Rebirth

REBIRTH is what I appreciate today. On the anniversary of my birth in this world, I'm aware of the countless rebirths that have occurred over the years. Every breath is a dying of the old and a spawning of the new. Every word and gesture reshapes us and the world in one way or another. Some rebirths are like the bright sproutings of new flowers. Others are more like being washed onto the shore after a storm. Whether, as the poet Hafiz says we go "kicking and screaming or dressed for dancing," life carries us onward through rebirth after rebirth... I think of the many times I have passed through a time of change and feared the coming of the next rebirth. All the philosophies and platitudes faded and I entered the raw experience losing the known and being thrust into the unknowable. Each time it has been at once daunting and so alive. Each time, the rebirth peeled away worn our layers of persona that needed to die so deeper, truer currents of life could be revealed...And what was revealed was that which does not die and is not reborn—the indefinable awareness that continues through every fading and dawning. That same, unchanging awareness peered through these eyes when I was 5 years old, 10, 20, 40...In appreciating rebirth today, I appreciate what continues and the wonderful mystery of living both...Enjoy what you are appreciating today...