My dentist's office is situated between two grassy, sparingly tree-speckled lots. The chair I sit in to have my teeth cleaned faces a window framed by an evergreen on either side, looking out towards grass and trees. During a few routine dental x-rays today, a chickadee flitting about on the ground and a passerby robin caught my attention.
It doesn't take much to find that spacious inner place...usually those experiences happen in the most everyday situations...the instant when we notice and something inside us wakes up, we remember. Something takes us home, inspires us, opens us to oneness, and we just want to hug the whole blessed world, suffering and beauty all at once.
Then the hygienist asked me something about my children. I leaned back to set in for a teeth cleaning and a view of an advertisement featuring a young woman with an unnaturally white smile. Those moments don't last. I don't live perpetually there. But the sense lingers, that knowing. Even in the everydayness, something deeper, lasting, connecting remains...and it's peace, it's wholeness.
But we don't often notice, so we go about our lives believing that we are just at the dentist getting our teeth cleaned and polished. After all, first impressions are important. Though perhaps, if we looked a little deeper, we'd find something more, something more.
This is the place where the path and the woods converge. This is both the journey and home.
who are you,little i
13 years ago
