The Mean Time

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

Nearly every morning when I sit down to write to you the phrase, "In the meantime..." pops into my mind. I have, thus far, avoided beginning a post with this phrase (or so I believe). This morning I think the reason is, that everything is in "the mean time". The mean time is what time exists between the shadow of the past and the hope of the future, both mental constructs ready, willing, and able to be changed. What is left is just this, the mean time.

In the mean time, my fingers lightly, sometimes not so lightly, press the keys on my rather ancient Dell. My heart is your heart. My mind is your mind. The cool breeze of the desert night slips through the screen door as the sound of the dishwasher bounces around the house. The mean time.

Student Aijin Song wrote on her Facebook wall asking why we must assign meaning to things as everything comes and goes. I replied, "But we do: a koan." Not so helpful, I suppose, yet it is the secret to our way. Contemplative practitioners notice the dance: we dance and don't dance at one and the same time. This is to say, 'live in the mean time.'

Be well.