All aboard

It will soon be time to board car 172.

I remember in ’37 when trolley cars were so big in New York.  It was five cents for a ride… There used to be open-air buses, and you could go up a spiral staircase and sit up on top.  Those were great, great days.

~ Tiny Tim

Between

A moment, in-between.

The solid ground we once took refuge in has disintegrated underneath us, sending us into unknown territory.  We were so sure we were beyond breaking yet again, that we had finished with all that, but the beloved is not interested in maintaining the status quo.  It is the nature of all form to disintegrate, so that new forms may emerge.

Between the worlds, burning up, longing for an end to the contradictions.  We have found ourselves in the liminal, but how do we rest there?  Where is the healing, the transcendence, the resolution?  How could we be asked to surrender more?  It can seem that we are falling apart, but were we ever together to begin with?  Is that even the right lens from which to attempt navigation?  Or were we always something more whole, more majestic than all that?

Slow way down.  Breathe deeply from the lower belly.  Feel your feet in the mud of the earth.  Sink into the womb of now.  For just this moment, set aside the need to understand, to figure it all out, or to replace this moment with another.  Today may not be the day for answers, but to let your heart break open to the vastness of the question.

Look up into the new summer sky.  Something is longing to be born, in you, as you, as the poetry of your life and as the gifts you will share with others.  Lay your hands on your heart.  Listen.  Receive.  There are blues coming into existence that have never made their way into this dimension.  Oranges, reds, yellows, and purples that have been sent to remind you of the rarity and outrageousness of one human heart.  Stay right here.  Don’t move from this moment.  Open your senses.  Step into the mystery.  See through the veil.  Everything that has ever happened and everyone you have ever met, has led up to right here and now.  Trust in the fires of disintegration and renewal, and in the timeline that is written within the cells of your heart.

~ Matt Licata

Bicycles and trolleys

A Saturday ride with the kids.

Around the world–even in some of the countries most troubled by poverty or civil war or pollution–many thoughtful people are making a deep, concerted search for a way to live in harmony with each other and the earth. Their efforts, which rarely reach the headlines, are among the most important events occurring today. Sometimes these people call themselves peace workers, at other times environmentalists, but most of the time they work in humble anonymity. They are simply quiet people changing the world by changing themselves.

~ Eknath Easwaran, Your Life is Your Message: Finding Harmony With Yourself, Others, and the Earth

People say that modern life has grown so complicated, so busy, so crowded that we have to hurry even to survive. We need not accept that idea. It is quite possible to live in the midst of a highly developed technological society and keep an easy, relaxed pace while doing a lot of hard work. We have a choice.

~ Eknath Easwaran, Passage Meditation: Bringing the Deep Wisdom of the Heart into Daily Life

Presence

In the morning, just before sunrise.

Presence is not an object.  It is the openness that beholds it all.

~ Joan Tollifson

A Monday meander: How I spent my summer vacation

An early morning walk.

The purpose of a vacation is to have the time to rest.  But many of us, even when we go on vacation, don’t know how to rest.  We may even come back more tired than before we left.

~ Thich Nhat Hahn

A vacation frequently means that the family goes away for a rest, accompanied by a mother who sees that the others get it.

~ Marcelene Cox