Summer solstice – plus, current items of interest, photos, and a poem
The Sacred Wonderland
Newsletter of Thomas S. Bremer
Issue #7, June 2024
About Time: Passing and Pausing
“The great
Creator, Who made the sun to rule the day, and the moon and the stars to govern the night, has adapted our nature to these intermitting changes, and implanted in us an immediate desire to count how, drop by drop, or grain by grain, time and life are passing away." – The Book of Sun-Dials
The summer solstice arrives this week for those of us in the northern hemisphere. The year is nearly half over. This realization always surprises me, how quickly the months pass. “Drop by drop, grain by grain, time and life are passing away."
Maybe it’s my elderly age, but it seems the years fly by more rapidly than in decades past. I see more clearly now that life is short, life is fragile—we all live in a state of precarity.
How might we treasure our
short life before it all slips away?
I'm reminded of the advice that Bhagavan Das shared with his protégéRam Dass, to “Be–Here–Now.” But how is that possible with the clock ticking in the background? With the calendar pages turning so quickly? With our phones reminding us constantly that we have things to do, places to be, people to see?
Can we put time on pause?
Music does this for me. Time slows to a pause when I sit with Bach’s B-minor Mass, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, or a Chopin Nocturne. The music halts the incessant ticking of the clock.
Great music transports me to a different temporal register with its own cadences, melodies, harmonies, and emotional energy. It carries me to a different universe of
pure delight.
Likewise with yoga, meditation, prayer, gardening, a long walk in the park — there are many ways to escape the oppressive regimes of the clock.
As the solstice nears, I hope you find a way to enter a different quality of time that brings you delight.
Kind regards,
tom
Featured Photo
Rhodes College Labyrinth
As the days become warmer, dawn is the best time for me to get some exercise. Most days I go for an early morning walk on the Rhodes College campus. I usually end my
morning jaunt at the labyrinth with a meditative stroll along the twisting flagstone pathway shown here. See other photos of Rhodes College, the #2 most beautiful college campus in the nation,
on the gallery page.
News, Commentary, and other items of interest
Breathing with the Forest: an immersive, meditative "ensemble of birdsong, moving water, and insect chirr, and guided by narration from acclaimed British actor Colin Salmon" which invites you to
"synchronize the rhythm of your own breath with the cycles of molecular exchange between soil, tree, and sky—finding where you end and the forest begins." Breathing with the Forest – by Marshmallow Laser Feast
(emergencemagazine.org)
Attention chefs, cooks, and kitchen dabblers: get the free climate-friendly cookbook with delicious (and sustainable) recipes – download the PDF at Grist-Climate-Friendly-Cookbook-2024.pdf
The title of this book sparked my curiosity while perusing the bookstore shelves (another reason to always get books from brick-and-mortar stores or libraries). I was happily surprised by this serendipitous find. Elisabeth TovaBailey tells of her relationship with a fascinating gastropod companion during
her long convalescence from a debilitating illness. Along the way, I learned so much about snails. I never knew they had teeth! After reading this book, I regret having killed snails as garden pests in my younger years—I will be paying for that karma over many lifetimes.
Singing the sweet chorus
The British poet, artist, and “visionary” William Blake may be most widely known for the famous opening lines of his poem Auguries of Innocence: “To
see a World in a Grain of Sand / And a Heaven in a Wild Flower / Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand / And Eternity in an hour.” But he produced far more than those lines. His extensive body of poetic and artistic works has kept scholars busy fathoming the depths of his spiritual vision. He was also capable of less profound, more playful verse, as evidenced in his Laughing Song.
Laughing Song
When the green woods laugh with the voice of joy, And the dimpling stream runs laughing by; When the air does laugh with our merry wit, And the green hill laughs with the noise of it;
when the meadows laugh with lively green, And the grasshopper laughs in the merry
scene, When Mary and Susan and Emily With their sweet round mouths sing "Ha, ha he!"
When the painted birds laugh in the shade, Where our table with cherries and nuts is spread: Come live, and be merry, and join with me, To sing the sweet chorus of "Ha, ha, he!"
