Calm Days, Calm Ways

 What is it about brisk spring days that can soothe the heart? It's hard to believe that tomorrow is the beginning of June, and I seem to relish the times in the fresh air when I can feel the breeze in my hair and the air filling my chest.
   Natural walks can teach oneself what it means to be calm, and thus provide a baseline for times when life is not so calm. I believe that nature can extend and project one's feelings of compassion, by presenting an atmosphere of subtle impermanence. The swaying of trees and the blowing of pollen from the flowers tell us so : these things pass. And it is a reminder as well to relish the days of warmth before the winter strikes again.
   But compassion also says: life is interconnected. Just as some things die, others sprout. I was able to see that some homeowners had been culling the branches from trees, presumably branches that had already died. They would surely be hoping to make way for new branches and blossoms as summer approaches.
  Nature and compassion go hand in hand, even though you might think this is an unlikely partnership. Nature seems "red in tooth and claw", but only if we are seeing the immediate presence of something that seems threatening and painful. In the grandness of things, life is continually renewing. There is no need to grasp even existence itself, when it carries on without end in this way. In life, there aren't these winners and losers, but the cycle of gain and loss needs to keep happening until mind is capable of truly seeing that there is no gain or loss. Unfortunately, this delusional kind of pain/suffering has to keep happening again and again until one can see through it.