How Great Thou Art
Wednesday, November 6, 2024
I often take a “Vespers Walk” most evenings at sunset. I need one today. Deliberately, I place reactions to yesterday’s election on the back burner. I open myself to whatever the universe brings to my eyes, my mind and my spirit. Lately, gratitude appears, filling my soul as I walk. Sometimes songs play in my mind. Today I hear the hymn “How Great Thou Art,” the favorite of my Grandma Jep, Arlena Jeppesen. I look at my neighborhood, weirdly 65 F in November. I soak in earthly wonders in fading light: the colorful leaves and acorns scattered on the sidewalk. What happened, happened. And experience tells me there is much more to come that I cannot yet imagine. “So,” I tell myself, “wait and see. Patience.” My focus is staying in the only time we have: the eternal present.
Inhale.
Hold.
Exhale.
Repeat.
There is no past, there is no future. Only this breath.
As I return home, I smell the toasting marshmallows scent that my katsura tree emits as each golden leaf detaches and floats to the ground. It is odd to still smell that scent. Those leaves dropped two weeks ago and now are brown and raked up around the bushes. I leaned my back against the tree and meditated briefly. I asked the katsura if it minds if I do a little Reiki on it. I feel an openness. As I cup my hands on it’s trunk, the sweet scent was so strong. I thanked this wonderful tree for its shape, shade, presence and beauty.
I pause on the front step and the crescent moon catches my eye. I stare at the moon with wonder. A large white bird, a hawk? an owl? flies silently across the sky, right through my view of the moon. I gasped in amazement. I have no idea what white raptor crossing a crescent moon means. Nor do I understand why brown katsura leaves still fill my front yard with sweetness. But all of this gives me hope. When I can stay in the present, there are so many gifts to receive that nourish my spirit.
Each day brings us new challenges and opportunities while some plans and dreams are derailed. We can’t stop and give up. I remind myself to take a walk and notice the beauty. The cycle of life and death and rebirth continues. Grieve what is over and look for something new and different each day.