Endless, Effortless Bliss

I live in the beautiful countryside southeast of Montreal. The Green Mountains of Vermont press themselves lovingly over the human defined border between the United States and Canada as if it were nothing but a line on a map. Those vast masses of rock and earth are so unconcerned with our boundaries and borders. (Smile)

City-dwellers flood our little village every weekend. The local people tend to do their shopping and errands on weekdays so as to avoid the crowds of city folk who bring their money and enthusiasm to our little boutiques and restaurants and to the ski resort on the north side of Mount Sutton.

This weekend, I drove down the expressway to Montreal to visit friends, do some serious shopping and see my dentist for a cleaning and check-up.

There is nothing quite like the city of Montreal in the month of February. The sky was pale blue, almost white and then later turned a steely grey. The wind was bitterly cold and the pot-holes were deep and numerous. Piles of brown-grey snow lay everywhere. The buildings and roads and sidewalks all looked the same brown-grey. The traffic was continous and pressing. The air was dry and dusty, blown into eyes and hair by the strong wind. Trash and litter, strewn across streets and sidewalks, was blown by the wind into corners and across the street in front of my car as I drove from one place to another. No music played on the car radio - I had lost contact with my favourite radio station, which is in Vermont and plays lovely classical and baroque music commercial free. Oh, how bleak a scene was this?

I drove the Decarie Expressway, Sherbrooke Street and DeMaisonneuve. I waited at endless traffic lights and merged into countless lanes as I crisscrossed the city, trying to fit into one day what would normally be done in three. I could not even begin to remove the smile from my face. I was in heaven on Earth, dear friends. I was in heaven on Earth.

I passed the dump truck test easily. There was a double dump truck filled with dirty snow and road grease, coughing smoke into the city air and roaring just beside me as I sat waiting for the light to change. I loved it unreservedly and enthusiastically. I loved the noisy drill-like tool that my dentist used to super-clean my teeth. I loved the sound of the X-ray machine that she used also. I loved the sidewalks and the cars and their drivers, and the pedestrians scurrying under the bitter wind. I loved the long line at the check-out area of Ikea. I loved the mini-van that cut me off as I tried to get across four lanes of inner city traffic to make the turn onto Jean Talon. I loved it all and couldn't get out of the blissful state that I was in even if I had wanted to.

I suppose that it is the breathing of total acceptance which brings me to this, or perhaps it is the experience day after day of joy and gratitude. Perhaps it is the constant centering of myself in my heart and the way that peace comes in and sets up its own bliss factory right inside of me. Whatever it is, I rejoice. I had been uncertain of how visiting the city would be for me. I spent time with two dear friends, which was wonderful, but I was not at all sure that I would be able to easily maneuvre my forested self through the streets of the city.

Endless, effortless bliss was my experience of the past two and a half days. I slept less than usual and was very tired by Sunday evening, once again tucked into my quiet home on the mountainside, but the joy was strong within me through all of my moments, through all of the comings and goings of these very busy days.

Endless, effortless bliss is my sense of self being in the world wanting for nothing, lacking nothing, trusting completely in the energetic dance of self with world. Endless, effortless bliss is my experience lately. Take a deep breath. Can you feel it as I do?