Never - I thought - have I ever been here before. Never have I ever seen this. Never have I experienced such simple ...humbling...gracious majesty.
And yet -
I've stood here in this exact same spot more times than I can remember. I've seen this exact landscape. I've witnessed this ritual of the sun's rise almost every single day.
And yet -
Today - the scene is a frozen one. It's both color-less and color-full. Today - it's all new. Today - I'm here with a beginners mind. Today - without any expectation or attachment to outcome I've shown up for myself and my practice. I did what I did. And there was 'this'.
Some days I'm like Harold and his Purple Crayon - wishing to create a new world for myself. I go out seeking and searching for something different. Something exciting. Something other than what I know to be simple and clean and honest and true.
He with his crayon...me with my camera. Wishing...dreaming...hoping - for something other than 'just this'.
The reality he imagines...he creates. And whatever it is that he creates...becomes his reality. Wherever he goes...there he is. And wherever he is - is always the moon.
In the end - the story goes - he tires of searching for a new and adventurous life. He discovers that what he's been seeking outside himself he's always had right there within. He frames the moon with his bedroom window. He creates for himself comfort and warmth and familiarity. And he returns. To home. Right back to that place where his heart is...and from where he began.
We imagine our realities and create them...and by creating them they become real. The patterns of our thinking minds define and confine us. They wear unconscious grooves of habitual thought.
What we think...we do...and what we do...we become.
Every time I arrive at that exact same place and witness that exact same scene - I see it with new eyes. Eyes that are older and wiser and more experienced. Eyes that are practiced. Eyes that know there's no need to go searching elsewhere.
The reality I imagine...I create. What I create...becomes my reality.
There's nothing better than just this....and that just 'this' is where I am home.