Things Happen

The day again, is grey.  The southland near the water has been like this for many, many days and it feels like rain may come;  then it doesn't.  It feels like sun may shine; then it doesn't.  The temperature is at 61 degrees fahrenheit - same as the east in Boston today.  And today is Tuesday.

Music wanted to come today;  so sitting at the piano, the fingers started to move across keys that make a familiar melody.  It's never clear what the melodies will bring but the body just cooperates with what wants to happen and today, writing was delayed because the music wanted to arrive into an empty space that has been very full over the past several months.

Life keeps happening and reminders of death keep cropping up.  Even as I am writing this and looking at the garden, I see a crow has landed and is taking its meal from a mouse that was found lifeless in front of the flower bed.  It's a strange thing to see one life being nourished by the dead.  And there is no judgment or connection to the act - the bird has found a cooperative source of protein;  that source can't feel the pecking and the taking apart... and now, the crow has flown up to the rooftop with the carcass of the mouse – who knows if it's landed on one of the solar panels or in the gutter.

And this is how it is:  life is given.  It ends, sometimes over a long haul journey to the end;  and sometimes, in sudden death.  Neither path is easy for the one who stands by to make this last walk with the one who departs.  This subject keeps coming up - cause/effect.  Life/death.  Movement/stillness.  

Now, the garden is calling.  The bloom is beautiful, even under grey skies.  And the whimsy of things placed here and there - a cherub, a contemplating figure sculpture, a Buddha of Compassion - all sit with the plants that are giving those who can bear witness, beauty.  

In an instant, a new feeling and appreciation for life.  A new sense that we have only so much time and the perennial question, "... and what will you do with this one, precious life you have been given?" arises once again.

It's a reminder of something we easily forget in the rush and determination to reach a destination, to move to another position in advancing our positions in life, to accomplish the task that has been left aside for too long and we suddenly remember it is important to get done - at last.  But the real destination awaits - and in the meantime, there is music, there is life/death cycling before us, there is beauty in the natural world, there is silence that opens the space for all things to pass through in this one precious life each of us has received.  Use it well.  Live it fully.  Make peace.