Here is where I am….

Here is where I am. I am not there. Where, you may ask, is there? I don’t know, because I am here and not there. One letter, a “t” and I am here and not there. I can never be there and not here. Or can I? Language is a substitute and a poor one at times.

Saints are said to be able to bi-locate, be in two places at once. The mind tries to do that and fails. Silly old mind. The root cause of suffering.

I am wearing a necklace of prayer beads that my son brought me from the Canyon de Chelly in Arizona. It is handmade from juniper seeds interposed with tiny red beads. It is lovely in its simplicity. My son said that getting from here to there (the canyon) was interesting. One had to go on foot down into it and that took quite some time.

This was no casual visit but a week with Poetic Medicine’s John Fox. They were carrying supplies, so it was not easy going for a “city feller.” But what happened there was a lifetime of memories. A campfire, conversation, hiking and writing poetry.

Getting from here to there is also an inner journey. Going from the mind to the heart. We have to make the journey countless times, thousands upon thousands of times. But our destiny is on the map of the heart. Some of us must complete the journey or die in the desert of the intellect.

We look to awakened teachers to help us complete the journey. But they can’t walk all the way with us, for this is a journey from “the alone to the Alone.” The base camp of the intellect must be abandoned at some point.

You know you are getting close when your exhaustion is at its peak. When your canteen has run dry and your breath is hard to catch. Maybe you lie down on the floor of your body and sob. Who knows?

I am making this journey just like you. “Thou goeth before me to make the crooked places straight.” Ah, yes, there is a true guide within. Thank heaven for that.

Vicki Woodyard