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Butterfly Sermons
September 8, 2006
Maymont Angel ~ Canon 30d
The toad beneath the harrow knows
Exactly where each tooth-point goes;
The butterfly upon the road
Preaches contentment to that toad.
~ Rudyard Kipling
Today Visual~Voice turns two years old, and I'm wondering... what is "two" all about? Is it a magic number? Is there something tenacious about turning two, or is there a tenderness that comes with turning one plus one?
Two. Twenty four months. 730 days. Surviving an illness. Overcoming depression. The discovery of a healing practice called vipassana meditation. Improving my photography. Growing as ~ dare I define myself this way ~ a writer. Practicing. Practicing. Practicing. Wondering when in the world there will ever be an actual performance. As if "arriving" onstage would equate to anything ~ life is filled with lessons ~ a string a pearls with no ending.
Thich Nhat Hahn has cautioned not get so wrapped up in ourselves that we end up missing our appointment with life. It's not about years, and it's not about milestones. The appointed time of discovery is now... the sound of my fingertips tapping upon the keyboard... the jetliner buzzing overhead toward Reagan National Airport while gobs of children play soccer on the field directly beneath it... running and laughing... thier 8 year old hearts pumping the red elixir symbolic of the passion we all yearn for... the youthful energy and boundless enthusiasm we all wish to recapture as silver strands thread cobwebs around our heads and time kicks the soccer ball of age spots and wrinkles across our tired faces.
The cicadas populating the bamboo grove at the top of the hill ~ the ones who have serenaded me these last months ~ will soon be frosted over, their cocooned calls masked for many moons to come. I've an appointment to keep with them this day. To listen. To learn how to be present and without worry over the whys and how longs of the world's existence.
After two years of creative contemplation, of poetry and prose, of well-spoken words and many words misspoken, how do I calm the raging ocean into pools of stillness in my heart? Am I a woman courageous enough to stare into the deepest, darkest, depths of my soul? Am I brave enough to become quiet enough to gaze into the transparent waters of clear-seeing? A calm and clear mind, so at ease and at rest with where I am and who I've become, I begin reflecting the starlight in the heavens above me?
Two years is meaningless in the timeless presence of self-acceptance and absolute freedom. It is not a place you hope to one day stumble upon. It is a place we carry whispering within, asking us to keep our appointment with ourselves ~ not yesterday, not tomorrow, not later today, but the moment I'm bringing your attention to ~ now.
Two years? Who cares. I've an appointment with the butterfly in the photograph above. She's praying and evangelizing ~ inviting me to awaken to the only thing that matters ~ all things, everywhere, without harsh judgment. We're all just toads in the road, in need of contentment. Now.
{Shot in the Italian garden @ Maymont Park in Richmond, Virginia!}
Posted by susan at September 8, 2006 12:00 AM
