FOR EARTH MAMMA.. WE HAVE A LOT IN COMMEN!!

[Guest guest]

The Rhythm of LifeNot

too long ago I was standing on the bank of a stream watching the water

slip over the rocks. The sound of the bubbling water held my attention,

very soothing.I decided to sit for a bit on the bank of the

stream. A wiggle here...a wiggle there and I settled comfortably in the

Earthen chair. Gazing at the stream, the sound of water over rocks soon

enveloped me like surround sound.My

heartbeat, pulsing. Each in-breath; connected me to the rhythm of the

stream. Each out-breath; detached me from anything outside the

shorelines of the stream. In...out....in...the cool air fills my

lungs....out...I feel the warmth of air over my tongue...the rhythmic

breathing slowed my thoughts to a trickle. Water bubbling over rocks

became like lyrics; go with the flow....go with the flow. My body

loosened, becoming as fluid as a lazy SSSSsssss curve.

"Listen...listen... the rocks in the river give the river her song." As

I became One with the meditative sounds of the river song...even the

concept of time spilled into the flow.Until....A tiny

speck of something...just out of the corner of my eye...this something

is falling from the sky. And in that instant of awareness the

connection with the water was broken.Squinting, still mesmerized by the stream it took a moment to focus.High

from the canopy of trees a single leaf floats down. Zig... Zag. Like a

pendulum the leaf sways....right.....left.....right....left.Turned up edges toasty brown and crisp, the cupped belly of the leaf appears soft, pliable and vibrantly golden.Like a feather, the leaf gently glides onto the surface of the water where it's quickly scooped up by the rhythm of the stream.Watching the leaf takes me back to summer adventures and being scooped up as I splashed into the current of Yosemite's rivers.Tubing

with my brother, free floating on the Mighty Rivers of Wahwona, as he

was busy looking for fish in hidden holes; those deeper safe havens for

the big-one-that-got away. Me, I was in search of hidden treasures that

some ancient ancestor may have left behind.Free-floating,

for me, was always the best...just like that golden leaf, gliding over

the ripples, slipping over rocks, leaning into and away from the

different elevations and formations...going with the flow.There

were times when, in those uncharted waters, I got hung up on

something....or bounced into an unforeseen boulder...OUCH!!! It rocked

me momentarily...but usually the current and the depth of the water

spit me back out into the flow again.Now, watching that golden

leaf float, dodge, hang-up, up-end and then right itself in the

Mainstream reminds me of the Great Current that runs through my life.Funny,

as a kid, I loved mucking around in the slick-bottom shallows of a

stream or a lake. All the neat stuff lived there; tadpoles in the

spring... full-bodied frogs hidden in a flotilla of summertime pond

scum, soft shelled pancake turtles dug deep in the muddy shelf bottom

gave themselves away by a strand of air-bubbles surfacing to the top of

the water.Craw Dads clinging under the large granet bolders.. The shallows were always an adventure.I almost lost

that edge of curiosity by becoming comfortable. But thank goodness,

some next adventure would nudge me; a new job, a business venture,

"educational" pursuits that took me all over the country. Clearly, it

seems, I'm to stay in the Current of the Mainstream...not attaching too

long to any mirage, those "things" that appear to give the mainstream

(small "m") security.Suddenly

an action in the stream takes me out of my headiness. The golden leaf

gets tossed out of the current and into the shallows. It's hung-up on

something. I can't see what's got the leaf in its grip...but it's being

held in place. My urge is to go over and release it. But I'm "nudged"

to simply watch.The leaf is lodged on something...it's almost

motionless. Perhaps it's reached its final destination. Perhaps it will

become part of That-Which-Gives-Back. Long ago I was taught that the

those still murky scum-waters was a place where other organisms would

break down whatever collects there, transforming the "prisoner" into a

new cycle...food, shelter for others living in the waters."There's a reason for everything," my mom always says.Oh...suddenly

there's more action...nothing stays the same in the current of this

stream. A twig shoots out of the current. It's moving toward the

shallows, taking the same path as the leaf...an upside down V of water

makes a wake behind the twig.DOINK!!Like the domino

effect the twig bumps into the leaf. The golden leaf bobs back and

forth in the water. On the down-bob the leaf is suddenly released from

the grip of the unknown. Now the twig is hooked up on the unknown. A

small piece of bark flakes off the twig and hits the leaf... pushing

the leaf toward the current where it begins to swirl in a slow spinning

motion. As it reaches the outer edge of the current...the leaf twirls

around like a tilt-a-whirl...faster until the momentum carries it into

the Mainstream where it's scooped up into the Pulsating Water.I watched until the leaf was out of sight...up and over another boulder and then around the bend of the Stream's Plan.Experiencing

the emotions that flow, ripple and churn with this human event called

awareness, is very much like what I watched with the golden leaf. I'm

riding the rapids of possibilities. Sometimes I sit in what appears to

be stagnate waters yet, these very waters slow me down to take a breath

and regroup. It is here in the shallows that I confront the illusions,

the very stuff that narrows my vision and separates me from the Current

of Life.The neat thing about that leaf is that something came

along and freed it from the illusive grip. And like the leaf, I'm free

as soon as I let loose of the idea that anything can separate me from

my Source. In the autumn of my life...experiencing this very human

event, I realize that it doesn't matter whether the experience is a

lazy ribbon ripple or a white water boil; I just have to be willing to

flow with the Current that's movin' through me. Love~All~Ways*~Karma*