Do I have to wake up? It is so cold or it is so hot? My coffee is not strong enough? My green tea is not green enough? My clothes are a mess? I have to walk my dog? I have not completed my tasks? The list is unending.
There is a Burmese proverb, “The monkey never complains that he has no comb”.
If we look at the five elements, we can start by complaining unceasingly. The earth is polluted. Water is impure; we have to buy bottled water. Fires are happening and we cannot put them out. Air is toxic. Ether or the atmosphere bears the brunt of all our sins.
What if we change our thinking and start with mother earth? “I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars”. Walt Whitman. Love Mother Earth.
How do we look at water? “They both listened silently to the water, which to them was not just water, but the voice of life, the voice of Being, the voice of perpetual becoming”. Herman Hesse. Water is precious, do not contaminate it.
Fire, how do we understand it? “Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life”. Buddha. Fire is purifying and be considerate of the forests.
What do we think about air?
‘How to Write a Poem’ by Katerina Klemer: “Catch the air around the butterfly”. Air is our source and we are only thinking about ourselves and not of the universe.
And ether? “A voice cannot carry the tongue and the lips that gave its wings. Alone must it seek the ether. And alone and without his nest shall the eagle fly across the sun”. Khalil Gibran. There is no life without ether.
“To find the universal elements enough, to find the air and the water exhilarating, to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter, to be thrilled by the stars at night, to be elated over a birds nest or a wildflower in spring. These are the rewards of the simple life”. John Burroughs.
Take each morning and pause. Close your eyes and ask the elements to bless you so that we make the cosmos habitable again.
Aim Hrim Klim