SIMPLY DOING THE DISHES
You’re going somewhere, I’ve been somewhere and found it’s nowhere at all.
~ from an old song
Today’s the fifth anniversary of our move from Berkeley, California, to retire here on Vancouver Island, Canada. After fourteen moves around the globe, that same sun is shining here, and I’m still washing the dishes. There’s a deep and deepening sense of simply being; of a settled contentment, partly, I suppose, from having left the Toronto corporate world forty years ago to follow my mercifully unrelenting muse to the ends of the earth “to find the Truth” as I put it to myself then and for decades thereafter.
Well, today I’m kinda celebrating not so much the stories of finding as the fact of being it, and I’m going to explore that inner knowing a little here, having just finished the dishes while humming the song lyrics above from an old tune that seems to say it all – at least as much as can be said in well-whittled and pointed words! š
WHAT IS THE TRUTH IN FACT?
What comes immediately to the mind is the First Fact: The truth ain’t personal. The Second Fact is that there is no ‘person’ who knows. The Third Fact is there is truth only in the living of it, now. The rest is silence. Oh, and perhaps we can throw in a Fourth Fact: That which One is, is aware being.
All in all, and to perhaps seem brutally brief, that’s about as much as can be said in words about this truth that one IS. One can know that one IS, and not know – or need to know – what one is. In truth, we are moved and have our being in a lived paradox that I’ve never gotten used to or comfortable with beyond a certain knowing that, once directly recognized, cannot be denied.
EXPLORING THE SPIRIT IN FACT.
Now it seems incumbent on me these days, as it does for you perhaps, being so moved, to explore theĀ spiritĀ of non-personal fact; to sink deeper into nature as itĀ is; to expand and include all that is the compass of nature – the whole of our non-personal and intimately livedĀ beingness. To go into our own kitchen or shop, as it were, to no longer translate but to transform, to sustain our nature not with stones but with bread.
To love, taste, touch, sniff, sip, and savour our innateĀ being-nature, and to daily draw the water of truth and false from our own and other, perhaps muddied wells; from shallows and depths flavored with that of friends, partners, lovers, companions, and colleagues, and to broaden, share and sustain the spirit of fact – theĀ experiencingĀ of reality, – such that all humanity and earht itself are seen and embraced as strangers no more.
Of course, that truth is not mine or yours, it’s ours, so to speak. It’s up to each of us to tune in, to find what seems to be our own way to the facts beyond the personal, beyond belief, beyond all knowing. The really good news is that we all have the same powerful inner guide – love. In fact, love is awareness; awareness is love. One doesn’t need to follow love to the end of the earth (that may happen ;)) to find reality – it’s right here, right now, doing the dishes, or whatever, yes.
BTW, there are a couple of useful principles that have graciously guided me (and multitudes of seekers) lo these many years. “Let nothing bind.” and “Love, and be well.” You’re invited to comment and share ‘a verse or two’ about whatever arises here, perhaps while doing a little house cleaning! š
~* Beliefs may be about the sacred, but the sacred is not a belief; reality, truth, love, beauty, peace, and joy are not beliefs.
~ illustration by Jameil Law for The Atlantic. š
