Learning presence by watching life grow

#45 - Through the eyes of a child you can see what is most important

“Do not go through life, grow through life.”
—Eric Butterworth

Last week's article observed the Law of Nature, also known as the Law of Karma.

It illustrated how Nature acts as a voice of Consciousness to teach hue-manity every action has a re-action.

When lightning strikes a Pine in the forest and that tree falls over, a Conscious Observer of that event can easily discern its cause and effect.

Without Time to shape the perception of the Observer before, during, and after the tree falls, there is no way for Consciousness to move forward through new experience at all.

So if Time is associated with movement, a place beyond time would be the opposite, a place where movement rests in Potential. A place where the tree is both standing and fallen simultaneously.

Time enables Consciousness to gain experience in the form of living matter

You live in a physical realm within a Mental Universe. A reality whose meaning is entirely based on your view.

And your view of yourself and the world you live in is based on your perception of the experience you've had in life up until this point.

Many events have happened from the time you were born until now, and you've evolved as you've gotten older because those events happened.

Time has been essential to teaching you lessons about the Cause and Effect of the decisions you make which shape your experience. And about how to handle yourself through events which you have no control over.

As the motion of life waves, you use your time to build new experience. And your perceptions about yourself and the world around you continually evolve as your experience shapes you.

You become more able to handle the events life throws at you because over time you've learned a thing or two about yourself and your capabilities.

Since Time continually marches each day, the ticking clock of your physical experience is always moving forward. And you and I both know where this is ultimately going for each of us.

We can either choose to run from this knowing, or learn to embrace it. But only one of these mindsets will produce the sweet fruit of living peace.

It takes presence to appreciate the temporary nature of life. To surrender to each passing moment where the glory of embodiment shines through tender or fateful action.

And this appreciation is gained in the peaceful space beyond cause and effect. It rests before the motion of Life, patiently waiting for you to tunnel inward to embrace it.

But when you endlessly thrash through waves of events without ever coming up for air, it can be easy to lose sight of the stillness they spring from.

And since that Stillness is a primordial place which birthed the action of Nature and Time, you must be still in order to align.

Watching life teaches appreciation of it

From the stillness you can feel the Force of Life which animates you. It animates us.

Your heart will eventually stop beating at some point, and your body will return to the Earth. But the Force of Life which animates your body will continue its rhythmic dance in the others after you've departed.

The Forest does not die when a tree falls. LIFE does not die when a user of it does.

To know you are both the Force of LIFE itself, and a user of it, is to release yourself from the throes of Samsara.

You have the 3rd Dimensional Power of Self-Observation. Not only do you live your life, but you watch yourself doing it while narrating the process in your head.

You are both an experiencer of LIFE and an observer of it. Your time-based perception of your life enables you to feel the effects caused by your actions, and at any time you can evolve your behavior as you observe things you’d like to change.

But not only does your observation of your own life affect you, you are greatly impacted by witnessing the evolution of others and through the stories of their lives.

From Parks & Recreation, via Giphy

You grow as life evolves before your eyes

When Juice came into my world last January, he was a spunky rambunctious pup with needs exploding from his presence. Always in action, his wild spirit wrought havoc on my hands with stabby teeth.

I quickly became an outside dog with him whenever he needed to go to the yard to use it, or for a walk to get some of his explosive energy out. It didn't matter if it was -20°F at the time—the dog needed what he needed when he needed it.

So every day my 11 pound puppy would pull me outside to walk the sub-zero ice world with him. He chomped the snow and jumped with joy as I lamented my frozen stumps for hands.

And as we walked together I would wonder how he did it. How could that beanie baby eyed little muppet love the cold so deeply as I suffered through it.

He had only just been born two months before in November though, and that was his strength. The cold was all he had ever known, so he embraced it with his whole heart without fear.

I wasn’t born into it like he was, but he showed me the way.

The ground finally thawed in late April after I spent the winter watching Juice grow a little more each day. By spring he was around 40 pounds of thunder and lightning, and we had gotten into a groove together.

Sometimes I swore he would gain a pound or two during his post-walk naps while I did client work. I would focus entirely on my screen for an hour and look back to see his neck looking discernibly thicker, and each time I had to double take to make sure I wasn't hallucinating.

We extended our walks significantly as each morning warmed more, and spent the early part of May hunting for Morels once they finally fruited.

Together we watched the woods wake up and spring back to life, turning green while revealing their majesty. We saw new leaves unfurl, buds bloom to flowers, trees fall over, and branches stretch themselves across the trail to drape new vines downward.

When the Summer kicked into gear, my winter puppy learned the existence of heat.

We stepped outside for a short walk on his first ever 100 degree day and only got about a half block down before having to return home to melt into a panting puddle on the living room floor.

We quickly learned what was too hot to handle, started chomping on ice cubes, and made sure to get our miles in before and after the peak heat of the day.

I giggled as he somersaulted through front lawn sprinklers and flopped into soggy grass for the first time. The fire of his youth shone through his eyes and illuminated the wonder of my inner child.

Every experience was new to him and I could see the gears in his mind cranking as his eyes darted. He made life-changing discoveries through play every day, and as I studied him I felt his childish spirit breathe new life into my heart.

How had I learned to overlook the ever-present majesty of the world? How had I become so fearful of potential events when I could have been fully present accepting each moment instead?

His innocence granted me a fresh viewpoint of myself which constantly found me suspended in a state of pure wonder as I watched him learn.

I watched him watch the world with a fierce intensity only born through true presence. And his presence changed me.

I could see how each new experience shaped him and pledged to focus my energy on helping him become the most confident version of himself he could be.

The ongoing process of training builds winning moments into each day, and each win further builds his confidence. He's eager and willing to accept new challenges, and I've noticed the same effect in myself.

Together we are a team guided by the wisdom of youth, and we learn more about the value of LIFE each day.

Last week my sweet young companion turned one year old on 11/11/22. It was a frozen, reflective Friday.

Where a floppy puppy once stood, I saw a 50 pound champion carved from pure muscle like Greek marble. Memories of who I was and how I felt the day I adopted him drifted across my awareness.

It felt like I only blinked once and a year passed by. But I could remember all the highs and lows of living with my first growing puppy and how not every day was an easy one.

He was so small back then, and I had been too in so many ways. But in just 10 months time together we had grown tremendously, and recognized our work will only be complete when our clocks stop ticking.

And since Tucker showed me the before, during, and after experiences of sharing life with a dog, I have learned to appreciate each tender moment Juice and I have with the full force of my presence.

"You're my best friend, bud. Thanks for being here with me", I tell him every day.

And his wiggly eyes tell me the feeling is mutual.

Using me as a back rest so he can watch the squirrels eat walnuts.

This week's practice

Pick a trail and walk the woods every day for a while. The time of year will decide what you see. Walking the same path every day allows you to see how the life of the landscape slowly evolves over time.

Perhaps you might find some mushrooms as you go and you can watch them grow and decay as you pass by them each day of the week. Their rapid lifecycle is quite fascinating to observe.

Not sponsored. But dang, these were amazing!

My sister gifted me two mushroom grow kits for my birthday this year, so I tried them out.

The Pink Oysters flourished and made an amazing meal after about a week.

The Blue Oysters didn't do much, so rather than harvesting, I let them die to observe their full life cycle.

The fungus started as a tiny colony and spread all over the substrate. From the colony, distinctive caps emerged and individualized, growing larger by the day.

When the mycelium fruited to maturity, the Pink Oysters were supple, well hydrated, and firm. Their springy texture was flexible in either direction and offered an earthy chew.

The Blue Oysters browned and hardened into dehydrated husks as they aged beyond the harvest point. They held their form but became brittle and fragile, and refused to grow any further.

They look frozen in time, and still remain on the kitchen counter to offer daily perspective.

Watching the lifecycle of each mushroom kit showed me a much quicker version of my experience here on earth.

They were born. They lived. And ultimately their time was up.

Thankfully I still have time and breath to carry me through it, so this week I will remember to breathe with warm purpose as Juice and I do frozen laps around town.

Thanksgiving is next week

To say THANK YOU for all the support you have given this year, next week’s Pre-Thanksgiving article will not have a paywall, and we will do something special for all subscribers.

I envision T.H.E. Community will come together to celebrate what we are collectively thankful for since that is who we are and what this project is all about.

After writing this piece I was informed of the passing of someone who I care about deeply. He was a Husband, a Father, and a Great Teacher. This week’s writing is dedicated to his living memory.

Thank you and your family for taking me in as one of your own when I was all alone in the world and needed a place to heal. I will never ever forget the kindness you showed me and how you made me feel at so safely at home.

You are the bedrock my community is built on. I owe you everything I have built here because you helped me pour the foundation it stands on.

I love you and look forward to meeting you again beyond time. <3

Whatever they need, I will be there for them, I promise you this. As long as I am here, your family is my family.