On Oneness

The older I get, the clearer it becomes. The key to everything is in meditation. In oneness with what you are doing. In the being, in the breathing, in experiencing every moment as it comes, as you are.

I've had countless conversations with my closest friends and family members about this is in recent weeks. Meditation is different for everyone, no doubt. On my part, I believe it is to be found in whatever makes you one with your breath. In whatever makes you forget that you are you and something else is another and instead combines you both in single focus.

You can spend a lifetime in the effort to apply that sort of focus to every aspect of your life. But if you aren't already, I urge you strongly to start doing (or searching for) the things that make you feel alive. And if they aren't apparent, channel your energies into being at one with whatever gives you even an inkling of joy. Make a start, the rest will follow.

So what is this? A post on meditation? A call for unhedonistic searching for what brings you soul-satisfaction?

The answer? Both of them. The oneness of both of them.

------

Found this jewel sitting in my drafts folder from four years ago. Always good to have a reminder.

A post about Mexico, but really about you.

I love living in Mexico City.

I think this to myself every single day as I step out into the city. I love the crisp air, the bright sun, the trees everywhere. I love the noises in the street: the pre-recorded shouts of tamal vendors and iron-recycling trucks, the whistle of hot, steamed sweet potatoes, the heavy road-gurgling of truckloads of maize that make our apartment vibrate into earthquake-proof stability, and the twinkling of my boyfriend's dog (Crudo's) leash as he tugs me down the street full-force to meet the next puppy peepole. It feels alive. It feels like home.

I love the whoosh of the highway as we drive into the mountains to the South, I love that you can have open windows all day, everyday to let the freshness of the city sweep in, I love that this is a city in which you can sit outdoors almost any evening with your friends and enjoy life as it is, right here. I love that where I live, I have my little corner and a place where I can do sun salutations to the full light of city as I watch it wake up, and a desk or a sofa where I can settle in to work or read or be what may.

What I love above absolutely everything though, is that I have a home with someone I love and his incredibly smart, fluffy hairball that loves me back - even if he doesn't know it.

I love that he (my boyfriend, not as much the puppy) is so honest and open with his love and that he likes to be cuddled - wherever, whenever. I love the way his, or my, heart shines through our eyes when the other enters a room. I love our long drives and Fridates and just cozying up for a Sunday movie or for the best nap in the world. The world stops and probably goes on in these moments, but none of the noise really matters. A relationship is meant to be a safe haven, and so few people have the luck to have that.

All my life, people have asked me where I would like to live eventually. I never really thought I would know enough to give an answer, even in the short term. The feeling of never having grown up anywhere, everywhere, gives you a sense of outsiderhood, of impermanence, that few things can take away. And who knows about the future, but here, in Mexico City, surrounded by love in every which way, I can't really think of living anywhere else.