It's been seven years now. This year, the cold, thin, wonderful valley fog
has invaded our rivertown more often than any year since we arrived.
The Tai Chi practitioners put on gloves, but beyond that, continue to practice regardless
of the cold. The air fully moisturized and pungent
During the rain we use the overhang of the main library building, safe from the wind.
The bank of the river is now a cement promenade, rails and benches, people and dogs,
a ferry building for coffee and warmth.
The island lies some 200 yards west, all built over with dry docks, giant cranes, warehouses.
Like the dinosaurs they resemble, the cranes and all the accompanying buildings and docks,
they are all idle, now that the Navy has pulled out: nuclear submarines built elsewhere;
the flat boats that trained our people for duty in Viet Nam, all gone; the commissary, barracks, and officer's clubs, all deserted or turned to civilian purposes.
The tidal push of the Bay, makes it difficult to determine the flow of the rive: sometimes the current seems like it is going uphill, back to the source, sometimes clearly heading into the Bay.
On the promenade, every 200 feet or so, there are ladders leading into the water. Stainless steel, there are five rungs at each place, and the tide sometimes covers two of the five, and sometimes none of them, and during storms the river's water covers all of them, even quietly or not so quietly sheeting over the top.
Every day it is different, even when it is the same
We practice and practice our Tai Chi routine, and every day
it is different even when it is the same..........this mirrors the flow of our living.
We rise to the day, the same, but different. Breathe, and begin to practice how to live
in the light of awareness - or not. This is our choice. But once one has glimpsed even a small crack of the door into awareness, there is no going back.
Buddhists argue the 'sudden enlightenment' school of practice and the 'gradual dawning' school.
What is the difference ? Standing on the side of the river looking, looking.....
one either sees or does not. Come. Wake up. Any other option is not living.
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