Stand And Stare...
Anadi saved a little bird today; we were clambering over the rocks to get to the next bit of beach, the tide was coming in fast and it seemed a little bird had got sloshed and momentarily felled by a big wave.
It was sitting huddling on a little ledge on the rocks, all shivery and 'in recovery'... It was not a good choice of place to be recovering as the tide was coming in apace; very soon it would be swooshed up with the waves...
Anadi picked it up very gently and put it higher up to the dry bit where the tide and waves would not reach it... It stood up quite determinedly, fluffed itself a bit, settled back down and just stayed there... We watched it for awhile, but it didn't seem distressed any more, it just seemed it needed a bit more 'standing and staring' time before flying off again...
The standing and staring bit, and taking enough time is the important part in any recovery...
In fact it is an important part of experiencing life as W.H Davies writes so beautifully...
'What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare'.
We had another running barefoot on the beach experience today, my body seems to be very recovered. The memory of it hurting is fading fast - it always does once running freely is happening again...!
When something hurts, especially a foot or a knee, that is used in every step, I have found that it takes great commitment to be still, to accept, to not have every part of my being in the pain...
But I have also discovered how important it is to keep being still, to 'stand and stare'; there is no pain then, standing and staring stops everything hurting... My mantra, if my attention goes too much on the pain when moving about, has been to say...
'I don't know how, but I do know there is a way my body can be completely free of pain...'
And sometimes I will say... 'There is no Julia, there is no thing, this is all an illusion of my mind and so there can be no pain...'
That has helped sometimes too... To keep free of over identification with being me!
But once the pain has gone, moving without it becomes the norm again... And the pain is forgotten...
Anadi was musing today as we ran... 'you know how the Indian Masters all say 'be here now,' 'yes', I replied...
'Well' he continued, 'to "be" means there needs to be a someone, to be "here" means that there is a somewhere, and "now" means there is time...' 'Yes, that's so true' I said 'which' he continued 'is at odds with consciousness and love itself which has no concept of any of those things...'
And so on we ran, chatting and exploring as we enjoy doing, but also just running silently together too, side by side, along this beautiful beach...
We had headed out from our home this morning and turned left instead of right, which meant that within ten minutes we had found the beach. In the next instant we had taken off our shoes and were running barefoot...
The beach ran out after we had been running along it for awhile; we had reached a harbour and a road, when suddenly Anadi said... 'There's your gym...'
On a stretch of tufty grass with plants and prickly things growing there too, was a line of exercise machines, each set in a base of concrete...
It was like I had magicked my own outdoor gym, there were some really useful stations and I worked my way through them, Anadi did too.
It was great fun and at the end I felt very 'exercised' indeed...
We then ran back the same way we had come and we have spent the afternoon working on our terrace; there is much activity going on around us as tonight the family are hosting a buffet for all the guests in honour of New Year, because tomorrow they anticipate us all being at parties...
'I would really like to go to the party on the beach tomorrow' I said to Anadi, 'you are unlikely to like it' he laughed...
'Well we only need stay ten minutes' I said...
