagged consciousness, memory, Snow, time on January 8, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Glistening clouds of snow blanket the ground, the roof, the roads.
You may know these mornings. Quiet, a dog barking in the distance, conifers silhouette a deep blue sky brightening before an orange-stroked sunrise.
Winter storms pass, leaving moments of unsullied stillness. Beneath the blanket and cold, some things sleep, some perish, some wait – much like memory. Other than the energy of our blood and bones we are only memory. Some memories finally pass, others will only pass when we do.
The sun will soon dazzle the landscape with its untrammeled brilliance, blinding thought to anything but glory. Then the blankets will fray to fluid and reveal again what lies there.
Body Mechanics
Posted in Nature, Reflections on the everyday, time, tagged consciousness, human body, time on July 19, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Have you noticed? You are getting older. So am I.
At my annual physical recently – a systems check of moving parts. cardiac, respiratory, gastrointestinal, musculature, neurological, and dermatological. Blood pressure — the force at which blood courses through veins to keep major organs fit. Blood pressure is a Goldilocks statistic — neither high nor low is just right.
In concert, these systems create the song that is you. Regardless of age, the collaboration of those systems, and that song, is changing, even now. The breath and thought of today cannot be the same tomorrow.
The pithy slogan “Change Happens,” reminds those with concretized views that change comes to each life. The deeper truth is we are change, conditioned upon those beautiful physiologic systems and the environments in which we find ourselves.
Sudden or chronic illness, or accident, drives home the message. If lucky, we are allowed to live within the one body granted us until it ages out of the game. Generation after generation until humans are no more.
Life is anguish for some, joy for others, maybe most of the time somewhere in between. Bridging the space between sky and earth, our bodies are the gift that allow us to feel, express, reflect, participate. They ferry us where we want to go on the planet, in its waters, and above.
Experience is the natural and sometimes hard-won aim of biological life. When systems fail and the body slumps, the kernel that is us trills on, star stuff once again. The drama, accomplishments, losses, and possessions mean naught but as the memories of others that will fade in time.
At dawn, noon, or dusk, mind the blood, mind the body, and enjoy your glorious time while it lasts.
Shooting Stars
Posted in Nature, Reflections on the everyday, tagged Clouds, consciousness, contrails on November 13, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Peerless blue day driving east, sky brightening, sun not yet risen. Clear cantaloupe colored horizon, scattered shooting stars of short airplane contrails falling like fireworks.
Later in the morning, setting out trash at the curb. Skyward two contrails form an intersection the height of the sky, dwarf the earth, impossible to miss. Marks the spot, so near, so far…we are all here, just now, in time.
What it is
Posted in Psycho-Bubbles, tagged consciousness on October 17, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Interesting thought for a day, found on a scrap…
Bring me what you have
I’ll take it.
From where, one cannot know
To where, the same
Bring it with you,
I’ll take it.
Shouldn't...but Do 