This is about my enjoyment of a slow bike ride – anywhere, anytime. Pedaling through the alleys and through parks, along the Green Bay Trail and through the neighborhood, I take in vibrant specks of color where people have planted and tended their flowers, on one front lawn I spot three bunnies enjoying their dinner, nodding their noses and wiggling their ears. There are pots full of petunias hanging along garages, blooming bushes peeking over the fences. And there is a family sitting in their backyard enjoying snacks, drinks and conversation, the kids playing on their swingset. A man is carefully wiping the remaining water spots off his just washed Jaguar.
These views fill me with joy, joy over the wonderful world around me. The world beyond may not be as peaceful and admirable but there are flowers and bunnies anywhere, even if they are very small and very far apart.
After writing down these ideas, I found this quote in my email inbox: “A study of life is the greatest of all religions, and there is no greater or more interesting study.” It is by Hazrat Inayat Khan, the East Indian mystic who brought Sufism to the Western World starting in the 1920’s. Following is his commentary:
“There are two ways in which we may attain control over our activity. The first is confidence in the power of our own will; to know that if we have failed today, tomorrow we will not do so. The second is to have our eyes wide open, and to watch keenly our activity in all aspects of life. It is in the dark that we fall, but in the light we can see where we are going.
“… we should have our eyes wide open to see where we walk. We should study life, and seek to know why we say a thing, and why we act as we do. We have failed perhaps hitherto because we have not been wide awake. We have fallen, and felt sorry, and have forgotten all about it, and perhaps may have fallen again. This is because we have not studied life. A study of life is the greatest of all religions, and there is no greater and more interesting study. Those who have mastered all grades of activity, they above all experience life in all its aspects. They are like swimmers in the sea who float on the water of life and do not sink.” *
Let’s go out and swim, float and see!
*) from the “Bowl of Saki” a book of Hazrat Inayat Kahn’s quotes published by his students.
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