Love is Sitting in My Hand

 I am reading a book that is giving me comfort in my time of grief. It is the Tibetian Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche. One story told in the book if of the Buddha. There is a woman whose child dies and she goes around the village asking for someone to restore her child. The people send her to the Buddha. He tells her he will restore her baby if she can bring him corn from a home that has never experienced death. She buries her child and comes back to the Buddha to be taught about spirituality. 

Here is another a metaphor I learned from this book.

Love

Holding

Grasping

loss

without love

holding

trusting

opening and faith=love stays

Thank you.

The Present Moment

Today I looked back at when I began this blog and I am aware that I have word by word wandered my way off the original goal of this blog.
I have a similar story. My family has big annual camping trips. I was about seven that year, our family camp was set up in a clearing at the edge of an inviting thick forest.  My cousins and I were preparing to roast marshmallows. I had a goal, I would get a willow branch and bring it back to my Pop. When looking at the edge of the woods I saw the white tail of a deer bouncing off into the woods. I followed the bounce, bounce, pause, bounce of deer for some time. Then I saw a small bit of blue in the distance, indicating a pond. At the pond I saw a beaver. I sat quietly and watched the beaver building his damn.

Next thing I remember was sitting inside the camper and watching my cousins roasting their sweet, soft cornered squares of sugar. I can imagine my parents did not appreciate the worry I provided by wandering off by myself and I did not appreciate not getting to share in the marshmallow roasting. 

I think it is a blessing to be in the present moment. However, it is a challenge to live in the present moment and to set clear intentions.
Does anyone know how to do that?

Buddah

This photo does not paint an accurate picture of this Buddha. I will try to paint the picture with words. 
Imagine it is night and there are bright stars in the sky. You are in the back seat of the car and pull up to see a house and a sculpture of Quan Yin that is about eight feet high. That's nice you think. You knew you were going to see a Buddha and it is nice that it is a female goddess. She is pretty tall and she is standing on a rose colored lotus flower. Then as the car rounds the building a giant white Buddha fills the sky in front of you. The Buddha glows in dark New Jersey country side,  there is no room in your mind to be anything but awed. Behind the Buddha are tall poplar trees and you can see just the tops of the trees behind the head of the statue and beyond that stars. At the feet of the stature ten to fifteen people are sitting in silence. As they end their meditation, rather than talking, they look at one another and smile. You smile also, that is all you need to do.