A Randon Walk

When I first arrived in Los Angeles in 1996 from a 2 year sabbatical traveling the world, I was struck by the madness that is living in a big city. It was particularly overwhelming as I had spent considerable time in extreme wilderness situations where I had educated my eye to appreciate the beauty of Mother Nature. But living here, as a consequence, blunted were my perception of her finesses in this new found city life.

I could not see and I struggled daily with my perceived absence of her - the concrete, the noise, the acrid smells of car fumes and chemicals, the shabby, the dirt and the forgotten left on the sidewalk like unwanted trash. Furthermore, with what seems like so much anger all around me and artificial time eroding the spaces between life's articulation, I thought Nature had obviously abandoned me in this lost cause that is the City of Angels.

My life felt really empty without her seductive splendor enfolding me. As I started to despair, a chance encounter, as so often happens, sent me a message from Socrates reminding me that walking was the natural pace of thought.

So I started to walk and a whole new world of possibilities opened up - I began to hear the sing-song chatter of migrating birds, from the parrot to the humming bird, I noticed the tropical greens and exotic colors of the flowers in every landscaped garden, the rich abundance of wildlife from skunks, raccoons and possums to coyotes, mountain lions and deer. I was simply stunned by the rich diversity of life around me, accomplices to nature's design living invisibly in every oasis across this expansive concrete desert.

It was a truly remarkable revelation. I lost my despair - it was no longer relevant as I returned to the Source that is always there. I wrote this to celebrate my joy:

A Random Walk

I savor the air its welcome freshness, the light a sharp intrusion into the depths of casual thought. Trees, green with the expectation of Nature's harmony, are castaways in a sea of concrete boulevards chaperoning cars heavy with the burden of impatience.
Neon signs, advertising posters, distant sirens and overhead helicopters.
Behold the state of maligned freedoms.

Waking cities sleep
Unaware in ignorance
Nature's simple ways

My mind fades from the reality of life's surround as I retreat into the sanctuary of random thought. Each step, the swing of the pendulum, captivates hypnotic serenades
locked away in solitary.

Be not, ached soul
Silenced by frantic deaths
Let Toa, Toa Te - be

The bird, the squirrel
In a salad bowl of greens
Aware, to be real

Truth falters for one's punctual reality is the steady constraint of a tethered mind.

Participation
At home in Reality
Transformation, O!

Participation
Celebrate the Mystery
Transformation, O!

Behold dancing truths
Horizons of limitless skies
A singular me

It is getting dark, this walk has run itself out, my front door a welcome sight.
I wonder how many fish there are in the sea?

Walk the Source

Didier