Yesterday it snowed all day.  It was as if there was a giant flour sifter in the heavens that just endlessly dusted layer upon layer of light, pure, dainty snow powder all over the land.  I stayed in the house, the grey sky telling me to be still, enjoy the quiet and just listen.  I did as I was told.  I spent most of the day in my bed, reading and just being quiet - letting the stillness speak.  This is what it said:

Our time in this place is temporary.  We do not know when we will leave, nor do we know the circumstances that will cause our departure.  We have so little control over so many things that enter our path and change the direction of our journey.  Some will teach us well and will provide a platform from which we can learn to fly.  Some events will lift our spirits and our hears will fill with a tenderness and joy that we don’t think our bodies will be able to contain. Others will overwhelm us like an unseen tsunami, throwing us into a whirlwind of emotions, thoughts and actions that we never saw coming.  And many will make their appearance as the normal day-to-day joys and struggles that compose this life, each appearing on a regular enough basis so that balance can be maintained and we can continue to stand upright and steady and walk at a comfortable pace that will keep us moving forward with the peace that comes from knowing we are doing the best we can with what we have.

This is not an easy traverse - this walking in the middle of the road.  Our given human “beingness” is a perfect venue for the goodness of existence to be absorbed and then released to others in expressions such as acts of kindness, compassion toward each other, laughter and delight in all the gifts we are given, and empathy with our companions as they, too, try to chart their own expeditions without a map.  Sometimes this is a wondrous adventure and sometimes it is like walking into a dark, overgrown, eerie forest, with no protection, no sense of what dangers might be lurking in the shadows, and not knowing if there is an exit.  Sometimes we come upon a beautiful waterfall and splash in its crystal clear, warm waters, refreshed and eager to see what awaits us around the bend.  But at other points in the journey, we find ourselves trying to climb a mountain of rock and ice, alone and naked.  Sometimes we walk in the warmth of beautiful shafts of light, on a grassy knoll that is soft under our feet.  And at times we will stumble and fall on shards of pain and sadness that mark our path of suffering with footprints of tears.

My mind, like that of all of my human sisters and brothers, can be a place of unbridled rapture; a golden chalice where I am filled to overflowing by the delights of creation, a  soft, downy grove where I reside in gratitude, or a Disneyland for all my emotional, spiritual and physical pleasures.  But my mind can also become a courtroom where I am condemned, judged and sentenced by a jury that knows no justice, follows no laws and disregards evidence that does not fit its agenda to destroy me. Sometimes that jury is a group of faceless enemies.  Sometimes it has only one face - mine.

The snow also told me that I have the choice to run like hell from the tsunami, to take time and explore my options before climbing the mountain, and start to remove any impediments from my path or at least walk around them and look for another route.  And if I find myself in the courtroom, demand another jury - one that is objective, will consider the facts and will justly conclude what actions are to be taken which will be in my best interest.

It has stopped snowing.

It is time to get dressed, go out into the cold and shovel my path today.

Till Next Time -

Your Humble Road Warrior