By the Fence

When you breathe in, breathe in the whole universe. When you breathe out, breathe out the whole universe.
Koryu Osaka

It's one of those clear winter mornings which are all too rare here in the north. Sunlight flickers through the trees and the sky is clear and blue and endless, a scant handful of wispy clouds drifting slowly by now and again.

The deep untraveled snow is slowly engulfing the old cedar outbuildings at the edge of the field behind the barn, and the wind has a hollow sound that ought to evoke feelings of loneliness and isolation but does not.

Looking out across the snow drowned fields from my place by the fence, I slide into a sky gazing meditation without thinking and need no words at all. The silence is more eloquent than words can ever be, and it wraps itself around me like a cloak. I breathe in the whole world with every breath, and then I breathe it out, over and over again. If I listen carefully from my place here in the middle of nowhere, I can hear all of us breathing in and out together. There is no "me" at all, just this vast and incandescent breathing "us". How I wish I could bottle this feeling and give it away.