A Patient and Wise Teacher

The election is over. I had wanted to watch the candidates’ speeches in hopes of hearing words of healing and conciliation, but my body, tired from five hours of sitting overruled me.  When I finally got up and read the on-line morning papers; it didn’t take long to realize that my hope for unity was only a wish. Bad behavior and partisan politics dominated the stories.

Disappointed, I took Lucy and Gracie outside to refill the feeders and pick up the local newspaper from the box. I looked up towards the sky and saw the bright half moon framed by the pines. I stood there for the longest time just gazing, the election and all its peripheral drama forgotten.

In the book, The Power of Now, author Eckhart Tolle speaks of being present in the moment. Like most people, my mind is continually mulling over stories of my past and worries about the future. At moments like these, Tolle recommends that you stop and observe what is actually going on around you. Most of the time, the world is quiet and peaceful if you would just stop listening to the monkey chatter in your head.

I experience that moment this morning. Consumed by the stillness of the world around me, I realized just how unimportant all that election drama had been. The earth still rotates on its axis, the sun will again rise in the east and I have been given the gift of a new day to experience. Nature is a patient and wise teacher. I need only to listen and learn.