They often sneak up on me at this time of the year – a gaggle of words-wanting-shared. Yes, it’s birthday time – not a blog birthday, but another tick in the annual count for she-who-scribbles while her spacecraft steers itself around the sun…
Birthdays are a good time to reflect on one’s blessings, and to offer gratitude to our friends for their kindness and thoughtfulness. I always begin my birthday with a gesture of thanks to my mother, who not only gave me the miraculous opportunity for life, but also fostered, nourished and inspired the flourishing of that life in every way possible.
Now in my eighth decade, and delighting in life regardless of its curved balls, I feel to share some of the observations that have delivered me to this joy. It’s the best I can offer; may your mind and heart be able to receive.
Life hurts.
But what you are never feels pain.
Everything changes.
But what you are remains unchanged, eternally.
You’re flat and exhausted and depressed.
But what you are is forever poised as equanimity.
You’re broke, stressed, squeezed dry, homeless and hungry.
But what you are is unaffected and impartial.
You’re smashed by disappointment, betrayal, abandonment.
But what you are is ever calm, accepting and unbroken.
You’re afflicted by physical and mental aberrations, abnormalities, imbalances.
But what you are never suffers for one second.
So what you are is clearly something with which you need to become very familiar. And it’s e-a-s-y to do so. You don’t need a formal introduction. You don’t need a manual or a map or a guide book. You don’t need to change your religion or your beliefs (although changes may well occur as a result). You don’t need a 12-step plan or a meditation practice.
What you are is more obvious and closer than the tip of your nose. It’s the one experience you can never escape, 24/7.
What would you call that? Your aliveness? Your awareness? Your presence? All these words come close, but none are ultimately true or exact. Why?
Because they aren’t yours. Or mine. Or anyone’s. Drop the personal pronoun, and there you are – radiant all-knowing alive presence. The Light of Knowingness, self-luminous, always-on, never-needing fuel or flint…
And that is what you are – free, fulfilled and flourishing as all you conceive, perceive and experience. All of it.
How wondrous that this is possible – that this primordial awareness is huge enough to hold the entirety of creation, excluding nothing – yet be unaffected and unmoved by any expression of its handmaiden, consciousness.
It is truly The Beloved, the Godhead of the saints and sages and poets.
And it is what you are.
this unlit light 
I love, love this post! Thank you for sharing it~I really needed to be reminded of this truth.
Gladness! I’m so happy to know you were able to ‘receive’ the offerings, dear Melissa. Yes, it’s true – we know this so naturally and deeply, being reminded is all it takes. With love… ml
Reblogged this on Leaving the womb: entering life fully and commented:
Shining words from my dear friend Miriam Louisa Simmons
Thank you for sharing dear Nina – much love to you!
Lovely post Miriam Louisa, and a bundle of happy felicitations sprinkled down upon you from sonmi and the Cloud too!
– sonmi blowing up balloons and letting them sail free up into the aether upon the Cloud
Ah, those “happy felicitations” were such a joy to feel upon mine topknot, which was decorated with a couple of runaway balloons – and God Bless The Cloud for sprinkling us with sweet wetness after days of scorching heat. ‘Twas a great blessing. Thank you both!
⭐ Happy Birthday Miriam Louisa ⭐
How lovely dear Hariod! Thank you.
And thanks to you, I now know how to make wee stars… I think. These are for you…
⭐ ⭐ ⭐
thank you for your birthday presence
… ever the crafty wordsmith, dear Mark! I love your play … presence is thanking you. (and bowing, smiling)
Beautiful prose and writing, Miriam. May you have the loveliest of birthdays!
Dear Patricia – this is such a generous comment, thank you! I’m delighted that you enjoy the traces left by this leaky old fountain pen…
It was indeed the loveliest of birthdays. Possibly the best ever. How blessed am I – this old nun who falls more deeply in love with life every day? No one ever told me it would be such fun to be a “senior”.
Unseemly chuckles…
Since Hariod has shown me how to make stars, I shall henceforth be dotting them about with my wee wand – these are for you!
⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Belated birthday greetings from a follower of your blog. Thank you for sharing this post. I felt the words as a reality, a piercing of the veil of illusion. So, you were gift-giving of your birthday! You, I, all one.
Thank you dear SimplyMe – you are so kind to take the time to read my offerings, and leave a comment. I’m so gladdened by your ability to let the words really penetrate… Beautiful!
In love and gratitude
– ml
So beautiful Miriam . . . so clear . . . so true . . . thank you!
In response to such a generous comment, dear Shanti, what to do but bow my head…