Nostalgia by Sharon

This last year has been strange, surreal, and filled with synchronicity.  Unbelievable that it’s coming to a close and 2012 looms on the horizon, like some monolithic monument, strangled with vines and moss.  When I think of 2012, my brain blossoms with images of Mayans, the humid heat of the jungle, green fever, I want to sprint between the trees until my lungs burn.

Most everyone seems to expect change, from minor to major.  Does it have to take ancient apocalyptic foreshadowing to change the minds of billions of people?

I pray for myself and for my family, both those of my blood and not of my blood.  I pray that we find the middle ground, the balance, the calm.  Whatever is coming, let it wash over you, run through you, like a wave running through the ocean.  I pray I will be able to let go of rigid thoughts, physical manifestations, social structures.  Bending, flexible, stretching, and then…  

Remember; we cannot lose ourselves.  You take yourself with you, everywhere you go.  There is no need to hold on so tightly.  Everywhere you turn there is a story being told.  I listen with confusion; some resonate, some alienate.  Listen, but don’t worry about believing; belief is just another word for holding on.  Take it all in, but let it wash over you; I am trying not to store beliefs in my mind.  Some instinct tells me, rigid ideas will break, crumble, shatter.  But fluid ideas will flow freely.

I recently went to a Buddhist Monastery in Redwood Valley, California.  They gave me a book.  To me, it all begins and ends with one basic principle: breathe in, breathe out.

If you became too attached to one breath, if your lungs would not let it go, it would kill you.  But you have faith that with each breath you let out, there will be another to follow it inward.  There is no need to cling to breath, to air.  I am trying to apply this to my life; breathe in, breathe out. 

If you have the faith to let go, you will always be restored. 

~SLV