Today on a Sensory Awareness call with Misty Hannah, she worked on being with not knowing, with stepping into the unknown and letting the unknown surprise us. What happens when we peel a spring onion? What responds inside? Outside? Together? Apart?
She requested we not name what we noticed. I listened to the rain on the roof, trees, and outside walls without naming it, and felt an answering response within – fluidity – waves – connection.
Later, Michael Atkinson pointed out that medieval maps had an area called Terra Incognita, Unknown Territory, marked, at times, with “There be dragons here!” or “Here are dragons.”
What happens when we allow entry into unknown territory? Are dragons enlivening this Chinese Year of the Dragon? What are we exploring and what explores within us? How do I meet what comes?
Yesterday I stepped out of my car into a puddle. It was an experience of awakening – dry, wet, warm, cold – Awake!
Where is focus? What do I see?What pops out and organizes into form?Hard or soft, rough or smooth, heavy or light – tail or stem Where is balance?Where is height?Heron shadow on the water emerging from under the edge of the deck
Today I felt drawn to return to the place where, yesterday, I saw the Great Blue Heron. I felt she was the one I bonded with last February when I stayed on a houseboat in Sausalito. I met a woman who also feels bonded to this bird, and said yes, the bird is here at low tide, and in the place I met her last year at high tide. The woman said, “I love her”, and I said , “As do I”. I share more photos oflife in the bay.
I startled her at first and she flew to a new spotMaybe she wanted to give me a better view because she flew to the dock, landed, and pranced along to a more visible place.Walking along the dockPause for a PoseAnother PauseA closer look as she turns from one dock to anotherAnd she continues alongChecking out a place to dropA perfect place to fish for lunchGolden Slippers now comes strolling along the dock And finds a spot to enter the water to feed – Another way to fly
I’ve been immersing myself in meditation, specifically in Satipatthana meditation, with a current focus on the anatomy of the body, the parts, and the elements of the body, earth, water, fire, wind, and space.
I had blood drawn early this morning after fasting since yesterday afternoon. It went easily and well, and when he finished, he asked me to write my whole name in cursive, then, print, and then write who I was signing for. Since I was clearly the one whose blood had been taken and the one signing, I felt unclear on what to write, so I asked, “Do I write me?” “You write self”, he said. Self.
My meditation is currently on not-self, no-self, not-me, no me. Of course I know not to take it literally, so I can function in the real world, but somehow in that moment without my morning coffee, I felt the obvious as unclear.
He’d just drawn beautiful red blood with its lovely qualities of fluidity and cohesion into two tubes, and labeled it as coming from me, and it will be analyzed to determine my health, so why did I struggle to consider the word “self” to document my experience.
That brings me to an Amy Poehler joke on aging. “My memory is like a cat. It doesn’t come when called.”
Another piece of this was I could hear and feel his steady breathing as the blood flowed into the tubes, so I matched mine with his, and I threw in a little calm, as I knew he had a full day ahead of him, and I felt we were bonded in an act of intimacy for a time.
This act of meditating has me viewing life differently, and I see that as a good thing whether I’m me, this man, the lab, the rain when I walk outside and the ripening sky as day comes to light.
With gratitude, I listen and receive, honoring I’m, “constantly being re-created”.
Brenda Ueland:
Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. When we really
listen to people there is an alternating current, and this recharges us so that
we never get tired of each other. We are constantly being re-created.”
The creek rushing through Mill Valley, exuberant from all the rain.A miniature Gravity Train planter outside Gravity Tavern
We celebrate the heart today, Valentine’s day. Birds are twittering and gathering as a new season comes to light. Though a pink candy heart says “Be Mine”, I see “Be Ours” as we meet to expand in connection, togetherness, and delight.
Teilhard de Chardin in The Divine Milieu:
Throughout my life, through my life, the world has little by little caught fire in my sight until, aflame all around me, it has become almost completely luminous from within.
Ducks in the marsh February, 2023Heart RevealReflectRevel
A neighbor who devoted the last twenty years of her life to preserving the community in which I live passed away on Sunday. She was young. I know her through her weekly emails and hearing her impassioned speeches at the Civic Center when we’d gather to speak for the animals and plants who live here and prioritize them over unscrupulous and dangerous development.
The work of Congressman Philip Burton gave us The Golden Gate National Recreation Area, a place loved, well-visited, and revered. Sharon Rushton may not be as well-known as Philip Burton but she worked just as hard to preserve the areas that enrich and enliven our quality of life.
Turning WheelsEach rock has a faceCollaboration and ConnectionWhere the light shinesLiving Between and Among
I didn’t watch the Super Bowl but I’m aware of the back and forth and the final score. Before 2022, the 49’ers would have won with the first overtime score, but new rules changed the game. Now, the 49’ers are discussed as though they are losers when they went to the Super Bowl and the game was as close as could be.
I’m reminded of a writing class I took with Pam Houston. Her book was on the NY Times best seller list and she was thrilled to share the news with a friend. The friend asked, “What number?” and then, “How many weeks?” Houston knew then this was a no-win as perhaps only the Bible has that top spot. The win is within.
The money that was spent on this game, on advertising, betting, attendance, is unfathomable, and meanwhile we have a measure on our ballot, measure A, that will cost each household possibly $300.00 a year, though depending on when you bought your house only $30.00 a year. It’s to augment our deteriorating schools. It needs 55% to pass, and probably will pass, but it’s strange to consider what is spent on weapons and war, and what the world could be with cooperation, not competition.
Meanwhile increasing light invites sap to rise as the earth turns toward Spring.
A bird and Buddha commune in the spring light
Camellias continue to offer beauty and scentAzaleas come forthBaby pine cones emerge
Yesterday’s news sent me into nature. I planned to go to Stinson Beach but the road down is closed due to the storms. I curved my way up Mt. Tam to walk, sit, cleanse and reflect.
Home, I read about Aikido, founded in the late 1920’s by Morihei Uyeshiba. When he watched hoodlums beat up his father, he vowed to train in the martial arts, and he did. After winning, he began to examine what it meant to dominate others. One day he was challenged to a duel by an expert swordsman, a naval officer. As the officer continued to charge him with the sword he simply moved out of the way until the officer, exhausted, sat down.
Uyeshiba walked to a nearby garden and sat down. He reported:
I felt that the universe suddenly quaked, and that a golden spirit sprang up from the ground, veiled my body, and changed my body into one of gold. At the same time my mind and body became light. I was able to understand the whisperings of the birds, and was clearly aware of the mind of God, the Creator of the universe. At that moment I was enlightened: the source of budo is God’s love – the spirit of loving protection for all beings. Budo is not felling the opponent by our force; nor is it a tool to lead the world into destruction with arms. I understood: The training of Budo is to take God’s love, which correctly produces, protects, and cultivates all things in Nature, and assimilate and utilize it in our own mind and body.
The secret of Aikido is to harmonize ourselves with the movement of the universe. It’s a way to live and harmonize as one family. We recognize the only opponent is within, and we work to correct our own mind. Obviously, that’s not easy to do. It is a practice, but more and more I see the value in honoring the practice and dedicating myself to harmony and cultivating peace.
Guides along the path An earthly seahorse leads the wayThe view begins to open to ocean and skyLooking west over the Pacific OceanBolinas rests belowSky PetalsLooking east to Angel Island, Tiburon, and BelvedereSan Francisco poised in the distance
Monday the power was out for many in the Bay area, so because we have a generator grandchild arrived in his Halloween skeleton pajamas. No problem. We went to Old Mill Park where he found a tree into which we both could climb, a tree with two rooms so we could separate our tasks into cooking and a tool shop. At one point the tree became a pirate ship, and the wind came up so we needed to “batten down the hatches”.
I sit with it now, climbing in and out of the opening in the tree , especially when the land below became the ocean into which we each went scuba diving to commune with squid.
After I’m with my grandchild living in the land and sea of his imagination, when he leaves, I miss him, and feel slightly dizzy as though my world is set to organize and his is in response to what he sees and creates.
I’ve been to Old Mill Park innumerable times, and never realized the possibilities in this tree. Maybe I never even discerned it as separate from the multitude of tall trees.When I go back by myself, will this tree still open itself to possibility? Will I feel silly climbing up into a tree to view the world from its open enclosure?Will I feel silly swimming in the sea grandchild saw below it?
We were there to view the rushing creek, exuberant with the rain.And yet, for him, in those moments, the invitation was from the tree.
Thich Nhat Hanh:
The feeling that any task is a nuisance will soon disappear if it is done in mindfulness.
ImmersionContemplationStirring the potA finer touch The HistoryThe creek and mill The view of the creek when looking out through the treeExquisite what guides, lifts, and expands our paths
Since today we’ve had rain and sun, changing so quickly I go from windshield wipers to sunglasses, I wonder how Punxsutawney Phil, the renowned groundhog who’s been predicting when winter will end since 1887, predicts an early spring.
I would expect a 50-50 change of accuracy but according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, “on average, Phil has gotten it right 30% of the time over the past 10 years.”
Today we celebrate our love of play and joy in noticing the passage of seasons and time.
Ferns on treesLight on Redwood CreekWhere fairies reside
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