Walking the plank...

Lovely day with my boys, but tonight the Zen legacy comes from the mouth of babes.

"Walk the plank me hardies..." says my boys. Lives my boys.

At first this may not make sense, after all the Chinese Zen Buddhists and Japanese masters did not really make their way down to the Barbary Coast to have a cup of tea and talk about enlightenment--perhaps if they did history would have taken a different tact and the English would have been a whole lot more cheerful for a hundred years, but I digress.

We all walk the plank, and either the actions we choose put us on it or we place oursleves on its edge, peering out over an unfathomable sea, swirling uncertainty beneath us, potential murky and dangerous enemies below. Sometimes we need to walk the plank, maybe even give ourselves a good springing bounce before we leap off, and sometimes there are a lot of sharp teeth and eager mouths waiting for us, hungry for what we have or who we are.

I find that if you face the open sea, face lifted to the horizon, body eager and pressed against the caress of a hopeful wind, you can find something that feels like peace. Everything tunes in tightly and all is silence. Whoever or whatever got you out on that plank doesn't matter, why you are there does not matter. The fact is-- wherever you are means that you are there, and it's that plank. So, are you aware of where you are and are you prepared to give that position up in order to accept something bigger than you when you feel your feet on that plank--whether the sea is choppy or smooth?

Currently, we are knee deep in pirate flsgs, sinking ships, swords and eye patches, a pile of scattered Connect Four pieces, sloppy office debris, full belly's, mail and papers probably from 1982, dishes, laundry, workloads, missed calls, returned calls, chipped paint, unwashed floors, trashcans, dirty sinks, broken stuff, stuff. All of it matters and none of it matters--I am here, in it, you are there in it, and nothing can change that fact except for how we choose to see it, recognize it, really be in it and let self move with the rythym of tides. There we are: at work, at home, in the car, sitting on a toilet, at a watercooler, in a cubicle, in an office, in a basement, doing paperwork, missing a lover, loving a love, holding a friend or missing one, playing with kids, sleeping, crying, fighting, living, dying, hoping, praying--pick any adjective and insert it into the moment of where you are now. In everyone there is a plank you are walking, we are walking.

You will slip a little out there, it has many textures for you to discern, and yes, nothing is very easy about doing it and yet everything is. Guess what..you're on it right now and so am I. That horizon, that wind, that taste, this life, this...everything. Go ahead, take that next step.

It's a doozy.


With Gratitude for every day,
Zen Daddy