A Mind Like Water

Develop a mind that is vast like the water,
where experiences both pleasant and
unpleasant can appear and disappear
without conflict, struggle, or harm.
Rest in a mind like water.

~Buddha

For Isaiah and Friends

This is a picture of Manzanita beach, taken from the banks of Neakahnie Mountain on the northern Oregon coastline. This is where I spent summers as a child. It is so beautiful here, where sand and water and sky meet, where birds and children play. There is a soul of place here, on this beach, where four generations of my family have walked, collected, surfed, picnicked, and enjoyed bonfires at night. We love to share this with friends. Come, be our guest!

Sands

This morning, on the beach, I noticed the morning sun on the waters, the salty air, the song of the waves, and the sands, which have shifted, since my last walk there. Each morning these sands are changed, never the same, one morning to the next. But the sands, the song of the waves, the ebb and flow of the tide, and salt of the air, are dynamic and ever- present here in this is the landscape of the water's edge. I love to walk that line, of the water's edge, where wet sand meets dry, and watch the blurring of one into the other. Each morning I note the shifts; my eyes are keen to observe what the sea has offered. There are beautiful patterns in the sand, sprinkled with small treasures from the sea. There is a refreshment happening with each tide, a coming in and a going out, like an in breath, and an outbreath. Overhead, in a constantly changing sky, gulls soar, with sounds that are greeting this day, too.

There is love here: can you feel it, hear it, smell it? Love is moving over and within this landscape, reverberating, penetrating, so available, freely offered, and unstoppable.

Wet, sandy, and salty this morning,
Meredith