Q Day 6 Getting There Being Here

Getting there, and Being Here, slowly.

As the British sun enlightens my room, it's difficult to not think back, see what I had and compare it to where I am now. There is the realisation that I am now nomadic, anchorless, or to put it another way, free (as a bird, perhaps a Jonathan Livingston Seagull). But, on the other hand, Janis Joplin sang "Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose."

The message is, of course, treasure what you currently have for it all can be taken away, love, home, belongings all can go overnight. You can become shipwrecked on the sea of life, adrift.

Okay that all seems a little morose. The bright side is that you learn not to need, or even want, those things that you once had. You cut your coat to suit your cloth, pair down your wants and attend only to your needs.

Ram Dass, formerly psychologist, psychedelic guru turned spiritual adviser mentioned….

"It is important to expect nothing, to take every experience, including the negative ones, as merely steps on the path, and to proceed."

Henry David Thoreau had his Walden and I my Clacton, (on sea). For me, Clacton is fictionalized in the pages of my various short stories, as Blicton on Sea. 

 On the final page of Walden, Thoreau wrote...

"...such is the character of that morrow which mere lapse of time can never make to dawn. The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star."

The Cosmos continues as The Beatles sang in  "Within You and Without You" (June 1967).

"Try to realise it's all within yourself

No one else can make you change

And to see you're really only very small

And life flows on within you and without you."

And there you have it. 

Back to Ram Dass

“I think the question is, how do we live with change? Change in our friends, change in our lovers? Change in me and change in my body, from the stroke. Things have changed this plane of consciousness. We've tried to keep things the same. It causes suffering. This suffering is another step in your spiritual life, in your spiritual journey.”

Suffering as in the Hindu/Buddhist Duḥkha.