Pay Attention--at Ease

[Guest guest]

Good morning--- isnt it?

Monday, the day after Sunday, and day before Tuesday,

my good news-day.

Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly, I'm gonna live till the day

that I die, Cant help loving this life of mine~~~~~~~

But I wont drink the wine before its time. Is it time?

I got to thinking back on this strange life of mine, the ups &

downs, the villains & the clowns, putting quarters in the jute-box,

playing the blues in some low-life gin-mill in so many unknown

sleezy, sleepy, almost forgotten towns, in unheard of places.

So many faces, all faded away into the mists of yesterday.

When things are quite here in my room, I can hear the faint sound

of children laughing, playing, running through the house, my girls,

all grown-up now and far away.

I had to laugh at sending her printer to the dump, along with

the trash, ha! story of my life. At my age I spend most of my day

looking for my coffee-cup, which is sitting there right under my nose.

Looking back on my past has been a blast, flying high, running loose,

like a wild goose, until someone or something got my attention.

Much of our journey is about the ways we work with our attention,

because attention gives us more life.

It expands the register, bringing us to notice more of the vividness &

consolation of our dark lives so that we can exist in our true range, &

not go around missing things, as if we knew countries only from their

airports and hotels.

Attention is the most basic form of love; through it we bless and are

blessed. When we attend to the interior life, we also connect with all

that surrounds us----the espresso machine hissing, the skipping-rope

with its two red handles in line and the rope curling lazily out and back,

the green points on snow-drops floating down onto the cold ground.

What was matter and merely inanimate becomes family, and we, the

children walking, walking, walking home from school.

All wanting--- for love, to be seen for who we are, for a new red car----

is wanting to find and be taken into this mysterious depth of things.

And it is this inner connection that resolves the problem of who we

are and makes us at home in the world, while we are here.

For the interior life sweetens the humblest thing. It opens for us the

magic in ordinary life.

So for my life I give it a B-- It could have been better or it could have

been worse, and I might even have married a nurse. ha!

So, you all can shop til you drop, but stay safe & sound, until Santa

comes around, and the New Millennium arrives in your city or town.

Cheers

S.C.