Morning at the pond, Lovely Pond, I call it. The sounds of the city are far away; Lovely Pond is very still except for an occasional ripple.
The pond is isolated, yet everything that goes on in the wider world goes on here; birth, life, death; in fact, these happen on the underside of any leaf or blade of grass … complexity adding up to simplicity. I’m not alone here; I have a kinship to the life all around me. I look up just in time to see a group of starlings flying by-they have such purpose … I see them reflected in the surface of Lovely Pond. The water here is like slate colored velvet … moving on top of the world. Watching it, I get a sense of an unveiling, as if a huge piece of rippled velvet were being pulled over the earth.
When God created Earth, He, modest God that He is, covered His creation with this giant piece of velvet. He waited for the dawn of humankind to unveil His work, and then He slowly slid the velvet off for all to see-His creation. Or could it be that the velvet is only in the process of being slid off and our eyes have yet to be fully opened? This is the pond’s question.
Sitting here bathed in gentle breezes and sunshine, I find myself thinking, “Could it get any better than this?” I could sit here for days, just letting the pond work its gentle magic on me. Even days wouldn’t be enough time to absorb all the pond has to teach.
I slowly slip into my Pond Yoga reverie.
Sitting very still I do my best to hear every sound, to really tune in. I become more aware of the wind blowing all about me-it finds its way inside the hood of my jacket and down inside my pockets. I hear a woodpecker sporadically pecking one, two, three in some distant tree. I hear crows cawing boastfully as they fly overhead. Stalks of grass are blowing at the edge of Lovely Pond, a catfish jumps and makes a resounding plop in the water and endless ripples.
My thoughts begin to wander as the wind takes to howling. Being here is like hanging my soul out on a limb; I am laid bare and vulnerable. Pond yoga gets me closer to knowing where I fit into the human puzzle; I feel my edges sliding into place. So now that I know I fit in, the next logical question is what’s my part to play, my duty on this planet? To whom do I owe what?
I’ve come to view life differently, living with Lovely Pond. Its stillness reaches out to me; I reach back, a better me. The message I hear is- that which changes also remains the same. I leave the pond in much the same way that I arrived, yet holding my inner transformation close.
