Love is All

Where beauty is, then there is ugliness;
where right is, also there is wrong.
Knowledge and ignorance are interdependent;
delusion and enlightenment condition each other.
Since olden times it has been so.
How could it be otherwise now?
Wanting to get rid of one and grab the other
is merely realizing a scene of stupidity.
Even if you speak of the wonder of it all,
how do you deal with each thing changing?

-Ryokan-

Alexis and Zoe take a break

There is nothing like a little kitty to bring joy and laughter into a home. And Zoe, my youngest daughter's kitty who descended on our home Thursday night, has definitely done just that -- given cause for joy and laughter, smiles and moans of "she's so sweet" and other not so intelligent utterances from the mouths of normally sane and not too saccharine individuals.

Zoe comes from a farm. Dropped off by strangers one night in November, friends took her in but didn't feel they could keep her -- they already have six other cats they've rescued in similar fashion. While visiting them for dinner one night, I fell in love with Zoe -- but felt it prudent to suggest she find a home with my daughter and her boyfriend as I was concerned Ellie, the wonder pooch and in particular, Marley, the Great Cat, might not take well to a kitty moving in.

I need not have worried. Because Liseanne is here while Alexis her sister is visiting, Zoe came too. It took all of three minutes for Marley and Zoe to get over their initial hissy fit and start to play. Ellie just can't be bothered. I swear that pooch just rolls her eyes and says to herself whenever I do something (which is frequent) to contravene her doggie code of ethics, "Give me strength. She is why I need Valium. Think I'll go hunt up chocolate in someone's purse."

Zoe reminds me, constantly, to stop, look, enjoy. To take a breath and simply treasure the moment, this one right now. To not fret about what's coming up, but rather to savour what is.

To live in the now, the rapture of now, as Joseph Campbell called it. To simply be at one, delighting in what is all around, exploring the wonder of the world as it is, not as I'd like it to be.

As I wind down my tenure at the homeless shelter where I've worked since May 2006, I find myself wanting to right wrongs, turn events and up end mistakes. Yet, in truth, what I see as wrongs and mistakes are simply other people working out their stuff. It is in my perceptions and judgments that I see them as 'wrong' and other transgressions. And yes, my perceptions have value, but I have made my case, stated my beliefs and know that resigning is the right thing for me. It is what I need to do to create more of what I want in my life.

The hard part of leaving is the fact that I really care about the people and the place. These past 5+ years have been a blessing in my life. I've grown and evolved and had my heart touched in ways I never imagined.

And I am grateful. Grateful for the opportunity to have met and worked and played and been amongst such amazing people. Grateful for the opportunity to make a difference.

And I know I have. Made a difference. And been made different.

Faerie Dances -- mixed media

I am grateful. For in that difference within me is an understanding and appreciation for this thing called, our human condition. Its depth, its beauty, its brilliance. Its darkness and its light.

Yesterday, my eldest daughter, Alexis and I spent the day painting. It was a day of wonder and joy and spending time with this young woman who is so incredibly gifted and kind and beautiful. A woman who reflects the wonder of the world all around.

 

In my mixed media painting, Faerie Dances, I collaged in a quote from Buddha which ends with -- don't worry about the dark, it is in the dark the light shines brightest.

I don't need to worry about leaving the homeless shelter, it is in the leaving the light shines brightest.

I don't need to worry about Alexis going back to Vancouver tonight and not being here for Christmas, it is in the darkness of her absence the light of Love shines most brilliant. For in her absence and her presence, I see her through eyes of Love, shining, brilliant, sparkling Love.

I am reminded by this little kitty cat who has just jumped onto the desk beside my bed to sniff the flowers, that this moment is where I exist right now. In this moment right now, it is my responsibility to fill it with all that I want in life. To not get caught up in the drama of believing the universe is out to get me, or them, or her, or him, but rather, to live in the joy of knowing, the Universe is with me. The Universe needs me to be all that I can be. It needs me to give all that I can to create beauty in a sometimes darkened world so that the light can shine in the dark and illuminate the path to living life in the rapture of now.

For at the end of the day, no matter if it's the beginning, middle or end of a moment, or a lifetime, Love is eternal. Love never dies. Love is all there is to hold onto.

Namaste