Leaves fall to the ground
Today was good and sad all at once. I guess you could say it was a very complete day. My father and my stepmother were up this morning. They were both just as comic as always and made the occasion at the beginning seem very light and casual. My Father however, once able to get a moment alone with me, told me that the doctors have given my Stepmother 6 months to a year to live. This didn’t surprise me…
As a child I had the benefit of spending a year of my life in the country. Though I attended school in the city still, we commuted back and forth all winter to the little shack that my stepfather had spent the last ten years of his life in. I could go on and on about working in my uncles Car Repair Shop or watching my first Christmas snow- but instead I will focus on the single most clear image from that whole time up there.
It was early in the morning and the field grass was wet with dew. The sky was so bright blue that it hurt your eyes to stare up into it for too long. The air was so brisk and clean that breathing it would give you a momentary light-head high. I came out and let our dog Harley run out to do his thing. After a few seconds he spied a yellow butterfly flying around in the foot high weeds growing in the fields bellow our shack. That dog took off so fast him bottom hit the ground with the force of his push. With his tongue lolling out and his maw sniffing at the air, his body tried to change directions as fast as that tiny butterfly. He spent the better part of 10 minutes on that poor little butterfly.
In this picture as I replay it I see once again my first real glimpse of Cosmic Symmetry. Two players surrounded by forces working in unison pushing and pulling against each other and the bubble of their moment which captures them. There was nothing more perfect for that dog to do at that moment, nor was there any other deviation or digression from that model of nature.
This is the picture my Stepmother gives me as she removes her wig and shows the ravages of Chemotherapy, while smiling largely with a face so alive, at the eminent if not immediate threat of death. She couldn’t act in any other way, not only does her strength and being shine perfectly through her odds, but it overcomes any consequence.
It is ironic that at this point in her life, meaning seems to spill out of her. I have always cared for her a great deal, but even now it seems that she has something to teach me just in dealing with her illness. That is her grace of acceptance laced with the will for rebellion and survival. If you don’t think both can exist in the same moment then you have never stared at an object bound in perfect motion. You’ve never taken a shot in pool, feeling it sink before it moved an inch on the green. You’ve never sat on a cold morning watching a dog chase a yellow butterfly.
Cosmic Symmetry shows us things that happen in perfect order, no one could ever predict how they will unfold, but as you watch them unfold, you are not surprised, because you recognize their shape and its perfection.
If anyone can beat this latest challenge in their lives, my stepmother is a good candidate. But because of her example I am ready to except as correct any path that fate takes her down.
As a child I had the benefit of spending a year of my life in the country. Though I attended school in the city still, we commuted back and forth all winter to the little shack that my stepfather had spent the last ten years of his life in. I could go on and on about working in my uncles Car Repair Shop or watching my first Christmas snow- but instead I will focus on the single most clear image from that whole time up there.
It was early in the morning and the field grass was wet with dew. The sky was so bright blue that it hurt your eyes to stare up into it for too long. The air was so brisk and clean that breathing it would give you a momentary light-head high. I came out and let our dog Harley run out to do his thing. After a few seconds he spied a yellow butterfly flying around in the foot high weeds growing in the fields bellow our shack. That dog took off so fast him bottom hit the ground with the force of his push. With his tongue lolling out and his maw sniffing at the air, his body tried to change directions as fast as that tiny butterfly. He spent the better part of 10 minutes on that poor little butterfly.
In this picture as I replay it I see once again my first real glimpse of Cosmic Symmetry. Two players surrounded by forces working in unison pushing and pulling against each other and the bubble of their moment which captures them. There was nothing more perfect for that dog to do at that moment, nor was there any other deviation or digression from that model of nature.
This is the picture my Stepmother gives me as she removes her wig and shows the ravages of Chemotherapy, while smiling largely with a face so alive, at the eminent if not immediate threat of death. She couldn’t act in any other way, not only does her strength and being shine perfectly through her odds, but it overcomes any consequence.
It is ironic that at this point in her life, meaning seems to spill out of her. I have always cared for her a great deal, but even now it seems that she has something to teach me just in dealing with her illness. That is her grace of acceptance laced with the will for rebellion and survival. If you don’t think both can exist in the same moment then you have never stared at an object bound in perfect motion. You’ve never taken a shot in pool, feeling it sink before it moved an inch on the green. You’ve never sat on a cold morning watching a dog chase a yellow butterfly.
Cosmic Symmetry shows us things that happen in perfect order, no one could ever predict how they will unfold, but as you watch them unfold, you are not surprised, because you recognize their shape and its perfection.
If anyone can beat this latest challenge in their lives, my stepmother is a good candidate. But because of her example I am ready to except as correct any path that fate takes her down.