Mantras

"I am not willing to be written in the Book of Life without you."

So said the email I received yesterday from  Integral Life.  For some reason, this pricked up my inner ears.

I found myself that evening standing on the pavement outside my place of work, waiting for my partner, addressing everyone I saw in this way, internally, silently.

I may as well have said it out loud to them. The reaction was immediate - smiles, open-faced acknowledgements, a certain lessening of the veering-away we do to each other on the urban streets.

I then turned my attention to the poor captive Pin Oak growing beside me. Lifting my gaze to its top bare branches, I breathed "I am not willing to be written in the Book of Life without you" to it. And felt a slow-beat response of Love.

Next, the bulbs planted in the orderly flower gardens, then the Oil Seed trees drooping across the island. The Sparrows, the stragglers of non-migrated House Martins, and the ubiquitous Mynahs. "I am not willing to be written in the Book of Life without you"

From the car (12 year old Daewoo I finally bought for R20 000 on Monday), looking out at the dark blue sky, Venus and Saturn and Mars in a row, and: "I am not willing to be written in the Book of Life without you"

It's a good mantra.

And it's true. I am not willing to be written in the Book of Life without you. And you. And you. Without You, I am not willing at all.

And here's some more: We Are Everywhere

GROW BACK ALL OVER THE PLACE.