Chapter 1 Vastness Is Our Home Sometimes I go about pitying myself, when all the while I am being carried by great winds across the sky. --OJIBWA SAYING We are being carried on a luminous star, sharing in the dance of life with seven billion beings like us. Vastness is our home. When we recognize the spaciousness that is our universe, around us and within us, the door of freedom opens. Worries and conflicts fall into perspective, emotions are held with ease, and we act amid troubles of the world with peace and dignity. The Dance of Life Whitney was caught in midlife troubles. Her mother was scheduled for hip surgery, and her father was suffering from early-stage Alzheimer's. She wanted her parents to continue living in their home in Illinois, but their disabilities made independent living challenging.
Whitney's brother in St. Louis was not involved and wanted his sister to "take care of it." So, Whitney took a month's leave from work and went to her parents' home to help. When she arrived, the house was in shambles. Her mom needed time to heal from the surgery, and her father was unable to care for himself. They could not afford round-the-clock care, and it was clear they would have to move. Whitney took a walk up a hillside she'd known since childhood. She didn't want to lose the family home; she wanted her parents to stay there until the end--and she didn't want to lose her parents.
She wept as she walked, but when she reached the top of the hill, she sat quietly, calmed herself, and looked across the vast midwestern fields stretching to the horizon. The sky was filled with cumulus clouds bringing shade to the many small houses clustered at the edge of town and beyond. Facing this unbounded vastness, she suddenly felt less alone. She could sense how everything has its rhythm--arriving and departing, flourishing and struggling, coming into being and fading away. How many people , she wondered, are in the same predicament we are in right now? As she breathed with more ease, her mind opened further. I am not the only person with aging parents. It is part of the human journey. And as the space within her opened, she felt more trust.
We can all see this way. We can gain a broader perspective. With a spacious heart, we can remember the bigger picture. Even when illness strikes, a parent is dying, or any other form of loss is upon us, we can recognize that it's a part of life's seasons. What would it feel like to love the whole kit and caboodle--to make our love bigger than our sorrows? Among the multitudes of humans, many are experiencing loss and change. Many need renewal. And still the world keeps turning, farmers growing food, markets trading, musicians playing. We live in the midst of a great and ever-changing paradox.
Breathe. Relax. Live each day one at a time.