We come for a brief season, sparks of the Inextinguishable Flame, to bring its light, to show its glory.
We do the best we can, never knowing how far our light will reach, how many hearts will hear our song.
Oh, we may preen and boast, but deep inside we bow to love, seeking to give it, and to receive its blessing.
And however brief our stay, however soon our passing, our songs sing on. For we, each of us, are children of the Flame, written across eternity, remembered forever, and forever alive in its unfathomable, holy fire.
Deep in the core of your heart lives a knowing, something surer than eye or word can tell, a fixed reality, transcending all illusion. Trust in that, and flow in its grace.
The leaves fall to the creek floor like careless drops from the brush of some artist. Splattering the rocks with rust and bronze, pale yellow and shades of green, they and the creek make a painting of their own. But this is no accident. There’s nothing careless here. It took eons to produce this scene, time beyond measure. All for this moment, this one breath of a day, when the light and the air were just so, and it was early September.
“Time has a way,” I sometimes tell my friends, “of doing things in the right order.”
That’s not always an apparent fact, nor is it always easy to accept. But if you look back at your life, you’re likely to discover that decisions you made in the past put you exactly where you needed to be a couple years farther down the road.
Everything that happens is for our enrichment in one way or another. Everything leads us to the fuller knowledge of ourselves that only experience can bring. Understanding that lets us relax a little. It lets us settle more fully into the present and to appreciate whatever is unfolding in our lives right now.
I’ve been thinking about time this week, as summer morphs into fall. After the long green days of warmth and light, I’m eager for a nip in the morning air and for the blaze of autumn’s crimsons and golds. But while I’m enjoying the delicious feeling of anticipation, I’ve been reminding myself not to let it so overpower me that I miss what is happening right now. It’s as easy to get lost in anticipation as it is to get lost in reliving the past.
It’s fine to savor sweet memories from the past, to anticipate the joys the future may bring, to dream and plan for the way we would like our lives to unfold. These, too, are enriching parts of our experience. But it’s right now where our real living takes place.
Right now, after all, is where our power is. It’s the only moment in time when we can act, and feel, and love. It’s the only moment in which our senses are alive, where sound and sight and taste and touch are real.
The present is a refuge, too, from the pain of the past and the error of dread. Right here, right now, we’re okay. We’re alive and breathing. Right now, we can choose. We can choose to be here, to notice how we are —and that we are. We can choose where we will direct our attention and how we want to respond to whatever life is presenting to us right now. And it’s in the choosing that we create the quality of our lives.
As for me, I’ll choose openness and joy. I’ll feel the tingle of anticipation that September’s winds bring. I’ll revel in the winds themselves, and in the fragrances they carry, and in the bold and joyous colors of the leaves that ride them.
Time has a way of doing things in the right order. Trust tomorrow to to be tomorrow, and let the past rest in the place where days gather at their close. Do that and you are free to make today a day of genuine happiness and peace.
Petal by petal, life unfolds, a mystery, unfathomable, its beginnings unknown, its destination the source of countless words and whisperings swept across the centuries. Choose what your heart sings as your guide, for it knows truths beyond what words can tell. Trust what feels most loving. The moments are here for your experiencing. Drink of their nourishment deeply and with joy, opening yourself petal by wondrous petal.
The first leaves color and fall. The light comes later and fades all too soon. But in the heap of wild foliage at the roadside pale purple asters begin their autumn dance. And oh, the luscious fragrance in the air!
Let your eyes see beauty. Hear life’s song. Meet the eyes of a stranger with a smile. Dare to sing, if only to yourself. Allow yourself to savor the pleasures of the moment, even though the world is filled with fear and pain. Your one courageous act of joy lessens the weight of suffering that the world has to bear. Be bold. Shine out your light.
Somewhere in the world, bright flowers are blooming. Somewhere, the sun is shining down. Lovers are embracing somewhere and children are dreaming in their mother’s arms. Somewhere, great music is playing and songs are being sung. Someone is climbing a mountain, someone is offering prayer. Somewhere, friends are breaking bread and weaving memories. Somewhere, butterflies float and colored birds take wing. Somewhere stars are glittering in a velvet sky. And everywhere, always, the Great Yes unfolds in waves of limitless love.
As September knows, beginings matter. (Happily, they come with every breath.) So she flings flowers on the creek bank, spikes of purple for valor, yellows for warmth, lacy white for purity. A breeze blows. The creek ripples with joy. Her opening act complete, September dances on, sure that all her days will be filled with color and joy and grace.
It’s not the fact that the sun is shining, or that chocolate is at hand, or that she loves you. You can have all of that and more, and it won’t mean a thing if you’re not at peace in the first place.
The best such things can do for you is to let you relax into the peace that’s already there, and always has been.
Find that, and your inner sun will always be shining, she will love you more deeply than even she knows, and you won’t’ care at all whether the world is made of chocolate or missing it altogether.
