Autumn: Suspended beyond the leaves
The view from my window
Usually when I get ready to move to a different geographical location, I start to look at the place where I currently live with a little extra attention, and dare I say, appreciation. Today was one of those days for me. I noticed that the leaves on most of the trees are shifting from a radiant green, to more subtle hues of yellow. Autumn.
A bluebird perched itself on the tree just after I snapped this picture and flew away right before I snapped the next. I like symbols and signs. And I instantly thought of the fleeting nature of life, time and place. I more keenly noticed the space the bluebird left behind and thought of Eckhart Tolle’s book, ”A New Earth: Awakening to your life’s purpose,” in which he says that “all structures are unstable”.
Anyway, in the interest of continuing to not heed my i.c. (inner critic), I decided to sit down and not think as I write about autumn, the instability of structures, the passage of time, the negative space, and how we are truly not in control—as much as sometimes I like to think I have even slightest bit of say-so.
Still, looking at my surroundings in that moment, I felt a certain stability in the present, while still feeling a certain, comforting, sense of insignificance. The world really does keep turning–whether I listen to my i.c. or not. Whether I win or lose, live or die, do or don’t.
Perhaps this is what is meant by meditating on the void. My day is pretty busy, but I’m going to see if I can lock into an awareness of the negative space, the void. By this, I don’t mean to reject or avoid what is–but really just to float my consciousness on that space in between…
I’m having a hard time describing my intention, my vision, because it crystallizes into form the … empty thought I simply experienced. Perhaps you still understand? Have you had a similar experience—where you were so in contact with “reality” by accepting what is not as what is?
