a thousand years of now.....

View from Rattlesnake point on the Niagara Escarpment

There exists only the present instant.....a Now which always and without end is itself new. There is no yesterday, nor any tomorrow, but only Now, as it was a thousand years ago and as it will be a thousand years from hence. Meister Eckhart

Yesterday, I tried to keep my feet planted in that Now as I spent time with a cherished friend I rarely get a chance to see, whom I share a few long ago yesterdays with. We went for a wonderful walk.......not a long one because every time we took a step forward, we ended up stopping to talk....to catch up ........ to pull ourselves into that Now because it is so easy to rest in the pasture of yesterdays isnt it? The thing about wrapping conversations around "remember whens......" is that you never manage to take a new step on the walk. The friendship doesn't grow. There's a need to find that thread on your own tapestries and hope it has more length to it so it can be woven into the fabric of your present life. I don't think it happens very often. It's magical when it does....in a delicious sort of way.

Sometimes you have friends whom you can only relate to when you revisit the past together. The threads which once bound has already been intricately decorating the tapestry for a long time, but its used up. It's an indication that perhaps that relationship had a beginning and an end..... too much time and change has flowed under the bridge. I think we have all experienced this. But, when you move away from the home area where you grew up, it is a recurring theme.

Its tough keeping pace with people when distance separates you. One Chrismas card a year just doesn't cut it. Its tempting to try to stretch the thread, to incorporate it in the Now design, by stretching the stories from the yesterdays as much as you can rather than accepting the fact that both people have moved on and that its alright. So, when you can jump back into a friendship foray where you can meet right in the present moment and remain there, it is an exceptional feeling. What's mind boggling to me is that with these type of kindreds, its not even necessary to send a Christmas card to them. They are just there.....always in the Now with you, mixed into your own clay foundation in the way Meister Eckhart describes....

it is a Now that has the flickering embers of the eternal.....because it encompasses a thousand years ago, and will be with you a thousand years hence. The Now with this type of friendship is the type of thread which continually weaves throughout your own tapestry and never rests on its laurels. It reflects the light of your spirit and bathes it with a golden glow. They are true blessings in our lives.

I am on the road this week, back to my "home" visiting family and some old friends as we prepare to celebrate my parent's 50th wedding anniversary on Saturday. There is always a sense of nostalgia interspersed with the making of new memories. I am really looking forward to seeing many people whom I havent seen in a very long time, friends of my parents and family members who attended my own wedding 20 years ago.

Time passes quickly, but it has been filled with the richness of the accumlated stories of living and growing as individuals. The idea of looking back and celebrating it all in the present is obviously a recurring theme in my head these days as I wonder what the next step along the path into the woods will be.....for all of us. I do love a good mystery.

right Now?? we will fill up new pages and continue to see where the path leads......

Rattlesnake point.

You can always see the beginning of the path, but the rest sits beyond the trees.