Conversation in the local supermarket with another elderly woman who was pushing a ‘wheelie Walker’ as I was doing also!!! There were no need for names.
GLIMPSES: The veil has thinned more often than I have deserved for sure....I was in 5th grade when I saw the ocean for he first time. Coming up over a rise (back then confined to the back seat) and looking over my Aunt June's shoulder-I remember to this day thinking at first that the ocean was the sky dipping down in some surrealistic fashion. When I realised it was the ocean-I (even in this minute still) felt overwhelming joy and wanting to go and run into the surf. Such enormous beauty-unimaginable to me until then.
The birth of my children was surely a glimpse into the miracle of life. Watching as my daughter slowly slipped into this world and even though she was 2 months early-finding my heart bursting with gratitude in such a spontaneous way.
I could add others-some even at concerts when the music and rhythms and evening air at outdoor venues tilted just right. One I will share is-we Hoosiers had our "Woodstock" in 1972 at a place near Evansville, IN. called "Bull Island". The numbers were close to Woodstocks-over 300,000. My glimpse was a dear friend and I found a spot where no one was-no one. And we sat and shared heart to heart (and we shared a joint so maybe some pharmaceutical help with this glimpse) and I still recall the intensity of that moment and connecting at such a deep level with another human being. Far Out Man!
On a travel time through India in 2011, in a town not very big and not so small, finding out that a man was making fresh chapati breads at the top of about twenty steps; running up, waiting with a few others, he turned to me and gave me one before those standing with me. I bit in... in a flash, I was lit up with history, with taste, with kindness, with HUGE appreciation, with joy in being alive in a body that could understand and taste and appreciate this magic bread that was just a chapati bread, right? I was so energized that my then-47 year old body ran down the steps and back up again to release the joy! The woman who was our "shepherd" looked at me with a big smile and told me "I need you on EVERY trip we take!" (I wish.)
More simply, and close to home in SW PA.. hearing that first clear song of the wood thrush brings my entire body to a halt and pauses, then skips my heartbeat, and I can't move along right away, even though I know I have a few more months to hear them, and that this happens to me every year!
So many more... thank you Carrie, for the prompt today (now yesterday.)
***Loved meeting you last year at one of your workshops, held at the Transfiguration Spirituality Center. The workshop participants also left me glowing.
"Hi there," I whispered aloud through the broadest of grins as the fluffy brown and gray owlet scooped its head around and peered down at me with dark eyes full of curiosity and wonder.
walking through the trails of sapsucker woods in ithaca, ny one early morning, a bouncing brown fawn came racing around the corner and almost collided with me - we just comically stood in silence staring at each other like, “you startled me!”
I have experienced that "peace that passes understanding". A time when I felt utterly connected to the Divine and at peace. It was following a "purification and renewal ceremony aka sweat lodge". The theme on entering the lodge was "all my relations" or the connectedness of all creation, i.e. I am related to all of creation.....and to the creator him/herself. (A belief that goes well with my Quaker belief of "that of God in all people"...... expanded to all creation.) Of course I could not maintain that feeling of bliss and peace permanently but I remember it well and try to live in a way that supports that belief. Yes, I got a glimpse....thanks for reminding me.
Yesterday, on a beautifully calm day on the lake, while kayaking, I spotted a great blue heron standing near the shore, which, once it saw me, took flight and sailed over the surface of the water and then up over the tree line, as I held my breath watching it disappear.
This morning I sat down in a rocking chair on my shady porch, my mind chattering on trying to decide whether I should go do water aerobics when a moment of awareness sliced through and my mind stopped. I felt the gentle breeze on my skin, the cottonwood leaves rustled above me. The sky was peeking through ,blue with fluffy clouds. Then I saw a lady bug and one of those strange pale bugs that come with cottonwoods dancing on the arm of the other rocking chair. It was a slow dance, circling each other, wondrous. I was so happy to be there and to see it and know I wasn't alone in this vast universe. I am just one of an infinite world of sentient beings who all want to be happy.
Conversation in the local supermarket with another elderly woman who was pushing a ‘wheelie Walker’ as I was doing also!!! There were no need for names.
Lusty cry from one who, just moments ago, was just anticipation.
And then, right then, it rained, and I tilted back my head and . . .
GLIMPSES: The veil has thinned more often than I have deserved for sure....I was in 5th grade when I saw the ocean for he first time. Coming up over a rise (back then confined to the back seat) and looking over my Aunt June's shoulder-I remember to this day thinking at first that the ocean was the sky dipping down in some surrealistic fashion. When I realised it was the ocean-I (even in this minute still) felt overwhelming joy and wanting to go and run into the surf. Such enormous beauty-unimaginable to me until then.
The birth of my children was surely a glimpse into the miracle of life. Watching as my daughter slowly slipped into this world and even though she was 2 months early-finding my heart bursting with gratitude in such a spontaneous way.
I could add others-some even at concerts when the music and rhythms and evening air at outdoor venues tilted just right. One I will share is-we Hoosiers had our "Woodstock" in 1972 at a place near Evansville, IN. called "Bull Island". The numbers were close to Woodstocks-over 300,000. My glimpse was a dear friend and I found a spot where no one was-no one. And we sat and shared heart to heart (and we shared a joint so maybe some pharmaceutical help with this glimpse) and I still recall the intensity of that moment and connecting at such a deep level with another human being. Far Out Man!
Cadilac Mountain in Acadia National Park at Sunrise
On a travel time through India in 2011, in a town not very big and not so small, finding out that a man was making fresh chapati breads at the top of about twenty steps; running up, waiting with a few others, he turned to me and gave me one before those standing with me. I bit in... in a flash, I was lit up with history, with taste, with kindness, with HUGE appreciation, with joy in being alive in a body that could understand and taste and appreciate this magic bread that was just a chapati bread, right? I was so energized that my then-47 year old body ran down the steps and back up again to release the joy! The woman who was our "shepherd" looked at me with a big smile and told me "I need you on EVERY trip we take!" (I wish.)
More simply, and close to home in SW PA.. hearing that first clear song of the wood thrush brings my entire body to a halt and pauses, then skips my heartbeat, and I can't move along right away, even though I know I have a few more months to hear them, and that this happens to me every year!
So many more... thank you Carrie, for the prompt today (now yesterday.)
***Loved meeting you last year at one of your workshops, held at the Transfiguration Spirituality Center. The workshop participants also left me glowing.
"Hi there," I whispered aloud through the broadest of grins as the fluffy brown and gray owlet scooped its head around and peered down at me with dark eyes full of curiosity and wonder.
Toothless crooked smiles,
rainbows, moral beauty acts.
Transcendental, true.
A juvenile black-capped chickadee flys by and I feel it’s wing touch my back and I hear loud wing beats as it passes by my head.
Love your transcendence reminders
But lately they don’t last long enough…
walking through the trails of sapsucker woods in ithaca, ny one early morning, a bouncing brown fawn came racing around the corner and almost collided with me - we just comically stood in silence staring at each other like, “you startled me!”
I have experienced that "peace that passes understanding". A time when I felt utterly connected to the Divine and at peace. It was following a "purification and renewal ceremony aka sweat lodge". The theme on entering the lodge was "all my relations" or the connectedness of all creation, i.e. I am related to all of creation.....and to the creator him/herself. (A belief that goes well with my Quaker belief of "that of God in all people"...... expanded to all creation.) Of course I could not maintain that feeling of bliss and peace permanently but I remember it well and try to live in a way that supports that belief. Yes, I got a glimpse....thanks for reminding me.
When I walk outside and my neighbor’s dog barks a greeting because he is happy to see me!
Carol
Yesterday, on a beautifully calm day on the lake, while kayaking, I spotted a great blue heron standing near the shore, which, once it saw me, took flight and sailed over the surface of the water and then up over the tree line, as I held my breath watching it disappear.
This morning I sat down in a rocking chair on my shady porch, my mind chattering on trying to decide whether I should go do water aerobics when a moment of awareness sliced through and my mind stopped. I felt the gentle breeze on my skin, the cottonwood leaves rustled above me. The sky was peeking through ,blue with fluffy clouds. Then I saw a lady bug and one of those strange pale bugs that come with cottonwoods dancing on the arm of the other rocking chair. It was a slow dance, circling each other, wondrous. I was so happy to be there and to see it and know I wasn't alone in this vast universe. I am just one of an infinite world of sentient beings who all want to be happy.
amen. every living thing all shares the commonality of simply seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. what an unspoken beautiful bond