Aligning with Grace

I have been watching these ducks at the pond for the last few days, in the crisp morning air. Sometimes they come closer, and other times they simply glide on by, oblivious to my presence. A couple of days ago, after my meditation, I watched them for quite some time, and as they came closer, I felt myself merge with them, becoming one with them, and their breathtaking spirits! I was filled with love for them, and it expanded right out of my heart! I felt one with them - they were no longer Other, but a part of me, as I was a part of them. "You are so beautiful!" I cried out! "We are ALL beautiful!" I also thought. Yes - every living thing is - if we only take the time to notice it and realize it. In that moment, there was such a sense of oneness and connection that I experienced, that went beyond these beautiful creatures. In a world that seems so torn and divided - where just reading the morning headlines can be a virtual assault and vexation, shocking ...

"You never step into the same river twice." ~ Heraclitus Nothing is ever the same. Everything changes. This river, that I have visited - at times nearly every day - over the space of a decade, is not the same. But then neither am I. I came to this river, suggested as a meeting place by a friend during a time of neediness and great pain and impending transitions. I came back, many a morning, feeling alone, having hit rock bottom, in the throws of deep depression, to do a rosary of spiritual practices: Lovingkindness meditations, Reiki chants, actual rosaries, prayers both traditional and spontaneous, the offering of blessings, and whatever else arose from the depths of my soul. For several years I came, almost daily. One morning, while sitting on a boulder by the riverbank, the river beckoned me to come inside. And so I did. I bought a kayak without even thinking about it, and spent a few years paddling upstream - repeating mantras, reciting prayers, while receiving...