Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

I talked to my two best friends today and it was so comforting. We didn't really dip into politics. We've got our mail in ballots and will send them in the next couple of days. We talked about what we're doing, and how we're feeling and this sense of letting go of so much we used to carry. Getting older lightens the load, as, sometimes without thinking, responsibilities and worries just slip off like a silken wrap. We pare down to what matters: love and compassion, and those little moments that make up our joy or insight or sadness. Be here now, as they said in the sixties, but it gets easier. I don't want to shop and accumulate, even without the covid, I want to see and walk in nature, smile at faces, pet a dog or cat, talk to a bird. There are two crows who live in the parkway across from my house, and when I come down the stairs to the garage or sidewalk, they barely move. I say hello and they know I'm their neighbor, and caw or look up or waddle around me. We coexist. I like that. There is the cat who comes in our yard, the gray fox that visits, the owl and birds boucing on tree branches, the frentic bouncing around of the squirrels, the dogs bemoaning being left in the house by their owners. It's POPULATED here. All sentient beings, all the time. I'm one among many.