I Choose Now

If you are a regular visitor to my blog, you know I commune with the natural world regularly for solace, inspiration, clarity, deeper contact with myself, to integrate experiences, to source meaning ...I meander and let my intuition do the walking. On a recent outing, I chose not to let my mind wander but to continue to bring it back to the here and now. What was before me was too spectacular, beautiful, inspiring to miss. More than that, I wanted now. I didn't want to miss out on my life while I occupied my head.Do you want to know a little secret? All we have is now.We hardly experience here while wanting to be there. We are always on our way to something more, something better, someplace else.Most of us are in the present-past or the present-future, but we rarely occupy the now. Why not?How much of life do we miss while we ride the rails of our habituated patterns of thinking and feeling, over and over? How well do we know ourselves when we endlessly distract and stay stuck in these well worn feelings and thoughts?

These thoughts and feelings are not ours to have.They simply are.

Seemingly from out of nowhere, I Choose Now became my mantra. Each time I found my mind wandering, I brought my attention back to what was right in front of me with the words, I Choose Now.I let go of whatever thought or feeling tried to occupy me. With each repetition of the phrase I inhaled the beauty around me. I allowed the miracle that is our natural world to touch me. It was excruciating ... and sublime.This poem continues to inspire me as I journey through life. It's meaning still unfolding.

Lost

Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside youAre not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,Must ask permission to know it and be known.The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,I have made this place around you,If you leave it you may come back again, saying Here.No two trees are the same to Raven.No two branches are the same to Wren.If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knowsWhere you are. You must let it find you.~ David Wagoner ~

HERE

Rays of sunshine burst through clouds and sweep across citrus orchards and olive grovesThousands of seagulls circle in tornado formation and squawk in revelrySunlight reflects off grey-green olive and blue-green carob trees leavesOrbs of yellow and gold citrus framed against blue skyDonkeys bay, roosters crow, lambs baaah, bird songs all echo across the valleyEcstatic joy brings tears to my eyes - allow the joy. Don't try to hold on, don't shut it out.And when you relax and accept here; when you stop beating up on yourself for not being someplace that you're not, embrace where you are and keep your eye on where you're going - that's where the magic of life happens. That's where "you happen" as you create yourself in every moment.

I choose now