Daily Wisdom
Lou Ann reads two books every morning and she has been reading them daily for years. One is Mark Nepo’s The Book of Awakening, a daily spiritual sharing for each calendar day of the year. Nepo’s book tells us there is a Buddhist precept that asks us to be mindful of how rare it is to find ourselves in human form on earth. So what will you do today, knowing that you are one of the rarest forms of life to ever walk the earth? How will you carry yourself? What will you do with your hands? What will you ask and of whom?. Tomorrow we could die. But today we are precious and rare and awake. It ushers us into grateful living. It makes hesitation useless. Grateful and awake, ask what you need to know now. Say what you feel now. Love what you love now. Here are things we can do.
Sit outside, if possible, or near a window, and note the other life forms around you.
Breathe slowly and think of the ant and the blade of grass and the bluejay and what these life forms can do that you can’t.
Think of the pebble and the piece of bark and the stone bench, and center your breathing on the interior things that you can do that they can’t.
Rise slowly, feeling beautifully human, and enter your day with the conscious intent of doing one thing that only humans can do.
When the time arises, do this one thing with great reverence and gratitude.
Life is precious in every lifetime whatever form we take. As a human being on Earth, we get to have a mind and soul and feelings to experience the magic of life. Don’t take any of it for granted. Have each day be a sacred connection to All That Is. From my learning heart to yours, Thomas