Spiritual Sundays | Seventy Seven
Dear friend,
I took Bessie home last night. I’d been looking after her while her human, Maya, ran a series of performances of Carmenthe opera. It’s always a wrench, the moment of parting. Bessie is momentarily confused.
“Where you going?” she says with her eyes.
I walk back to the car with a lump in my throat.
“I’ll turn this pain into art,” I said to myself, sitting behind the wheel of Lou, our Skoda — and the grandiosity of it helps me to chuckle through the heaviness. I also imagine, as I sometimes do, the party we’ll have when we’re reunited again. And then I see myself reunited with Santy, and with all of the animals in the astral world. It helps me keep a sense of perspective, especially when the conditions around us are uncertain and chaotic — to draw back and look at the bigger picture.
The bees in the lavender.
The cherry tree nodding gently in the morning breeze.
The bitterness of the morning coffee on my taste buds.
With a few breaths, you recognise the stillness within, and a smile plays on your lips. All of the complexity stops for a moment. Our lives are made of moments, and we can choose — over and over — stillness, connection, kindness, no matter what others are choosing.
None of us have any business trying to control anyone other than ourselves.
That others try is theirs to reckon with.
I choose love.
Forgiveness.
Beauty.
Holding to a strength that manifests as kindness, as best I can.
What else is there to do?
We have a tray of water in the garden for the wild birds — there’s so little water around with the dry hot weather. A young wood pigeon drinks, then hops onto the top of the fence, looks back over one wing, and is gone.
The coo of a dove soothes and warms the heart.
Dropping down — beneath the howling surface of a storm.
Who isn’t looking for peace of mind?
Sometimes it seems we look for it everywhere except where it can be found. Right here inside. Not out there in the world — although the plants, and the animals, and the land are more than willing to offer directions.
Be still.
Even for one breath.
Look inside.
Where the light shines brighter than the sun.
Till tomorrow
Love
Mikey