Each Moment

“Every morning, when we wake up, we have twenty-four brand new hours to live…. We don’t have to travel far away to enjoy the blue sky. We don’t have to leave our city or even our neighborhood to enjoy the eyes of a beautiful child. Even the air we breathe can be a source of joy…. Every breath we take, every step we make, can be filled with peace, joy, and serenity. We need only to be awake, alive in the present moment.
–Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace is Every Step
Our goals, our plans for the day, our choices give us direction, ground us in the day, give us opportunity to express our gifts to the world. At the same time, there is an unseen challenge that is felt by everyone--the challenge of creating a happy, peaceful heart.

This peace and happiness does not lie outside of us in what others say or do, or in the events we encounter in the day, or even in the results of our endeavors. This peace and happiness lies within us, in our hearts and in our response to this very moment.

Child-Mind and the Pond

“Child-mind doesn’t question itself, stop to adjust clothes, worry about rules or approval. Child-mind dives in, breathes in the mystery, tastes all of it, the wonder and the intrigue. Child-mind moves without moving. It swims with the pollywog, rides the dasher’s wings, freezes invisible with the frog. Child-mind becomes everything that is.”
--morning pages, 5-10-08, Vickie HendersonWhen I first came to the pond, I couldn’t find the frogs. I asked someone, a wise someone, “are there any frogs in your pond?” He answered, ”yes, there’s lots of them. But they’re hard to see. Just be still in one spot and pretty soon you’ll see them.” And I did. Their camouflage is so flawless they are invisible and they're expert at using it--at being still. It was like looking at a hologram and seeing something wholly different emerge. And this was the day I also met the blue dasher. And through my camera lens I began to notice the different ways he holds his wings.It was by accident that I discovered the one female I saw. I wandered to another area of the pond to see what was happening over there and to find some shade. “Ah! What is this? Two salamanders mating underwater. How intimate. And whose this? A beautiful red dragon fly. What is she doing? Wow--laying her eggs.” I watched her, she was never still. She hovered close to the water's surface, touching it with the tip of her abdomen, depositing her eggs. Dipping up and down, touching the water, making the water ripple in rings. And sometimes when she hovered above the water, I could see the tiny eggs still falling.
Female blue dasher
In this photo you can actually see eggs falling, just above and below the saw-tooth edge of the leaf.

By chance I also saw her mate. He was perched on a long blade of grass, watching, standing guard. That a dragonfly has this kind of connection with his mate, with procreation, amazed me. How incredible, all of it. That these tiny creatures are busy in their pond community, creating life, living the delicate balance. That I could share this intimate moment and join them. That our lives could go by in their busy way and we could miss all of it.

The Blue Dasher and Child-Mind

A child’s mind is curious, imaginative, eager. A child’s mind is designed to play. Even though we may not feel it most of the time, we still have our child-mind. It is always with us. It is of the heart and sensitive. And so it will hide if it’s afraid or fatigued or overburdened. But it is also tough and resilient. It will never go away. It wants to come out and play. How do you find your child-mind if you feel like you’ve lost it? You idle. The favorite companion of child-mind is idleness. In the absence of busy-ness and worry, child mind emerges. It can’t help it. It can’t be still.



I went to a pond and met a blue dasher and he showed me.










I followed the whispery song of an American Redstart flitting around and upside down. He showed me.

Two skinks suddenly ran out of the grass. The little one disappeared in a flash. But the big one in pursuit stopped, raised her nose high in the air and she told me.

And the child-mind giggled.

*American Redstart is a woodland warbler. I've been listening to his song outside my window all week. And when I finally found him. Guess what? He wouldn't be still! Cornell says he flitters about and flashes his tail and wings to attract insects. I think he's just full of 'child-mind'.

*The Blue Dasher is a dragonfly in the skimmer family that inhabits ponds and still wetlands. The female of the species is red! More about the blue dasher next post.