A Matter Of Perspective

On my walk into the nearby leafy canyon this late afternoon, at my customary resting and turning-back point, I found myself indulging, in my ‘old age’ - a condition brought to the fore of my current awareness by a very recent birthday - in a new phenomenon for me: that of cloud-watching.  Or more precisely, of engaging in watching cloud-forming and -disappearing.  Have you ever slowed down long enough in your life to notice how clouds form seemingly out of nothing, stay awhile, in our human five-senses realm, and then disappear back into seeming nothing??  I know there are laws of physics involved, and suspended molecules of matter, and so forth; but isn’t it interesting?  And how it can lead on to thinking of such things as how we, too, in these ‘swim suits’ - swimming in this sea of matter - appear seemingly out of nothing (or at least, hardly anything), ‘strut and fret our hour upon the stage, and then are heard no more,’ to paraphrase the Bard.  But is that all, really, there is to ‘it’, this matter of life, currently in matter??

And I like how our bodies are also referred to as ‘vessels’.  And here’s an accompanying thought to that aspect of things; and as generated by my recent birthday outing: of how it’s good to let people do things for you.  It gives them an experience of, and practice in, heart opening.  I used to think that ‘I can do it all alone,’ ‘I don’t need anybody to give me a hand,’ ‘I can manage by myself, thank you very much’.  But we aren’t here to ‘do it al alone’ - to, in effect, play it safe in life.  Take that thought of our bodies being vessels.  I like a saying that I came across many years ago, of how ‘Ships are safe in ports.  But that’s not what ships are for.’  

And then I put my hat back on, and headed back for home.  Oh - but before doing so, I will note here, and speaking of such things, that a man with his family, having just arrived at the car park where I take my rest break sitting at a covered picnic table, looked over at me, noticed my ‘condition,’ and called over to me asking if I wanted a bottle of water.  I didn’t really need one - it wasn’t really that hot today.  But what a nice gesture.  And having just been reminded of an aspect of such interactions - to say, the heart openings that they support - regarding the family’s recent celebration of my birthday, and my rest-break rumination on it, I took him up on his offer, with dutiful thanks.

P.S. On my way back, I heard a lot of shooting coming from a shooting range on the other side of the reservoir up in that canyon.  I have heard such practice emanating from that range before; but nothing like this.  It sounded almost frenetic.  As though things were heating up.  Just out of the range of our senses.

     Could be.  But then, things come.  And things go.  

     In this aspect of Life.