As promised, here is Antonio MacHado's answer to the riddle:
Beyond living and dreaming
what matters most
is waking up.
Antonio MacHado
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A related observation:
A young man asked Buddha: ‘What are you? Are you a god?’
‘No,’ replied Buddha.
‘Well, are you a prophet?’ he further queries.
‘No,’ Buddha says.
‘Well, what are you?’ he pleads.
‘I am awake.’ Buddha replies.
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And another:
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.
We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and taking my waking slow.
Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going whereI have to go.
Light takes the Tree, but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me; so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.
This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.
--Theodore Roethke
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Telling our stories is telling about our awakenings, for life is full of them. We awaken to the wonderful and the ill, each awakening baptizing us in our new life. As Roethke wrote in "Journey to the Interior":
In the long journey out of the self,
There are many detours, washed-out interrupted raw places
...
When we write our stories, we help readers find their way through thelabyrinth of life.
5 comments:
I don't think I'm at the point of helping my readers yet, but I know that I'm helping myself. My writing is my caffeine. It helps me to wake, because to do it well, I must be engaged, and I must observe and do both without fear and shrinking.
"I learn by going where I have to go." I might have to steal this one. This entry contains some terrific selections.
"I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow"
I like that. A good reminder to enjoy life because it is all to short at times.
I learn by going where I have to go.
This line could just about sum up the total of my soul. I do not choose some of the paths I have found myself on but I am learning as I go. I have not and do not forsee ever truly arriving but what a joy the trip is.
When we write our stories, we help readers find their way through the labyrinth of life.
I also agree with this line as it is the reason I read other people's journals; something I never dreamed I would one day get the privledge to do. I have kept journals since grade school and am finding that reading others helps just as much as writing my own.
My dear, this is such a beautiful and, as ever, very thought-provoking entry. There is so much to ponder. Being awake is much rarer than we realize - until we do awaken. I was asleep for so much of my life, and have awakened only in recent years. I think I was awake during my adolescence - most of us are as we cut our teeth on the world - but then I, like so many others I would venture to say, fell into slumber again from fear and being overwhelmed at the sharpness of the senses.
Being awake is beautiful but it bears responsibility and can bring much harshness too. We "take the lively air" which is brisk and refreshing, but also has many "raw places." But, oh, how it is worth the sting.
Thank you so much for sharing these wonderful thoughts, my friend.
Vicky
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