Home Thoughts from Abroad

Home Thoughts from Abroad

Oh, to be in England
Now that April's there,
And whoever wakes in England
Sees, some morning, unaware,
That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf
Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,
While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
In England - now!

And after April, when May follows,
And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!
Hark, where my blossomed pear-tree in the hedge
Leans to the field and scatters on the clover
Blossoms and dewdrops - at the bent spray's edge -
That's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,
Lest you should think he never could recapture
The first fine careless rapture!
And though the fields look rough with hoary dew
All will be gay when noontide wakes anew
The buttercups, the little children's dower
- Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!

~ Robert Browning

I thought this was a fitting title for my first post in my new home. Apparently, Browning was feeling nostalgic for his homeland when he wrote this. I think he lived in Italy after his wife died.
Now, here I am, on the last day of April, living in England. I'm sure I must have lived here in another life. Even though it is strange and different, it also feels familiar somehow. As I walk down the street, tiny pink and white petals are shaken from the trees by the breeze, and it looks like it is snowing flowers. Absolutely poetic. It feels like I am in a dream, but I am awake.

Olden days

One nice thing about aging is that you don't have to lose all the other ages you have been. Each new era or phase in your life brings its own challenges and rewards. You can always retain your younger selves, in the form of memories, experience, life lessons learned or yet to be learned.
The outer shell, your body, of course, will inevitably show the signs of wear and tear. Taking care of your body is essential. But accepting the aging of the shell is just as important. To deny that is to deny an authentic part of who you are at any given point in your life!

Peace be with me

I often tell myself that Peace is my goal. That implies that Peace is some "thing" that is outside myself, and to be obtained or attained in some way or manner. In other words, I must do something in order to find Peace.
That is exactly opposite from the truth. I need do nothing in order to know Peace. Well, the only thing I must do is to endeavor to quiet my mind. When that happens, I can see that Peace is already there. Peace is my constant companion, my one true friend. Peace never lets me down or abandons me. Peace has got my back, more than any other human could or would. Peace knows me.
Peace is in the quiet space between my cells. Peaces smiles at all the changes going on in my life. Peace is in the singing of my heart. Peace is, was, and always will be, with me.
May Peace be With You!

I'm taking a break from this blog

Will return soon....

Love

"For one human being to love another; that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation. That is why young people, who are beginners in everything, are not yet capable of love: it is something they must learn. With their whole being, with all their forces gathered around their solitary, anxious upward-beating hearts, they must learn to love. But learning time is always a long, secluded time, and therefore loving, for a long time ahead and far on into life, is solitude, a heightened and deepened aloneness for the person who loves. Loving does not at first mean merging, surrendering, and uniting with another person (for what would a union be of two people who are unclarified, unfinished, and still incoherent?). It is a high inducement for the individual to ripen, to become something in himself, to become world, to become world in himself for the sake of another person." ~ Rainer Maria Rilke
That loving is, in great measure, a solitary experience, goes against our desire for it to be a union of spirits. No doubt Love calls us to become both more human and more divine. Though we may hear its call, we too often rush to the comfort of the merging, instead of bravely facing that aspect that urges us to learn by, for and with Love in and of itself, and often by ourselves. When we meet others on our way, we can each respond to this higher calling, or we can respond to the wounded parts, in ourselves or in each other, that keep us from getting to the true harvest.

Pumpkin

"Pumpkin," who was a pumpkin, came to live with us in the autumn. This was the mid-1970's, and I am not sure which year...some of them kind of blend together in my memory. It must have been a lean year, because the house was cold enough that winter for Pumpkin to stay fresh and clean. We were amazed by how long Pumpkin stayed, well,pumpkin-like. We grew quite fond of Pumpkin the longer Pumpkin stayed. It was not until late the next spring that Pumpkin finally began to show signs of decay. We gave Pumpkin a decent send-off at Camp Columbia in Litchfield. We left Pumpkin beside the big tree there. I did keep the seeds of Pumpkin inside a wooden box. All these years, the box has been inside a storage container that I have lugged hither and yon. Once in a while, I have come upon the box, opened it and smiled. Today, I did just that once again. It was so good to see Pumpkin's remains, and delight in the good memory of Pumpkin.

Peace Prayer by Lama Gangchen Rinpoche

Peace to the inner and outer environments.

Peace to the five elements within and without.

Peace to this body.

Peace to this mind.

Peace to this huge ocean of emotions and feelings.

By the power of the truth and for the happiness of all beings,
may we have a culture of peace,
a society of peace, a world of peace,
where we can have days of peace,
nights of peace, sleep with peace and dreams of peace.

By the power of the truth and for the healing of all beings,
may we have peace in all moments
and in everything.