Book of Awakening

Musings of the random.

August 10, 2017

Random is the instant a horse at full speed has all four hooves off the ground.

It refers to the mystery of unbridled passion, to the lift that results from total immersion and surrender. In our age, however, random means without design, method, or purpose. It refers to utter chance. It helps us dismiss whatever appears to be beyond the control of our will. If we didn’t author it, it must be accidental.

Yet our lives are full of unexpected surges of kindness that seem to come from nowhere. Just when you’re thirsty, a cup is gathered and passed around. Just when you are lonely to the point of snapping that bone way inside that you show no one, someone offers you a ride or steadies the grocery bag about to drop from your grip.  Just when you feel nothing can raise your sad head from the lonely road, the deer strutter across the road in exact rhythm with Handel.

For us, the moment at random is the moment of holding nothing back, of giving our all to whatever situation is before us. In that charged moment, we come as close to flying as human beings can – – we soar briefly with a passion for life that brings everything within us to meet our daily world.

We flow to each other’s aid, often without knowing where we are headed. Mysteriously, the life force heals itself this way. And what we call ‘chance’ or ‘luck’ or coincidence’ is the circulation of life healing itself through us and in us.

-Mark Nepo/’The Book of Awakening’ pp. 626-263

• Do one thing at random today.
• Hold nothing back. Allow what touches you to change your path.