"Ways of Seeing" - Interview with David Whyte

...I recognized in my Zen meditation moments of inhabiting
a greater identity.  The real discipline is to remain in that
greater identity and to sustain that sense of presence - so that
you see the essence of [things] that affects you very deeply when
you allow yourself to watch and deepen that attention...

What is asked of human beings on a daily basis, is to get out
of ourselves by paying attention to things other than ourselves.
To see in a way which is other than the way we have used to
name the world, other than the way we have been taught to see
the world, and then as a result have ourselves be seen by the world.

As in all great contemplative traditions, the  most nourishing thing
you can do is pay attention to [you immediate environment], but
it will also break your life apart, because the fixed identity that
had named the world and wanted it to be a certain way, in order
to prevent us from experiencing heartbreak, is found to be too
small.  To name/label is a smaller way of seeing.

Our way of staying safe is to assign names to what in fact cannot
be named.  It is the precise reason why poetry is so difficult to
write.  Because you're actually going to a part of you that doesn't
know what to say.  ...you are going to a part of you that radically
doesn't know and you are going to pay attention and observe 
from that place.  Then at that meeting place between what you
think is you and what you think is not you, that is where the
conversation happens.  And when you speak that conversation
out loud it comes out as poetry.  It is the same undoing of your
surface personality...

Interviewer: So how does one perceive the essence of things?

...listening is a deep form of looking...  I am looking at something
to see what it is saying to me, without imposing a voice upon it.

The implication of truly seeing is that the rest of the world must 
be perceiving the miraculous in you.  Which is quite humbling.
The only place to hold that sense of miraculousness without ego
is in silence...

Perhaps once you have established a relationship with silence,
with deep seeing and listening, then you can live in a way in
which you are not harmed by constant contraction [from noise
and chaos].  There is a reason why monasteries are quiet places.
There is a reason why artists go to quiet places, even when it is
just a quiet room to create.

Excerpts from "Ways of Seeing" - Interview with
David Whyte
by Judith van Leeuwen
From See All This
Sept 2022
with thanks to Kim Manley Ort

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

The World in Different Light - Lisel Mueller

Doctor, you say there are no haloes
around the streetlights in Paris
and what I see is an aberration
caused by old age, an affliction.

I tell you it has taken me all my life
to arrive at the vision of gas lamps as angels,
to soften and blur and finally banish
the edges you regret I don't see,
to learn that the line I called the horizon
does not exist and sky and water,
so long apart, are the same state of being.

Fifty-four years before I could see
Rouen cathedral is built
of parallel shafts of sun,
and now you want to restore
my youthful errors: fixed
notions of top and bottom,
the illusion of three-dimensional space,
wisteria separate
from the bridge it covers.

What can I say to convince you
the Houses of Parliament dissolve
night after night to become
the fluid dream of the Thames?
I will not return to a universe
of objects that don't know each other,
as if islands were not the lost children
of one great continent.  The world
is flux, and light becomes what it touches,
becomes water, lilies on water,
above and below water,
becomes lilac and mauve and yellow
and white and cerulean lamps,
small fists passing sunlight
so quickly to one another
that it would take long, streaming hair
inside my brush to catch it.
To paint the speed of light!
Our weighted shapes, these verticals,
burn to mix with air
and change our bones, skin, clothes
to gases.  Doctor,
if only you could see
how heaven pulls earth into its arms
and how infinitely the heart expands
to claim this world, blue vapor without end.

Lisel Mueller
1924-2020

Original title - "Monet Refuses Operation"

"Her poems are 'a testament to the miraculous power
of language to interpret and transform our world'
and 'a testament that invites readers to share her vision
of experiences we all have in common: sorrow,
tenderness, desire, the revelations of art, and
mortality - 'the hard dry smack of death against the glass'"
(Washington Post)

Lisel Mueller was a German born American Poet.
Her family fled the Nazi regime in 1939 when she was 15.
She worked as a translator and academic teacher.  She
began writing poetry in the 1950's, publishing her first
collection in 1965.

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
street light through ice on window...

The sack of insignificant things...

I was carrying items of no significance in a sack,
roaming through a house with many different rooms,
looking for something I couldn't identify...

I was having trouble seeing, kept squinting, kept
trying to open my eyes more and more to the "Truth",
but everything remained a blur...

Unable to see clearly, unable to focus,
I just looked down into my sack of insignificant things,
 and saw there ideas and beliefs I didn't need,
but had held onto - on many levels.

Bewildered, I wondered why I continued to carry
the sack of insignificant things... and kept wandering
through the house.

Room to room, belief to belief,
looking for the "answers"
that I thought I lacked...

Mystic Meandering
Nov. 15, 2019

~

This came from a dream I had recently...

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Be Where Love Is - Rumi

My heart, sit only with those
who know and understand you.

Sit only under a tree
that is full of blossoms.

Not every eye can see,
not every sea is full of pearls.

My heart, sing the song of longing
like nightingale.

First, lay down your head,
then one by one
let go of all distractions.

Embrace the light and let it guide you
beyond the winds of desire.
There you will find a spring and

be nourished by its sweet waters...

Rumi

Guru Cat...

Peering over the computer screen,
with piercing eyes, Guru Cat said to me:

Today
start to de-clutter your life
of that which does not serve the Heart,
or nourish the soul;
whether people, or
situations, or
beliefs, or
your immediate environment
would be good...
Look at this mess!

Create space for
LIFE
to enter, to flow
through you.

Yes, Guru Cat - I said.
I cannot contort myself to
the forms that others have created
any longer...

Guru Cat said:

Today
start to pick up the lost pieces
of your tattered psyche,
let go of the frayed and loose ends
in the fabric of your current reality,
and open to
"The Mystery" of being.

Be at peace with life;
not afraid of what life will bring.

Yes, Guru Cat - I said.

Guru Cat said:

So - Today,
reclaim your Self,
the Eternal Being
that inhabits your form,
that allows you to move on,
past the scatteredness, through
the overwhelm, and the inertia,
moving into pure Aliveness...

Let go... Relax...
Play more!

Do you see what I'm saying...

Yes, Guru Cat - I said.
Got it...

Today
I will start
writing a new life;
as soon as my computer comes back on line...

Seeing life in a new way...
Opening to curiosity...
Accepting the uncertainty of living...
Exploring my inner Resource...
Embracing change...
Experiencing life as it is...
Content to just be...

_/\_

purrrrrrr

Mystic Meandering
Dec. 17, 2017

Break for Freedom - David Whyte & Rumi

To remove ourselves entirely and absolutely,
abruptly and at times uncompromisingly is often
the real and radically courageous
break for freedom.
Unsticking ourselves from the mythical
Tar Baby, seemingly set up, just for us,
right in the middle of our path,
we start the process of losing our sense of falsity,
of ridding ourselves of illusions,
of letting go of our self-manufactured enemies,
and even our false friends,
and most especially the false sense of self
we have manufactured to live with them.

We make ourselves available for the simple seeing of ourselves
and our world more elementally and therefore more clearly again.
We withdraw, not to disappear, but to find another ground
from which to see; a solid ground from which to step,
 and from which to speak again, in a different way,
 a clear, rested, embodied voice we begin to remember
as our own...

David Whyte
Excerpt from an essay -"Withdrawal"

Become the sky.
Take an axe to the prison wall.
Escape.
Walk out like someone suddenly born into color.
Do it now.
Slide out the side.
Die, and be quiet.
Quietness is the surest sign that you've died.
Your old life was a frantic running from Silence.

Rumi
"Become the Sky"

~

Top Photo - Ceiling Abstract
taken looking up where several ceiling levels
come together, also a ceiling beam, and a rod
with a hanger on it :)  Color inverted.

Bottom photo - Through the glass of a greenhouse ceiling. 

Make a Journey of Love...

Make your journey to be a journey of Love,

for all is Love…

Open daily to Love.
It is always there,
always available…

Make yourself available
to Love

Feel Love’s Presence
carrying you…

Each day step into
the channel
of Love’s call…

It is time to see things new -
through innocence and Love…
Despite the pains and frustrations,
wounds and traumas
that are emerging
through the physical body
and collective body.

Embrace it all in Innocence…

This is the lesson:

To see Love in everything.
It is the Divine Truth of all things…

The deep change you need comes through/from
the confluence of Love within you…
Pay attention to its flow,
its music,
its message:

There is nothing but Love.

It is your destiny to BE Love

from which you came
and which you are…

It is your Truth and your Substance…

Let the seeds of Love grow within you
to blossom and flower into its fullness.

It is already there in your Heart -
in the core of your Being.

~*~

This is the same Amaryllis plant from my previous post.
The light from the sun showing through the petals
gives it this yellow tinge and glow.  It also
actually had little sparkles on the petals
which I couldn’t capture with my camera…

The Amaryllis plant is a symbol for many things
one of which is opening to the infinite expansiveness of Love

giving the strength to dance intimately with Life
 and speak from the Heart
with clarity and compassion…

~*~

Verses under photos are from my
meditative writings
2004-2006

Rainy Day Walk

Yesterday morning I woke up – content… Surprised me actually. I almost never wake up feeling content with life, or life situations. The mind was evidently still asleep, which was fine by me! PLUS - :) it was raining for the second day in a row. That always brings contentment and a sense of aliveness to this being… We’ve been in extreme drought conditions here, the worst in years, so I was particularly enlivened to see rain for two whole days! I wanted to be out in it!

I grabbed the hooded winter parka and camera and drove about 10 mins to my usual walking place, that I haven’t been to yet this Spring, delighting in being out in the pouring rain, snapping pictures. And then I realized the camera was getting wet, and that I was out on the path all alone. The mind woke up: What if I’ve ruined the camera! I’d better be more vigilant about my surroundings. Check for keys and cell phone in pocket. I kept walking, occasionally looking over my shoulder – snapping photos for almost an hour. A lone jogger passed by. He looked safe enough. We said hello, and I watched to make sure he kept going.

On the way home in the car I realized I was so busy taking pictures that I never stopped to be still in the rain; to feel it’s splatters on my face, or hear it’s patter on my hood, to *really* listen to the Silence of Nature all around me. I sensed It in the background, but didn’t stop and revel in It. I was narrowly focused on the path, looking for things to take pictures of, but not really *seeing.* I considered going back to do the walk again, but I was already soaked. It reminded me that this is sometimes how I go through life – narrowly focused on a particular task, event, or circumstance, with a particular lens of interpretation, with some kind of filter in front of my face – like fear, anxiety, worry, caution, disgruntledness, judgment, anger - never really *seeing* Life; never really opening completely to that sweet child-like innocence of play, of enjoyment, even contentment. I felt a twinge of sadness with this realization, and stuck it in my awareness folder for next time: “Be sure to be fully *aware* of Life.” “Just stop.” “Be still.” “Listen.” “Really SEE Life.”

So here is a small montage of a walk in the rain through the camera lens. Hope you enjoy the rain as much as I do. The opening photo for the post at top was actually taken out my “sitting window” from Wednesday evening. Those below are from the walking path…

Spacious Seeing Window

Cloudless Sky

Sacred Silence

Uncontrived

Unsought

Just Silence…

There is only Sacred Silence,

a fathomless, infinite depth of Light…

And everything is That…

Clear

Tangible

Alive

Spacious Being...

Spacious Seeing…

~*~

“If the doors (windows) of perception were cleaned (clear)

everything would appear to man as it is, infinite…”

William Blake

“You do not have to go away outside yourself

to come into real conversation with your soul (Self)…

The eternal is at home…within you.”

Meister Eckhart

”This universe is not outside of you.

Look inside yourself;

Everything that you want,

you are already that.”

Rumi

Photo - street light through tree branches

Sensing Being

Monday I found myself at different times of the day being aware of Being – internally – the inner fluid flow of Being (Buddha Nature, Self, Awareness, Spaciousness, Stillness). It was as if I was being pulled inward, as I was *doing* things – like preparing a meal, doing the dishes, working outside. I would feel this inward turning to inner stillness. I have experienced this before – this turning of awareness inward and feeling this still Presence in the middle of “doing” – not just in the stillness of meditating.

As I sat reading that evening, I couldn’t focus on the words, so I put the book down and just allowed Awareness to take me where it wanted to go – seeing life through my eyes. As I looked around the room, and the things in the room, I realized that “things” aren’t just “things” in this field of Awareness. I experienced that *everything* is Being taking form. “Awakening” is the *seeing* of this; seeing the still, alive fluidness of Being in and as everything – even the inanimate car across the street! :) And - “Awakening” is seeing what is seeing; that innate awareness that sees, knows and revels in the seeing of it all. Consciousness revealing ItSelf to ItSelf.

I also sensed that this Being that we are is inherently *aware* – aware of Itself *as* “things”, as “us.” Only it sees no distinction as things, us, etc. It sees only ItSelf. As I saw that, I also experienced that everything has awareness - is Awareness. It’s in the molecules. It’s the stuff of space – of life. Everything sings with innate aliveness. I’ve known this all along, but it seems to be waking up again. “I” seem to keep falling back into the trance of separation – of not seeing – but Self keeps calling me back to ItSelf – if I’m listening. And apparently even when I’m not particularly listening It calls to me…

And so this has been my practice this week: this sensing of Being, this recognition of inner Being, inner Awareness, as well as awareness of Being in the surrounding environment, and in the ordinary “doings” of life. Awareness awaring ItSelf…

I have also found this week, so far, that it is relatively “easy” to experience this sense of inner Being inwardly, relatively “easy” to *see* it in Nature, the environment, but where I seem to get hung up is *seeing* Being *in* people. I have noticed on several occasions that there *seems* to be a veil there between us human beings that *seems* to obscure the view, unless one is *really* looking – really *seeing.* I have tried to *sense* Being in the people I have met this week, but usually all I see is the “trance of separation” in their eyes… I know that people see that veil here too at times – hopefully not all the time. It’s a veil that we hide behind, that keeps “us" from deeply recognizing Being in ourselves and one another. It’s the wound of separation. It’s hard seeing through this veil at times, into what’s *really* there – the inner space of Beingness behind the trance. No wonder “peace” is so illusive… We’re not really *seeing* through the veil into Being – into the Spaciousness that we all are…

Thursday morning at the hair shop, while waiting my turn, I watched the people to see what I could see. There was a lot of chatter but no connection - no sensing of Being. Everyone was going through the motions of pretend connection – without the *awareness* of inner Being. And then one woman brought her white-haired elderly mother in for a hair-do. The woman left to do an errand, while her mother waited, and returned before it was my turn. She was flipping through a hair fashion magazine, showing me the pictures, humorously commenting on these rather unrealistic, extreme hair fashions that only models can wear – not women in their 60’s. In her eyes I sensed a sparkle of light, not the dull veneer of trance…

After my haircut she was still seated in a chair by the door. As I stood up she kindly commented on my new “do.” I paid the hairdresser and turned to walk out the door. As I did, I felt the fleetingness of the moment and wanted to say something to her, so I paused, bent down, and said: “Bye – nice to meet you.” She looked at me with a sparkle of surprise in her eyes, smiled and said: “Nice to meet you too!” Seeing beyond the veil opened another crack in my Heart. Yes, Virginia – there is a radiant Being in there - in everyone. You can sense it, feel it and see it - beyond the veil… Look deeply…

~*~

istock photo

Wide Awake Fluidity

Over the last 10 years I have experienced many “awakenings” or “openings,” glimpses beyond the veil. For the last couple of months I’ve been experiencing a “call”, if you will, to “deepen”, although I have not understood what this means – deepen into what? Then last Saturday I experienced what Meg Hitchcock calls a “reality peel” – where you see beyond this reality into Reality. (See her posts: Brick Wall, William James & the Reality Peel, Further Musings on Enlightenment). And yet, it’s hard to put into words. So I’ve been waiting for the words to arise. At the very least it will make for an interesting blog post. :)

Internally I have been feeling as if I am in suspended animation, despite all the outward chaos going on in my life. In this suspended “state” it has felt as if I have been “waiting” for something, although that’s not quite the right word either. It’s a feeling of dynamic, restful suspension, as if I am waiting, but not like a person waiting for a bus to arrive, just an inward sense of waiting in Stillness, with no expectation, no anticipation, no *needing* for anything to happen, just feeling this pull into something deeper internally, while the surface chaos around me continues.

This past weekend there was an understanding that this “call” is a call to “return”, if you will, although it’s not really a “return” in the sense of two separate entities, one returning to the other, but more like something falling back in on itself, coming back around to itself, like coming full circle, being seen by itself. I remembered a phrase I’ve heard several times: “Enlightenment is really just the Self calling the Self back to Self” (or Itself). I resonate deeply with this. “We” are being called back to That which we inherently are! The Self becoming aware of Itself. Awareness aware of Awareness. It feels like the movement of the Self, waking up to Itself – the wave “returning” to the Ocean, and realizing that it *is* the Ocean. It’s a movement that just happens. It cannot be summoned, or created. It’s like all that is being lived outwardly is being called back to Itself – the in-breath after the pause after the out-breath. And in this there is deep rest. In this suspended “state” all the issues that my mind wraps around don’t really matter anymore: Mother issues, basement issues, Duality/Non-Duality, Enlightenment. They all become transparent, fluidly rising and falling within this spacious awake awareness. I have felt this before and yet the conceptual scaffolding always comes back into play – as it did this time.

For the past couple of weeks when I *look* at things they don’t seem like what they are. A window doesn’t *seem* like a window – although it is. It’s just an opening in a wall that is called “window.” As I sat in the living room Saturday I looked over at the couch, and that’s when the “reality peel” happened. I didn’t seek it, wasn’t meditating on it, was just sitting there and everything looked a little “different.” I realized that the couch *appears* as a couch, but it’s not really – a couch. The couch didn’t actually morph into something else, but there was a *sense* that it exists within a larger context of Existence; that there is a greater energy existing there/here. There was the sense that the things that we *see* are really a reality within Reality – within this Greater Context – not separate from It, but as *appearances of* It - appearances in/of the field of Awareness that *contains* everything that It is. It’s as if this field of Awareness, this Mystery, sees Itself *through* the seeing of this, through the awareness of this…

Every *thing* (including us) is really fluidly suspended in this Greater Context. From this perspective “things” are no longer seen as just objects, or just things – but appearances of Reality. Everything is surreal. Nothing is what it seems. It’s as if a sensory shift has taken place. It is a recognition of the fluidity of Being. It’s right here, behind what we *believe* in our minds to be real. Thought, feeling, emotion, objects, people all exist in a fluid dynamic of Oneness. And, it’s as if this Self/Being/Oneness *wants* to reveal Itself, wants to be *seen*, wants to be known – intimately – through the scaffolding.

Sweet Serenity ~~~~~

"What has been calling you throughout time.....is the flame of Consciousness

that is the essence of your being. When you meet yourSelf...

you are fulfilled, you are home.... to be home is simply to be here....

....discover directly for yourself this jewel that is alive within you."

Gangaji

The Diamond in Your Pocket

Funky Art :) - Christine

New Poem - The Dark Side of the Moon

I have gone to the dark side of the moon – again.

Slipped just outside the light – unseen, unnoticed – lost contact.

Whirling through the darkness unable to see.

Houston, is there a “problem?”

How does this happen when one has intimately Seen?

How does the One forget that it is One – believing two?

Makes me doubt the Seeing,

holding only a glimpse…

How can there be so much darkness

when one has Seen what is –

that there is only One living Itself

in the many forms – in all the experiences:

The Truth of Existence…

Life continues on the dark side of the moon,

eventually returning to the Seeing – to the Light –

with no agenda of how the trajectory should go.

Just life completing its orbit…

Simply living.

Mystic Meandering

Copyright - April 2009

"To Infinity and Beyond"

Buzz Lightyear was a toy in a movie – you may remember. He would jump off bed posts and railings trying to transcend his “toyness,” and the bounds of earth. Being in his little bubble he felt immune to the realities of an earthbound existence. With each attempt at transcendence he would crash back to earth with a resounding thud – get up, shake himself off and then be off on another path in another attempt at transcendence.

He had an idealized image of himself as an astronaut, a space walker. And he believed he had a special mission that was beyond the confines of earthly life. He based his misguided attempts at transcending this realm on the fiction of those perceptions of himself.

I’m going to take poetic license here and add to the story: One day, on one of his launches, he suddenly found himself floating in a field of stars in outer space. It was incredibly still there, peaceful, no sound – just – nothing - but stars and the sounds of silence. He couldn’t believe it. Amazing he thought. So this is it. I’ve finally done it. I’ve transcended earth. I must be in Divine territory, he thought, finally attaining enlightenment. He had catapulted way, way out into spaciousness. But then, just as suddenly, he found himself back on the earth plane again. Grounded by gravity he became depressed. He wanted to go back to the stars. He wanted that experience again. It seemed his “transcendent experience” hadn’t changed the fact that he was a toy.

Many years ago I used to have the words “To Infinity and Beyond” as a computer screen saver – moving back and forth, up and down across the screen with stars in the background – to remind me why I was really here: to transcend my humanness – or so I thought. My search for ways to transcend into Infinity was serious business for me. I wore a mask, a bubble face-shield of “spirituality” – hiding behind and within its comforting certainties. But like Buzz Lightyear I kept falling off railings and bedposts every time I tried to transcend the ego in order to “become enlightened.”

Buzz had to accept that he was a toy. He had to accept himself completely as he was – the whole package. He had to quit trying to transcend, and then he could “fly,” with the help of a rocket on his back and his friend Woody of course, another toy who knew he was a toy and was okay with that.

At one time I believed that if I could just transcend my self, my ego, step into the Light and ride with the stars, that my ego-self would go away – that I could spiritually bypass the anxiety, the anger, the depression – the shadow self; that it would all dissolve if I could just “get there” – where ever “there” was. And I did believe there was a “there” to get to, instead of a right here, right now space to be in. (see The Lure of Enlightenment)

I had to learn to embrace my humanness, and my life experience. I had to accept my-*self* as I was, in each moment. I had to let go of trying to transcend it and just Be. Like the mind, like the heart, like breathing, it all has a function. Everything is in service to Being/Consciousness. The sages say as you become more rooted and grounded in Being, the ego becomes more transparent, allowing Beingness to shine through – but it doesn’t “go away.” They say that as you transition into and identify with the Consciousness of Being, rather than identify with the face plate, the ego is then seen through as being just that: a mask, a persona, a wave of the greater Ocean, a radar device of Being. It no longer is seen as a separate entity to overcome or get rid of. *Everything* is seen as one Consciousness – One Life living *as* the many. You just are as you are. You just Be.

I lose perspective on occasion. I start believing in a separate self again that has to “get” something or somewhere. When that happens I find myself thinking of the lyrics from R Kelly’s song and think of my buddy Buzz:

“I believe I can fly, I believe I can touch the sky, I think about it every night and day, spread my wings and fly away…” sigh…

When I get caught in the dream again I have to come back to Earth, to *seeing* the truth of Reality, and put Buzz back on the shelf...

Heart Smiles, MeANderi
http://www.ASerenitySanctuary.com/

Grocery Store Wisdom

Today was my usual grocery shopping and errand day – the usual Tuesday routine. The grocery store, I’m discovering, provides more than Produce, Poultry and Pastries. It is not only good fodder for blog, but also provides a variety of wisdom – when noticed. It is a real good place for noticing, for awareness, for seeing how The Mystery has morphed Itself into various forms. And I’m not just talking Broccoli, Carrots, Pears and Onions here, but most especially the two-legged kind with varying shapes, sizes and expressions, from the little playful munchkins clinging to their Moms – or not – to the elderly, seemingly weighed down by their life experience, appearing a little lost and confused. From happy radiant faces to stressed, angry and fearful faces – and everyone else in between with varying degrees of expression – yet all the expression of The One – living Itself in form. Interesting… And I wonder what they see when they are looking back at me… Hmmmm - another noticing happening here. How conscious or unconscious am I really in the way that I relate to this multi-media world that we share.

Today’s wisdom noticed seemed to be about awareness and flow. Maybe I’ll do a weekly Tuesday blog on Grocery Store Wisdom – in addition to the other blogs – stay tuned!

On my grocery day I normally visit three different stores. Today was the same. When I got to the third store and started to turn into the parking lot I noticed a construction crew right there diggin’ up the pavement, which impeded entering the lot, narrowing the flow of traffic in and out through this one entry way. But, the cars seemed to be taking their turns, one allowing the other to go, and then another would go next. It all seemed to flow. It was my turn. Just as I pulled out around the orange cones that marked off the construction area, a young woman in a black car pulled out from the side isle of parked cars right in front of me. Evidently she wasn’t aware of the etiquette involved. :) She was also on her cell phone. Because she couldn’t make the complete turn around me, she was now blocking the flow of traffic and I was stuck in the middle with cars behind me and her in front of me and construction to the side of me. I was peeved. She eventually maneuvered through and got out of the way, while still chatting on her cell phone. Now I know this is not supposed to bother me… being “spiritual” and all. :) I’m supposed to be able to step back into the noticing, into what’s actually seeing this, and allow the flow, or not, of life events, but – people driving while on cell phones is a pet peeve – or maybe it’s their un-awareness that irritates me. Anyway, my mind moved out of the present, and immediately went off into an internal tirade of thinking that went something like: if she hadn’t been on her cell phone she might have been aware enough to see what was going on around her – the blame sputter. Moot point by now, as she was long gone and I had pulled ahead, but the venting felt good – although I knew it was utterly useless. :) So I parked the car and emotionally shifted down. I went into the store and got the last few things I needed from my list, then headed for the check out.

There was a man in front of me who put his items up on the conveyor belt, while he was waiting for the person in front of him to be checked out. I patiently waited, then reached in and put one of those dividers behind his order so that I might place my items there. And then after I placed my goods on the belt, I automatically placed another divider behind my items, as there was a woman behind me.

Suddenly I heard a voice in my ear saying, “Thank you.” It startled me. I thought maybe I was being visited by an angel. :) It certainly wouldn’t be thanking me for my little tirade in the car just a few minutes before. Oh yes, I noticed my little rant and the thinking that created it. I gently turned and saw a smiling, slightly elderly face right at my shoulder, and she said again, in a soft low voice, “Thank you for putting that divider there. It’s the little things…” I smiled back at her, and responded in a knowing manner, thinking of what had just transpired in the parking lot: the movement of unconsciousness that had blocked the flow, and of course my unconscious reactive reaction to it. We engaged in a moment of delightful laughter, about what, I can’t exactly remember, engaging the cashier as well. All three of us – strangers - left the encounter with huge grins and laughs. Unbeknownst to this woman she had created a delightful moment of connection and reminded me once again of the wisdom and flow of simple awareness.

Awareness - It’s the little thing that keeps the flow going.

Heart Smiles – MeANderi
www.ASerenitySanctuary.com