“ Never give children a chance of imagining that anything exists in isolation. Make it plain from the very beginning that all living is relationship. Show them relationships in the woods, in the fields, in the ponds and streams, in the village and in the country around it.”— Aldous Huxley
Being Present in Brown County
~ by Lee Edgren
I
recently interviewed Bloomington composer Malcolm Dalglish for an article in OBC’ s sister publication, INto Art. He paraphrased writer Wendell Berry’ s poem,“ How to Be a Poet” which makes a distinction between two dimensional and three dimensional life.
Communicate slowly. Live a three-dimensioned life;… Accept what comes from silence. Make the best you can of it. Of the little words that come out of the silence, like prayers prayed back to the one who prays, make a poem that does not disturb the silence from which it came.
What makes the difference between a two dimensional and a three dimensional life? My provisional answer: Being present to the moment. Slowing down enough to be present. Being silent enough to be present. Appreciating the gifts of presence.
I remember one spring day in the Brown County Library. I was hurriedly checking out, when the woman behind the counter said to me,“ Aren’ t the tulips beautiful?” And the vase of tulips, which had been on the counter to my left all along, which I had seen, but had not really seen, came into full physical and emotional focus. As she drew my attention to the flowers, I saw the vibrant pinks, purples, yellows, the varied greens of the leaves, the delicate fringed petals of the parrot tulips, the heavy, rich cinnamon-brown, pollen-covered stamens, the sinuous stems. In that moment, it seemed that each tulip glowed with inner light.
It is this difference that I want to live. It is why I practice yoga and meditation. Simply learning to be present is the main focus of my almost daily, almost three-mile walk. I value the exercise, but it is secondary, much as the exercise of yoga is secondary to the amazing journey it provides. It is why I live in Brown County; it is why I cannot yet part with my ancient log cabin in Benzie County, Michigan.
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52 Our Brown County • Jan./ Feb. 2014