Today it rained for the first time since I have been here in Ethiopia. It didn’t last long, but it felt like some kind of blessing for even that brief while. It’s the dry season. I mean we are all in dry season… I say this knowing it’s snowing like hell in the U.S. now.
I have been reading off and on since I have been here a book called Bringing Home the Dharma: Awakening Right Where You Are, by Jack Kornfield. Reading this in the context of Ethiopia and meditation is causing some movement within myself. I don’t know what to say about it beyond that, but something is becoming known as I live and breathe. I feel part of what is happening is that I can’t have romantic ideas about Africa, but somehow embrace it in all its imperfections and still see and feel its deep and ancient beauty with some awe and lingering ache. I see its connection to the rest of the world in so many ways.
Sorry folks if you were expecting some kind of travelogue. I am not a tourist here. The Mississippi and the Nile flow deep in my veins. I am blessed!
Babalou as Ferengi
I see everything with hungry eyes now
Sometimes my belly aches,
Sometimes my heart breaks,
But there is nonetheless
Joy for this journey.
I digest what I see & sense
I am what I observe and
I am observed as a “ferengi” now
But there really is no separation between
Observer and observed,
Even if I am the only one that knows it.
My life story is about the Oneness of all that is
That’s how simple and complex it all is.
Last night I dreamed about pealing off an old skin
Discarding what was old and useless
Revealing what was alive, fresh and breathing…
An awakened Animal.
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