Tears of Joy by our dear friend, Terry Hill!

Tears of Joy 

I could tell you stories of tragedy, pain, violence, disease, anguish, fear, confusion, lack, hunger,  running out of my personal addictive substances, (withdrawal) and on and on . These things happen to every living thing on Earth and are exceptionally well documented and promulgated by the humans occupying this planet . (Thank goodness our  the few remaining  Orangutan  cousins  live far from smartphone sellers or they’d be posting even worse horror stories on social media) (watch the last five minutes of “Planet of the humans} (bring tissues) .

But I’m not going to do that .

I’ll instead tell you what did happen this morning.

I woke just before dawn, the insects in the field creating a hum by warming up their wings and doing insect yoga to ready themselves for another day in their oh-so-short lives.( from our perspective )

The dog I am care-taking stretched and got up from my side, alerted by the pecking of the rooster a few feet away. My blind cat mewed, I mewed back and he came to me.
Doing the kitty greeting of rubbing his whole body from whiskers to tail tip against my leg. I bent over, made thsch-thsch mouth sound that lets him know I’m going to touch him, and returned the kitty greeting many times over. The light was growing steadily, making my glowing coals dimmer and dimmer.
I put a pot of water on last nights coals to make coffee. I found my hammer, the baggie and the coffee beans and proceeded to quietly crush the beans on a stump. The light was hitting the field of tall bunch grass now, fertilized by Mr. Sheep last summer. I couldn’t find my coffee filter, so i did my Tumbleweed trick of put three sticks in the cup, a piece of paper towel that Gooddoggie had torn up into the space, poured in the now brewed coffee into my 6 oz 50’s diner style cup. The makani moved across the tall bunchgrass- filled meadow, the clouds turned pink then yellow.  The insects were warm and flying now, and now it was the birds’ turn in the chorus lineup.
Thrush warbled their melodious songs, the cardinal couple tweeted their ancient yet fresh daily  hashtags,the leaves of the 60 foot Samoan coconut tree rustled as they waved. The far away wild chickens and roosters spoke of their morning finds or egg laying activity, a large black wasp walked on the bark of the tree looking for a smaller insect breakfast. The cardinals who have raised a family here, are  at the feeder munching rice (they prefer brown to white and either to Quinoa). I can only hope that my limited skill as a wordsmith have conveyed a small part of the beauty which is everywhere .

The gratitude I feel for every one of my senses being stimulated becomes overwhelming. The taste of the coffee, the beauty of the puff of smoke from the fire pit .
I’m receiving a message from my left leg now, it needs to change position, so I wiggle a little and it’s
‘Notice me” message fades away as do the millions of other pressure/temperature/touch sensors on the skin of my amazingly intricate body.
Trillions of photons flood through my glasses, through the cornea, hitting the rods and comes in the back of my eyes, having slowly become colorful. Makani  caresses my skin, the smell of Plumeria  from the neighbors trees drift over. The taste of the coffee floods my mouth, caffeine penetrating my gums and stomach, combining with the organically grown menthol and tobacco mixture on which i puff (What? You actually inhale? No need.) between sips.

Tears start to flow from my eyes, wetting my rosy cheeks.
Tears of joy at the wonder of all of this happening in this very second, and then  Einstein enters into the equation, proving beyond doubt that all of this stuff is equal . The = sign being the most important part of the equation .
We live our miraculous lives in a universe with no seams.
Show me one if you disagree and I’ll prove it illusory .
The tears keep flowing, my lips move, my nose sniffs.
This  amount of joy is difficult to describe,
It can only experienced, as all “good” and ‘“bad” things” must be. Our labels, not actual fact.
Totally blind Leo’s head is pointing up into the tamarind tree which is covered with a tangle of lilliquoi vines and leaves a, flowers and fruit.
Is he feeling this joy? Or  is he only hoping someday the wary cardinals will be in his mouth?
I doubt it . The future is a non-existent thing to most beings, a creation of our minds .
It is now.  Forever.
So it’s time to be grateful.
It IS time to be Joy-full.
It is time to live our lives this moment  fulfilling our rightful destiny as creators of beauty and wonder in the universe.
Coffee is finished, cigarette is, stubbed out in the yellow seashell ashtray.
My  sniffles are decreasing and my bod says “ enough with the joy already, you have work to do .
And so I near the end of my skill-less typing.
It will take another hour to add images, links and correct my numerous typos.
For now I will take my  dog and cat for a little walk down  the meadow trail to the neighbors yard where they start to play, Leo chasing Gooddoggie in circle I laugh out loud join them in rolling on the short grass, rubbing my bare back against its soft blades.    We greet the sun as it comes over the trees… and a half hour of play get to work creating the best life I can .

I hope you all have many mornings like this.

In Joy, T