SUMMER MORNING MEDITATION

      If the weather permits, Judy and I have a habit of drinking a coffee (mine being 'special') while sitting on our porch, looking south over the treed lawn, across our country road and into the fields and woods beyond. It's always a movable feast for the eyes. But not only. Our ears are saturated with the sounds of birds near and far. And the various insects, of course.
     Those precious minutes, while reminding me of the beauty that surrounds us, also brings to mind the fact that we in our culture are so small in our understanding of reality. Today is Aboriginal Day here in Canada, the first day of summer. If I had been born here three hundred years ago I would have been raised as a hunter, but not one who searches, 'hunts' as we do, what with our scopes and long-reaching rifles, but one who sits and waist, observing, hearing and smelling, until the opportunity comes within reach of an arrow. How wonderful must be the knowledge that only comes from waiting and being truly part of our surroundings.
     How utterly foreign that concept is to those of our culture. To WAIT? Do it or buy it NOW! To observe, really listen and take it all it before we act? If we can't do something now, and quickly, we don't bother.
     On one hand, in our minds, we really know that we're a part of the 'whole' of things, that we don't and can't exist apart from 'nature' and all that that entails, but our actions and lives deny that whole reality, giving it such a small part of our experience. And we don't show any signs of getting 'smarter'. The truth that most of us know, is that unless we begin to see, hear, smell, act and live again with our world, and hold each other as true brothers and sisters in this world, we are enacting death. Few of us really understand this, yet alone, are trying to live in this reality.
     I know this is hard, maybe impossible for us to do. For me, I know that I need those twenty minutes or so, sitting out there with my sweety, sipping on my coffee, not saying much, just listening, seeing, smelling, soaking up the world and recognizing my very small place in it.