Let Me Meet You Somewhere Today

Today I met with a nun (I'll call her L) who told me how she starts every day. Before her feet touch the ground she says a statement, "Lord, let me meet you somewhere today." Then she told me some stories of how, and who she met during the day. People who felt loved by being with her, without her needing to do anything. The quality of her care communicated everything. I felt it in the moment of her telling me as well. Tears sprang to my eyes and fell. How lovely. What a wonderful way to prepave the day, let me meet you somewhere today.

I'm struck by the simple expectation that I will meet you today. Not the presenting part of you, not the social part that knows how to interact in the necessary necessities of every day, but the You, the part of you that is connected to God, to Love, to Source energy. Whatever word we use to call upon that -- how that opens my heart and prepares me to meet the best in you. It's as though those words call forth the best in you.

Recently the Boston Globe ran an article about Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, the spiritual teacher of Shambala who ran the Boston Marathon this past month. The article caught my eye. I was curious about a Tibetan lama running, getting sweaty and out of breath. It seems like an oxymoron. The running part of the article was interesting, but a quote intrigued me more. "Every human being is born with basic goodness, a quality inherent even in unpleasant individuals."

Part of my need (?) to write this blog was to reconnect to that awareness, that each and every one of us is basically good. It seems like I've been through a period of negativity, being more critical than I like to be. I found a bitterness in me that was beginning to gnaw on my heart. Hearing these words from this nun full of Love and then reading the article of the Rinpoche reminded me, redirected me to where I want to go.

Rinpoche continued in the article, 'An example is the sky," he said. "It's always blue but there can be clouds. Sometimes you think you're a cloud, but in reality, you're the sky. Through meditation, you can stabilize the mind and not be so carried away by your thoughts. What you do in life allows you to bring that basic goodness out."

How simple, and yet so complicated it is to shift from those cut off states back to a place of love, back to a state where the basic goodness naturally arises.

And how wonderful for me, that I met the presence of Love today through the gift of L. May I live in that expectation every day.