The Spaces In-Between

The other evening, I was on a walk with cute dog Clifford!  We were about to cross the street in the tree-lined neighborhood, when a loud bark issued from the block catty corner from us.  Clifford refused to budge, looked towards the sound and attuned all his senses to the source of the sound.  And so I too opened and widened all of my senses to that space in time, and waited and breathed… It was dusk and a gentle breeze rustled the tree tops - the regal trees stood sentinel to the neighborhood shushing in the darkness, people quietly passed on sidewalks around us. Amidst the ‘closing’ movements of people and Nature all around me, in this pause of movement within me, and through the opening of all my senses.. I discovered the perfection of that moment!  Our senses are portals to presence.

The challenges of different situations in my life still existed - I still didn't quite know how to be courageous in the areas of my life I desired to grow more. And yet… being on that corner breathing.. pausing.. watching.. listening… to cars, people, dogs, the wind, the trees, my breath, and light and time pass I “re-membered” that perfection is within us and all around us in each moment, when we can become present to it, if we can pause to perceive it.

There is perfection and wholeness in every inhale-exhale, in every click or patter of a heel contacting cement, in every unmet need, in every heartache.. It's easy to feel overwhelmed by feelings of sadness, lack, worry, the feeling of brokenness in our own lives and in the wider world all around us.  I believe it's possible to recover that sense of life’s holy completeness and our place in the world in the spaces in-between life's hustle. 

Where does your mind live?  In the past - wishing certain circumstances had turned out differently?  In the future - incessant movement towards the next and the next and the next, or in the anxiety of constant anticipation or fear of what could happen?  Or in the present?  

Are you your mind?  

Can you bring the light of your awareness to the story spinning in your mind when you are feeling stressed out?

Can dis-ease exist in complete presence?  

Magic happens when we pause 

Pause* 

Or at least.. 

Try giving more attention to the spaces in your consciousness than the words or thoughts.

CH.11 of The Tao Te Ching

Thirty spokes converge upon a single hub;

It is on the hole in the center that the use of the cart hinges.

We make a vessel from a lump of clay;

It is the empty space within the vessel that makes it useful

We make doors and windows for a room;

But it is these empty spaces that make the room livable.

Thus, while the tangible has its advantages, it is the intangible that makes it useful.

Thank You Clifford 💛