Joey and Hal’s caregiver share a moment of connection
Just five stand-alone words, seen by a friend on a large Michigan billboard this week!
The news can take me over: hatred, lies, stealing, fearmongering and accusations. My “random acts of kindness” can become not so much random, but trying to”fix”. That’s not helping!
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
From Mary Oliver: The Summer Day
What am I doing with my “one wild and precious life”? I ask myself, “How can I live with more connection, love and respect, even reverence, for everything around me. What invites such connection and what deters it.
Many years ago, Aaron asked me to try an exercise while on a personal retreat. With string and some twigs, he asked me to form a shape on the ground, about 18” square. Next, I was to just sit and observe that small area. What did I see. After a while I became restless. “There is nothing there, Aaron, just some dirt and grass, and 1 ant….”Keep looking he said”. I sat there most of the day, with appropriate breaks to walk, rest, and eat. “How many ants? What other insects? What is the sun doing? The breeze? Has the texture of the grass itself changed as the sun touches it? It’s all alive! Is there any change when you observe it with cherishing rather than boredom? It looks dry; what if you water it and then see what changes.”
And when I watered it, the grass began slowly to grow very tiny shoots over the next hours, and more insects emerged! We’re part of all we observe, and in our connection, we’re always co-creating.
As I live my life, am I helping or harming? A leak in my office roof; a seemingly injured butterfly in my garden; words of hatred in the news… How do I respond? Am I able to pay attention with kindness and still take action (or not take action)? Otherwise, how can I help?
Willow in her seemingly permanent place by my desk, as close as she can get, and learning trust!
Hal in his new birthday Tigers shirt, Banner by his side, and ready for me to watch the game with him. The back says ROTHBART, 11. A little known fact: out of high school, Hal was drafted by the Brooklyn Dodgers and played on a B team before he decided to move on and attend college to study Engineering. He played second base. 11 was his number on the Dodgers team.
Out my window a magnificent moon split by evergreen branches and needles, seen by my iPad. Our universe is so precious!
