One Leaf

Tuesday 5 July 2011

One leaf…
Right here, waiting for me to take a seat.
Planted by the wind
Waiting now
simply waiting.
The wind stirs
and the heart opens...
the bird sings
and the heart thrills...
the tree sways,
loving the wind's sweet caresses.
I don't know much these days
I don't seek much these days
I do wait however…
I do know how to wait.
In letting the wind
arrive in its own time
the leaf drops gently
and lands itself down
on the seat and waits.
Beingness knows no beginning…
Knows no end.
Awakening into Presence
is an awakening out of existence.
In truth, the essence of beingness always already is.
This… This that we truly are never really loses itself…
But allows all dreaming to manifest.
In this allowing all manner of shape and form becomes.
But Presence never becomes.
Presence only ever is.
Seeking is always becoming.
When seeking ends,
Presence is.
The Forever Dance asks for no partner.
The Forever Dance dances as the One.
Stop seeking…
Stop becoming…
And you are Here.
Always already Here.
Waiting… Waiting for what?
For no thing
simply waiting.
In this waiting seeing happens.
And in this seeing
allowing forms.
And in this allowing
clarity opens her door.
And no matter what,
nothing matters
only This.
If you are chasing shadows
stop for a bit.
Land yourself down on the seat as the leaf
and wait…
Don't move and watch all life in motion.

Saturday 30 July 2011

I walked in this morning after feeding our dog Chesco, with a leaf on my shoulder. One beautiful, solitary, golden leaf… Just sitting there. I'm reminded of the poem I wrote back on 5 July… ''One leaf… Right here, waiting for me…"
It seems that the simple statement of the one leaf has been overlooked and needed to present itself to me again.
Enza noticed it,"oh… That's a beautiful leaf you have on your shoulder."
I looked at it and felt its gift immediately. Intuitively I was nudged awake, reminded not to take this life for granted. Each day is a precious gift… And we are brothers of the leaf, members of the secret order of "Living Awakenedness."

It is not complicated at all, but we do make it so. We are each that solitary leaf, yet that very leaf points back to something much larger, back to what we really are, that eternal, vast, infinite expanse that is actually right here on our shoulders. This world is not some outside realm we walk through and struggle with, but is our actual beingness made manifest… right here… right on these very shoulders lies all and everything. This world is a miraculous moment to moment outpouring of formlessness into form. It is not frozen or fixed but constantly in flux. Yet, we can very easily believe in our beliefs about this world, losing sight of the "seeing" ... that clear-seeing that comes with Being.

This vast, eternal presence is not out, is not in… It's simply here, simply this. And great love dwells here, the greatest deepest love of all. I don't wait for anything any more… How can I wait with all everything laid bare… not before me, not within me… simply laid bare as me.

This joyful re-birthing this constant re-awakening into this vast, eternal Presence floods my heart with a softness and a strange, yet clear knowing that… that solitary leaf knows no bounds.
Let it blow wherever it chooses… Let it land whereever it wills… Let it signal the way back home.