28.8.10

On Impermanence

David Whyte, in his remarkable teachings and poetry, "What To Do When Wakening," reassures us that there is a lot of help out there in the world about how to live our lives to our fullest potential. As I have opened to the "frontier" of my own life, even as I enter the late autumn of my seventh decade, I am astounded by the truth of this as I read from top to bottom the tall tower of books I've accumulated recently. One pithy paragraph in Martine Batchelor's "Let Go" reads:

"When I saw my father die, I felt great sadness but also in that intense emotional moment I experienced fully for the first time the reality of impermanence. Thereafter I started to relate to people in a different way, because I knew for myself how precious they were, that their life rested upon a simple breath, the last breath I had seen on the lips of my father."

When I read this, I smiled to remember I was exhilerated and humbled to witness the first breath each of my sons took, the treasure at the end of labor from which I have been profoundly blessed; ah, yes, that same breath that left Martine's father's lips. Sometimes the sacredness of life is simply breath taking.

SOTL, off to cease the day...

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