spirituality

The Sacred Hour

/ wvfurandroot / Leave a comment

Dawn is the sacred hour.  We move from one world to the next accompanied by a dramatic lighting of this world.

Old Window in Finland by Helena Turpeinen, poster to View From My Window Facebook group

It wasn’t until my late 40s I was able to appreciate or regularly meet the dawn.  If my sleep schedule ever regulates, I will miss these holy hours.  I wake in the dark and cast off the stories my psyche told me while asleep and head for my beloved roll-top desk. 

Dependent on the time of year, it could be some time before the dawning or just minutes.

But as I write the stories and sip coffee in silence, I glance over my shoulder through the atrium doors to look for the first arc of light. 

It usually begins as a soft peachy pink rising with the fog over the hills and peeking through the trees.  Dependent on weather and time of year, the color will sometimes intensify, sometimes wane, but always is a hearkening.

Here we are again.  We made it to another day.

The silence is important. 

Soon, the birds will start and the world will begin its hustle, but for a few minutes it’s just light and the creation of a new day, the creation of a new story to be told.  Color on the silhouettes of the mountains bring me such contentment. 

In twelve days, I will be on the shore of Lake Okeechobee in Florida.  I’ve never been there before but I’ve seen sunset photos–another sacred part of the day.  I am eager to nestle with my lover before leaving our bed to sit on the dock with my mug of coffee and journal.  It won’t be silent – the lapping of the tide should, will, create its own sounds of peace.  I am eager to see the Spanish moss hanging from the trees light up as the sun begins it ritual. 

I’m sure I will photograph the scene in order to remember it, but I hope it imprints on my heart. 

This is the sacred hour.  Rejoice in the silence and witness the light.  Turn to a new page and tell the story.

You are a reborn star.

/ wvfurandroot / Leave a comment

The essence of life is that it’s challenging.  Sometimes it is sweet, and sometimes it is bitter.
Sometimes your body tenses, and sometimes it relaxes or opens. 
Sometimes you have a headache, and sometimes you are 100% healthy. 
From an awakened perspective, trying to tie up all the loose ends and
finally get it together is death, because it involves rejecting a lot of your basic experience. 
There is something aggressive about that approach to life,
trying to flatten out all the rough spots and imperfections into a nice smooth ride.  —

Pema Chodron.

Well.  Damn. 

Pema Chodron says that finally getting it together is death.  So, why am I juggling 10,000 things and killing myself to keep them from falling?  I don’t want to die.

She also says that the essence of life is that’s it’s challenging.  Ah.  I have a very lively life then.  She closes with, “There is something aggressive about that approach to life, trying to flatten out all the rough spots and imperfections into a nice smooth ride.”

Hmmmm.  I think I deserve a smooth ride.  I don’t think the human condition should be one of struggles and challenges.  I don’t think having one’s ducks in a row is death.  Respectfully, Miss Pema, I disagree.

The essence of life is the quiet moments.  The big ones – holding your newborn for the first time or looking into your partner’s eyes when you say I love you.  The small ones – those all-too-brief moments on the zafu with the Tibetan prayer beads in hand where you can watch your thoughts like giant soap bubbles pop and dissipate or while sitting on the seashore admiring the enormity of all creation.  The essence of life is the cup of coffee on the deck at sunrise in summertime.  Sandaled feet, but sweatered arms – to keep the morning dew from chilling.

Sometimes life is sweet.  And sometimes it is bitter.  Further, sometimes it is Nirvana, and sometimes it is Hades.  I don’t think The Creator breathed life into us to be constantly nauseated on a roller coaster of sweet and bitter.  Afraid. 

No, we are told again and again by all the great sages, Pema aside, Be ye not afraid.

The bitter will be there, yes that’s true.  It’s our job to rise above it and smooth it out.  To minimize the discord, to work against injustice, to celebrate peace, birthdays, and small fresh-sprouted seedlings.  Life is a teeming of beginnings.  Yes, and endings.  But the endings too should be quiet and expansive — an ushering into the next.

When the body tenses, we lose our equanimity and forget our purpose by thrusting ourselves into fight or flight.  When we relax, open up, we gain connection with the human condition and aren’t fighting against it, but working to maximize potential.

Smooth out those imperfections.  Work for peace.  Drink heavily from the chalice of life.  We are here now and that is a great miracle and a tantalizing mystery.  Enjoy yourself.  It’s later than you think.  Assert yourself.  You are a reborn star.

The ocean calls to us all.

/ wvfurandroot / Leave a comment

The ocean calls to us all.  The beach beckons.  The dawning sky a revelation of seashells on the shore gifted to us with the tide.   

The sun, the sky, the ocean, the shore – the four elements of life.  Earth, air, fire, and water.  Complete in one spot and rich with the ions that bring us a sense of peace and well-being.  The ocean calls to us all. 

A perfect locale.  All of creation revels in the sand, sea, and sun.  All of creation floats as if in the womb in the water beyond the breakers.  All of creation marvels at the wonder of moon pull and sun shine.   

To see dolphins leap, fish in the shallows, birds swooping and swirling, and, when we’re lucky, a stag enjoying a brisk afternoon swim is to see the planet for what it is – a place that teems with life, that is pure, mystery mixed with a bit of magic.  This is our planet.  Our being the dolphins and the birds and the stag and the fish and all creatures great and small including us.   

Dappled sunlight on the surface of the water causes the dolphins to leave a trail of sparkle when they leap.  Is it not sad that humans leave a wake of ruin and debris as we move. 

But not always.  Sometimes we humans leave a trail of art or a trail of love or a trail of charity.  We are not evil, but we are misguided.  We focus on the wrong things.  We forget that the ocean calls to us all to be complete, to be artists, to be art — to drift along in the beauty we’ve been given.  To get back to the elements of sea, sun, sky, and shore.  The tide swells rocking us like a mother with a baby. 

Our brain waves sync with the rhythm and we become united with the sea, the sand, the wind.  We coexist – we do not rule.  We do not ruin.  We do not improve.  We just are.  Just breathe. 

Let the sea call to us all like a preacher in a country church calling sinners to the altar.  Let us find forgiveness and peace and discover our place in the universe.  To leave a trail of love amidst the beauty given to us.