Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn,
a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter.
If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things,
this is the best season of your life.
– Wu-men Hui-k’ai (1183–1260)
At the intersection of all our hopes and dreams, all of our fears and ambitions, all the responsibilities and regrets we carry with us, all the love and longing that we feel, and all the sorrows and joys that make up our human journey, there’s a place of quiet rest, a still point for sitting and breathing and being.
I’m trying to write – and to live – from that place, not far away from the troubles of the world, but from right at the center of all of it, from right in the middle of the whole glorious mess of human existence.
I’ve tried being a hermit; I loved the silence and the solitude, but I missed the laughter of friends and family. I’ve been a sailor out on the ocean, and I loved sleeping at night in the cradle of the sea, but I missed the earth beneath my feet and the smell of the trees and the beckoning of distant mountain peaks.
I suppose I’m writing here as a practice – one undertaken first and foremost for my own sake – with the intention of finding myself, of locating my own current position along the path that I’m traveling, so that I can better see where I am today and where the next steps might lead. If these reflections happen to resonate with others, or help anyone else out there who’s also looking for clarity or insight into their own journey, I’ll be glad of it.
They say we make the path by walking, but I think we also make it by our own individual and collective acts of creation, by laying down the road ahead of us one piece at a time. So these words are my attempt at a creative act, as well as a kind of personal echolocation device, sent out into the virtual void to help me triangulate my own position and reveal to me my own mind and my own heart as I carry on my pilgrim way.
Living in the here and now, being present for each moment as it unfolds, is a tricky business. It’s the work of a lifetime, to be sure. But – to borrow a phrase from an old Gershwin tune – it’s nice work, if you can get it.
And if your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things, then this really is the best season of your life.
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