Full Moon Morning
Call upon the part of you that finds enchantment and awe in the everyday moments. Elder Otter (The Animal Elders Oracle – Asha Frost)
Joy is a meeting place, of deep intentionality and of self-forgetting, the bodily alchemy of what lies inside us in communion with what formerly seemed outside, but is now neither, but become a living frontier, a voice speaking between us and the world … The sheer intoxicating beauty of the world inhabited as an edge between what we previously thought was us and what we thought was radically other than us. David Whyte (Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words)
The woods out back are alive with birdsong this early morning. As I settle in to write, reflecting on joy, my ears detect unfamiliar chatter and movement catches my eye. Looking up, I discover three fuzzy fledgling violet-green swallows from a nearby nesting box on the deck rail just out my open window. I watch for several minutes as they experiment or practice - rail to ground, ground to rail, rail to ground, and back and forth many times. Such a joy to witness their newfound discovery of flight and life outside the box; and then, in a magical moment, they seem to understand who they be and away they fly. Joyfully, I suppose.
My heart feels the joy of witnessing this cycle of life, young life, and I smile thinking of the possibility that I’ll hear the chirps of newborn flycatchers soon to hatch in the nest tended by mama flycatcher. Perhaps I’ll be blessed again to see the fledglings learn their gift of flight.
I’m reminded of Elder Otter, an oracle who visited a few days back when I was feeling deep sorrow for the world and a sense of burden and responsibility around tasks at hand. Find enchantment and awe. Joy is a choice.
Joy. Of the sun rising above the peaks beaming into the woods. Joy. Of catching the waning moon just above the nearby Stupa on my morning walk. Joy in the arrival of a young ‘van lifer’ friend who is part of our community during summer.
Such happenings outside of me open my heart, a heart that resounds the knowing that joy is a choice. Even in our sorrow about so many events in the world, we can choose joy. Not in denial. Not in ignorance, but joy in recognizing that the world needs both our joy and our sorrow. Mother Earth needs our tears of both joy and of sorrow. Each of us and all of us need our sorrow and our joy as well.
Life needs the nourishment of our joy and our sorrow for through sorrow and joy we experience and nourish Life. We dance. We fall to the ground in despair. We laugh. We sob. As each nourishes us, Life is nourished.
Amidst the world’s chaos, destruction, dissolution, seemingly unimaginable cruelty and horrors that we humans perpetrate on one another and on our planet home, winged ones nest and fledglings learn to fly. New cones form on the pines, promising future feasts for the chipmunks currently munching unprotected basil and other plants. The sun rises over the peaks each morning bringing its life-giving light. The Earth spins and that same sun ‘sets’ in the west. As darkness falls millions of tiny points of light begin their nightly show.
For those who choose to see, these everyday moments feed the joy within. They feed me. Joy that dances with sorrow in my heart of hearts.
Joy and sorrow each inform us of who we Be. Moment to moment in the dance with each and with both who we Be is not who we were. May we dance with these gifts as we BEcome more of who we truly are, for this is our contribution to Life.
A Reminder …