This Friday was a mess but what I can say about Friday is that it will not have a hold on me. Moving along, I had a fantastic weekend. Saturday started with the Vaisahki Festival in Vancouver and I went with some friends to enjoy some culture and food. So many people were there and it was a big celebration of giving and sharing abundance. If you don’t know what Vaisahki is, it is a Sikh tradition where they celebrate giving and helping the community. There so many stalls open between two main streets. Families gathered to serve the crowds with free vegetarian food. There was music and there was dancing. Near the end there was a parade as well. People of every race and religion were there. I feel so lucky to live in such a diverse city where people of many different religions can harmoniously exist and can all be celebrated. I also feel grateful that the Sihk community is always open to people everywhere to celebrate and learn about their culture. Learning is great! You could tell that love was in the air.
The great day continued into the evening because I went to An Evening with Eckhart Tolle. Eckhart Tolle a great spiritual teacher. In fact, he was my first spiritual teacher and I always end up turning to his books when I need guidance the most. It was an exciting opportunity to be able to hear him speak. It was a two hour talk where Eckhart sat by himself on the stage with nothing but a chair and a small table that had a vase of flowers and a glass of water on it. I had never seen the Queen Elizabeth Theatre so bare. I guess the less distractions there were on stage the more we were able to be present and listen to him. He had his standard khakis, shirt and vest on and talked for the entire two hours. His main message was to remind us that it was in our hands to change the world by opening our eyes. It was up to us to stop the negative thoughts that precede suffering, pain and violence and to start helping and caring for one another instead. He wanted us to see each other as pieces of ourselves and also as connected pieces of the fabric of the Universe. I was taking notes on the points that were especially thought provoking or inspiring. My top three are:
1) How do we know that the Universe is conscious? We know because we are conscious and that we are part of the Universe. As the Universe’s energy is manifested in many different forms, such as a rock or color, the Universe has manifested it’s own consciousness and awareness through the human mind. We are aware that we exist. We are aware that we are alive. We can perceive the many different forms of the Universe around us. I think that is a breathe taking thought.
2) When we face challenges, do no resist them. Instead accept them as part of the evolution of our consciousness. Be grateful for them. Thank them. Practice this process of evolution with the big and the small challenges. Don’t argue with the “isness” of the moment. Just allow it to be.
3) Gratitude and gratefulness should not always be external. You shouldn’t just be grateful for what you have. We should practice direct gratitude in the present moment by appreciating what is. Appreciating the beauty around us by giving it attention and to notice it’s essential aliveness.
Today I practiced such a thing. I had a wonderful day with friends exploring the Cleavland Dam on the North Shore. I stopped and stared and tried to give my surroundings attention. I tried to feel the aliveness of nature. That is easy in a place like a forest. However, it was when I got home that I felt a stronger connection while sitting alone in my backyard. I guess having a goal at the Cleavland Dam made it harder to really let go of the thoughts. I got home I sat in my backyard without my phone and was enjoying my dinner. I wasn’t intending to notice anything and I had no goals at the moment to pay attention to anything in particular. In that moment I was just looking around and then I noticed a crow. The crow was staring at me and I was wondering if it was hungry. I had some steak fat on my plate so I threw a chunk towards it. It hobbled by and picked it up ever so cautiously and watchful in case I were to make a move. He flew away but came back, eyeing me. I continued to chuck food towards it and it continued to collect food while looking rather anxious. I was trying paying close attention to his behaviour and gestures as they seemed quite meaningful. He wasn’t sure of me but he wanted to eat. He was a little scared. He perched far enough away so it was safe but he stuck around while cleaning it’s beak incase I was feeling more generous. Then I noticed the most amazing thing. As it was “cleaning it’s beak” on the wooden fence a noise was also forming out of it’s beak. It was a mild and soft sound. Not so much a chirp but like a bubble popping, almost like a burp but seemingly intentional. It was such a minute thing but such a revelation. I never knew crows made any other sound than the loud and rhythmic cawing. I realized I knew nothing about them and never noticed much about them except for when they would huddle in large groups and look scary and maybe swoop down towards my head in the Spring. But I felt it’s delicate nature tonight. Intrigued, I started feeding it some corn chips and also learned that crows like to stash their food. This little crow took my Tostitos and buried them around my backyard and my neighbor’s yard too, cleverly I might add, by covering up the pieces with dead grass. I love noticing this world around me. It has many mysteries and many stories that are not so apparent at first glance. You’d think that being in my mid thirties I would have noticed a common city crow’s delicate sounds and hoarding behaviour but no… not until today. Took 36 years to push away useless thoughts on a Sunday night in order for me to open up my awareness briefly enough to notice this. It’s like Alice through the looking glass. The funniest thing is that you don’t even need to drive into the mountains to connect with nature or to let go of thoughts. Apparently, you can even do it in the city or maybe just anywhere as long as your cell phone is far far away.
We only see the very surface of it. If we are only seeing the very obvious things in front of us and missing all the little nuances and tenderness of life what are we missing? If I had only noticed the beauty of a crow today, I wonder how many times I missed the beauty of a person, the moon or tree even if I was staring directly at it. I don’t want to be blind anymore. Is that what we are doing with our emotional and social experiences, only touching the surface? I guess we all have to pay a little more attention to see the true beauty of things.
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