This morning I am awake early…savoring the morning light while it lasts; acclimating to the dark afternoon. Yesterday, the maples behind the house were still green…this morning they are yellow and the wind has combed leaves off the hickory and catalpa trees. The temperature is dropping and there are rumors of snow.
At lunch time, I drive across the county to check on Dad. When I arrive at the hospital, he is in good spirits–it’s amazing what a blood transfusion can do when your hemoglobin is low. As I pull out of the parking lot, I think about his incredible determination. I think about Katagiri Roshi’s description of a monk’s life…”we fall down and we get up.” I think of the instructions at yoga school when we are doing balancing poses: “if you fall down ten times, get up eleven times.” Somehow, whenever his health fails or when he literally falls down (something he’s done numerous times), Dad always gets back up. I’ve come to admire his sense of humor about it all, his love of life and his magnanimous acceptance of what is in any given moment.
A BLESSING OF IMPERMANENCE
If you’re going to be anxious and rush around about anything,
do it first about finding the “I can” of the universe
and how it straightens out your life.
Line up your starting place with that of the cosmos:
search and ask and boil with impatience
until you find the vision of the One Being
that empowers all your ideas and ideals,
that restores your faith and justifies your love.
All the rest–the universal and endless “things”
of life–
will then attach themselves to you as you need them.
You will stand at the threshold where
completeness arrives naturally
and prostration leads to perfection.
Pouring yourself out makes the universe do
the same.
