Wabi-sabi

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

From The Book of The Garden by Richard Wehrman

The Garden releases its last
radiance, not as something failed,
but as its full reason for being: to give
continually, to its last bit of energetic being.
Its giving is its beauty. It is a smile,
it is the heart of love.

So the birdsong that surrounds me
is given, not away, but into the world.
It is given as rain, as sunlight, as snowfall
and autumn leaves. It falls on our ears
as what it is, with no deception,
the complete truth of being.

Even the smell of decay, drifting from
the deer, dead by the side of the road, says:
“This is what I am and no other. I do not
pretend to be. Even in death I speak
without deceit, even unto my flesh,
my very bones.”

Be tolerant of these songs,
my musings on the way these things are
For I cannot give up this Summer except by
giving myself as well, fully and…  read more

Getting Old

Wednesday, September 5, 2018

Getting old is like climbing a mountain; you get a little out of breath, but the view is much better!

            —Ingrid Bergman

Aging is an extraordinary process where you become the person you always should have been.

            —David Bowie

The last third of life gives us the opportunity to get closer to…  read more

Different “less than” or different “special”

Saturday, August 4, 2018

I recently attended an indoor public event, and sitting in the audience, off to my right, directly in view, was an old man in a wheelchair. Can you picture him?

Last week, in downtown Oak Park, I noticed an old woman walking slowly on the sidewalk, hunched over her walker. Can…  read more

More Than Just Co-existing

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

I work out regularly at the local tennis and fitness center. I’ve been a member there for many years, and I love their Yoga Centre. One day last week, as I passed the front desk to flash my membership card at the small entry turnstile, I was slowed by the…  read more