A Reflection On Life

I had another blog post ready for this morning.

About how I was up until 2 a.m. last night finishing videos for the YOGA+ART 21 Secrets class (fueled by excitement about sharing my passions).  About how, by staying up late, I was one of the first available to call and take advantage of a free spot at a Wine & Canvas event in Bloomington next week.  About...

...well, right now it doesn't seem all that important.

I watch the videos and hear the news of Mother Earth's movements this morning.  And, as I write this, am  awaiting news for what might happen to Hawaii and those throughout the Pacific.  I do not know anyone personally in the path of destruction, but I'm not sure that matters.

I am reminded this morning of the power of life.  

And I bow in deep gratitude.

I feel the call again - this powerful stirring inside, a personal earthquake and tsunami that raises from my gut and swells into my heart and throat, to scream out...LOOK!  Look at all of this.

SEE life.  See the power of nature.  Feel the pain of those who just lost someone, feel the fear of a shaking ground beneath you or an impending 10 foot wall of water headed towards your home, your loved ones.  Embrace the love that people around the world are emitting.  Swallow into your being that knowledge of how uncertain every moment is.  Can you not feel something?

Embody the importance of all of this.  Your life goes on today.  You go to work.  You get dressed, you pee, you walk, you breathe.  The moments continue and I do not propose for a moment that you can or should alter your mundane routine.  

I urge you to alter your perspective.

See that these things around you?  They are just that - things.  This life around you?  I don't care how trite it seems...BREATHE this in - THIS LIFE IS PRECIOUS and TEMPORARY.

I see the videos of cars and boats being swept by a non-judgmental water.  They are part of the flow.  Yet how much importance did each owner place on that thing before it was swept away?

(AP Photo/NHK TV)

It reminds me of my children's play things and how devastated they are if even one car is taken from them.

Yet, looking from the outside as a mother who just wants peace in the household, I find myself frustrated at the attachment.

A lesson to be learned.

I do art, I practice yoga, I impart what little wisdom I have gained to my children, I make choices at the grocery store (sometimes healthy, sometimes not).  I pay bills, shift around finances, try to make deals with medical bills.

Infused with this all, as much as I possible can, is a remembrance of life.  That beyond these limited perspectives that I and you hold there is a richness to being that almost brings me to tears.  

I hold in my awareness that my children will have to experience my death or that I will have to experience theirs.  

I hold in my awareness that the dead animal I pass on the side of the road (yet another) was birthed by a mother that held just as much love for her child as I do for mine.

I hold in my awareness that people right now in Japan and Hawaii and around the world are suffering so deeply.  I hold in my awareness that there are mothers right now in Europe and Texas who have just given birth to their first-born and they are overwhelmed with love and connection.

I hold all of this in my awareness as I go to switch the laundry and call about the hospital bill.

Life is so much more than this "stuff" we cling to.  

And yet, it is nothing more than this moment.

May all beings be well.  May all beings be filled with loving-kindness.  

Namaste.