temporal metta

I wanted to write tonight (and brag a little) about my week of sorting an enormous yarn stash and some of the surprises and recollections that were unearthed. But news comes in the form of that pesky life is what happens when you're making other plans alert and it seemed trivial.

In the park a few days ago a young woman I see every morning walking, stopped to talk briefly, rub Spike's soft ears, hug me. Learning that I had a birthday recently, she intoned the Navajo blessing.  Very moving and completely unexpected from someone I hardly know. Today I learned that my dear 83 year old friend has congestive heart failure. She is exercising, eating right, taking her meds and doing the best she can for her body. She looked at me with her clear blue eyes and said, "time is running out." And then I read on a another friend's blog that her ex-mother in law died at an advanced age and she went on to describe the difficult relationship they'd had and how we all die alone. I'd like to blame all of this on Mercury retrograde, but reality is too sharp these days and I don't really believe that the planets have any influence on us at all - even though there are inexplicable canny happenings within astrological confluences. I'll tell you about my stash busting glee another time. The last of tonight's sunset continued on long after the mountains turned from pink to indigo.

may beauty be above you
may beauty be below you
may beauty be to the left of you
may beauty be to the right of you
may beauty be behind you
may beauty be within you
may you walk in beauty all around you
     Navajo Beauty Way blessing (one of several versions)