Thoughts Arise

I am among the 35% of people in this world who live on more than 10 dollars a day. Among the lucky 6% who fit this criteria from my country of origin. I am one individual among the 7.5 billion who are alive today; 7% of the humans to have ever been born, living in an age of unprecedented peace and prosperity. But gratitude is an emotion that is seldom invoked by rational thought. When I believed in God, my thankfulness was directed at an entity. In awe of that towering ego, every moment of life could be felt as a blessing. And there was an intuitive grasp of the infinite that cannot be found in very large numbers. Does gratitude require a subject and an object? Or does it emerge from a momentary grasp of that concept we call infinity? When something vast eclipses our suffering. When we find release from the struggle of thought and taste the exuberant freedom of mind. Look up at the night sky. Let go of the limits you impose on your sense of self; let go of the idea that you have a head

 Last night, while walking to another room, I felt a sense of peace descend on me. It was a relief after a day tinged by troubling news from around the world. I paused in the corridor to let my mind rest in the present. I looked for my head, and finding nothing, my view became expansive. My two year old daughter was finishing a shower with her mum. Soon, she would dash out of the door looking for me. I felt a smile emerge out of the expectation. The warm sensation of it spread to my face; a pleasant tug around the cheeks, a fuzziness at the bottom of my eyes. I heard her squeals and the patter of feet. And then she appeared running at full speed, forming an arc that just about avoided a collision with the wall, and ran straight into my embrace. Her arms around my neck, the velvet of her cheek against mine, her giggles vocalizing our glee. A moment lived.   Photo from www.freepik.com