Friday, April 14, 2017

Friday Ramble - Trailing Springtime Light

She opens her eyes at sunrise, the trailing edges of woodland dreams brushing against her still foggy mind—impressions of roots, warm earth and mossy stones, budding ferns and wildflowers in shady places, flickering sunlight and clear blue sky seen through old trees, the songs of little rivers in their blithe becoming.

There was worry in her dreams, and it lingers as she slowly comes to life with her mug of tea after rambling for hours in the dark. What if she is just floundering through life this time around and not doing anything worthwhile? What if she is unable to get across how rare and precious and fleeting we all are, this planet we are wandering together, every blessed dancing particle in the cosmos?  There is so much grace and grandeur and wildness that she despairs of ever capturing even a small scrap of it with words and images. It is humbling to be a miniscule clump of mediocrity in such a vast and wondrous dimension.

In shadowy alcoves in the woods there are scraps of snow here and there, but warmed by the springtime sun, greenery is appearing out of the leaves and mosses in nooks here and there.  The tender ferns springing from the granite in her favorite gorge are content just to be there and basking in the cool sunlight of their native place.  Perhaps, like them she gets to come back and leaf out over and over again until she gets things right.  She remembers Joanna Macy's words, and she is comforted:

It is my experience that the world itself has a role to play in our liberation. Its very pressures, pains, and risks can wake us up -- release us from the bonds of ego and guide us home to our vast, true nature. For some of us, our love of the world is so passionate that we cannot ask it to wait until we are enlightened.
Joanna Macy, World as Lover, World as Self

Somehow or other, she will be here among these hills forever and drinking in the wild light.  Her molecules will disperse and reassemble and cavort in many other life forms, but they may remember in some small measure or scrap of their being what it was like to be here this time around.  That is quite enough.

7 comments:

Barbara Rogers said...

Good to read this April morning! Thanks to you, and Joanna Macy for the sense of our own eternity, and our own impermanence at the same time!

Marcie said...

Love it all, but especially this, "Somehow or other, she will be here among these hills forever and drinking in the wild light." My molecules will be dancing not so very away from yours in the hills of northern lower Michigan! This was so beautiful to read. Thank you, Cate!

Anonymous said...

You get it across, every day, every post.

Pienosole said...

Speaking for myself, you have conveyed the impermanence of our existence and of all life. I very much related to this post and have recently given myself "the assignment" of noticing impermanence and being with it a bit. Thank you once again.

sarah said...

So poignantly beautiful <3

Guy said...

A lovely ramble Cate

Regards
Guy

Anonymous said...

Nice to read this post.Thank you so much for sharing this post.