Outside he sits each day…
I run past him on my homeward bound commute – I see his notice written on a scrap of cardboard, ‘I’m hungry’ it reads…
Even in this increasingly cashless world we now inhabit, he seems to get some change…
Now and then… From me too, now and then…
The doorman stands on his step, guarding the entrance to the sumptuous interior of the Ritz Hotel…
A glorious calm, perfectly created beauty, long smooth pillars – expansive tall and graceful flowers, lilies -pink and white – shiny huge mirrors, soft carpets – elegant guests arriving to take afternoon tea…
The soft sound of a piano plays songs we know, recognise, reminding us of times in our lives gone by…
Anadi and I were very hungry; a hunger created by not eating much in the day – not born of not having any food.
The yin and yang; this universe in perfect balance of dark and light, sadness and joy, love and hate
Famine and plenty…
And so what must be done?
Know both the dark and the light, the sadness and joy, the love – the hate.
Feel it, know it, clear it
And so experience the place beyond this duality.
The silence.
This place beyond the famine and the plenty.
We change the world by being conscious…
We change the world by being present; by living in each moment and fully experiencing every single one of them.
Fully, not hiding from ourselves.
We do not know the path another treads…
I know not the way of the man who sits each day outside the Ritz.
He knows not mine who yesterday sat within the Ritz to celebrate six wonderful years of marriage to Anadi…
We know not our karma, what connects he and I, who each day tread this same street together in this time called 2020…
When might our paths have crossed before?
We all have the opportunity to know who we truly are; if we stop and live each moment; experience every single thing within us; take full responsibility – and ultimately go beyond the duality of the mind…
Who knows which path is harder to discover the truth; those who have plenty or those who do not…?
Who knows what pain each might feel, and know ?
Who knows which path might lead to growth?
Or neither for now….
We all have the opportunity to know who we truly are; if we stop and live each moment and go beyond the duality of the mind…
When we know both the dark and the light; and find our way to the silence within…
Then our true light can shine for all the world to see.