IN THE FLOW

Eckhart Tolle writes:

It seems that you are torn sometimes between the outward movement into form, and the inward return movement to the Source where it all started. The Source that was never really lost, it is always there because it is timeless, and it is within you. You feel drawn back to that, and that is the pull toward spirituality, peace, Stillness.

Every day life seems to be all about form. We buy groceries, feeling the weight of them, as we lift brown bags into large SUV’s. We make concrete lists of what we need to do that day ~ go to a dental appt., pick up the dry cleaning or go to the post office to mail off a package. Things surround us ~ our closets full of clothes, our bursting racks of DVD’s and the piles of shoes in the mudroom.

When do we escape form then, melting into the universal moment of presence and flow? It is our creation time, our Zen moments, that allow us to transcend the material world, even if it is just for the length of a 3-minute song on the radio. We are flowing into the Great Mystery of Being in these moments. We lose track of time ~ we float on high, reaching a state of awareness that provides both clarity and an endorphin-producing spiritual high, because we are shedding form for spirit.

I am not a runner, but I can see the beatific smiles on the faces of runners in my neighborhood. There is a good deal of sweat and exertion going on as well, but you can see that they are somewhere else entirely while on that run. This is why reflective gear and bright orange jackets are a very good idea! If your head is in the clouds, then drivers need to be able to see the part of you that should to stay safely on the side of the road.

My running Zen is writing, making jewelry, reading, riding my bike, walking by the lake and listening to music. Often all of these blissful activities inspire and inform one another. I’ll be taking a walk or stringing a new necklace, gazing at the way the trees are swaying in the breeze or how the red and blue stones make a pleasing pattern, when the first line of a poem will appear in my head. I won’t get the whole poem, but that first line, fully formed, will come to me like a gentle deer. I run to the page, capture that first thought and keep going ~ passionately in flow. Time will pass, and I will still be in that dream-like state of creation, not caring whether my form is cold, hungry or late for an appointment. Form ceases to matter ~ for those two hours of creation.

Eventually, I will have to return to buying rolls of toilet paper and taking the garbage out, but my spirit will be lighter, closer to the heavenly realm than ever before. I will be complete, full, still ~ for now.

Staying in the flow means accepting the now and embracing where that first line leads you.

CMRN