{"id":40688,"date":"2013-03-10T03:10:57","date_gmt":"2013-03-10T08:10:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/horizonsmagazine.com\/blog\/?p=40688"},"modified":"2015-05-31T03:11:49","modified_gmt":"2015-05-31T08:11:49","slug":"saturday-evenings-contemplation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/horizonsmagazine.com\/blog\/saturday-evenings-contemplation\/","title":{"rendered":"Saturday evening\u2019s contemplation"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been lazy this week. \u00a0After\u00a0morning meditation<\/a>, I\u2019ve been going back to bed for a few hours, sometimes checking Facebook on the iPad awhile first. \u00a0I\u2019ll close the darkout curtains before dawn begins to show, but the mother cardinal will begin to peck on the sliding glass door two feet from my pillow as the sun rises to reflect on the glass. \u00a0I use her \u201ctap, tap, tap\u201d to bring myself to an awareness of my breathing, as I keep my attention focused on my third eye and breathe in and out from my heart center. \u00a0We may continue this dance for an hour or two, me drifting in and out of sleep, then I\u2019m up and into the office. \u00a0After a few hours\u2019 work, I went to the Melbourne Beach Farmer\u2019s Market and bought onions, organic celery, red and yellow peppers and tomatoes. Lunch was a vegetarian beanless chili atop a little wild rice.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

After lunch, I worked a few more hours then went out to play in the yard. I noticed I lost my banana tree in last week\u2019s frost. She\u2019ll be back, it\u2019s happened before. \u00a0I trimmed the giant bird of paradise outside the master suite so I can see more of the east garden from the stone patio I laid just outside the sliding glass door. To give the patio privacy from the street, I sunk two 4x4x6\u2032s and hung lattice on it, then hung potted plants and wove palmetto fronds and big bird of paradise leaves into the lattice. It literally doubled my patio area.<\/p>\n

As soon as Spring comes, my night blooming jasmine will fill out again so the lattice will come down. For now it makes it cozy and private to look into the east garden, not another house in sight. \u00a0I can enjoy the eastern sky from the chaise lounge there, or do yoga on the patio. \u00a0I like having different areas of the yard to do yoga in, or to sit and meditate in, different times of day.<\/p>\n

As it neared sundown, I began collecting the kindling for the evening fire. \u00a0I decided tonight it would be in the chimenea on the back porch, small and cozy. \u00a0Two bricks in the bottom, I put several crumpled up pages of old\u00a0Horizons<\/a>\u00a0on top, then a pyramid of kindling, then a small pyramid of dried branches. \u00a0My evening fire is also my evening puja: the time I give thanks for the bounty of the day, to burn any concerns into clarity and any conflicts into forgiveness. \u00a0As I poke and stir the burning coals, ideas and insights stir in my mind. \u00a0Hindsight is 20\/20 so I had several realizations about recent events. \u00a0Being so self centered, I can be blind to the obvious. I smile at myself. \u00a0There are no regrets, only further illuminations of why things are as they are and how they will be. I don\u2019t take score so soon. \u00a0Everything is a cycle. \u00a0Everything is an open window.<\/p>\n

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