“I have lots of things to teach you now, in case we ever meet, concerning the message that was transmitted to me under a pine tree in North Carolina on a cold winter moonlit night.
It said that Nothing Ever Happened, so don’t worry. It’s all like a dream. Everything is ecstasy, inside. We just don’t know it because of our thinking-minds. But in our true blissful essence of mind is known that everything is alright forever and forever and forever. Close your eyes, let your hands and nerve-ends drop, stop breathing for 3 seconds, listen to the silence inside the illusion of the world, and you will remember the lesson you forgot, which was taught in immense milky way soft cloud innumerable worlds long ago and not even at all. It is all one vast awakened thing. I call it the golden eternity. It is perfect.”
As 2017 comes to a close at midnight, my heart is full with memories. I know more with each passing day that the sweetness is in awareness. Awareness of all of the magic, majesty and wonder all around, in every single second. In the trees, the wild ones, the big night sky, the wind, every snow flake, the fragrance of pine, my dog’s intent gaze, the eyes of a stranger, the touch of my beloved… The moments of wonder stitch together in a tapestry of hours, days, weeks, and thus this year was made. Moments of awareness, of being here now, slowly weave together our lives. There is so very much to treasure, absorb, experience, and be with. How beautiful.
It leaves me breathless for all that 2018 may bring… It is a precious thing to be alive in this world.
So…goodbye 2017 and thank you!
And to 2018, sending heartfelt wishes for all of us to write on our hearts, pause in the silence of the forest, visit the area of the soul where words don’t penetrate, be peaceful and wild, and Love, Love, Love, in the wondrous moments that will create our new year!
“Write it on your heart… that every day is the best day of the year.”
-R. W. Emerson
“Pausing to experience the silence of the forest during winter months is a gift of presence.”
-Andrea Fereshteh
“Some events are in the area of the soul where words cannot penetrate.”
-Neil Cassady
“There is peaceful. There is wild. I am both at the same time.”
“Every day, I walk myself into a state of well-being & walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it. But by sitting still, & the more one sits still, the closer one comes to feeling ill. Thus if one just keeps on walking, everything will be all right.”
-Soren Kierkegaard
“We should take wandering outdoor walks, so that the mind might be nourished and refreshed by the open air and deep breathing.”
-Seneca
“It is only ideas gained from walking that have any worth.”
-Nietzsche
“It is a paradox that perhaps the single best way to still one’s mind is to put the body in motion.”
“Every day
I see or hear
something
that more or less
kills me
with delight,
that leaves me
like a needle
in the haystack
of light.
It was what I was born for –
to look, to listen,
to lose myself
inside this soft world –
to instruct myself
over and over
in joy,
and acclamation.
Nor am I talking
about the exceptional,
the fearful, the dreadful,
the very extravagant –
but of the ordinary,
the common, the very drab,
the daily presentations.
Oh, good scholar,
I say to myself,
how can you help
but grow wise
with such teachings
as these –
the untrimmable light
of the world,
the ocean’s shine,
the prayers that are made
out of grass?”
“Go outside and don’t go to a special place. Just go into your neighborhood and repeatedly, over and over again, open your ears and harvest the sounds all around you. Whether those are tree sounds or car sounds or bird sounds. Without judgment, just be present for the physical experience of sounds flowing into our consciousness. Do that over and over again and the trees will befriend you — or come into your consciousness and teach you some of what they’re saying.”
“Ah, Lovely October, as you usher in the season that awakens my soul, your awesome beauty compels my spirit to soar like an leaf caught in an autumn breeze and my heart to sing like a heavenly choir.”
