Greetings From My Lakeside Retreat – July 2020

I have always loved this quote of Einstein’s:

‘There are two ways to live life – one as if nothing is a miracle and one as if everything is.’

As I have had enormous amounts of time to contemplate my life, and Life in general, over the past several months of enforced Retreat I have come to believe life is ‘both – and’ as far as miracles go. Life since mid-March has been filled with anxiety, fear and eventual surrender to what is happening around the world right now. So, any little thing that is beautiful or sounds enchanting or sails by my vision into the heavens seems like a miracle. And it is! On the other hand, everything in the world is appearing and happening and evolving as it should so is not a miracle but just Life rolling out in front of me. And it is!

I feel it is a Miracle I am alive at all in this wondrous, random universe and also perfectly reasonable that I Am here. Why not be here now? I have my part to play, whatever that might be, and I pray I can be a source of strength or solace to someone else on this Path we collectively find ourselves on. Everything that transpires now is a miracle and also natural: a paradox, the Great Paradox (as I am learning through the Shamanism teachings I have been listening to online).

So…as I sat by the lake each morning at dawn’s early light this summer I started writing about the ‘miraculous wonders of Nature’ surrounding me. These flora and fauna don’t know I see them as miracles, they just Are:

Lakeside Haikus

lake is a mirror

reflecting sky and trees

ducks paddle past me

eagle, heron, hawk

gliding with outstretched wings

I sit in silent awe

silently she glides

eyes and ears alert for foe

mother duck on patrol

splash and flash of hooves

frolicking on yonder shore