musings on zaadz

I'm one of the older folks here, I think.  I woke up this morning thinking about zaadz because I sat up late last night and read blogs and profiles before I went to sleep.  I'm so moved by what I'm reading and very much noticing how young the majority of you (us) are. 

Last summer I went with a friend to see some visiting monks making a sand mandala ( they are the playful fellows in my photo section).  They were working at a spiritualist community nearby so naturally (or supernaturally?!),  my friend and I had readings with one of the mediums while we were there. 

"You've started your spiritual journey young, you know." She said, which I didn't .  "Oh, yes", said she, "Most people wait until they are older to do this work.  You get frustrated because your responsibilities get in the way of your spiritual work but it's by your choice that it is this way.  You have plenty of time."

I thought about this after we left.  She surprised me by saying that.  I revisit it periodically and wonder.  I've had opportunity to study yoga philosophy and remember the idea in India that life has a 'householder' stage in which you work, raise a family, make a life.  Then once you have that life, you walk away from it- sometimes literally, sometimes figuratively but still, it is only after the practical necessities are tended to that you wander off to focus on spiritual matters. 

I can see her point, that psychic.  I can see the happy jumble of my life- all kids, skis and endless loads of laundry and the little glowing bits of enlightenment that work their ways out of that- and the massive longing for more more more of that glow.  I can imagine the more efficient way of doing this- how much easier to focus, immerse, learn when my ducklings have waddled off their own way and my own destiny is more apparent, my focus less fragmented. 

And yet, here I am......here I perservere.

And then there is you.  All you sweet young'uns out here, leaping with puppy glee into your spiritual practices, getting that intoxicating taste so young and early in your lives- PRE- householder lives for many of you, in yogi language. Look at you all. 

The major trend of my generation was punk rock.  At least that's how it seemed- that's the wave I rode in on.  Not to downplay it's impact (that last dropkick to the established social order- gotta love it) but it's so much easier to see positive change on this horizon through your eyes. If spiritual awareness and spiritual growth is what these next generations are bringing- we are all in luck.  Imagine the shift in the world.  It's already started- it's growing with you.

The times, they are a changin' (thanks, Bob Dylan, for singing that in my ear).  This must be part of that change.  My teachers in the art therapy course talk about this time in human development, this era, being called consciousness soul- meaning in part, if I understand it correctly, that matters of the soul life rise up in the conscious awareness.  That fostering and feeding that is part of the call of our generation.  That teaching methods need to respond to this new awareness.  But I digress here.

Reading all that earnest, youthful enlightening blogging last night clicked all these things together.  I see now the change and it's so good.  You're starting now- with your awareness of your spiritual longing concrete and safely tucked under your arm, always with you as you launch into life.  It won't be something you 'start early' like me, sneaking out and unwrapping presents before the grown-ups wake up.  You have it already.  It's working in you. You are the change.  We are the change.  There is so much hope in that!


ps-  I realize I sound like old Mother Time as I write this- I'm not really  that old!