To become what you can be

Chosen to sit outside

Slightly cold, buffeted breezes ruffle my page and edges

Make me uncomfortable, unsettled

Remind me that life’s unease brings

Awakening, awareness and growth.

Listening to the tiny sounds

Carried on vibrations through the currents.

Feeling my body respond to the cold.

Eyes drinking in horizons.

Ever walked in forests where bears reside?

Suddenly you re-discover your primitive nature.

Every crack of wood underfoot is crystal clear.

A flickering of movement in the dark undergrowth

Sends adrenalin surging.

You remember your vulnerability

Prepare to run, fight or die.

So too here, I examine my inner landscape with sudden urgency

Tuning into the vibrations of spirit.

Knowing death is coming swiftly

And I must be alert.

That days, hours and seconds must not be wasted.

We have but one purpose here,

Never forget

Flee from lethargy, apathy and laziness.

Be unsettled with where you are

To become what you can be.

Getting cold and getting old

It is so cold I am sitting with a hot water bottle on my lap as I type.  There are several facets to growing older and one for me is the coldness of my extremities.   My hands and feet are like cold Icelandic fish and refuse to warm up.  A friend and I were discussing this aging business and there are some beauties.  Please feel free to add your own.

One was the definition of getting older – various insights/comments were shared

1.     Sitting on the toilet you discover a watermelon seed in the folds of your stomach.  The worrying thing is you cannot remember when you last ate a watermelon.

2.     You suddenly find the need to sit when putting on socks

3.     You suddenly find the need to pee when laughing at jokes

4.     All medical personnel appear to have barely finished primary school to you

5.     People in authority ask you weird questions like who is the present prime minster

6.     You think people in authority are really weird and not necessarily on your side

7.     When people ask you how you are – you really want to tell them the dire truth, including all the aches, pains and worries

8.     As you get older you don’t smell yourself, you don’t see the hair growing out of every orifice, wrinkly skin feels just as smooth as usual and you don’t hear your own farts.

9.     You learn to never take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night

10.       An "all-nighter" means not getting up to pee!

11.       You and your teeth don't sleep together anymore

12.       Your mind not only wanders. Sometimes it leaves completely

13.       Getting a little action means I don't need fibre today

14.    Getting lucky means you find your car in the car parkhe

shaking and buffeting - a blast from the past

I will walk no matter what the weather.  To be outside is to be alive.  Even buffeted by cold winds and rain, the air forcing its way into our lungs works its magic.  Cleansing out the rheum, blowing the mind free of box-like worries.  Allowing the eye to focus out there on the horizon not on empty walls and this fake life.

As you pace the steps that take you to freedom, your back straightens.  With each step you remember an ancient rhythm.  Finding a solace in the slap of earthy ground underfoot.  The beauty of nature pierces the fog of delusion.  You are struck by the redness of that berry, the crisp leaf somersaulting in happy abandonment. 

Slowly the dross is cleansed and polished from off your heart. You are reminded of what this life is for.   

Recollecting who you are, touching base with all the memories of life so far.  Being grateful for precious souls that have brought love to your heart.  Knowing they inspire you still.  Then all this shaking and buffeting throws the cobwebs of your vain imaginations and at last a tiny awareness of real life emerges.