(Reposted from September 1, 2013)
As I write this, it is raining, again. We have had more rain this summer than in many years’ memory. We have complained about it, but the reality is that the earth has never been greener in this part of the land, and our streams and rivers, dangerously low only a few years ago due to drought, are full. Sometimes, our complaints are about convenience while, truth be told, the momentary inconvenient thing really is what restores, refreshes and renews our lives.
Buddhist teaching says that a thing comes into being when all the conditions are right. The conditions are right for rain. The conditions are right for heavy, green vegetation. The conditions are right for cooler air, less air-conditioning, lower electric bills, less use of fossil fuels to cool our buildings. For today, the conditions are right for all of this. In many ways, while I stop to ponder it, this rain is restorative and holds within it and its network of connections, the possibility of renewal.
We might try, for today, to consider each thing that happens–at least those things that demand our attention. We might try considering how all the conditions have been preparing us for this. We might look to see what seeds of change, transformation and renewal are wrapped up in what happens today. Just for today.
Bob Patrick
Our spirituality is so ephemeral and so fleeting that it lives in this kind of context; a day, a moment, a raindrop. I think I could better grasp my spirit self if I wake up fully on this day, if I absorb the moment and catch a singular raindrop. I wish I could bring these discrete bits of spirit/life into a safe place within me and harbor them until the next connection, another day.