Row row row your boat, gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily! Life is but a dream.
Are we in the same boat?
It is a gorgeous Sunday morning. I taught yoga overlooking the lake and then stretched a little by myself and then came to Moonfish and ordered coffee and eggs. I have to go to work soon, from ten-thirty til four o’clock, at a place around the corner and down the wooded path, a place called La Paz, which means peace.
This, and any given day of my life—though there are still times of stress and forgetfulness and overwhelm and confusion— is totally dreamlike compared to my life ten years ago… or fifteen. Or even six. Even last year! My nowadays and moments are spent more presently, more slowly, more deliberately. Usually. Still, I slip and fall and bleed and scab and get back up again the next morning. I feel my body ageing. And I’m not even forty yet. Old age and death are inevitable and life is short, it’s true.
My daughter is five already. Going on six. My grandmothers are in their nineties, my parents in their mid-sixties. Age, what is it good for? Birth, death, transformation.
I find it helpful to delineate the two types of time…. natural/galactic time and human-made/clock time. Natural time is the present moment, ever changing and evolving but always happening right now. Clock time is the 24 hour day, the sixty minute hour, the 7 day week, etc. Invented by people a long time ago.
Clock time is helpful for catching planes and trains, for scheduling things, for routines. It is helpful, to a point.
Natural time is helpful for meditation, for being present once we are involved in our previously scheduled [or not] activities, for living and experiencing our lives more fully, less incessant “are we there yet?” and “what’s next?”.
Spend some time in nature today contemplating natural time.
Breathe and consider that this is the breath of the planet, of the universe even.
Breathe and be one of the trillions of breathing beings upon the Earth.
Breathe and be alive.
Feel the sensation of your own heartbeat.
Feel the breath going in and out, the heart beating.
Row your boat merrily down the stream, and live the dream.
Yoga Freedom 