Depth beneath my feet. (Sunday Reflection)

I have been thinking about a meadow that I used to live next to.

It felt vast, filled with long grasses that overgrew one another. Through it ran countless paths, narrow, uneven, winding this way and that, cris-crossing one another.

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Where did these pathways come from? No one built them. Yet they did not arise from nothing. They were pressed into being by the countless feet that came before: neighbors, wanderers, deer, children. Each following their own logic.

Sometimes I imagine a horde crossing the field at once. Some heading left, some right, some stopping to look at the sky. Each toward their own destination, unique, and yet all moving across the same broad meadow — and overall going the same way: from here to there.

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What makes one turn left while another turns right? Habit? Impulse?

What makes me, master of myself, choose one trail over another—or step into the tall grass and begin a new one altogether?

An unseen hand?

We are all different, and we are all the same.

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Had I tried to lay out these paths in advance, it would have been all squares and rectangles, straight lines and complex intersections. It all would have collapsed under its own weight.

But instead, in spite of me, the centuries of accumulated organic wisdom have created these trails, through this meadow.

Maybe that is how the best paths come to be: not drawn, but worn.

From here, to there.

– from the mountain

Consider:

What path shall I make today? Or shall I follow another’s?

Reading:

“Traveler, there is no path; the path is made by walking.” — Antonio Machado, “Proverbios y Cantares XXIX” (1912)

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“The path is not in the sky; the path is in the heart.” — Gautama Buddha, Dhammapada, verse 92

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“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” — Proverbs 3:5–6 (KJV)

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Even here.

Let me be at home, here and now.

They say tomorrow it may rain. Today the skies are clear.

Yesterday the winds blew down the shed. Today the skies are calm.

Even were it to rain, this moment would not be overloaded, for the results would come after. And when they come, the moment is sufficient to contain them.

Take away my worry over tomorrow, and my fret over yesterday, Lord. Let me be at home, here and now.

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– from the mountain

Consider:

Can I remain here, at home?

Reading:

“Be happy in the moment, that is enough. Each moment is all we need, not more.” — Mother Teresa, A Gift for God

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“The point of power is always in the present moment.” — Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now

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“Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.” — Matthew 6:34 (KJV)

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Too often where I find myself.

I come to consciousness in the middle of market square, unsure how I got here. I had awakened, gotten ready, left my home.

So many things on my mind, Lord, I can scarcely feel my body. Such a tragedy if the whole day passes without my noticing.

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Here at noon, with an unexpected crack in the wall, I feel the breeze on my skin.

Let me remain awake, Lord.

– from the mountain

Consider:

Can I remain awake? Can I awaken?

Reading:

“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.” — W. B. Yeats, quoted in The Celtic Twilight

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“Awakening is not changing who you are, but discarding who you are not.” — Deepak Chopra, The Book of Secrets

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“Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.” — 1 Thessalonians 5:6 (KJV)

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Is it there for a reason?

Whose hand veils the future? Who keeps me bound to this moment, here and now?

Yours, Lord.

I peer around corners, over cliffsides, into wells. Straining to see what I cannot, imagining trial and treasure both, just out of view.

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Perhaps my best life is one where I can only see my feet.

Thank you for keeping me here, Lord.

– from the mountain

Consider:

Can I refrain from peering past what I can see?

Reading:

“The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.” — C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

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“Do not be in a hurry to go forward, for the place where you stand is holy ground.” — Thich Nhat Hanh, Present Moment, Wonderful Moment

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“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” — Psalm 119:105 (KJV)

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