The River in Bliss

I stop by to visit the river on my way home from a wonderful session of meditation and healing to see it blanketed in snow...

Parts of the river have frozen again along its banks, and the currents are strong, and lapping very confidently and exuberantly at it banks...It is hard to believe that only a week ago, Grace and I, were paddling in the river...

I re-visit so many blessings experienced on so many levels and insights received through many means - meditation, and through the generous gifts of others...

I breathe in the crisp cold air, and it fills my lungs with prana - the very life force of God, and I think how very lucky I am to be alive in this moment. Despite all the difficulties experienced in the last year or so, I know they are like mere drops of water in this river, flowing downstream, and that all in all, what has been asked of me is so very little...

I think of Paramahansa Yogananda's teachings on resurrection, and know that on several levels, in this liturgical season, I am being led to experience the essence of what this means, on a much deeper level...

I come home to wonderful messages, and a note received in the mail and ponder the words of a younger friend, who like me, is re-evaluating relationships in her life, truly trying to ascertain, as she so eloquently writes, "what is fat and what is muscle" in her life...She ends her note beautifully, by simply hoping, "In the spirit of Mary and Elizabeth, may the spirit within us and between us grow!"

Life gives us interesting turns and twists and many lessons, but I know Divine support shines through it all...

"No longer is my consciousness
limited to a phial of flesh,
corked with ignorance.
No more do I move through
Thine Ocean of Spirit day and night,
years, incarnations - so close,
yet without contacting the Sea.
No longer do I thoughtlessly
dwell in Thee,
knowing and feeling Thee not.

As I listened in awe
to the ever expanding cosmic sound,
the surging of Thy Holy Name,
the vibrations removed the tight cork
of delusion that had long prevented
the mingling of my waters with Thine.

Now my being is consciously merged
in Thine omnipresence.
Having released the 'I-ness' in me,
I know that Thou are I;
and that Thou art the souls of all."
- Yogananda

I bask in the joy of ever-new bliss, so nascent, and seeping into every crevice of my soul...