I noticed a few pumps were available at my local BP station after the morning commute, so I made a quick decision to fill up. As I pulled into an empty lane it became obvious that someone out there was running on empty, running late and didn’t get off to an “invigorating” start!
Our rather peaceful midwestern town
was a wonderful place to grow up. And
summers were the best time for a kid to run free range in the neighborhood without
incident because just about everyone knew their neighbors. People would sit outside on their porches in
the evenings and converse while the inside cooled down enough to return and the
cicadas serenaded a young kid to sleep.
Today’s modern conveniences such as
garbage disposals and attached garages were still in the future, prompting the
need for alleyways splitting the organized blocks right down the middle. That in turn allowed access to detached
garages and trash cans which were located away from the houses. Automobile fumes and hot decomposing food
then became less of a problem.
Alleys were a great place to ride a
bicycle in relative safety away from the busy streets and became an interesting
place to explore discarded treasures.
Our house just happened to be located relatively near a college and you
never knew what might be deposited out near the alley with student housing. One of our little merry band’s favorite
choice of bounty involved the annual homecoming Saturdays. All the frats and sororities participated in
a Parade with decorated floats prior to the big football game. Soon after the homecoming festivities, the
contents of the float decorations and parties could be salvaged in the alleys.
One of my neighborhood buddies and I
were attracted to a rather large papier-mâché
gorilla on one of those days which would have worked well for bow and arrow
practice. As we stopped to salvage the
gorilla, we came across a rather intriguing magazine. The worn and provocative cover of a
very attractive college age female was featured under the PLAYBOY title. We unsuspectingly opened this potential forbidden
fruit to the centerfold and beheld the beautiful form of a youthful college girl sans
clothing and thought we had just won the lottery! About that time a hungover frat guy appeared with
more trash to deposit and startled us so bad that my buddy dropped the magazine
and we scurried off so fast that our bikes were scattering dust and gravel in
our wake!
That brief introduction to the world of Playboy was a hoot for a couple of adventurous boys. And there’s no doubt that Hugh Hefner knew
that better than anybody!
P.S.
We did come back later for the gorilla but
the Playboy was missing, so we rode home and returned to boys at play.
Streams become rivers,
Our lives move along faster.
We acquire knowledge,
As the current carries us.
We are the gateway,
Through which our lives are
charted.
Character is formed,
Negotiating rivers.
Neither joy nor stress,
Is contained in the river.
But how we respond,
Will result in one of them.
Rivers keep rolling,
As they follow the landscape.
And we encounter,
Calm water and swift rapids.
The river returns,
To its boundless whole.
And both we and the river,
Celebrate rebirth.
We can never sail,
Along the same river twice.
For both the river,
And we, have changed once again.
We all unconsciously weave a tapestry of life with a thread of infinite length which supersedes this mortal life.
Joseph Campbell encourages us to “Follow your bliss. If you do follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while waiting for you, and the life you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in the field of your bliss, and they open the doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be. If you follow your bliss, doors will open for you that wouldn’t have opened for anyone else…People say what we're all seeking is the meaning of life...I think what we're seeking is the experience of being alive."
Life is a great adventure and death is the last
great adventure. In the meantime, we are in pursuit of the divine that is
within all of us and the fulfillment that the adventure brings. Campbell notes
that if you have embarked on a well-worn path, it is not your path. Seek out
your own path in life that has been mapped out exclusively for you. When your
life seems to be in rhythm with the heartbeat of the universe, you have found
your path to divine destiny.
Robert Frost concluded his famous poem The Road Less Taken with:
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
The
Pulitzer Prize nominated book by Norman Maclean titled A River Runs Through It
and the subsequent movie directed by Robert Redford illuminated the spiritual
experience of fly fishing on a Montana trout river for an American family. Once immersed in the experience their soul
became one with their beautiful environment.
“Like many fly fishermen in western Montana where
the summer days are almost Arctic in length, I often do not start fishing until
the cool of the evening. Then in the Arctic half-light of the canyon, all
existence fades to a being with my soul and memories and the sounds of the Big
Blackfoot River and a four-count rhythm and the hope that a fish will rise.
Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through
it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the
basement of time. On some of those rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the
rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters.”
The river less traveled is where we’re meant to be.
Jill Bolte Taylor writing in My Stroke of Insight
perceived life through the restricted lens of only her right brain after a
stroke incapacitated her left hemisphere. She observed that her self-concept
was no longer a solid with boundaries, but a fluid. Operating without the
constant "brain chatter" from her left hemisphere left her feeling
one with the universe. Mystics and serious practitioners can also reach that
ultimate present moment state of nirvana. Could it be that we are all in fact
continuously in that state, but we simply do not generally experience that
awareness?
"My left hemisphere had been trained to perceive myself as a solid,
separate from others. Now, released from that restrictive circuitry, my right
hemisphere relished in its attachment to the eternal flow. I was no longer
isolated and alone. My soul was as big as the universe and frolicked with glee
in a boundless sea… Our right brain perceives the big picture and recognizes
that everything around us, about us, among us, and within us is made up of
energy particles that are woven together into a universal tapestry. Since
everything is connected, there is an intimate relationship between the atomic
space around and within me, and the atomic space around and within
you—regardless of where we are."
We are not only IN this universe, but we are OF this universe. In
Paul's letter to the Ephesians he writes, "There is one body and one
spirit...one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all
(4:4-5)."
Perceived from the altitude of a commercial airliner, rivers that crisscross this great planet have the look of threads that wind their way back to their origins in the vast oceans. So too, the threads of our lives follow the path of our destiny into the eternal flow.
All creative artists put their heart and soul into their unique works. Navajo weavers are no exception and frequently add what seems to be a flaw or mistake. We almost passed on purchasing a rug years ago because of this anomaly. Only later did we discover that this “spirit line” or thread was purposely woven into a corner of the rug to allow the artist’s spirit an exit path once the rug (or the life) was completed.
