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In Solitude an image appeared, at times. I returned to the past, here. This man, dancing, I saw, again, his body moving to a band playing and singing "The Thrill is Gone."
That return, here, was to then Gainesville, FL, early first decade 2000s. A couple of my congregants ~ I was a clergyperson then ~ invited me to a bar to eat and enjoy fellowship. I went, a good way to act out my goodbye to my more conservative, restrictive previous life.
We ate, afterward focused on enjoying the band. I saw there was a birthday party for the soon to be dancing man. He, later, got on the floor and began moving about in the glow of the moment. He seemed oblivious to anyone else being present, totally with the moving movement, the music, all of it, like a Dakini Dance.
Beautiful site, I admired. I admired him doing what I would not do, and not what I necessarily would ever need to do. We are different, like every snowflake, yet each a snowflake, an amazing never-before-been miracle. For anyone to say another should be something he or she is not, well, that is a negation of this mysterious playful play of duality. And duality is simply the flow, the dance, the moving movement of life. In the spaciousness we are all one, in time we are each unique. Would you say to a snowflake, be like that snowflake over there? No. Admire the array of snowflakes, how each is one in the one beauty of Life.
How Wonderful! One man, just enjoying the dance, the music, moving ~ maybe better being moved ~, feeling the energy of life, to sway, to play, to be. I could see, he was in the moment, not a moment among other moments, the one moment, only moment, moving at the intersection of space and time, a vibrant, breathing particularity of the one Playwright of it all.
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Even when we appear to be still ~ persons who meditate learn this ~ there is a lot of movement, intense often, right there bubbling up in the apparent stillness. And recollection of that man dancing, well, that reminded me that we are each different, and this energy burps us into duality with a particularity no other person has ever embodied before. So, really, being yourself is the most natural thing to do; in fact, you are yourself before you ever do anything. Enjoy your life, and come into the open, like a spiritual warrior, and project a pride in your gift of yourself to this world, not hiding, refusing to be invisible. You are already you, now just say "Yes" and enjoy.
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*All material, unless another source is cited, is authored by the presenter of Lotus of Heart, Brian Kenneth Wilcox, Florida USA. Use of the material is permitted; Brian only requests that credit be given and to be notified at 77ahavah77@gmail.com .
*This series of writings arose from reflections in a solitude and silent retreat April 24 to May 24, 2018, at Gainesville Retreat Center, Gainesville, Florida, USA.
*Brian's book, An Ache for Union, is available through major booksellers.
*Move cursor over pictures for photographer and title.