Be Water, Be One

This week, after finishing a daily reading of The Way of Rest by Jeff Foster, and passing the book along to a work friend, I began re-reading Thich Nhat Hanh's Going Home: Jesus and Buddha as Brothers. In the opening chapter he writes a lot about the wave and the water. Wave is phenomena, or cause and effect. One wave effects another. This is our vertical life. The water is our horizontal life -- our connection to all that is, God, Great Spirit, whatever you want to call it.  Without the water, there are no waves.

To quote Thay:

The wave is aware that she is made of the other waves, 

and at the same time she realizes that she is made of water, too. 

It is very important for her to touch the water, the foundation of her being.

As soon as I read the first page, I knew this week I had to return to the labyrinth on Sanibel Island. It is the perfect combination of green space and blue space, and it has been over a year since I've been there. Shame on me. It is a place that nourishes me.

And what a gorgeous morning to be there! A bit of a breeze, low humidity, and the scent in the air was luscious and islandy and green. I had no real question to ask, so I just went with: Tell me what I need to know. The answer came:

Be water.

When I was done walking, taking plenty of time to sit in the center for a while, I wrote this:

Be language. 

Be the cool breeze. 

Be the sweet scent of flowers in the air. 

Be the smile for the maintenance man. 

Be the sound of the waterfall. 

Be the cloudless sky. 

Be the osprey who flies. 

Be the voice of the child in the car driving by. 

Be rock. Be shell. 

Be the shell-less snail creeping along. 

Be song: the mountain harmony, the river valley melody.

Be the paver bricks warming in the sun. 

Be one.