6.14.2006

In One Minute

It's what you see, what you feel, what you notice now and now andnowandnowandnow. Say it fast - that's how fast it's all coming to you as you breeze down the road. Now the air is a different temperature; it's warmer - all of a sudden - with a gradation back to cool as before. Now a bug WHAM on the face shield, cheek level. The sound of impact is startling, just for one moment. Now you see the individual end feathers fringing the wing of a great hawk, who is motionless but moving as fast as you are in the air slightly above you and to your right. Now a car sails by in the opposite direction, sunlight gleaming and bouncing off the metal contours. It's past, it's down the road behind you, it's gone. Now the road changes form - it dips and curves, bending itself into a large sweeping curl. It's three-dimensional, this curve, you're inside it, and then you are it, you and your machine and this road curve together into one feeling of flow... The light on the long green grass breaks you out of this reverie, this oneness, it is so beautiful you have to be yourself to look at it - separateness is necessary in order to gaze upon it - and you slow down, there's no one around, and you go quietly by, taking in the yellow-green light warming these blades of grass. And now one minute has gone by.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

So lovely, a word picture. I can see the hawk floating in the air.

Anonymous said...

Words are Thoughts are Moments are Life.

I thought of this, a favorite.

Never Postpone Joy,

Kathleen


The Seed Market
Rumi

Can you find another market like this?

Where,
with your one rose
you can buy hundreds of rose gardens?

Where,
for one seed
you get a whole wilderness?

For one weak breath,
the divine wind?

You’ve been fearful
of being absorbed in the ground,
or drawn up by the air.

Now, your waterbead lets go
and drops into the ocean,
where it came from.

It no longer has the form it had,
but it’s still water.
The essence is the same.

This giving up is not a repenting.
It’s a deep honoring of yourself.

When the ocean comes to you as a lover,
marry, at once, quickly,
for God’s sake!

Don’t postpone it!
Existence has no better gift.

No amount of searching
will find this.

A perfect falcon, for no reason,
had landed on your shoulder,
and become yours.

Anonymous said...

Shreve, you take me out of my crazy, have to get more done than fits into the time, into a minute of peace and reflection. I cannot wait to savor your book and have more minutes like this one. BRAVO!!!!!!

Janie

Anonymous said...

I'm a 50+ woman and have never been on/to/with a blog. Now I'm hooked. Hurry up with the book, Shreve. I'm eager to see the country through your keenly observant eyes and open heart.

Jonathan said...

Oh, how your descriptive words remind me of the same feelings I have when I ride on my Vespa.

Except, I have never taken a cross country trip. :(

However, through your eyes and in the reading of your blog...I am carried away to those times and places when you experienced it all first hand...and it makes me want to hit the road ASAP myself!