Tending with Love

The mind can crave certainty, putting everything into boxes - this or that; yes or no; black or white. It also often decides what the outcome will be rather than waiting to see what unfolds.  Reality then becomes fragmented and defined by a constant stream of limiting and limited thoughts. 

Another more vibrantly alive path is available to us through the body.  The body holds the complexity and messiness of life easily.   Your breath takes in and the breath lets go - not one or the other but both.  The body is strong and miraculous and it is sensitive and maybe a little gross too with its malodorous emanations.  It functions just as it does whether we like it or not.  Aging happens as the body breaks down slowly over time and at the same time injuries and illnesses can and do heal. 

We are called to steward the body because without out the body there is no love, courage or joy and even so it hurts and aches and cracks and suffers. 

We have so little control in many ways - another paradox - control and no control.  The body is resilient and vulnerable.  Tender and wild.  What is the body for but for life itself?  We can rest into that ground of being that is the body as a refuge.  The body stays with you as a companion from birth until death. We can tend it with love and joy and gratitude even when it hurts.  It holds wide contradiction and even wider mystery.  It reflects the mind, it reflects the world.  It is the mind and it is the world.  It is your life - tend to it with love.