Beauty #7

There is so much beauty in the world.  Everyone could post about it and never run out of its proof. 


We had to call an ambulance (again) for my dad Sunday morning.  He is still in the hospital, but they will probably release him today, even though he may not be able to ambulate.  I feel like we are walking on the razor's edge of a cliff.  And we may or may not fall off. Well, of course we'll fall off.  It's a matter of when.


Anyway, that is not the point of this post.  The point of this post is 1) to talk about people in elevators, and 2) to share the last rhododendron photo of this series. 


First, the elevators.  You may already know this:  People in hospital elevators are some of the nicest people in the world.  A thirty second hospital elevator ride and ta-daaaaa!  Instant connection.  Talking, joking and "Have a Nice Day!"-ing.  We are family, united by the illness of someone we care for.  It could make one think that the world is a very friendly place!  (Well, I already knew that, but some people just want, through their behavior, to try to prove otherwise.)  I bet even those people would be friendly and sweet if we were to meet them on the hospital elevator. 


Maybe hospitals spray Nice Juice in their elevators. Maybe we could find their source and spray it all over the world...


Below is the last rhodie that I'm going to post.  I love the drops of water on the stems and petals.

The beauty of the heart

is the lasting beauty:

its lips give to drink

of the water of life.

 -Rumi

Presence (Not Presents)

This we have now
is not imagination.


This is not
grief or joy.


Not a judging state,
or an elation,
or sadness.


Those come
and go.


This is the presence
that doesn't.


- Rumi




Reflecting on a night when the moon turned a rusty red before my eyes,
remembering the 145 people who died on the streets of Denver this past year and the acknowledgment of their lives that we attended last night,
thinking of the grief, fear, love, and frustration that moved like the earth passing over the moon during my dad's recent illness,
and recognizing that it all comes and goes
without my control,
and all that stays constant is
life
love
the ever-now-ness.
Never touched by the comings and goings.
When I connect with that,
I know peace.

Giving My Heart and Soul

So much beauty along the trail during yesterday's hike.

You've no idea how hard
I've looked for a gift to bring You.
Nothing seemed right!

What's the point of bringing gold
to the gold mine,
or water to the ocean?
Everything I came up with
was like taking spices to the orient.
It's no good giving
my heart and my soul,
because You already have these.

So - I've brought You a mirror
Look at YourSelf and remember me.

- Jalaluddin Rumi

Very little grows on jagged

rock. Be ground. Be crumbled, so wildflowers will come up

where you are. You've been

stony for too many years. Try something different. Surrender.

- Rumi

Waking Up

A man goes to sleep in the town
where he has always lived, and he dreams he's living
in another town.
In the dream, he doesn't remember
the town he's sleeping in his bed in. He believes
the reality of the dream town.

The world is that kind of sleep.

The dust of many crumbled cities
settles over us like a forgetful doze,
but we are older than those cities.

We began
as a mineral. We emerged into plant life
and into the animal state, and then into being human,
and always we have forgotten our former states,
except in early spring when we slightly recall
being green again.

That's how a young person turns
toward a teacher. That's how a baby leans
toward the breast, without knowing the secret
of its desire, yet turning instinctively.

Humankind is being led along an evolving course,
through this migration of intelligences,
and though we seem to be sleeping,
there is an inner wakefulness
that directs the dream.

and that will eventually startle us back
to the truth of who we are...

- Rumi











Photos were taken at Iceberg Lake in Glacier National Park. It's a hike of 9 miles round trip to get to this magical place. The hike took us through Grizzly country and we did see three different grizzlies - fortunately, they were WAY up on the mountain, far from us. At the bottom of the trail, we spoke with a ranger who was roping off a trail, due to Grizzly activity. He said that he had seen 8 of the bears that morning. The nearest we came to one (that we know of) was to see fresh scat on the trail. That was enough to get me singing in a high falsetto as a means of scaring away any four-leggeds!