Full Moon Morning
Our lives are a small stitch sewn on a vast circle of mystery. While we are forever mounting a campaign to order, know, grasp, and control, we are constantly reminded that with all our cunning, we still don’t know a hoot, really, about life. … But until we look inside our looking, until we become fully present to what it means to be a human being, we will stray from that which is essential. Richard Strozzi Heckler (Holding the Center: Sanctuary in a Time of Confusion)
I pulled this 1997 gem off the shelf last week in the midst of clearing out ‘stuff’, step one in transforming what has been my office into a playful, creative studio space. An inside place where I can be fully present to and express those parts of me mostly ignored (I was ignorant to their being a part of my Being!) in the days – no decades – of doing career, family, etc. You know, the things our culture tells us bring success, happiness, and supposedly all the things we want. A place to be curious just as I am when I saunter in the woods out back. Ah, but I digress…
If you’ve been with me on these weekly musings for a while, you’ve read about my explorations and practices of ‘presence’ for some time and that the Venerable Monks’ Walk for Peace from my hometown, Fort Worth, Texas to Washington D.C. inspired me to be more fully present to my breath. Each breath. Not an easy practice in our world, so let’s pause and breathe together for a moment. … Ah… What if we did that more often?
I’ve experienced the days since last week’s musing as tumultuous (to say the least) both within and daring to look out and step into the world. I’ve needed to return to awareness of my breath more often than I’ve actually done as I’ve explored deep, unfamiliar inner terrain for the sake of clearing out old gunk of the unconscious, creating space within as I’m doing in the physical space where I dwell. And I’ve needed it as I bear witness to our world and human fragility.
Thumbing through Strozzi Heckler’s musings, I was curious to discover what I’d highlighted almost 30 years ago when I first encountered his work. Two words: Presence and Practice! A full circle moment and a sense, confirmation perhaps, that I’m returning to what is essential. Hopefully, in this chapter of my life, with a deeper commitment to discovering and living in alignment with the very essence of Life itself. Here are a couple of those highlights:
Presence is being present – a state impregnated with an open-ended curiosity, relaxation, and power that comes from seamlessly knitting together one’s mind, body, and spirit. … it is only through practice that this unification can occur. ‘If you want to tame something,’ the fox advises the Little Prince, ‘sit with it every day at the same time.’ A practice is not so much about achieving a goal, avoiding something, improving yourself, or making your wishes come true, as about creating a positive environment, internally and externally, for the awakening process to take hold.
Oh, how different life might have unfolded if I’d really heard and heeded this wisdom then! But I hold no regrets, trusting that my journey has unfolded just as it has been meant to unfold, including the oopsies, U-turns, delays, losses, gains, changes made, and those avoided.
Yes, we live in a time that is beyond confusion, even beyond chaos. Rampant hypocrisy. Mis and disinformation. Threats. Heart wrenching violence and abuse. Faith rupturing corruption. The need to reckon with our past. And so much more. That we must navigate these is clear. But navigating in and through does not mean submission to.
Presence and practice offer us clear paths. We ‘look inside our looking’ to explore the essence of human Beingness. In practicing presence, we open to possibilities offered by returning to discover what is essential – the essence of Life itself. This opens us into co-creating, with others and with Life, a more coherent world for our children, grandchildren, and generations beyond.
Snow on the Peaks Sunset