Back on the River-Musings on the Moment

"Your journey has molded you for greater good,
and it was exactly what it needed to be.
Don't think that you've lost time.
There is no short-cutting to life.
It took each, and every situation
you have encountered to bring you to the now.
And now is right on time."
~Asha Tyson

"The next message you need
is right where you are."
~ Ram Dass

I read these words, right before going to out to paddle in the magnificence of this morning. The river is calling to me, and I take the essence and the message of these words with me. They are the right words, for me in the moment, as I reflect on where I am and where I am going, in this crossroad of sorts...

I am physically and emotionally tired and spent, so much has been asked and required of me of late. So, I don't spend a lot of time paddling. Instead, I spend much of the hour on the water simply floating on the river - slowing down, listening, wondering, envisioning, reviewing, and re-hashing an infinite collection of thoughts and scenarios - re-arranging them in so many ways...

I watch a blue heron with keen interest - though he does not seem in the slightest bit interested in me...Every few minutes, a bass momentarily jumps out of the water and flaps around. I hear only the sound of birds, the flapping, and the melody of the colorful ripples my paddle makes as it slices through the water...

I sit, and ask so many internal questions - asking to be shown the way and wonder why lessons are so difficult and why this playground we call life constantly offers challenges?

We think our challenges are the worst - but then we are made privy to the burdens of others...

Last night, before I retired for bed, another fellow Anusara Yoga teacher posted a video of a young man born without any limbs whose whole life has been spent smiling and expressing gratitude for the gift of life. He speaks to young audiences and tells them they are beautiful just as they are.

He does not express regret because he can never hold someone's hand - because he knows he can always hold a dear person's heart...

Why do I think something is missing? Because I am not in the moment - and I am not looking deeper...Even in this murky water that does not allow me to see through its surface, I know there is more beyond it. There is great depth here - and this river is teeming with life...

Yes, this moment is all there is. And if I am to embody a greater sense of expansiveness, I must truly believe this message:

"Every minute is eternity
because eternity can be experienced
in that minute.
Every day and minute and hour is a window
through which you my see eternity.
Life is brief, yet it is unending.
The soul is everlasting,
but out of the short season of this life
you should reap the most you can
of immortality."
~ Paramahansa Yogananda