The Beauty of the Night...

I love the darkness of night,

when all is still in my part of the world,
and The Silence of the Universe fills the body
and Heart....

No distractions, no disturbances...
I settle into what really matters -
The Silence of Being, the Nameless
- just breathing...

I would rather be awake during the darkness
of night, than enduring the brashness,
cacophony and chaos of the day.
The darkness is comforting, calming...
There's a Beauty in the night's darkness
that can be felt...

It is The Silence of Life ItSelf
that matters most to me;
an odd duck, I know.
Not "day driven" - going from
one task to another,
seeing how much I can get done;
maybe it's my age,
and waning life energy.

The simplicity
of night's quiet darkness
soothes me and allows me to access
the deep space within, again.
Deep calling to deep...

For now, though, I must let go of
the night's allure -
and fall into sleep.

Mystic  Meandering
March 21, 2025
2:05 am

~

I can hardly wait for "Window Sitting" to
begin again.   :)

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Full Moon July 2022

 

Simply Silence...

In the midst of chaos there is always Silence...
In the midst of complexity there is simplicity...
Being in the Rhythm of Silence unwinds the mind -
unwinds the fears.
It unwinds the contracted body, thoughts, emotions, and feelings
that have become an habituated response to life.

Silence is the medicine that brings us back to the current of Life
again; into the Infinite Presence that lives us...

It is not "mother earth" pulsing through us,
but That which also pulses through "mother earth" -
the Cosmic pulse of Life that infuses all things...

Reach deeply into the Stillness of Silence
within you - the Primordial Space of Silence
and thrive there...

In this stillness is the congruancy of Life...

Feel the Stillness,
the Sacred Silence...
Awaken to its Rhythm...

It is not thought...
Go behind the mind,
to the Essence of Existence -
Silence...

Sweet, Sweet, Silence...

Mystic Meandering
Meditative Writings from the Silence
2006

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
Leaves on a branch
color inverted digitally giving
this wonderful oriental, zen-like affect
of simplicity...

 

Mystical Fog...

 

Unable to sleep, I pattered down to the living room
at 3:45 am and was surprised to find fog out the
window.  I haven't seen fog in a very long time...
I grew up in New England, but have lived in semi-
arid Colorado for more than 40 years.  There's not
often fog here...  So what a delight to find my
child-like wonder again! - on a sleepless mystical foggy
night; falling in love with the simple beauty and
magic of nature in the wee hours...

Here's a different view out the back window.
The chimney on the house behind us looks like
a lighthouse. :) A matter of perspective I know... 

And here I inverted the color for even more magic... :)

~

Regard everything as fantasy...

Regard everything as transparent...
See through everything...

See that everything is in transition...

Liberate concepts and beliefs...

Let go of the need for an "answer"/solution...

Rest in the nature of Essence ~ the Primordial
State of everything...

Be a child of fantasy...
Be curious instead of afraid...

Pema Chodron
Buddhist teacher

Our Path is Clearing - Ari Honarvar

 We are wondrous, complex, and resilient beings.
At any given moment, our bodies, minds and the
environment interact with and influence one another.
When we're able to balance these interactions, the result
is harmony,  However, living in this hyper-stimulating and
[chaotic] world, harmony can become compromised, and
after a while we become ripe for disease and disorientation.
The uncomfortable symptoms of disharmony are then often
confused with the root cause, and in our rush to escape
the uncomfortable emotions and sensations, we seek
distractions in the world...

But our wisdom and innate vitality await us and beckon us
to return to ourselves.  When we do our inherent wisdom
shines light on the origin of disharmony, clearing the path...
We can bring back harmony and take responsibility of the
magnificence that is us.  Having cleared the distractions,
life becomes simple again and our path is clear...

Ari Honarvar
From - Rumi's Gift

~

Personal Note -  Now that we have hopefully been
relieved of the political drama and DisTraction of the
last 4 years, maybe we can individually and collectively
find a new sense of balance and harmony.  Clear the
toxicity of chaos, and focus on the priorities of our
collective existence in the ongoing Cosmic Play of Life.

Namaste
_/\_

~

Photo - Sunrise at Sunday River Ski Resort
in Bethel, Maine - taken by my brother on
ski patrol

A Fractured Reality - Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

Our contemporary consciousness seems so fractured.

Even the pandemic has constellated more fissures in our culture,
more tribalism, more discordant voices... 

It is as if the very fabric or our consciousness has become
distorted, that sees truth as a primal adversary, from a fractured
sense of reality. 

...in our present collective consciousness, we appear to have 
crossed over into a country where simple truths do not
reach us - there is no shared sense of reality...

I watch the stories swirl around and wonder if they are just
nightmares of a civilization that has lost its way -
patterns of denial to distract us from the failures of our
culture, with its increasing divisiveness...

There is a deep need to turn.....to the simplicity of what is...
to the true nature of everything...
We need to find a pathway that can return us to wholeness....

I find the only way to return, to embrace reality, is through
what is most simple, most ordinary.  By noticing what is
around me, the sound of the wind, the rain falling.  There is
a Cherokee practice that is similar to [Buddhist] mindfulness,
called, "the sound of the green forest humming"; the awareness
of the sound of the forest, the sound of the water and our breath.
When people are very well attuned they hear a certain sound 
and are mindful of that sound.  When they don't hear it they
realize they have stepped into a place where their thoughts
have become unbalanced.

Ordinary, everyday awareness can return us to a place of 
balance, where we are part of the living community;
a community not of internet bubbles, but of a primal
awareness [of nature]. Walking through this gate that is
always open, we can return to a quality of consciousness
beyond truth and lies, one that is more primal, spontaneous.
...we can leave behind a strange fractured world of distortions
 and breathe in air that is not toxic, walk on land that is
still singing.

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Sufi teacher

Excerpts from an article in
Emergence Magazine
called - A Ghost's Life

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trust Your Solitude - Rainer Rilke

.....in the great silence of these distances, I am touched by your
beautiful anxiety about life...  Here, where I am surrounded by
an enormous landscape, which the winds move across as they
come from the seas, here I feel that there is no one anywhere
who can answer for you those questions and feelings which,
in their depths, have a life of their own; for even the most
articulate people are unable to help, since what words point
to is so very delicate, is almost unsayable.  But even so, I
think that you will not have to remain without a solution if
you trust in Nature, in what is simple in Nature, in the small
Things; if you have this love for what is humble, then everything
will become easier for you, more coherent and somehow more
reconciling, not in your conscious mind perhaps, which stays
behind, astonished, but in your innermost awareness,
awakeness, and knowledge.

Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and
try to love the questions themselves, as if they were locked
rooms or books written in a very foreign language.  Don't
search for the answers, which could not be given to you now,
because you would not be able to live them.  And the point is,
to live everything.  Live the questions now.  Perhaps then,
someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even
noticing it, live your way into the answer.

Your solitude will be a support and a home for you, even in
the midst of very unfamiliar circumstances, and from it you
will find all your paths...

Rainer Maria Rilke
Excerpt from: Letters to a Young Poet #1

The Temple of the Prairie...

Wanted to share this beautiful scenery from the prairie we visited yesterday, just after a storm passed through.  There was nothing but Pure Quiet, as if one had entered a sacred temple...  The air was pungent with sage and sweet grass - Nature's Incense! :) - delighting the senses, igniting the spirit of Life within.  The words under the photos are the words of Kabir.  Many of us know the "secret sound" that he refers to as the Primordial Silence within...  At the end I have added a quote from a person named Christina Harris that I found years ago...

If you want the truth...

Listen to the secret sound,

the real sound,

which is inside you...

The music from the strings
no one touches...

~ ~ ~

What remains is the child I was...
All other images once living here
have stepped away.
With each leave taking
the view is simplified.

Christina Harris

Companions on the Road...

I took you all on an “expotition” with me today, as Pooh Bear calls it. You were my companions on the road, not looking for anything in particular – just exploring nature. I thought you’d like to see where you had been :)

We arrived at one of my favorite places along an old agricultural irrigation canal.

We saw the majestic cottonwoods bared by winter and the stately evergreens lining the path, as we crossed the walking bridge over the frozen canal onto the path, knowing we were entering Sacred space, the realm of Nature. We noticed a single hawk silently spiraling overhead, and a flock of Canadian Geese called out as they made their way over the field for several passes before they landed, winding lower and lower until final touch down. (Unfortunately we couldn’t capture those pictures ;)

The dirt path, about 12 feet wide, was snow covered and muddy in places, giving off the wonderful pungent odor of wet earth that says Spring is not far off. As we walked in the slippery mud it made that funny gushy, sticky, sucking sound under our feet. So we hugged the edge of the path to keep from slipping in the muck…

The ponds and canal were still frozen, or partly frozen – waiting for the thaw; the frosted ice on this one slowly melting away from the edges, returning to its liquid form, as the canal waited for flow to return.

A multitude of birds where enthusiastically chittering and chattering in the low branches at the edges of the pond as we walked by…. Chickadees, Red Wing Black Birds, Magpies, Finches. I wished I had brought the tape recorder… Fletchers and Woodpeckers made their hollow pecking sounds on old dead trees – all in a magically syncopated chorus. We stood silent, watched and listened, aware of the sound and movement of Life, breathing in its Aliveness. Then someone spotted a tree with 3 large nests.

We were excited to find this old cottonwood fallen across the canal, bottom exposed. And like curious children we all wanted to clamor on it to get a better view inside – but there wasn’t enough room for us all to fit – no shoving please… So we just peeked in the hollow to see what we could see – one at a time.

We gathered around this bench by the trees to take a break, the eldest ones sitting, of course. :)

We listened to the Silence of Nature and its Rhythms. Then meandered on again, taking more pictures of the partially thawed ice on the canal, and a bridge that crosses over to a small private farm.

We had a good ‘expotition’, we field explorers of Life, companions on “the Road,” having a shared experience called "life", discovering the ease of simply being and the Mystery of Life living through us all. Thanks for coming along. I was, and am, graced by your Presence - in spirit…

“We shall not cease from exploration.
And the end of all our exploring
will be to arrive
where we started
and know the place
for the first time…”

TS Elliot

Oh Deer! Oh Deer!

Last night we were at my Mother’s and Sister’s for late dinner and a movie… I went prepared for the unexpected – meaning I took my camera hoping that we would see the herd of deer that have been showing up almost every night since last Summer. We have never been there to witness this beautiful spectacle showing up in the small backyard. They evidently stroll through this densely packed residential neighborhood looking for food – eating whatever is available – usually birdseed, if my sister has forgotten to bring the bird feeder in, or at times carrots or bread that have been left out for them. They enter the backyard through one side yard, and exit through the other.

Last night we were gifted with a visit by these skittish, gentle beings at about 7:10pm. They were only about 10 feet away. They have been known to also show up at all hours of the night in herds of 3-7.

I am sorry that the photos aren’t clearer. I took them through the sliding glass door that had the screen in it – with only the back flood light on. Plus they move their heads so quickly, and my little Kodak doesn’t have one of those rapid shutter functions. But I wanted to share this magical moment with you, so I sharpened them up as much as possible. There were only 3 in this herd; a mother and her 2 little ones, who managed to stay out of camera range. So these are photos of the mother. As they passed out of the back yard, around the side, I went out on the front porch to watch them pass by, talking to them gently as the two fawns stood behind the bare branches of a lilac bush watching me, while the mother continued on, briefly pausing and looking over her shoulder…

Huh?

Who me?!

You want what?

I'm all ears...

Really? Are you sure?

Could you repeat that...

Shocking...

"The Beloved's" Romance...

Absorbed in Nature,
the natural world,
we remember
that we are
embraced by
”The Beloved.”

Experiencing Nature
*is* experiencing “The Beloved”
experiencing ItSelf *as* Life.

Experiencing Nature
is experiencing the Formless
becoming form, taking shape,
*as* Formlessness;
the ineffable Nature of Being…

…the Beloved morphing Itself
into “mere” form…

Saying ~ here, look, see ~
*See* ME…

Offering the invitation to open to
the Nature of Being…

Offering the gift of
*seeing*
*hearing*
*awareing*
*experiencing*
~ Beingness ~
experiencing ItSelf
as an owl,
as a tree,
as the sunset,
as me,
as
‘B’

…all conduits of “The Beloved’s” Love
romancing life…

And who is “The Beloved”?

The Form and the Formless…
The Every-thing-ness of Existence,
calling to us to play in
”The Beloved’s”
Divine Play…

Calling to us to remember “The Beloved’s”
embrace
and be absorbed
by
”The Beloved’s”
Love…

Reminding us
through
Nature
everyday
that
we
*are*
”The Beloved’s”
Love…

The
True
Romance


And what is “The Beloved’s” Romance?
To be in love with Life
To feel ALIVE *to* Life
To play *with* Life
To Dance *with* Life
in the
Dance of Existence…


Look beyond the surface of “things”
as they seem;
this “mere” humanness,
this “mere” existence,
to the Essence
of
”The Beloved…”

Life in love with ItSelf…


*See* into the *Nature* of “things,”
and Romance with “The Beloved”
will blossom…




Mystic Meandering
copyright
January 24, 2012


“B” is my husband :)

"The Beloved" - as I use it here, is the luminous,
ever-present Presence that animates
all life;
that *is* Life,
not a separate entity of being...

Life Just Keeps Happening...

Listening to the rain at the window,
trying to calm this frazzled body
after another week in the “family vortex.”

Listening to the sound of the rain come and go,
as storms roll through,
one after another this night…

The rain hits the large zucchini leaves in the neighbor’s garden,
tick, thunk, tick…
and the metal downspout,
clink, plank, clink…
Delightful sounds ~

I watch lightening streak through the sky,
cutting through the clouds;
dancing a beautiful light show.

Life just keeps happening…

That’s what nature teaches me -
Life just keeps happening no matter what.
It always amazes me how nature just keeps being itself.
The world keeps grinding on, despite what’s going on in our personal lives;
or physical bodies.

Life just keeps happening…

Although sometimes I feel like my body is caught in a grinder,
being pulverized by life…

So I come to sit at the window at night to regain a sense of Self,
to come back to nature for a bit of rejuvenation;
to sit in Silence of ‘The Beloved’

Life just keeps happening…

It seems the “remedy” for this helter-skelter life I’m living is awareness –
just stopping –
being aware of nature –
the sights, the smells, the sounds;
aware of the Life that is living here;
aware of the Silence that breathes me…

And rest ~

Deep rest ~

Doing nothing ~

Just Being ~

Just listening ~

to Life happening.

~

Storms roll through…

The family vortex spins…

And Life just keeps happening…


~ ♥ ~


Mystic Meandering
copyright
July 2011


Art: Bee Vortex

I actually did this one several weeks ago
but it seemed fitting for this post.
It is a combination of a couple of colors
but one in particular kept dragging,
creating these splotches,
giving it a rather
hectic look,
like a vortex of bees…

Or maybe that’s just my
projection at the moment :)

Spring's Furry Fuzzies

Connect with the Essence of Nature:
Innocence, Purity, Simplicity…

Let them
speak to your heart
and guide your steps…

Love supports you in every moment…



~*~

Hibernating Land...

Frozen Earth bound in time,
preparing for the thaw,
allowing flow and movement
to regain rhythm and rhyme…

Frozen streams of frosted glass
crystallize the sun;
forming lances of light to illuminate
the path,
through this natural prism,
opaquely wrapped.

The silence of the hibernating land
speaks in loud whispers
through the trees;
crying soul-callers of the sky
fly in comfortable bands,
sounding the homing call,
kindredly clanned.

Come Home
Be Free...



Mystic Meandering
copyright
January 1998


photo - sun through frost on window
Feb. 2010

An Owl Story...

There’s something about hearing the hoo of an owl at night that makes my heart coo…

Around 5pm on Thanksgiving evening I was sitting at my desk, reading blogs :), when I heard the gentle, rhythmic hoo-ing sound of an owl. I could tell it was close. My curiosity got the better of me and I went from window to window to see if I could find where the sound was coming from. I thought for sure it must have been on the roof. B thought it was in one of the neighbor’s trees. We felt like we at least located the general direction it was coming from, so like a couple of kids, we decided to go looking. We went around to the side of the house where the hoos echoed between our house and the neighbor’s like an echo in a canyon. As we walked, the dry leaves cracked under our feet. We were afraid we’d scare it away, so we stopped and just listened. Again we heard the strong, rhythmic hoo-ing sounds. In the distance we also heard the faint hoo-ing of 2 other owls. All three calling out to each other in the darkness… Magic was underfoot… Well that and the cracking leaves… We tried again to move closer to the sound…

I’m sure the owl spotted us, even though we couldn’t spot it, because the hoo-ing stopped. Darn…

In our curiosity and need to pursue it, we evidently scared it off. If I had just stayed “inside”, silent and listening, I could have enjoyed the mysterious sounds a little longer – but the innocent desire to attain the *experience* called me out of stillness… Hmmm – interesting…

Pondering the experience in “The Cave” last night produced this…

Song of night,
the mysterious owl’s gentle hoo,
echoes its call:
pay attention,
listen,
don’t move…

In stillness
the owl *sees*,
acutely aware of
the slightest move,
the faintest sound;
everything perceived…

Silent in its night flight,
only the sound of its call,
dissolving in thin air -
appearing and disappearing…

Awareness, awareing it all…

This morning at breakfast, B said what he heard was a pattern in the hoos of the owl. Morse code to be exact… Yes, the Mystic and the Analyst – both poetry in motion, heard differently. He said in the rhythm of the owl’s hoo-ing he heard the Morse code sounds for the letters: E-U-T-T, which he translated for himself to mean: Experience Ultimate Transformational Tranquility… In other words, he said:

Be at Peace…

The call of Nature…

~~~~~~

Just An Ordinary Day...

Today was just an ordinary day. I spent 3 ½ pleasant hours with my mother (well that’s not ordinary on a regular basis.) Came home. Cleaned the front window so that my husband could put the storm windows up – as I helped :). Then raked leaves till after dark. While outside it dawned on me that had I missed spending time outside this year for some reason. I’ve missed the smells of the seasons and the sounds of nature, the turning from light to dusk, to dark. Don’t know why I didn’t spend more time out – life just unfolded that way – or maybe I was distracted and wasn’t paying enough attention.

While cleaning the window I could hear the sound of crunching leaves under my feet, and felt the crisp bite of the cold air against my face as it began to whip through. It felt so good – so alive - to be *in* it! Our temperatures dropped dramatically this afternoon as we are getting a Canadian cold front. They are predicting 2-4 inches of snow for tomorrow. In the silence of the rhythm of wiping down the window I heard the faint sound of a goose call overhead and looked up. There was a small flock of Canadian geese passing over with the lead goose honking out his gentle, persistent call to keep the others following behind. I paused to look and follow as they flew by in V formation – my eyes taking in the branches of the cottonwoods above me, with its abandoned squirrel’s nest, and the blue sky with its gray snow clouds beyond. I resumed wiping the window, paying attention to nothing in particular. Shortly after that a second, slightly larger flock passed over with the same gentle call, in the same V shape. The sight tugged at my heart as I watched them fly south - knowing it was heralding a season of endings once again. Although I love winter – well the kind of winter I remember, growing up in New England. Nothing like the dry, brown winters we get here in semi-arid Colorado. But still, I love the call of winter.

As I raked leaves I found the little Vinca blossom in the photo in the front yard, and got the camera to capture this last bloom of the season. How could this little fellow have survived this long! We’ve already had snow and temperatures below freezing, and yet there it was in all its beauty, calling to my heart to capture its last expression…

And so there it was, just awareness, aware of an ordinary day touching my heart in extraordinary ways. This ordinary day unexpectedly called to my heart to *see* Life expressing itself in extraordinary and unexpected ways, reminding me of transitions, endings, and Life finding a way to express Itself through it all. The heart of wonder was alive and well today, and the discovery of the forgotten joy of the simplicity of nature. I hope they visited you too…

Heart Smiles… :)