7 Billion Geniuses-The Music Metaphor-Part VII-Getting Outside the Box

Lightning

Lightning flashed brightly in the East. The thunder rolled in later, and seemed to surround me. I wondered what it would have looked like from the beach.

The lightning signaled change, and got me thinking about how I can get used to things being a certain way. My perception that thing are ever a certain way is an illusion, since things are always changing.

Today, I will be paying attention for signs of small change, and allowing this to reconnect me to the flow.

Pink Sky

The Sun glowed pink through the early morning clouds, illuminating the colors in the tree leaves. Like burning coals, the trees shone bright and shimmered in the warm breeze.

“Red in the morning, sailors take warning.” The rain did come, and it occurred to me that the warning that can be seen in the clouds applies only to humans in boats. My creature cousins who live in and on the water are not imperiled by rain.

Today, I will be paying attention to times when ideas of good and bad are reflections only of what is useful and not useful to my human family members.

False Sunrise

Hours before the Sun actually crests the horizon, the sky begins to brighten. I have heard this referred to as a false sunrise. This may be because sunrise is considered an event not a process. The precise moment when the Sun is visible on the horizon can be determined. The moment when the sky starts to get brighter is a it more difficult to discern.

This gets me thinking about how I am invited to think about my life as a series of events, instead of a process. There is a specific moment that determines when I am one year older, even though the year has been progressing for three hundred and sixty five days. The time I get up, the time I post this, the time I eat breakfast, these are the markers I am encouraged to think about when I consider the unfolding of my life. They are the sing posts that can distract me from the path, or the map that distracts me from the territory.

I have also heard a false sunrise described as the illusion created by the atmosphere that makes it appear that the Sun has crested the horizon moments before it actually does. In this way we describe what a moment is not, but miss what it is. This first explosion of light may not be the sunrise, but it is something. It is part of a process.

Today, I will be paying attention to times when I am invited to look at the sunrise, and ignore the change in light.

Assumptions

Late last night, I heard Squirrel running in the woods. She was under Oak tree. I was struck by her being out so late. Then it occurred to me that I had been making assumptions about Squirrel. Why shouldn't she be out at night? I was. Why had I assumed she would be awake during the day and sleep only at night? I wondered what else I might be missing as a result of my curiosity being stunted by assumptions.

Today, I will be paying attention to the effects of assumptions, and what they might keep me from seeing.

Tree Ghost

This morning, I had a vision of an arch way created by two Maple Trees. One of them was a Maple I cut down several years ago. They were both bright orange, set off by a clear blue sky.

I am grateful to live a life haunted by the ghosts of Trees.

Leaves

The early morning Sun shines through the brilliant colors of the changing leaves, and reminds me of magnificent stained glass windows in cathedrals. The beauty of the world beyond my culture is limitless, but fragile. As my culture changes, cathedrals are torn down and the ancient stained glass windows shatter on the ground, or get tucked away in cellars. The beauty that lives wild and free just outside my window can also come crashing down if I take it for granted.

Today, I will be paying attention to the beauty that lives all around me, and remembering that I play a role in making sure my grandchildren have the chance to see it, too.