clean out of time

Looking at old photos while a little gray bird at the window looks at me. And of course, I'm thinking about the Rio Tan business I drove by this morning.

(This is my mind, as you know. Little child, gray bird, Rio Tan.)

How does the Rio Tan work here in Northeast Pennsylvania? Maybe D. Trump come for his unique shade of orange, but not likely. Surely he has a personal sprayer in his ivory tower. 

Mind: Little child, gray bird, Rio Tan, D. Trump? Help me.

It pains me to think of DT for more than 3 seconds, too long. Better to redirect this mind to Mom's meditation book which I read to Michael over our coffee and tea, both of us sighing at the end. Perhaps you'll find some sustenance here too?

Take what you need, leave the rest. 🌠

Faith is not, contrary to the usual ideas, something that turns out to be right or wrong, like a gambler's bet; it's an act, an intention, a project, something that makes you, in leaping into the future, go so far, far, far ahead that you shoot clean out of time and right into Eternity, which is not the end of time or a whole lot of time or unending time, but timelessness, that old Eternal Now. - Joanna Russ

Isn't it amazing how some people contrive to live in the present? They seem not to worry about the future; they seem not to regret the past. "Two days I can't do anything about," runs the saying, "yesterday and tomorrow,"

We love to fantasize about the past and the future: What if Napolean had died in infancy? Where would I travel in a time machine? But we get into trouble when we forget that "the past" and "the future" are inventions; the only reality is the present. Yes, past events contribute to our now; yes, the present will help determine the future. But we can't do anything about them; they are out of our reach. 

It seems, oddly enough, that it's the people with a strong faith who are best able to live in the present moment. Enjoyment of the present; care for the quality of life; these are a kind of reverence, a kind of faith in life itself. The present is valuable, this faith tells us: it is all we have.

Let me swim in the present, reverential and unafraid. 
Let me be sustained by the water of life.

xo b