10/8/11 After the rain: seeing the world with the eyes of a poet

It rained last night. Moist coolness met me when I walked outside; the air has been rinsed out, and invites me with its freshness. The sun peers down from a clear blue canopy, shining warmly on my face. On all sides clouds are piled up, like a rumpled comforter thrown back across the mountains, gentling them with heaping billows of grey and white, in some places layered softly, in others sharply etched in complex patterns.

Oh, to be such a one who rises with the dawn and throws back the coverlet of clouds, greeting the day with a fierce joy. What might I do and see, striding across the earth!

All too often I slumber unaware, while miracles play about me unnoticed. Such an enchanting, amazing show as life on this earth provides would fetch a high price. But we so often make our way through it oblivious, unappreciative. What value a breath, a sunset, a song, a tree, a hug, the curve of a cat's tail, a child's laughter, the touch of a lover, the fragrance of lilacs, the stretch of our muscles, the sound of leaves murmuring in the wind? Truly we are rich beyond our wildest imaginings, and must respond with rapture, joy, delight, wonder, and gratitude. Such would be woven throughout the tapestry of our days were we fully awake, alive, and aware.

9/17/11 Peace

I've felt quiet and peaceful since my meditation time on Thursday, when I dropped my wish to figure it all out, and instead trust that I will move on the breath (or wind) of the Spirit.  My mind has quieted.  I've gone on several walks.  Fahren's Park is beautiful.  Today I watched hawks (both on the way there, and during the walk) -- they moved in the air with nary a wing flap, turning and rising on the currents of the rising thermals, needing only to hold their wings out and steady, and make tiny movements to swoop or turn.  I saw them first clearly (and very beautiful) just above the treetops, and within a few minutes they had been lifted very high. ("You are the wind under my wings...")  In the park I watched jays, a hummingbird, dragonflies, butterflies, a kingfisher (first I've seen in a long time), a junco (I think), a robin, and the grass, eucalyptus, stream, many trees and plants, and some kids throwing water balloons at each other.  I noticed that the real beauty of the eucalyptus bark shows after storms and other stresses have stripped off the outer darker thick rough bark....  I trust that God, who can make feathers float to me at precisely the time and place of my meditation to give me a strong sign, and who can bring beauty out of storms, will move my life to precisely the right effect and beauty ...  and it will need no effort on my part, just awareness and listening, and floating on the breeze, riding the wind....  Love, Barbara