Present Perfect Tense

Sometimes, it really is perfect.

I wrote a poem about that sudden realization of the perfection of all things. I experienced it last winter one day and wrote the poem. It broke me open and rained blessing upon blessing into me so that I was changed.

You can find the poem on my 'other' blog: www.hereandnowwithyou.blogspot.ca

Most of the time, however, I am not in that divinely inspired bliss of knowing the perfection of all things. It would be awesome if I was in that, but perhaps I would not be able to be in the world for very long if I sustained that sense of perfection because it is a kind of transcendent bliss.

There is a more quiet and easy to maintain sense of the perfection of all things, however. It is in the heart and the mind. It is a sort of a hum. Whenever the events and experiences of our days jerk us out of that peaceful sense that all is perfect as it is, we can remind ourselves that indeed, it is all perfect. And  ---- boom ----- a quiet boom, there we are. Back in that hum, we proceed.

I don't get vacations in my part time work. So, for 3 years and three months, I did not have a vacation, except for the occasional long weekend. Since I don't work full time, it didn't seem so bad, but at one point I really wanted a vacation! And of course, I created one for myself. I ended up with almost three full weeks of vacation and didn't even have to worry about being paid while I was not working.

I wanted to enjoy the free time that was suddenly available to me. So, I went out one day on a long scenic drive. It was Autumn and the sky was graced with clouds and sunlight. It was one of those dancing days, of sun sparkles and purple grey clouds against sky blue sky. But I was so intent on having it be perfect that it wasn't.

I went outside of my knowing that perfection of all things because I was wanting it to be perfect instead of knowing it as perfect.

I came home disappointed.

I have set out - in a rush - to run errands in the village and on the way there suddenly realized the infinite perfection of it all. It is not that we have to be 'on vacation,' or at our complete and total leisure that we suddenly see the beauty and perfection of our world, our lives, ourselves. It happens in the instant that we stop wanting it to be in any way different than it is right now.