What moves you?
Is there a song from childhood, a sight, a distant witnessing of some kindness the image of which has never left you?
What moves us..."us" being every living thing...
Yes, every living thing. I believe we are part of nature, even one with nature, and our forgetting that is fundamental to our problems. We view nature as some outside phenomenon to be conquered.
Some talk of planting gardens. Neighborhood gardens, in cities as well as country, or even on the White House lawn. That moves me. Some understand the importance of the little things in what we call "life". That moves me.
"Let us explore...In these pages, let us demonstrate the experience of our deepest heart...Let us find what we seek." --We Who Dream.
I sit here and type. There is a window to my left. Sunlight comes through, and I feel my consciousness greet it, and then go beyond, into the back yard, "out" toward the Rockies...that moves me.
Maybe it's considered trite, no longer realistic, but I believe we might do well to return to some of those old ways, such as community gardens...and this is coming from a man who would be very happy living as a hermit...
"Here at last, we all can nod to one another as we pass, no longer afraid. Love has always been the underlying principle, that light we always return to." --We Who Dream.
Love for me comes in different forms. There are signs of budding on the honey locust tree in our front yard. I stood there last week, lightly touching the branches, my fingers whispering hello to the quietly green leaves not-yet-born. This is a form of love, the awesome vitality, the exuberance, the joyously insistent push. The tree recognizes me. And man, that really moves me.
When I pick trash up out of my gutters, it is an act of love; when I let another car ahead of me, it is an act of love; my belief in, and writing about, things unseen, is an act of love. My goal, my practice, is to be wholly helpful. My desire is to list all the things I can that I would not want done to me, (without unnecessarily dwelling on them) then as well as I can, not do those things to others. I believe in the power of mind.
It moves me to watch my little Australian shepherd toss an old bone around the back yard. When she first came to us, she had had it so rough, she simply knew nothing about being a dog. Now she plays, she wags her tail, she barks.
If I say Barack Obama is a great man, and will be seen as a great president, I am not assigning him too much importance. It is the times and the historical precedence...It just seems someone comes along just when we need him/her. "President Obama", in that sense, is a symbol, but a powerful one. He is putting things into movement because he knows there are enough of us who will take up the cause, lead by his example, turn his gift of inspiring us into real change. That is an act of love, too.
It ripples.
"I am still. I hear the language of silence, feel the touch of the invisible...the flowing, endless waters." --We Who Dream.
I ask again, what moves you? When you are afraid, or sad, do you sometimes feel a very small, quiet undercurrent, a sort of whisper that tells you to keep moving forward...that all is well? Is that what hope is? Maybe. Hope as audacious as those buds on my tree, the big red roses beneath it, soon to bloom. Is all that really outside us, or is there in truth no outside? Why should nature be something separate, apart from us? Why should love be a mystery, when it is all around/within (no end to the "within" of things) us? It isn't debate I'm after. I just want to know...what moves you?