Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Dogfish - March 16, 2010


Some kind of relaxed and beautiful thing

kept flickering in with the tide

...I wanted the past to go away

...I wanted

to hurry into the work of my life, I wanted to know

whoever I was, I was

alive

for a little while

...Also I wanted

to be able to love

...Mostly I want to be kind.

...And nobody gets out of it, having to

swim through the fires to stay in

this world.

And look! look! look! I think those little fish

better wake up and dash themselves away

from the hopeless future that is

bulging toward them.

And probably,

if they don't waste time

looking for an easier world,

they can do it.

I awoke this morning and watched a movie about Buddhism in southeast Asia. The theme running through my watching was awaken, awaken! The fire of the sun is rising, this day, this moment, this breath. We are the little fish stalked by the bigger fish, and we can but awaken and bring hope to the future. In the meantime we do as Mary reports here - we smile, work, survive and try to be kind, all pointing to the wakefulness of this given day.

Do you waste time looking for an easier world? What would an easier world look like?

2 comments:

  1. My first reaction was that I had quit wasting time looking for an easier world a long time ago. Then I thought about my task I want to work on today. That is to redesign and make a different system to carry things on my rollator which I plan to use Saturday. I have always redesigned things. For example: when my son was an infant the girls were in school. I needed to walk them across a busy street for their walk to and from school. I designed a way of encasing the stroller where I could see in but the cold windy January and February winter in Illinois was kept out. He was born in January, so he'd be only a couple weeks old. I had it so the covering snapped on and off,etc. So, yes I still try to make life easier, but I'm not sure it is a waste of time. Sometimes my creations save time, too.

    What would an easier world look like? Perhaps that all beings would be wakeful and loving at the same time.

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  2. T says: I am constantly trying to make each task, each move, easier, more efficient, and why, I wonder? Well, I think I am saving the time for Something More Important, but I don't make that happen. Also, I hear myself repeating that "I'm all about low maintenance", which is my way of saying, I guess, I am all about low energy! Good grief! I think I had better "wake up and dash [ myself] away". Spring is a good time for that. Good ole Mary Oliver.

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