A Clearing? in Everyday Ramblings

Again not the most exciting picture taking opportunities lately. This is an area I walk by all the time. It is Department of Transportation land and sits right next to a series of freeways down below where there used to be a natural gully. What I like about the shot is the light. You can begin to see the shift, ever so slightly of the angle of the sun from solstice to equinox.

I was over there yesterday and across the street is this fencing with huge no trespassing signs and this fist thick linked chain and lock and right next to it a man shaped hole cut into the fence that you can walk in and out of.

Imagine the effort and ingenuity it took to procure wire cutters strong enough and the time to get in there and make the cut at night with the river of traffic flowing underneath, and now imagine that effort and ingenuity focused on initiatives and activities to make life more comfortable for us all.

We have some pretty screwed up priorities here in urban America.

Yesterday I had three students in my work class, two managers and their beloved admin (who is really really good at his job). I teach in a big conference room with floor to ceiling east facing windows (we push the tables and AV equipment out of the way) and it was the end of class and they were all down stretched on their mats with their eyes closed. I teach with what natural light there is so it was a bit twilight like in there and this random woman opens the door to come in.

My work students absolutely love this 15-minute part of class. Harried parents, ambitious managers they never ever get a break and I do a guided meditation to release and relax each part of the body then let them drift. I was trying to imagine what that woman must have thought, so out of a work context to see them there on the floor in almost a trance like state.

It is all so weird, the fact that I teach in this work environment that is so crazy and dysfunctional and stressful for me. My theory is that I have this skill to offer, and the will to offer it and maybe in my own small way make things better. I am beginning to wonder if maybe it would be better for me not to teach there. Especially if I file a grievance.

I heard this poem in a Dharma talk this morning…

Clearing by Martha Postlewaite

Do not try to save
the whole world
or do anything grandiose.
Instead, create
a clearing
in the dense forest
of your life
and wait there
patiently,
until the song
that is your life
falls into your own cupped hands
and you recognize and greet it.
Only then will you know
how to give yourself
to this world
so worthy of rescue.

Mrs. Sherlock is doing an all day workshop thing at the church today so we will walk tomorrow. I will get to hear all the gossip. We gossip mindfully with kindness. :)

Other than chores and cardio I have nothing on the agenda today. I hope to listen for the song of my life and follow the path it lays out before me.

Last updated January 26, 2019