Breathe
‘See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. ’ (Mtt 6.28,29)
‘See’, ‘look’, ‘consider’, ‘notice’: Jesus has all of these in mind. See the flower. Look deeper. Buddhist teacher, Thich Nhat Hahn (Thay), says, ‘When we look into the heart of a flower, we see clouds, sunshine, minerals, time, the earth, and everything else in the cosmos…’ Without rain or sun, for instance, there would be no flower. Without clouds there would be no rain; no stars, no sun; without time, there can be no growth. There is no essence that, alone, can be said to be ‘flower’. A flower has no independent existence. According to Thay, the flower ‘inter-is with everything else in the universe’.
‘…do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.’ (Mtt 6. 34)
Notice what is. All you truly have in this world is this moment. This – exact – moment. Right now. The past is interpretation. The future is fantasy. Right now is.
Consider the flowers of the field. Feel the presence of presence. Here. Now. In the space between my mind and yours, the ‘inter-being’ of words and page, language and truth, all barriers dissolve. All distance is near. This is the beginning. It is where love and peace, understanding, respect and hope are born.
Tonnau Duw ('God's waves') Fr Tim Ardouin 