Suddenly Senior

Suddenly I’m old,
and this mind,
that feels the same as when I was nineteen,
struggles with that fact.

How did this happen?
I was just living my life,
dealing day to day
with the joys and pitfalls of our Path.
I tried to be a good friend,
a helpful neighbour,
a dependable father,
a sensitive lover,
and I suppose old age sneaked by me
when I wasn’t looking.

Oh, I am happy and content
with my life:
I wouldn’t change it
should some magic djinn
grant me that wish.
It is just that age surprised me
while I was otherwise occupied,
and I resent that
just a bit.

There are things left for me to do
that are more difficult for the elderly,
so I shall just have to try a little harder,
be a little more determined,
than the youth I thought I was.
I’ll continue to work out with Joe Weider’s help,
and take long walks with my friendly beagle,
and find excuses to run up and down stairs.
Watching my diet is fun,
and isn’t it amazing how much garbage
manufacturers put in processed food;
astounding how many chemicals
find their way onto our tables?

I’ll stretch my mind through contemplating
the Universal Balance.
I’ll try to understand why
so many of us just will not see
a larger Picture,
and work to make life better for all,
rather than blindly consuming, hating,
and seeking, rather than Enlightenment,
instant gratification.

I’m a senior now: I am old,
but that does not mean
I must become a neo-conservative,
and wear polyester trousers,
hiked up around my chest.
I do not have to abandon
my nineteen year old heart.

Tomorrow I’ll be older,
but in this joyous Now
I still am me.

Winter Dreaming

Winter Dreaming

I dream a dream that is my life,
and reality exists solely
within that state.

I awake each day
into a world that changes little of my Truth.
My pathway stretches before me,
but I am careful to examine
only those surroundings
that are defined by Now.
This Dharma-road may, I could surmise,
consist of a linear infinity
leading to Forever.  It might, instead,
be as Natraj’s flaming circle
of birth, destruction, and rebirth,
in which the old is forever renewed.
It may, however, be like
a Mobius Strip sketched by Escher,
leading me always 
over the same anguishes and ecstasies,
forever new, but the same.

In this Universe of immeasurable distances,
of unfathomable mysteries,
in which our feeble understanding
causes us to create
mad deities, hungry for sacrifice,
for punishment,
for obedience,
in return for their protection
from an eternal darkness
that even they
cannot understand,
I dream my dream.

I dream a dream that is my life,
and reality exists solely
within that state,
     and that reality is Now.

Existence as an Ant on a Mobius Strip

What if? Why not?
In our journey through an existence where so much is a mystery so vast that we cannot even begin to skirt the edge
of understanding,
a little imagination cannot be a hindrance.
To close our minds to what may be
would confirm our existence
as an ant
on a Mobius Strip.