What of Today?

What if this day were it? The whole life left to you wrapped up in this one last day?  For 155,000 people on the planet today will contain their moment of departure. Someday, perhaps soon, you and I will also dive into this great wandering river of souls.

I woke this morning happy and free. I woke considering the seeming finiteness of this life experience. It may sound paradoxical, but the realization that death was coming sometime in my life allowed me to be less afraid and more grateful. The first thing I mused upon waking was "What if I were to leave all of this today, say at 6 PM? What would I savor? What would I miss if there was anything left of this awareness I call "me"?

For one thing, I'd miss watching my wife. Like right now, she is outside the cabin window walking in a bathrobe, sweats and knee high mud boots. She's so beautiful. She is breathing in the silence and dew song as she walks through the pasture. I'd also miss watching her stitching prayer flags, being so content and intent. And there are other experiences: How about the feeling of warm sheets in the morning? Or the fragrant loam of the garden flowing through my fingers. I'd miss the white of this very page and smooth skin of its waiting. I'd miss the whoosh of a raven's wings weaving through the rocky headland's forest. Then there is the joy of tears when meeting the gaze of another person who sees you. The salt spray sea. I'd miss that. Or leaving on a trip early in the morning and watching the desert bring up the sun from within the hum of the car. I'd miss laying in the warm May grasses with my beloved.

This partial list is a microcosm of my life at this moment. The list meanders and grows with every precious day on earth. Holy. This life is holy. What is your list today? Study it for a moment. Do you recognize the miracle of what is breezing through your awareness? And what of the sad beauty of all that slips by, unseen, unknown, uncelebrated?

I write to you, happy. Happiness needs to be shared and celebrated... happiness being such a rare wonder nowadays. What is the meaning of sharing this life with other people, other beings? What is the meaning of our connection with each other, right here in the ethers of the internet?  Perhaps a theoretical answer is not so important. Perhaps the idea of "me" and "you" and future and past is not so relevant. All I know is that there are moments worth celebrating, perhaps all of them. And so many moments are worth sharing with those you love. I love writing to you, here, now! It's the sharing that enlivens the experience.

If you knew that 6PM was your final hour, what would you savor? What would you share? How would you share your experience? How would you listen to and see another?

Holy is this life. Precious. And sacred, the sharing at the altar of breath, the breaking of the bread or gratitude and drinking in the rich red wine of experience.

Love,
Rick

(c) Copyright Richard Sievers, February 2014, All Rights Reserved.