The Tao is all abut the Way, the How, the process.  There is only flow.  All the rest is a micro mini second of the process.

To welcome all things as they naturally arise.  Not expecting, not seeking, fulfillment is the gift of the Presence IN the Present moment.  Being here and now, still, is the gift where spirit meets matter in sweet song.

Let me surf on Your Grace this day, in brilliant sunshine of friends, diamond spray of surprising waves, and the deep blue  pipeline depth of Your heart.

So it’s about sitting quietly until the next right action shows itself right in front of me.  allowing the flow of the way it works to work.  Being pleasantly at peace while whirlwinds (snow), insecurities (holidays), insufficiencies ((work), and laziness (sad?), just bubble and foam, rush and rapidly wave around me.

In the peace f the Presence there is no movement.  Here is truly detached loving of myself as a dear trembling earnest human, merely being.  Filled AS spirit, I am on an adventure of protoplasm.  It can be scary.

As Pema says, it is when we relax that we can experience the “fundamental richness” of our lives.

I like being rich, feeling rich, overflowing rich.  Let’s do that today!

Happy Solstice y’all!

If I am still, and present in this very moment, there is nothing to seek.  I am completely filled up.  This requires only that I am aware of this truth.  Every moment.  The awareness itself is the proof of it.

However, being in the here and now is a constantly flitting butterfly for us humans.  the more I grasp and flail for it, the more it flits and flies erratically out of reach.  It is sitting still and opening my eyes and heart to this very very very here and now that I feel the deep groundedness in this time and space.

I bow to the mind that brings memories, doubts, future tripping and then drops a photo of my high school friends in my lap from my meditation book.  Human life is a giggle with the way time and space folds in on it self in every other moment.

I’m not sure if I want to wake up, or dive into the dream life today of the ups and downs as the Path.  However, this moment is when I sit very very still and let the love of my Dear Friend alight on my nose.  Her colors are exquisite.  The song of Her love defies the base element of sound. My whole body leans into the conscious contact with the One.

Hurray for here and now.

All power and glory rest in the now.  No matter how tired, cold and seemingly lonely it feels to us bumbling humans.  What an endeavor we have set up for ourselves!  What an amusement park of delights, frights and theatrics are here on this earthly 3 dimensional adventure.

In this now is all possibility, potentiality, cliff-hanging plummet or flying fun.

Today the tired trusty body will focus on the eternal now of leaning on You.  The You of the Tao, the Air of Spirit, the precise Presence of Divine in every smallest bit of trembling matter.  I will water my matter–my human self–with Divine nourishment.  I will remember that I am continuously and constantly loved by the Dear One.

She whispers and giggles at my neck, reminding me how I begged Her to

Be

Here

Now.

Relating in a new way–what a practice.  How to do it after generations of victim, martyr and bully triangulations–patterns in this culture set as firm as the ground I walk.

Yet again, the ground changes–from collapsing skyscrapers to kind popes to nuclear fallout, I see the shift happens to relations around me.

Still.  Still there is a disconcerting stillness when patterns change.  No arguments can put me off balance.  No drama almost taunts me to find and create it.  At the cockeyed center is –I’m not getting any attention!  Is this loneliness or meditation?  Am I watching from the center or from the yawning vacuum?

But there is another thought–fighting to change who I am is a subtle aggression against the perfection of who I am.  Being at ease with what is, as I am, is a more centered, grounded, friendly non-goal, than pushing to “change”.

Up and down, back and forth, around and around on the human/spirit playground.  Let’s play!

Who is leading when I dance like no one is watching?  Remember the old days, the waltz, when one person would lead and the other use intuition skills to follow their lead?  It is a skill, that’s for sure.  I was never that good at it.  Now head-banging dance, I could do that really well.

Still, any dancing requires that I listen to the beat.  Today I will listen to the flow of the music around me.  My heart, the air, the others, the work, the body, the thirst, the seeking.  All this Tao-stuff.

I can certainly decide how to swim and dance, but I have given up–hands in the air squealing–directing this rollercoaster.

I dance in my seat on the ride.

It is a giggle to believe that knowing nothing and being “no body” is a goal on the Path.  A Path that really “goes” “no where”!

That is if I think I know something, I’m crowding out room to see the new.  Knowing things creates a story that sets a up framework.  Inevitably this framework focuses on what is in the picture and points me away from what doesn’t fit.  Being “some body” creates a persona that does not allow for eccentricities, inventive ideas and freedom.  Even brilliant innovators are restrictive.

And all restriction is ok too.  The story I’m in right now is ok.  “Be all, be everything” might be an interesting practice.  Open and endless.

Trust the way things are.  I don’t question a wave–whether radio waves, ocean waves, or the bubbling frantic giggling churning waves of a river.  Why do I question and fight with the waves of the Way–ups and downs of life?  Probably because my dear mind believes it has some kind of control over these stirrings.

Well, I do a bit.  I bring them here, flop them smelly fishes on the desk and take a look–is this food?  Is this fodder?  Is this for the cat?  Or is a reminder to eat the sustenance when it is fresh rather than let life experiences ferment into bad wine in my head, sour and bitter?  If I pause, meditate and just sit–the smell becomes clear.

But one thing is certain–the fish, the event, the turn & twist of life IS. It simply IS.  Thus on my Path, in the Way and I either have to go around it and run the risk of getting confused and back at this place again, or take a good look at it, using mind and heart, and walk through it.  Through it is a lot faster than around it.  Trust me.  I’ve tried every “short cut” possible and, well, they are distracting detours.

Straight on till morning!

What is success anyway?  Money?  Prestige?  Advancement?  For me it is serenity.  The peace of being comfortable with my actions and decisions–no matter how they seem to come out.  Thus if I allow the flow to show me the way to go, it sure is easier than fussing and fighting the current.

I can choose to push out a new direction, despite the tradition, culture, peer and family roar, and that is a time of change..  Just like any season shift, colors are different, weather is new (again), and the landscape changes.

But the awareness after a difficult discussion is an achievement, considering where I spoke compassionate truth and when I insisted on my opinionated righteousness.  Where I “succeeded” and where I “failed”–all of that is a prize.

What is even more swee, is the mornings when I lean on Your shoulder, listening to the lullaby of Your Love.