Attending to the breath, I turn over recent events in my mind... Hard to believe the integrity of each living moment.. So fair, so fair... So kind, so kind; it is marvellously easy to be open to presence... Joy and gratitude spill from my pores like pure nectar;  [hurt, indifference and coldness are unable to penetrate the inner core...] And yet a vile week recedes in the rear-view mirror of my path through the month that is not summer... So many challenges - so many little tests of character; a mere pawn in the Almighty's hands and yet such power, such opportunity to erase the pain and make manifest the virtue that lies waiting in every encounter... Let's laugh, after all, at the game! Yet deadly serious, costly and erroneous to mistake calculated indifference as hastening by un-noticed... Nothing escapes reflection, nothing escapes the present and all encompassing attention of the eternal moment... and yet - 'NO BLAME' must be our mantra... We must give up all hope to achieve awakening;  we cannot expect to get 'it' right... To fully admit defeat is to broaden our compassion and be thus rightly placed to experience the thrill of the breath OF THE MOMENT... For this breath, yes, this breath is the first breath we will ever take... It may also be the last breath we ever make; how therefore can there be hope? And yet is this not entirely liberating, for it allows us to embrace not-knowing, humility, wonder and the unsurpassable delight of the unknown, unencountered gifts of Life we have been granted.. I relish the paradox of the opposites, the frustration of not quite making it in the moment, for this is where our humanity thrives and flourishes; in the mistakes, in the false utterances - always the chance to make amends, always the path of forgiveness... with bows,

This word is at the very heart, the very essence and inner core of life as we know it...

Indeed it is so very central to every action, every motion and every step we take, that its significance becomes lost in ubiquity...

It is our greatest friend and at times, our most feared adversary...

For with change, breathes new life, freshness, a clearing of the decks...

Also we fear change when the world, albeit temporarily, is 'just so' - and within a mere flash - gone is the moment of ecstasy, snatched from our grasp by the inevitability of movement, flux...

If we stay still, the character that exemplifes its shape can be a great illumination; for within the process lie all manner of teachings - it cannot, however be understood by the discriminatory mind...

Within the process, lies eternally the opposite: where there is life, death; where there is light, darkness.  Where there is growth, lie the seeds of decay.  Where there is hope, therein also hides despair.

Where there is pride, only hidden - failure...

But what a dreadful place this world would be if change did not rule supreme..

Within the physicality of our offspring lie its beauty and genetic presence...the future painted out in soft and vibrant hues that withhold doom and tragedy and produce gaity and reflected glory...

The angry sky betrays a bounteous sun behinds its mask; the gruffness of an adult's scolding belies a warm and gentle embrace...

The terror of war eventually dissipates to reveal a mesmeric silence that lasts for an eternity; but there again eternity is above and beyond this hallowed ground.

Within eternity's scope change has little currency - for riding above the warp and woof of earthly concerns lies a landscape of serenity and indifference...

It is only ours to grapple with, this change that lies at the heart of all our earthly meanderings. We can only rest assured that ultimately Trancendence sleeps curled up like an old friend at the door of Awakening.

We will eventually escape its inchoate clutches, but not before we have savoured its incredible detail,  its seemingly random choices - the beauty and terror of the yet-to-be-faced, yet the marvellous unpredictability that lie at its heart - the knowing of the unknown...

with bows,




 

This life we share is remarkable.  We must always bear this truth in the forefront of our minds.  There is never a moment when we can afford to allow cynicism, despair and doubt to belittle our consciousness... It is no easy matter to aspire to this truth; always the possibility of life's wayward path diverting us from the integrity of this discovery... No easy thing to smile through misfortune, tragedy and disaster; it is so hard to let go of our standpoint and realisations, hard won.  This however is a necessity, if we are to remain true to the Present, which is the only Truth that has meaning, reality and power... As seeds grow, life reveals itself in all its mystery, depth and beauty... As seeds grow, we can travel forward effortlessly, in the knowledge that there is no thing we can do, no thing we can accomplish without complete and utter trust in The Process... As seeds grow, so too do we grow in stature, shedding our withered conceptions day by day, allowing truth to penetrate our hardened misunderstandings that stifle creativity, joy and movement. To let go, open our hands, hearts and minds to the glory that is manifest endlessly, can we but see it, is to allow the development of the world in all its manifestations, tiny, emergent and boundless... We alone have the power to usher in a new age...Our forefathers and  myriad Wise Beings have shown us the way - we must not get caught up in the cynicism of historical realities that belie our determination to affect change and growth... Ahh, how wondrous these magnificant words are: growth, trust, belief... plant zaadz of love with every breath, with every step, with every thought... with bows,