The Dharma of This & That

Wordless

Mixed Media on matte board

8" x 8" Black matte, image dimension 3.75" x 4 "

$25 includes shipping in North America

When I created this little piece I was thinking about how words can get in the way, how sometimes, for the most important things they are just inadequate.  I was thinking about how we spill so many of them out without a lot of attention and care.  I was thinking about the large gap between what I say and what you understand.  But that is not  to throw the dictionary, the thesaurus and all conversation out with the proverbial bath water.  Many wonderful words make the crossing from one human to another each day.  We hear the Dharma.  We share support and empathy, inspiration and creative energy through words.  Like everything else in this world there is the yin and yang of language.

The other thing that seemed so noticeable to me today was just the movement of life, how much life can flow by in a day, in it's various forms.  Some days are quiet and almost nothing of note seems to show up on the radar screen.  But today we talked to our daughter who has a new job in a raw food restaurant, a friend is patiently waiting for his daughter to give birth to her 3rd child, Bunny the cat's owner contacted me to say Bunny may be quite ill, possibly with cancer or heart disease.  She is still waiting to find out.  We made a whirlwind tour of some properties on this island where we hope to relocate.  The weather has changed from sun to rain.  We walked along the cool windswept beach and ate dinner in a little oceanside cafe.  

It was so easy to see the flow when so many things pass by.  Impermanence was wildly apparent, the up and down, ebb and flow of it all.  Of course there is the momentary feeling of being pleased for the new job, the sadness of hearing Bunny is sick.  And while I can feel these things, there was a sense of not tripping on them, of not wrapping my sticky little fingers around them and grasping on to what I might identify as good and what I might want to push away as undesirable.

So I could say a silent good for you, for my daughter who has first hand experienced the need to take a step rather than just think about it, and I can have faith that we will find a new home that suits us.   I can say a little prayer for Bunny and Jen and know that everything is just as it should be.  Not necessarily always as I want, but fine just the way it is.  As my Zen teacher would say, "something greater is always working itself out."