I am the Universe that is Awakening
Really? Little Me?
Dear Friend,
The skies this morning are bruised. The clouds scuttle across the washed out blue, the trellis in the corner of our garden has blown down and the monkey puzzle tree is waving and dancing in the wind. It will require some attention. Staking. It is young and slim, and possibly not even a monkey puzzle, my knowledge of plant names is rudimentary.
When writers speak of their craft, the subject of vulnerability comes up. You prize and peel away at the shell of the outer, to reveal what’s inside.
That’s the pleasure of it.
Here with you. Wherever the winds blow us. For two minutes maybe three minutes of our day. Only the false self fears such intimacy.
What is it afraid of?
How would it be to let our fears melt?
We’ve been through it and we’ll go through it again, the joy and the heartbreak of loving. On the surface of the world, there is coming and going. It can get fairly frantic, outside. We forget the most essential things. Our breath means nothing until we become aware of it.
When we follow the breath with our attention, the inside and the outside don’t seem so separate after all. One conscious breath can calm a wind blown mind. All of that atmosphere, blanketing the earth, most precious of gifts, freely given.
I watched our Dad struggle for each breath. His last ten days, he held on tight, not wanting any of us to be in the room when he finally let go of his body. Mam came in the end to bring him out of it. He was attached to the world, believing it to be his only home. From Dad I get my earthing. Stubborn. Bullish. Zeus.
I am the universe that is awakening, awakening from what?
Coming back to the breath. Following the breath inside, feeling the lungs, throat connecting to the heart, a warmth blooming in the belly. The mind quietens.
Awakening from what?
Sleep?
Although separate. Individual. We share one atmosphere. Intimately connected through our breath. Like bumper cars. Blue sparks flying, and the smell of ozone. Cut off the power and all cars roll to a halt together.
So this we have in common. One breath at a time.
Becoming conscious of just how connected we are. The climate. Our economies. War. How we greet one another, how we live.
Do you rattle around this city like a marble in a shoe box?
Or is your soft flesh and living bone in a dance with glass, stone, concrete, marble, tarmac and beneath it all, earth?
Look at the branches of the trees. Don’t our veins branch? A tree, inside of you.
Awakening to the interconnectedness of all life.
The star dust that we are made of.
To be made of star dust.
Living star dust.
Breathing.
Through the open window.
The air carries the song of the city.
This living planet.
Parts of it, not apart from it.
That has been our great mistake.
The monkey puzzle.
Waving
Frantically now.
Until tomorrow
Love
Mikey