Intermittent Heart Flurries

May your heart be light. Be light about it.

Open it.

Can you see the mountain? The great mountain?

Yes, the sharp stones are covered in green with white snow below a blue sky.

And the clouds?

Yes, they are thin, light and flying. 

Faint?

Clear and you are a strange travelling creature of the nature world this wandering whirling dervish Chinese monk from along the Silk Road now on the western edge, the fringe of a long silk carpet woven on the loom of time.

Yes, it is a magic carpet.

Book

Yes. A great word when it needs to escape the vocal structure of your sunrise.

And then, while wandering around D&R, you see your little book, the experimental temperamental opus libre on the bottom shelf so you pull it out and make an image with the ever present Leica D-Lux 3. It's about exposure. Evidence of the publishing circulation system, or, simply said, a small miracle. Papyrus between cardboard.

The Chinese girl looks lost and bewildered. "What am I doing here in Asia Minor?" she wonders.

"How did I end up on the cover of a book written by a blind man?"

Existence

What did a philosopher say? "Existence precedes essence." 

You shuffle life's zen cards and spread them out.

1. Existence - here and now. Lift off.

2. Adventure - resistance and fear?

3. Playfulness - response

4. Awareness - intuition and support

5. The Rebel - intelligent action

6. Thunderbolt - relaxation and acceptance

7. Sorrow - arrival at a new level of awareness

Existing and laughing

How did it feel to wander into work after six peaceful days?

A stranger in a strange land. A wild animal trapped in a zoo filled with melancholic humans, desperate to pass...desperate to get a life. How, as a small Zen monk comfortable with the consciousness, shifting into a zone of peace, I was a ghost in the floating world.

How when someone asked me how I was I replied, "I am existing. Here. Now."

How, maybe this awareness, this small utterance connected their reality with an image, a feeling of inner stillness. How, like a bolt of lightning, my voice articulated the reality allowing them to see the futility of grasping.

"Yes," I said, "I find it peculiar to see and hear people still trapped in their own personal fear, anger, manic behaviors, and attitudes. How I dreamed some of them might have, during the recent retreat, used their time to meditate, to slow down, adjust, adapt, and evolve their direction, motivation and intention as a new year, a new beginning allows everyone the freedom to develop deeper meaningful and beautiful relationships.

Book Jacket Blurb

Here's the jacket blurb.

You need a comfortable jacket when fall and winter dance between seasonal shifts.

As Basho, the Haiku poet said, "Travel is human life-life is a journey."

An experiment in perspective, an epic with multiple players, "A Century Is Nothing" takes the reader on a pilgrimage to the subconscious.

Join Omar, an exiled Tuareg Berber and blind prescient writer from the Moroccan Sahara, on his travels as he and Mr. Point, a Vietnam veteran he meets after 9/11, share dreams, myths, and cogitations. Within the harmonious triad of language, countries, and friends, Omar's journey begins in Morocco; takes him through Ireland, Kuwait, Israel, Bhutan, Japan, Vietnam, the Taos Pueblo, Bali, China, and Tibet; and eventually to 26,000-year-old Paleolithic caves in Spain.

Experiencing joy with a playful childlike sense of delight, the wayfarers explore cultural communities with great passion through healing and meditation. Their stories establish a circle of friendship where authenticity, compassion, kindness, and awareness are highly valued.

A Century Is Nothing explores the journey of life to discover the very essence of the human soul.**__