March 22, 2009- Liminality and Puddles

A puddle is a small accumulation of liquid, usually water, on a surface. It can form either by pooling in a depression on the surface, or by surface tension upon a flat surface. A puddle is generally considered to be small enough to step over or shallow enough to walk through, and too small to traverse with a boat, raft or submarine.- Wikipedia

Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow- T.S. Eliot

The four seasons and the four elements are always in a state of transition, a state of desirous becoming. We find ourselves in spring for now, but soon the world will be green and torrid. The green and torrid will then metamorphose into the colorful and chilly. The colorful and chilly turns into the barren and frigid. This cycle repeats itself maybe forever.

I like spring because it imparts to the naked mind--your mind, my mind--all that is nascent and sprouting. In spring we have intimations of what is to come in the summer. We can see things slowly unfold from the center that is present in all things. We can see puddles desiring to evaporate or maybe flow underground. We can see the gnarled and naked branches tickling one another (the tickling causes the foliage to grow). We can see beauty in dirt, puddle reflections, the torpid movement of the clouds, and even in wildlife coming out of domiciles made of earth or wood, or a shrewd collection of both. In spring we can see the world moving towards the consonant goal of summer. I like the work spring attends to.

Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, Summer, Autumn, Spring, Winter, Spring, Summer. A seasonal remix, a tossing together of the elements in the salad bowl of creativity and expression. No matter where we stand--whether it be at a bus stop in June or a park in October--we're always standing in between. Birth, life, and death are never clearly defined in this in between, because one birth leads to one death, and one death leads to one birth. To separate the reality of birth, life, and death is to engender a true absurdity. Such an absurdity would be a blatant impossibility. This is why we always have a liminal vantage point when it comes to our relationship with things. A vantage point is only possible in the liminal.

Namaste.