Are you in this dance?

 This is the real secret of life-to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realizing it is play.

Alan Watts

It is all just play! Do you get that yet.  It doesn't matter what we are doing actually (as long as it isn't harmful to other beings). It doesn't matter if we are working in a lab close to discovering the cure for cancer or writing the next Pulitzer Prize winning novel.  It doesn't matter if we are sitting on a mountain cliff in the Himalayas chanting "Aum" into the air or kneeling for hours on a church pew praying. It doesn't matter if we are preparing to  graduate from University with a PhD in Nuclear science or picking up the textbook that says "Get your GED in 30 days" . It doesn't matter if you are sitting on a park bench in your neighborhood or zooming by on a Fast Train as you travel through Spain.  It doesn't matter if you are by yourself, unnoticed in a crowd, or delivering a speech to the United Nations. The point is..."you are". The question  then, "Your Life is right here,, right now ; are you in it?"

Or are you like the majority of the human race waiting...waiting to get there. All the while saying to yourself, "It is coming...it is coming.  It is almost here.  I will get there...just have to work a little harder, do a little more, go a little farther, wait a little longer...but man, it is so close?" 

What are we waiting for? What is that thing that is coming? What are we trying to achieve with all our effort?

Peace? Happiness? Joy? Love?  That which will settle the mess inside? 

Are you getting it or are you still waiting? I mean you probably get some semblance of peace and happiness and love every now and again...that keeps you waiting doesn't it, for more?  But it never lasts does it?...What we get  is just a tease. Just like when a gust of wind might blow the carrot so close to the donkey's mouth he can nibble on it, get a taste of it before it settles back into its position away from reach. After that nibble the donkey keeps going, keeps working, keeps trying, and keeps waiting for the day he can get more than a nibble. 

More than a nibble?

What if you woke up every morning full of these feelings of happiness, peace, joy, bliss, and love...just full of it? Would it matter then if you graduated with honors from your PhD program,, if you made it to the finish line, if you got published, if you finally had enough money to buy that house or travel? Would it matter if you were a broke, destitute, uneducated human being sitting on a park bench doing absolutely nothing? No, if you felt good, clean, and pure inside all these things you are seeking or waiting for would not matter. Would they?

Imagine just feeling high and blissful...full of love for self and all beings...all the time no matter what you were doing or what you had. Imagine dancing simply for the joy of dancing. 

I want to be in the dance, not waiting for the music to start or stop so I can get sonewhere?  What about you? 

The music of Life is playing here and now...and we can be in this dance 100 percent. It might be painful and exhausting at times, it might me  a fun jig or a beautiful waltz...but the point is we just need to be in it...no matter what  And it has nothing to do with what we are doing and everything to do with being here now. 

Like, I realize that and I do find myself enjoying being where I am more and more and seeking less and less. I still get pulled away again and again into "the need to do  and get somewhere " frenzy of our culture. Despite that,  I am finding more peace in this doing that I am doing and in the not doing that I am not doing.  Still writing a book I probably have no business writing and what others are calling " a boring endeavor".  I have no idea why I am writing it.  It is taking much more time than I thought it would but for some strange reason I hear the music behind me as I write. My fingers just go tapping along. 

Though I have no idea where this book will go when it is finished...if it will ever get finished...I am enjoying the process of this "boring endeavor" .  I am enjoying the learning and the "scholarship" for the sake of learning" as well...with everything I do.  Alan Watts once shared that scholarship means "leisure devoted to learning". I want to study all "the charming irrevalences of life". Learning is my leisure. It truly, truly is. I enjoy and dance along with that too.

I want "more" of this peace and joy, I do. I am still not "settled" in the here and now all the time.  I still want to control the music and lead the steps at times I do...but I do realize fully and wholly ...that it is all about being in the dance. I just want to be in the dance!

Anyway, I am rambling again. 

Just be in the dance!

All is well.